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The Story of Firefox OS

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Re: The Story of Firefox OS

#21

Post by diafygi »

jhasse wrote: post #15
diafygi wrote: post #8

> What I Would Do Differently Today ... Product — Not try to create the cheapest smartphone. But, then who will? Firefox OS allowed you to run a full HTML5 browser on a phone with half the specs of Android[1]. They sold a phone for $33 that was (and still is) the cheapest thing to run Youtube and Wikipedia! The only huge technological advantage Firefox OS had was the fact that Boot-to-Gecko didn't have the overhead o…

> Want to know where the best location to get water is? Want to know which farms in the area are hiring? Want to see the local mayor's latest scandalous photo? These all can be coded in a weekend at the local internet cafe. These could also just be implemented as web ... sites.

But, how do people in your village visit that website? Few have full-featured browsers.

Also, making a zip file that people can pass around and install locally means you don't need to host it anywhere or have internet access to use it.

Firefox OS was perfect for developers who had more time than money.

Re: The Story of Firefox OS

#22

Post by vanadium »

hrodriguez wrote: post #20

I still see no reason why they couldn't reboot the project and agree with his thinking here: " Create a mid-range tablet ... Carve out a niche in developed markets first ... Firefox OS was actually five years too early! " I always thought they were trying to put a ChromeOS competitor on a phone when it actually belonged on laptops, tablets and 2-in-1s (to start). I would have been very interested in a device running…

I'd argue the same thinking could have been applied--perhaps moreso--to Palm/HP's webOS, which was thrusting in the same direction as mid-range tablet OS with the Touchpad, and into a desktop-capable OS (demonstrated in early state) before its EOL.

Plenty of parallels between the two OSes, down to some of the personnel who bailed to Firefox OS from HP.

Re: The Story of Firefox OS

#23

Post by jgraham »

I think this slightly understates the "business development" problems with developing a new OS, and a mobile OS in particular. It turns out that there are certain apps that, if they are not available on your platform, are immediate deal breakers for huge numbers of consumers (to the extent that they will ask for them by name in stores and return devices that won't run them). Often these apps lack web frontends (for non-technical reasons).

Obviously there are technical workarounds that you can attempt but consumers are wary of "knock off" products. So there is a vicious cycle in which people won't produce the content that you need to get users until you already have users. Possibly one can break this by supporting Android apps, but you would have to make the experience as good as an actual android device, which seems both demanding and limiting (because of cross-app interactions via e.g. intents).

Re: The Story of Firefox OS

#24

Post by jhasse »

diafygi wrote: post #21
jhasse wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Want to know where the best location to get water is? Want to know which farms in the area are hiring? Want to see the local mayor's latest scandalous photo? These all can be coded in a weekend at the local internet cafe. These could also just be implemented as web ... sites.

But, how do people in your village visit that website? Few have full-featured browsers. Also, making a zip file that people can pass around and install locally means you don't need to host it anywhere or have internet access to use it. Firefox OS was perfect for developers who had more time than money.

Ehm ... Firefox OS has a full featured browser. And nearly every platform where web apps would work. Or do you mean few have internet access?

Re: The Story of Firefox OS

#25

Post by untog »

diafygi wrote: post #8

> What I Would Do Differently Today ... Product — Not try to create the cheapest smartphone. But, then who will? Firefox OS allowed you to run a full HTML5 browser on a phone with half the specs of Android[1]. They sold a phone for $33 that was (and still is) the cheapest thing to run Youtube and Wikipedia! The only huge technological advantage Firefox OS had was the fact that Boot-to-Gecko didn't have the overhead o…

These are also all possible with Service Worker enabled web sites. IMO that's the best possible model - no app store friction, you start using the site immediately, then add to your home screen.

Re: The Story of Firefox OS

#27

Post by diafygi »

jhasse wrote: post #24
diafygi wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But, how do people in your village visit that website? Few have full-featured browsers. Also, making a zip file that people can pass around and install locally means you don't need to host it anywhere or have internet access to use it. Firefox OS was perfect for developers who had more time than money.

Ehm ... Firefox OS has a full featured browser. And nearly every platform where web apps would work. Or do you mean few have internet access?

Few have cheap internet access (just texts, calls, and small amounts of data), so you shouldn't assume your audience has easy access to it in local villages.

> And nearly every platform where web apps would work.

What platforms? Android is too expensive. Feature/flip phones don't run web apps.

So, yes, my point was that FirefoxOS was the only platform that had the potential to offer widespread web app access to this audience. Also, since FirefoxOS web apps could be zip files, they didn't necessarily have to have internet access to run and could be passed around via sneakernet.

Re: The Story of Firefox OS

#28

Post by cwyers »

pawadu wrote: post #10
cyborgx7 wrote: post #9

>My main hope in documenting all of this is that Firefox OS is remembered as more than just a footnote in tech history which says “a failed mobile OS from Mozilla”. I got one of the Mozilla Flame phones back when they came out and loved that device. I'm pissed that now the only option for a viable open source mobile OS I have is Google. But unless there is some unlikely comeback, that is exactly what it will be remem…

> I'm pissed that now the only option for a viable open source mobile OS I have is Google. https://www.ubuntu.com/mobile

Viable.

Re: The Story of Firefox OS

#29

Post by cmrdporcupine »

vanadium wrote: post #22
hrodriguez wrote: post #20

I still see no reason why they couldn't reboot the project and agree with his thinking here: " Create a mid-range tablet ... Carve out a niche in developed markets first ... Firefox OS was actually five years too early! " I always thought they were trying to put a ChromeOS competitor on a phone when it actually belonged on laptops, tablets and 2-in-1s (to start). I would have been very interested in a device running…

I'd argue the same thinking could have been applied--perhaps moreso--to Palm/HP's webOS, which was thrusting in the same direction as mid-range tablet OS with the Touchpad, and into a desktop-capable OS (demonstrated in early state) before its EOL. Plenty of parallels between the two OSes, down to some of the personnel who bailed to Firefox OS from HP.

When I first heard about Firefox OS my first reaction was one of frustration, as I believe at the time WebOS had just been open sourced.

It seemed like a giant duplication of effort towards similar aims.

Re: The Story of Firefox OS

#30

Post by diafygi »

untog wrote: post #25
diafygi wrote: post #8

> What I Would Do Differently Today ... Product — Not try to create the cheapest smartphone. But, then who will? Firefox OS allowed you to run a full HTML5 browser on a phone with half the specs of Android[1]. They sold a phone for $33 that was (and still is) the cheapest thing to run Youtube and Wikipedia! The only huge technological advantage Firefox OS had was the fact that Boot-to-Gecko didn't have the overhead o…

These are also all possible with Service Worker enabled web sites. IMO that's the best possible model - no app store friction, you start using the site immediately, then add to your home screen.

But what phone under $35 is able to run Service Workers? FirefoxOS is still the only one that can pull that off. Android 4.0+ can't run on hardware that cheap.
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