Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

There is something magical about Firefox OS

rawkes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 276 posts

Re: There is something magical about Firefox OS

#11

Post by masklinn »

ngokevin wrote: post #7
zacharyvoase wrote: post #4

> In short, Firefox OS is about taking the technologies behind the Web, like JavaScript, and using them to produce an entire mobile operating system. Just let that sink in for a moment — it's a mobile OS powered by JavaScript! This kind of happened before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_webOS What went wrong? Well, apparently[1] there were some big performance issues—and IIUC Gecko has some of those already. [1]: ht…

WebOS had a proprietary Javascript SDK or something lame. Firefox OS runs on pure HTML5 standards.

> WebOS had a proprietary Javascript SDK or something lame.

WebOS was straight webkit with additional APIs for telephony and hardware access, and a bundled framework to help with laying out.

Said framework having been extracted for regular in-browser JS[0]

> Firefox OS runs on pure HTML5 standards.

Firefox OS runs straight Gecko with additional APIs for telephony and hardware access, without a framework to help getting started.

It's the exact bloody fucking same thing.

[0] http://enyojs.com/

Re: There is something magical about Firefox OS

#12

Post by klausa »

masklinn wrote: post #9
zacharyvoase wrote: post #4

> In short, Firefox OS is about taking the technologies behind the Web, like JavaScript, and using them to produce an entire mobile operating system. Just let that sink in for a moment — it's a mobile OS powered by JavaScript! This kind of happened before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_webOS What went wrong? Well, apparently[1] there were some big performance issues—and IIUC Gecko has some of those already. [1]: ht…

> This kind of happened before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_webOS Yeah, and I find the complete and utter lack of any mention of WebOS in TFA troubling. > What went wrong? Well, apparently[1] there were some big performance issues Your link points to insufficient hardware though, not software issues. Hardware which seems to have been the main recurring problem on all WebOS machines (according to reports, there we…

Well, considering that the same chipset (APQ8060) was also used in some variants of Galaxy S II, I really don't think so that Touchpad hardware was that bad.

And the fact that after installing Android 4.0.4 on it, it feels like whole new machine (speed-wise) - I really blame webOS here.

Re: There is something magical about Firefox OS

#13

Post by zobzu »

I think the only major advantage of Firefox OS is that it helps you run full HTML5 apps.

The apps are cached, auto-updated, and easy to code. They run on the phone and on the desktop alike. That's it. The only OS that really compares, is actually Chrome OS, except Chrome OS has not been ported or made to run on phone hardware.

If it's not fast enough, it will not work. If it is, it has a small chance of making a difference.

Re: There is something magical about Firefox OS

#15

Post by robhawkes »

macavity23 wrote: post #8

It's an interesting project, and I'm all for competition, but honestly I don't see the value proposition for an OEM to put this on a phone instead of Android. Rendering JavaScript faster is great, but does that really outweigh all the benefits of the Android ecosystem?

You'd be surprised, Mozilla is going to launch this with Telefonica next year in Brazil. That's happening.

We're also working with plenty of other partners to bring this to other areas, so there is definitely interest.

I think what appeals to them is the open, customisable nature. Also, remember that this isn't meant to compete with Android and iOS, it solves other problems beyond performance and feature-set.

Re: There is something magical about Firefox OS

#16

Post by robhawkes »

antidaily wrote: post #5

Looks pretty but painfully slow in that demo video.

We have plenty of challenges to overcome but it's nothing that can't be fixed. We're fully aware of some of the frame-rate issues on the really low-end devices (like in the video) and are actively working on improving that (it's a main priority to get 60FPS).

Re: There is something magical about Firefox OS

#18

Post by robhawkes »

zacharyvoase wrote: post #4

> In short, Firefox OS is about taking the technologies behind the Web, like JavaScript, and using them to produce an entire mobile operating system. Just let that sink in for a moment — it's a mobile OS powered by JavaScript! This kind of happened before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_webOS What went wrong? Well, apparently[1] there were some big performance issues—and IIUC Gecko has some of those already. [1]: ht…

Thanks for the comment, the WebOS question is one I see a lot.

One of our engineers answered this recently on Quora, I hope it helps explain the differences a bit: http://www.quora.com/How-does-Mozillas-Boot-2-Gecko-compare-...

Re: There is something magical about Firefox OS

#19

Post by j_col »

Giving how shockingly similar Firefox OS is to webOS (now also open source), I would have much rather that they support that OS instead of reinventing the wheel.

Some strange strategic decisions coming out of Mozilla inc. these days, I would much rather see them focus on their browser instead (and Thunderbird!).

Re: There is something magical about Firefox OS

#20

Post by robhawkes »

zobzu wrote: post #13

I think the only major advantage of Firefox OS is that it helps you run full HTML5 apps. The apps are cached, auto-updated, and easy to code. They run on the phone and on the desktop alike. That's it. The only OS that really compares, is actually Chrome OS, except Chrome OS has not been ported or made to run on phone hardware. If it's not fast enough, it will not work. If it is, it has a small chance of making a diff…

Let's just hope that it's fast enough then!

To be fair, I think there is much more too it than just HTML5 apps. Think beyond the single mobile phone device… it's more about how concepts will change if many different types of devices run apps and can communicate via the same languages (JavaScript, for example).

The other advantage is that it's free, and open for others to take and turn into whatever they want it to be. That's kinda cool.

Post reply on HN