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Foxconn Joins the Firefox OS Eco-System

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Foxconn Joins the Firefox OS Eco-System

#61

Post by tbirdz »

I am really interested in this, and it's great news what mozilla is doing especially for the open web. Hopefully, their entire OS will be open source, so I can get a smartphone/tablet that's entirely open source. I'm also interested in the javascript element. With asm.js, node.js, webgl, and this javascript is becoming more and more of a serious language every day.

However, I am curious, has mozilla published any docs or emulator for developers to write applications and test before launch?

EDIT: Found it: https://marketplace.firefox.com/developers/docs/firefox_os_s...

Re: Foxconn Joins the Firefox OS Eco-System

#62

Post by Zigurd »

fmstephe wrote: post #2

I very strongly want this to work. I am very excited about the prospect of a phone/tablet OS that I hack up apps for in Javascript. But even more than that I pray for a true competitor to iOSX/Android. They just need to get this thing moving. I am planning to buy a tablet this Christmas and I want FFOS to be a very good choice by then. Come on Mozilla.

> But even more than that I pray for a true competitor to iOSX/Android.

I hope so, too, and I write books about Android programming. Without competition, especially competition from systems that will try to differentiate by being more open than Android, there is a substantial risk that Google will become increasingly closed and conservative about developing Android.

Windows lacked competition for more than a decade. That created mind-set that couldn't disrupt it's own business, and consequently missed both handsets and tablets.

So I hope there are five or six viable mobile technology platforms and ecosystems.

Re: Foxconn Joins the Firefox OS Eco-System

#63

Post by vudu »

I'm batting for FFOS - if for no other reason than the industry needs more competition.

I've got a Keon I'm playing with and it is pretty cool. It needs a lot of polishing to be sure - but it works - on a cheap phone, which in many ways is remarkable when you consider it is running that too slow, not so good, aint my favorite language, Javascript! LOL.

I'm betting on technologies that are open web standards, have the fewest barriers to entry/exit and offer less cost/risk.

I remember back in the dark ages (2000) having the discussion about biz apps in Delphi/VB/etc vs the web. The web won - at least for business apps, imo.

I think FFOS has a chance and wish it the best.

Re: Foxconn Joins the Firefox OS Eco-System

#64

Post by droidist2 »

nezza-_- wrote: post #58
sunnybythesea wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I don't want to install eclipse to write for Android Well you don't need eclipse to write for Android

They also just switched over to IntelliJ, didn't they?

Yes indeed. http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/studio.html

Re: Foxconn Joins the Firefox OS Eco-System

#65

Post by PommeDeTerre »

mseebach wrote: post #14
Millennium wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I've got to say: the fact that this is being done with Foxconn leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I know the Mozilla folks never actually signed on with the whole "don't be evil" thing, but this is still something of a stain on the way they do things.

Because competing as the fifth(? - I'm counting iOS, Android, WM and BlackBerry) player in the market, having neither the brand name or market share advantage of the other players, isn't hard enough, they should also revolutionise the way electronics are produced.

It's pretty generous to put Firefox OS fifth in line, given the existence of mobile OSes like Bada, Symbian, MeeGo and webOS.

Then there are the newer competitors, like Tizen and Ubuntu Touch, that it'll still have to face off against. There's very little, if anything, to put it above even these.

Re: Foxconn Joins the Firefox OS Eco-System

#66

Post by seabrookmx »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #35
AlexanderDhoore wrote: post #3

Very impressive! I remember seeing a list of Firefox OS supporting companies some time ago. A BIG list... Ubuntu Phone has this nice webpage for "Operator and OEM partners" [1], but do they actually have any? I doubted Firefox OS a lot more than Ubuntu Phone, but it seems I was wrong. [1] http://www.ubuntu.com/phone/operators-and-oems

Unfortunately Canonical seems to do everything half-baked... I have more faith in Jolla/Sailfish... Mozilla has a history of actually changing the tech landscape, their language (Javascript) changed the web forever, Canonical has done nothing but split the Linux camp, and fail at making money. They also made one of the least stable distros available (I've had better luck with SUSE, Fedora, and Arch). Ubuntu phone wil…

You have had better stability with Arch? They're known as a bleeding edge distro for a reason, and frequently release updates that break previous installs. Not that this is bad - it's just how they roll.

