Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war • Hacker News Board

Re: Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war

#151

Post by fabrice_d » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 6:47 AM UTC

darklajid wrote: post #115

fabrice_d wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* deploying apps is super easy - either host them on a web server or push them from firefox's webIDE, and remote debugging using the firefox devtools just works. * hacking core apps is totally doable. You need a rooted device to update them though. Currently the best ones would be nexus 5 or sony z3(c). * everything that is displayed is html/js/css. What you call "framework" here is part of the system app ( https://g…

Hijacking this: Is is possible to replace system parts with 3rd party stuff? I'm mostly talking "change the keyboard" here? If it is, is this possible by modifying/replacing the current keyboard only or can this be something out of tree?

We support 3rd party keyboards now, so you can provide one out of tree.

Re: Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war

#152

Post by blueskin_ » Wed, Mar 04, 2015, 10:45 AM UTC

coldpie wrote: post #145

blueskin_ wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://repo.xposed.info/module/biz.bokhorst.xprivacy It filters permission requests so when an app tries to use one, it gives you a popup with allow/deny temporarily/permanently options, so if an app wants to access something it shouldn't (location, contacts, device ID, etc.), you can feed it empty/fake data transparently to it.

This requires rooting, which (unfortunately) comes with all sorts of strings attached and ugly rough edges. I'd rather have the idea of a flexible permissions model built into the OS.

I'd like it too, but there are still innumerable things that also need root. I've never had a single problem from root and would never own a phone without root, for any reason. Without root, a phone just sucks too much.

Pry-fi (randomise MAC address when probing for wireless networks), Titanium Backup (backup that doesn't suck), most advanced network tools, changing FDE password to be different to lock screen password, running an sshd, detecting IMSI catchers, most performance fixes/optimisations, even just basic full filesystem access - all need root too.

Re: Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war

#153

Post by quanticle » Fri, Mar 13, 2015, 5:15 PM UTC

z3t4 wrote: post #138

quanticle wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're mistaking a SDK (software development kit) with an IDE (integrated development environment). A SDK is nothing more than a set of libraries that allow you to write code for the target hardware. In this case, the SDK consists of a Firefox extension that you can install, which gives you an emulator that will simulate the phone hardware. You can totally write FirefoxOS apps in Notepad if you want to. It is…

I thought the whole point of Firefox OS was that the hardware layer would be accessed through JS API's like window.ondevicemotion, Canvas, navigator.geolocation, window.DeviceOrientationEvent, navigator.getUserMedia, navigator.vibrate, 'devicelight', navigator.battery.level, SMS, contactList, etc. And that the Firefox team would add even more features that can be accessed from the VM layer. And making the Firefox OS…

>This might sound funny, but considering Moore's law and where we currently are on that exponential curve,

In case you haven't noticed, the exponential curve has already started to level off. Moore's Law is done. Every incremental improvement from Intel offers smaller and smaller improvements, as transistor sizes run into fundamental physical limitations imposed by quantum mechanics and thermal and battery-life constraints impose limitations on the amount of power a chip can use. Combine that with fact that RAM speed stopped scaling about a decade ago, and the conclusion is clear. Moore's Law isn't ending. It's already gone. As far as desktop application developers are concerned, Moore's Law ended about a decade ago when single-thread performance plateaued.

Yes, we have more and more cores, and more and more cache. But the cache is only there to make up (poorly) for the fact that RAM speeds haven't scaled. And more cores don't help, because most desktop applications don't parallelize easily beyond ~2 threads. Yes, the user is able to run more applications at the same time, but each individual application is still running at about the same speed.