I'd rather they'd push Firefox on Android more. Firefox OS seems stillborn, but Firefox/Android is a good product and mobile could need more browser competition.
Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war
31–40 of 153 posts
Re: Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
The startup I work for was approached some time ago by Firefox in order to ship our app on FFOS (our app has ~1 million daily users, so we regularly have this kind of proposals). I did not participate in this firsthand, but from what I gathered from my colleagues, the FFOS SDK is so atrocious that sadly the idea of porting our app to this OS is laughable. On the other hand, we are fully committed to our iOS and Andro…
I tinkered with Android development when the original Google Developer Phone came out (aka G1). And, after years of not paying it any attention, because my focus was on server development, I've started learning my way around it again. It's not even the same world. So much of the tedium of developing in Java has gone away, due to better libraries, much better tooling, and just all around a bigger/better ecosystem. Mak…
JavaScript is the path a lot of people want to walk for making mobile apps. Firefox OS is the first to make it the primary way to develop apps for the platform.
It has been possible to write fully native (not webview wrappers) Windows Phone apps in HTML and JavaScript for the last four or so years, but web developers didn't really adopt the platform (and those that did primarily used C# and XAML). You can scoff that it was something to do with Windows Phone OS's abysmal market share but then I don't see how you would be able to draw a different conclusion that FFOS will fare any better.
Re: Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war
#33They need to move quickly before everyone who knows anything about it has quit working at Mozilla.
Re: Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
The startup I work for was approached some time ago by Firefox in order to ship our app on FFOS (our app has ~1 million daily users, so we regularly have this kind of proposals). I did not participate in this firsthand, but from what I gathered from my colleagues, the FFOS SDK is so atrocious that sadly the idea of porting our app to this OS is laughable. On the other hand, we are fully committed to our iOS and Andro…
I tinkered with Android development when the original Google Developer Phone came out (aka G1). And, after years of not paying it any attention, because my focus was on server development, I've started learning my way around it again. It's not even the same world. So much of the tedium of developing in Java has gone away, due to better libraries, much better tooling, and just all around a bigger/better ecosystem. Mak…
> JavaScript is the path a lot of people want to walk for making mobile apps.
Web OS and Windows Phone support for JavaScript are a living proof people don't really want to.
Re: Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
I tinkered with Android development when the original Google Developer Phone came out (aka G1). And, after years of not paying it any attention, because my focus was on server development, I've started learning my way around it again. It's not even the same world. So much of the tedium of developing in Java has gone away, due to better libraries, much better tooling, and just all around a bigger/better ecosystem. Mak…
JavaScript is the path a lot of people want to walk for making mobile apps. Firefox OS is the first to make it the primary way to develop apps for the platform. It has been possible to write fully native (not webview wrappers) Windows Phone apps in HTML and JavaScript for the last four or so years, but web developers didn't really adopt the platform (and those that did primarily used C# and XAML). You can scoff that…
Two things:
1. I had no idea you could make native Windows Phone apps in HTML. This may be a failing on my part for having less than zero interest in Windows Phone (though I find my dislike of Microsoft has faded quite a bit, as they've embraced more openness and more fair dealings with the rest of the world).
2. I don't think we mean the same thing when I say "the primary way to develop apps for the platform". I googled "how to develop windows phone apps" and followed the trail to the most obvious seeming instructions, and found this in the Microsoft Dev Center:
"When you create a new project, you also make the following selections:
Your preferred programming language - Visual C#, Visual Basic, or Visual C++."
So, if JavaScript+HTML5 is a good, and "official", way to make apps for Windows Phone, somebody needs to tell Microsoft, because they don't seem to realize it.
Re: Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it possible to write good mobile apps in JS and HTML, compared to Android or iOS? I don't know much about mobile programming, but it seems much harder for JS to compete with native apps, no?
The startup I work for was approached some time ago by Firefox in order to ship our app on FFOS (our app has ~1 million daily users, so we regularly have this kind of proposals). I did not participate in this firsthand, but from what I gathered from my colleagues, the FFOS SDK is so atrocious that sadly the idea of porting our app to this OS is laughable. On the other hand, we are fully committed to our iOS and Andro…
I'm interested in knowing more what makes developing for Firefox OS "atrocious". There's no sdk per se, and maybe this is what bothers you. If you have no web version of your app and not seasoned web developers then for sure the porting effort can be almost a full rewrite, but so it is with any new "native" platform.
Re: Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war
#37I would love to try a firefox OS phone. Verizon seems like an odd choice in the U.S., to me they seem like a 'premium' brand somewhat more expensive than their competitors, while Firefox OS, at least prior to know, seems to have been positioning itself as a budget option.
Verizon has the best coverage in rural areas, at least where people I know live: southeast Minnesota, western Wisconsin, and Iowa. Many of my (and my friends') relatives in these areas still use flip phones or have reluctantly upgraded to iPhones or Android. Verizon is wise to have an option that's not a smartphone and not total junk.
I just upgraded my ZTE Open C to FxOS 3.0. This phone is similar, but worse, in specs to the original Moto E. It runs well, as long as you are using it for basic purposes.
Re: Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think you can write native apps for Android or iOS either. Also recently there's been way more effort on improving JavaScript VMs than Java's.
On the latter, why is that? Is it that Java's VM is already very mature and the community doesn't feel that urgency on "improving" it? Another question. What does Java VM have to do with Android?
I'm not a mobile developer so you shouldn't ask me but basically because of web browsers there's a JS VM in every PC and smartphone nowadays which isn't necessarily the case with Java. And Android runs its applications on a Java VM called Dalvik: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalvik_(software)
Re: Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war
#39I would love to try a firefox OS phone. Verizon seems like an odd choice in the U.S., to me they seem like a 'premium' brand somewhat more expensive than their competitors, while Firefox OS, at least prior to know, seems to have been positioning itself as a budget option.
For people in cities or inner suburbs, you may see it as a premium brand, as it does tend to be more expensive than the competition.
For people living in further out suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas, Verizon is pretty much a requirement. None of the other carriers have coverage that is nearly as good; you actually want your phone to work outside of a thin strip around the interstates, you buy Verizon.
Re: Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war
#40I really wish to see a great third mobile OS with a marketshare in the two digits. I appreciate the spirit behind FFOS, so I would like to see it take that place. I am not sure of how they want to achieve that though. However, AFAIK, FFOS does not really bring anything new to the table, so I have trouble seeing how it could make an impact in the first-world.
Not being tied to an app silo is pretty unique. Unfortunately most people are either ok with that or haven't yet realized. Uphill battle for sure.