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Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

hacks.mozilla.org

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Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#31

Post by Pacabel »

darklajid wrote: post #15
antonios wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% spot on. Too many features missing. The flashing procedure is problematic as well (for the ZTE "open" C you need a custom patch found in a bug report, and you have to be extremely carefull not to brick the device.) I purchased a ZTE Open C just to try out Firefox and the internet browsing experience. You can't change tabs unless you scroll all the way to the top, otherwise the address bar is hidden. Needless to…

That is confusing. The behavior is similar/equal to the Android Firefox: Scroll down, address bar goes off-screen. Want it back? Scroll a small amount up, albeit rapidly. Think 'pull down' on the content. Did you mias that (we can argue about whether that's intuitive) or does that plain not work for you? Scrolling back to the top should definitely be unnecessary.. Works just fine for me (typing on Android, in Aurora)…

That behavior of Firefox on Android is just plain stupid and broken, even when it's working.

It's another great example of how the Firefox developers have added in functionality that just makes the browsing experience less efficient or more confusing, without any real benefit. Getting a sliver more of screen space just isn't worth the inconvenience this "feature" brings, especially on larger mobile devices.

Disabling it via 'Settings' -> 'Display' -> 'Scroll title bar' was the first thing I had to do when trying out Firefox on Android, and that was just to bring it up to a minimal level of usability.

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#32

Post by darklajid »

darklajid wrote: post #7
gcb0 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you think about purchasing a device don't. the work so far can all be done with emulator. DO NOT BUY A DEVICE. and as the parent just said, the performance on the emulator is MUCH better than the real device. it is just more waste in the world. Also, if anyone want a couple firefox phones msg me. i have a couple left. i got them when i believed that since they were going to be sold in stores, they would be consu…

Hmm.. I know I can only comment on the Flame, but your trouble with flashing seems odd. Update sources? git pull; ./repo sync -d Build from source? ./build.sh Flash to device? ,/flash.sh Done. Device reboots into a shiny new version. I couldn't imagine an easier way tbh. Regarding the rest of your comment: I do have pain points¹. I was a bit disappointed at times. But the progress is good and the current state (git,…

Lots of negativity here. I juat grabbed the Flame from upstairs again to test a browser feature. Now I remember the one single point of cannot-use.

Keyboard? Usable, merely annoying. XMPP? I.. would even fall back on SMS. Mail client: It works, kinda. Not well, not nice, but it exists.

The single one rant-worthy FxOS thing is the 'search'. It seems they integrate some weird recommendation engine. And that feels like browsing the web, ca. 2000 and no adblock. It even comes with predefined 'categories' (looks like folders, but it will search the web for 'games' for example and list the lowest of the low, the worst corners of the internet, the online scum - as 'apps' on your phone). Hrm.. Damn, that really turns me off every time I give it a try.. Can you rip it out/disable it? Nope.

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#33

Post by fred_durst »

Pacabel wrote: post #30
fred_durst wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what does any of that have to do with the process of designing and developing Firefox OS? You also just kind of seem like an astroturfer. Android was not mentioned anywhere in that article as far as I could tell. Why are you posting that here?

Firefox OS doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's facing some very strong competition from Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS, and numerous other mobile operating systems and platforms. It makes absolutely no sense to consider Firefox OS by itself. It needs to be considered within the larger context. Unfortunately, like others have pointed out, Firefox OS is not competing very well against the alternatives at this point. It curren…

This is an article about designing and developing for Firefox OS. This is not an article about competing with Android and others.

Discussion about which is a better option for the consumer is a very valid discussion and is important to the long term survival of the platform. But, in my opinion, it just doesn't have anything to do with the topic at hand.

It's like if there was an article about a release of the next version of Android and someone came in taking about how the smaller subset of target screen sizes in iOS make it a better platform to design for. Its a valid discussion, but just doesn't have anything to do with the topic at hand.

The "astroturfer" comment is because I can't see any sane reason, beyond self interest or possibly just to troll, why anyone would bother to hop into a thread and just say Android is better when there was no mention about Android in the article at hand.

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#34

Post by fred_durst »

Pacabel wrote: post #29
fred_durst wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been building my ZTE Open since pretty close to its initially release. I also use it as my daily device. Also, I think this is your 3rd time(in my recent memory) derailing a Firefox OS thread to talk about how there are no phones in stores etc. Are you an astro turfer or are you just really angry at Mozilla for some reason?

