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Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

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41–48 of 48 posts

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Whoa! I'm glad to hear that (I even was a pita on the fxos IRC channel before about this and that never came up).

You made my day, thank you!

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#42

I really wish Mozilla would put the resources currently behind Firefox OS and use them for something like a modern libgecko and standalone gecko wrapper that runs on different environments instead of making an OS. The blink/webkit monoculture is causing issues but every app is embedding it because gecko as a platform for embedding is essentially dead.

At this point making gecko nicely embeddable is not worth the cost in engineering resources compared to what it would bring in. Servo, the next generation browser is being designed to be easy to reuse and this is what Mozilla is focusing on in this area.

Mozilla have no plans to replace Gecko with Servo. Servo is a research project.

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#43
post #5

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…

My app crashed on real device. There are some differences.

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#44
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You do realize that the submission discussion doesn't have to pertain solely to what was in the linked to article, right?

The topic is Firefox OS. Anything having to do with Firefox OS is worth discussing, and is perfectly valid discussion. That includes its problems. That includes how it is (or is failing to) compete with established players like iOS and Android. That includes the sorry state of the devices it comes with.

Deviation is perfectly fine. The point of the discussion is to share ideas. It's not to engage in mindless affirmation of whatever the linked-to article may say.

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#45

I really wish Mozilla would put the resources currently behind Firefox OS and use them for something like a modern libgecko and standalone gecko wrapper that runs on different environments instead of making an OS. The blink/webkit monoculture is causing issues but every app is embedding it because gecko as a platform for embedding is essentially dead.

If I had a dollar for every time I saw the argument "I wish Mozilla would put resources into , and stop wasting money on "... I would have a big pile of dollars.

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#46
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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's not like Firefox is alone in that behavior, don't both Chrome and iOS Safari work the same?

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#47
Angry Guys,

You're missing the point here. Firefox OS doesn't aim to compete with Android. If you're running Android then you can use the Firefox for Android browser and install the same apps. Firefox OS phones are targeted at people from emergent countries who can't afford smartphones with Android.

There are countries where the cheapest Android device is about twice the price of Firefox OS. In this context, people from poorer chunks of society can buy Firefox OS and not get into debt.

Firefox OS is a tool to bring more people to the internet. To pick people that are currently using old symbian phones, asha and other feature phone platforms and offer them an affordable priced smartphone that doesn't break the bank.

Its made to be a simple experience for the first time smartphone buyer. Its not here to replace Android or iOS.

There are millions of people that are experiencing the internet for the first time not thru a desktop/laptop machine but thru mobile devices. Lots of these people would get into debt to buy devices. Thats the target demographic.

If you don't understand this then its very easy to compare the platform to Android expensive devices.

And yes the platform is young but it is growing fast. If we achieve all our objectives the apps will work the same on Firefox OS and Android (thru Firefox for Android).

The Web API is getting more complete and standarized. Soon you will be able to rely on HTML5 for your cross platform apps and not be locked in silos. This is more important than people realize. Being able to interoperate across platforms and devices is one of the key success features of the web.

Now for a personal opinion. I have all the Firefox OS devices and some iOS and Androids in here. As a developer, Firefox OS is the most hackable and fun platform to program for. I have the absolute entry level phones and the current flame device running our nightly version.

The flame is my currently daily driver and of course there are difficulties. Apps missing, features missing. Its getting better and it is open in a sense that no other platform is. I'd rather invest my time and effort on it now so that in the near future with have a great open platform that keep being a fanboy of some closed expensive thing where I have no say.

iOS and Windows are closed platforms. Android is somewhat open but since their current tendency to move good bits into play services and not opening their built in apps such as gmail and also the fact that you can't contribute code and that the development is behind a closed door makes it less open and desirable in the long run.

We can bitch all day here about missing features in any young platform. The fact is, if you care for an open source mobile platform then you can join the Mozilla community and help build one. If you don't care about open source but care about society, you can also join and help build a system that is affordable in emergent countries. If you don't care about any of the stuff I mentioned, you can keep using whatever you'd like. We're not forcing anyone to do anything. We're building this platform because the world needs a mobile operating system that is developed in the open and that is truly open source. Its young but its learning tricks every night...

Re: Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS

#48
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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's not like Firefox is alone in that behavior, don't both Chrome and iOS Safari work the same?

Yes, Chrome on Android does appear to be broken in a similar way. I'm not sure about Safari on iOS, though. Regardless, two or even three of them being broken in the same way doesn't mean that they aren't broken. The state of being broken in independent of how many different systems are broken.
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