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

Firefox OS devices officially released

hacks.mozilla.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 146 posts

Re: Firefox OS devices officially released

#121

Post by ndesaulniers »

thelukester wrote: post #119
kimlelly wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is currently the most open mobile OS. Count me in!

Count you in on the openness alone? Who are you, RMS? There's already an extremely open OS out there. In fact Firefox OS is based off of it. You can download the source code, build it yourself, and submit patches. You can even change the default app store. It comes with a rich app ecosystem and a beautifully designed and responsive UI. The latter two are what people in the real world care about when choosing a smartp…

> You can even change the default app store. It comes with a rich app ecosystem and a beautifully designed and responsive UI.

Thought you were talking about Firefox OS there!

Re: Firefox OS devices officially released

#122

Post by ndesaulniers »

rimantas wrote: post #36
Yoric wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, hello PommeDeTerre. Haven't we had roughly the same conversation last week on another thread? > Firefox OS will need to successfully compete against BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, [...] Yes, a new product needs to compete with existing products. That goes without saying. > And how exactly is it "different"? Frankly? Try it, you'll see. For me, it's different insofar as I can write a small game and self-publish it…

> Caveat: I'm a Mozillian. Oh. If your view resembles that of the most of mozillians then I think Firfox OS is already doomed. What you wrote might appeal to some developers, but it means little to users. And I am not sure how many developers are interested in platform in which users are not interested. Looks like when Blake Ross left Mozilla so did understanding the user.

> Looks like when Blake Ross left Mozilla so did understanding the user.

And the rise of the hyperbolic commentators, shit!

Re: Firefox OS devices officially released

#123

Post by arantius »

This release prodded me to look into Firefox OS again. I have a Nexus S lying around unused, and that's one of the supported "tier two" devices. So I installed it.

I really want to love it. I love Firefox, but Firefox OS is very much "not there" based on my experience. The browser is significantly worse than Firefox for Android. As far as I can tell, Sync is not available at all. Tapping the URL bar just/always puts your cursor where you tapped (does not select the text for easy replacement). Lots of smaller fit/polish things seemed much worse.

And the device experience is really strange. There's the "marketplace" but also the .. I don't know what it's called, two swipes to the left of the app launcher screen. The experience is very poor compared to Android/iOS; using familiar "apps" is really the mobile site for that service, and doesn't work as well as the Android apps I'm used to. (I.E.: Rating a movive in IMDB takes one tap to load another page, one tap to open the select box, another to pick the value, then another to submit that form. Versus one tap on Android.)

Lots of the "real apps" from the marketplace are also immediately greyed out if you lose data. Including simple games that totally should work offline. (Though I was recently surprised by how many games refused to run without an internet connection on my Android tablet recently, also.)

Re: Firefox OS devices officially released

#124

Post by ndesaulniers »

rodolphoarruda wrote: post #45

I think we are "almost there" in terms of freedom of choice and usage of our mobile device. We are still dependent on the carrier - e.g. Telefonica - to have our phone running our OS of choice. Of course, we have unlocked phones, but that's another thing, another price too. I wish my experience with mobile phones were the same as with laptops: every two years or so I step into a shop and buy a low-end machine on sale…

> When I first read about Firefox OS I thought I would have the experience as described above. I would buy ANY phone, donwload the Firefox OS, install it and enjoy mobile life from a different perspective.

Someone has to write the drivers AND have an incentive. [1]

[1] https://autonome.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/firefox-os-devices...

Re: Firefox OS devices officially released

#125

Post by ndesaulniers »

AndrewDucker wrote: post #10

I'm curious - does it automatically get the latest version of FF when it's released for desktop/Android? And does it support all of the functionality that comes with it? i.e. will it now have the asm.js optimisations and similar?

> does it automatically get the latest version of FF when it's released for desktop/Android?

Firefox OS is its own Operating System, so it won't be "released for desktop/Android." The initial versions was forked from gecko 18 so it's missing many SpiderMonkey optimizations such as the Baseline Compiler, Type Inference, Odin Monkey, and Ion Monkey. Luckily, updates (or building from source) have these and add quite an improvement! Whenever I updated my iphone, I felt every update left it slower. Now imaging upgrading your phone it it getting faster!

Re: Firefox OS devices officially released

#127

Post by pjmlp »

bad_user wrote: post #109
rimantas wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Caveat: I'm a Mozillian. Oh. If your view resembles that of the most of mozillians then I think Firfox OS is already doomed. What you wrote might appeal to some developers, but it means little to users. And I am not sure how many developers are interested in platform in which users are not interested. Looks like when Blake Ross left Mozilla so did understanding the user.

> What you wrote might appeal to some developers, but it means little to users If you look throughout history, the operating systems that succeeded where the operating systems preferred by developers. Whether this is mixing causality with correlation, we can't really be sure, since the marketplace is in general weird, however it's safe to assume that popularity amongst users is related to popularity amongst developer…

I am yet to know any developer that desired to really code for Symbian and enjoy all the issues related to the Symbian C++ dialect.

Re: Firefox OS devices officially released

#128

Post by Apocryphon »

shmerl wrote: post #108
nakedrobot2 wrote: post #59

I think Firefox OS has potentially huge geek (read: early adopter) appeal, which Blackberry and Windows Mobile do not have - they are dead. Tizen, Jolla, and others are just obscure specks. I am rooting for Firefox OS to be a serious contender within a couple of years. I think it has a strong chance to be #3. Likewise I don't think it has any chance whatsoever of taking the #1 or #2 spots - those are going to stay as…

Jolla has a better appeal I think. Firstly it's a full pledged Linux, not limited to JavaScript applications only. Secondly one will be able to run Firefox OS applications on Jolla as well, since the browser there is using Gecko.

How does Jolla stack against Ubuntu Touch?

Re: Firefox OS devices officially released

#129

Post by octotoad »

Yoric wrote: post #51
octotoad wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it definitely doesn't. iPhone 5 + iOS 6: doesn't know a thing about my credit card, and never will.

Interesting. Can you access any form of store without a credit card and without giving away your identity to Apple? And, just as importantly, can joe/jane user do it?

If by 'form of store' you mean the official Apple store; yes. I've never purchased a single thing from Apple's 'app store' (and don't really plan to). Everything I've needed so far is free.

The identity part? I have an account, so yes, some sort of 'identity' is revealed, but that doesn't relate to the credit card part.

They still do not know a thing about any of my credit cards, from initial setup to everyday use.

Re: Firefox OS devices officially released

#130

Post by voltagex_ »

sergiosgc wrote: post #73
rodolphoarruda wrote: post #45

I think we are "almost there" in terms of freedom of choice and usage of our mobile device. We are still dependent on the carrier - e.g. Telefonica - to have our phone running our OS of choice. Of course, we have unlocked phones, but that's another thing, another price too. I wish my experience with mobile phones were the same as with laptops: every two years or so I step into a shop and buy a low-end machine on sale…

I used to do that with laptops. Then, I switched to the opposite end of the spectrum. I spend inordinate amounts of time in front of my laptop. If I'm going to outspend myself, it is on the laptop. The personal concession is that laptops must now last at least four years. Now, whenever I need a laptop, I buy the best Lenovo I can find (well, not the absolute best, I aim for best-ish; price curves on laptops are stupi…

I managed to limit my laptop's lifespan to ~1 year by ignoring this advice. I bought the X1 Carbon with 4GB of RAM, instead of waiting for the 8GB (with a significant processor bump too).

Oh for a laptop trade-in program.

Post reply on HN