I've been seeing these ultra-defensive "Are you an astro turfer or are you just really angry at Mozilla for some reason?"-style responses more and more from the Mozilla community lately, especially when somebody has raised some perfectly good and legitimate points about deficiencies with one of their products. When discussing Firefox OS, it's perfectly reasonable and relevant to bring up issues surrounding the qualit…

As I said above, what does any of this have to do with the article at hand? This article was not about adoption or competition. If I were being defensive I would have tried to explain all the things I like about Firefox OS, or talked about things wrong with Android. My issue was that it didn't have anything to do with the article and I have a hard time understanding why anyone would bother.

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#37

Post by hsivonen »

darklajid wrote: post #32
darklajid wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm.. I know I can only comment on the Flame, but your trouble with flashing seems odd. Update sources? git pull; ./repo sync -d Build from source? ./build.sh Flash to device? ,/flash.sh Done. Device reboots into a shiny new version. I couldn't imagine an easier way tbh. Regarding the rest of your comment: I do have pain points¹. I was a bit disappointed at times. But the progress is good and the current state (git,…

Lots of negativity here. I juat grabbed the Flame from upstairs again to test a browser feature. Now I remember the one single point of cannot-use. Keyboard? Usable, merely annoying. XMPP? I.. would even fall back on SMS. Mail client: It works, kinda. Not well, not nice, but it exists. The single one rant-worthy FxOS thing is the 'search'. It seems they integrate some weird recommendation engine. And that feels like…

> It seems they integrate some weird recommendation engine. > And that feels like browsing the web, ca. 2000 and no > adblock. It even comes with predefined 'categories' > (looks like folders, but it will search the web for > 'games' for example and list the lowest of the low, the > worst corners of the internet, the online scum - as > 'apps' on your phone). Hrm.. Damn, that really turns me > off every time I give it a try.. Can you rip it > out/disable it? Nope.

Probably a relevant bug report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1048771

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#38

Post by benfrancis »

hsivonen wrote: post #37
darklajid wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of negativity here. I juat grabbed the Flame from upstairs again to test a browser feature. Now I remember the one single point of cannot-use. Keyboard? Usable, merely annoying. XMPP? I.. would even fall back on SMS. Mail client: It works, kinda. Not well, not nice, but it exists. The single one rant-worthy FxOS thing is the 'search'. It seems they integrate some weird recommendation engine. And that feels like…

> It seems they integrate some weird recommendation engine. > And that feels like browsing the web, ca. 2000 and no > adblock. It even comes with predefined 'categories' > (looks like folders, but it will search the web for > 'games' for example and list the lowest of the low, the > worst corners of the internet, the online scum - as > 'apps' on your phone). Hrm.. Damn, that really turns me > off every time I give it…

From version 2.0, disable search suggestions in the Homescreen settings in the Settings app and you'll stop getting recommendations from EverythingMe.

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#39

Post by benfrancis »

antonios wrote: post #9
gcb0 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you think about purchasing a device don't. the work so far can all be done with emulator. DO NOT BUY A DEVICE. and as the parent just said, the performance on the emulator is MUCH better than the real device. it is just more waste in the world. Also, if anyone want a couple firefox phones msg me. i have a couple left. i got them when i believed that since they were going to be sold in stores, they would be consu…

100% spot on. Too many features missing. The flashing procedure is problematic as well (for the ZTE "open" C you need a custom patch found in a bug report, and you have to be extremely carefull not to brick the device.) I purchased a ZTE Open C just to try out Firefox and the internet browsing experience. You can't change tabs unless you scroll all the way to the top, otherwise the address bar is hidden. Needless to…

> You can't change tabs unless you scroll all the way to the top, otherwise the address bar is hidden.

This is very common feedback and I assure you it hasn't fallen on deaf ears.

From version 2.1 the address bar will show as soon as you start to scroll up and you'll be able to manually trigger it from the statusbar as well (see the UI mockups in the blog post). You will also be able to switch between browser windows by swiping from the edge of the screen. After using this for a few weeks I really miss it when I use Android!

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#40

Post by ibotty »

gcb0 wrote: post #5
darklajid wrote: post #2

Love some Firefox OS exposure. I'm a fan, really want to see the idea/project to succeed. If you think about purchasing a device, here's my take. - the Flame feels really solid and looks quite nice. - the performance is nice/comparable to other platforms - current version (running from git here) of the OS looks nice and modern - it is trivial to build and install it (given a supported device ofc) Ultimately it's not…

> If you think about purchasing a device don't. the work so far can all be done with emulator. DO NOT BUY A DEVICE. and as the parent just said, the performance on the emulator is MUCH better than the real device. it is just more waste in the world. Also, if anyone want a couple firefox phones msg me. i have a couple left. i got them when i believed that since they were going to be sold in stores, they would be consu…

how can you be contacted? i have a few things that work ok in an emulator but i'd like to try (not regularly) on a real, constrained device.
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