Also, Javascript is not Mozilla's language. It was originally invented at Netscape, and is a standardized language. Yes, Mozilla does great things with Javascript, but is no more Mozilla's language than it is Microsoft's.

Re: Foxconn Joins the Firefox OS Eco-System

#67

Post by synchronise »

seabrookmx wrote: post #66
Mikeb85 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately Canonical seems to do everything half-baked... I have more faith in Jolla/Sailfish... Mozilla has a history of actually changing the tech landscape, their language (Javascript) changed the web forever, Canonical has done nothing but split the Linux camp, and fail at making money. They also made one of the least stable distros available (I've had better luck with SUSE, Fedora, and Arch). Ubuntu phone wil…

You have had better stability with Arch? They're known as a bleeding edge distro for a reason, and frequently release updates that break previous installs. Not that this is bad - it's just how they roll. Also, Javascript is not Mozilla's language. It was originally invented at Netscape, and is a standardized language. Yes, Mozilla does great things with Javascript, but is no more Mozilla's language than it is Microso…

Well the guy who created Javascript (Brendan Eich) currently works at Mozilla as the chief technology officer so they have a bigger claim on it than anyone else.

Re: Foxconn Joins the Firefox OS Eco-System

#68

Post by pointyhats »

tsurantino wrote: post #23
fmstephe wrote: post #2

I very strongly want this to work. I am very excited about the prospect of a phone/tablet OS that I hack up apps for in Javascript. But even more than that I pray for a true competitor to iOSX/Android. They just need to get this thing moving. I am planning to buy a tablet this Christmas and I want FFOS to be a very good choice by then. Come on Mozilla.

This might be a black sheep type of question in a thread like this but here goes. Microsoft pursued a strategy that enabled people to make web apps in HTML5/Javascript as first class apps in Windows 8. Why is it not being adopted/praised as much as Firefox OS is? Is it because it's Microsoft? Is it because the Win8 HTML5/JS apps are more closed-system-esque than Firefox OS apps will be? A lot of people denounce Windo…

This is because their JS implementation is a wrapper around WinRT rather than anything close to what anyone else is doing. It also isn't very JavaScripty. WinRT is a particularly odd creation.

Plus Windows 8 RT isn't selling.

Re: Foxconn Joins the Firefox OS Eco-System

#69

Post by pointyhats »

codygman wrote: post #45

Why Foxconn? So many human rights violations... Don't get me wrong, I really really want this to work out... but someone like Mozilla shouldn't be in bed with the likes of Foxconn.

There are very few tech products without something Foxconn in them.

Even my old Lenovo T61 had most of the parts stamped Foxconn.

Re: Foxconn Joins the Firefox OS Eco-System

#70

Post by rimantas »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #34
tsurantino wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be a black sheep type of question in a thread like this but here goes. Microsoft pursued a strategy that enabled people to make web apps in HTML5/Javascript as first class apps in Windows 8. Why is it not being adopted/praised as much as Firefox OS is? Is it because it's Microsoft? Is it because the Win8 HTML5/JS apps are more closed-system-esque than Firefox OS apps will be? A lot of people denounce Windo…

Mozilla's openness wins it alot of praise. Not to mention, their technology truly has changed the web (Javascript anyone?), while MS has held back web development (they still don't support WebGL). With Firefox OS any web app is a FFOS app, with MS you need to go through their closed store, or their half-baked browser... Firefox OS doesn't need an app ecosystem, they just need developers to make good web apps. Hence t…

  > while MS has held back web development
On the other hand you can also argue, that Microsoft were web apps pioneers. There should be people who still remember DHTML demos of the IE4 era—it was the time when Netscape has fallen behind. One can also argue, that the real break-through for web apps was Gmail, so let's not forget what was at the core of it: the thing later named AJAX, which was non-standart invention by Microsoft only later standardised. It is not all black and white. But I still do think that (mobile) web apps are an attempt to turn three-legged table into a tricycle. Sure, you can try and eat your soup with a knife, but why, just because you carry your pocket knife wherever you go? Af for Firefox OS I doubt it will get much traction. It may appeal for the devs who think web tech is superior to everything (which makes me doubt they even know the tech well enough), but for general users… meh. Most important I think Mozilla lost its focus, or at least shifted it somewhere else. When Firefox (Phoenix) started they did the right thing. I attribute this to Blake Ross, and seems like FF lost the direction and shifted to politics instead of making the best browser when Blake moved on.
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