Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS • Hacker News Board

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#241

Post by padraic7a » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 5:59 PM UTC

jbb555 wrote: post #34

padraic7a wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ubuntu Touch is still going. It's up to it's 13th release now and I don't think it's a failed project. However I do think it's something that isn't yet ready for primetime, and it's going to be more a year or more before it is. In the meantime they are trying to iron out bugs, improve features and get more developer attention for it. Recently they've added support for React Native: https://github.com/CanonicalLtd/rea…

I didn't know that ubuntu had a phone. I wondered if it could be installed on my own phone? Doessn't seem to mention that on their website. Oh well perhaps I'll buy one "Note — all our devices are currently sold out" Ok well I guess I'll stick to android then...

Yeah, it is a pity all the phones are sold out. It can be ported to other devices though, you might get some useful info here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Devices

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#242

Post by themihai » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 6:01 PM UTC

bartread wrote: post #74

yoavm wrote: post #6

So we had Jolla, Ubuntu, Mozilla and even Microsoft trying to create a new major player in the mobile OSs market - all pretty much failed to do so. Is it practically impossible? Are we stuck with Android and iOS forever? This tiny selection of options worries me.

I was at Phonegap Europe 2013 and there was a big noise about Firefox OS (then still known as Boot to Gecko) there. It looked cool but it was always targeted at low-end, low-cost devices. The problem with that, from my perspective as a developer, is that I don't want to develop apps for low-end devices because it's an enormous pain in the ass. The lack of horsepower and features means you're pretty much required to c…

The devices couldn't even power the standard applications(i.e. camera, phone app etc) without visible lag.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

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Post by khedoros » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 6:02 PM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #203

vollmond wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want a dumb display and a smart STB -- because I don't want to have to replace a thousand-dollar display just to get new STB hardware. It's why I have a TV and a Roku, rather than a Roku TV. Why combine them when their upgrade cycles don't match up?

AFAIK at this point the dumb TVs all have worse displays.

But it doesn't have to be that way, even if it is right now. I wish there were a way to explicitly signal "I bought this Smart TV as a dumb display, and I'm using smart features, just not the ones provided by the TV". If enough people were known to be doing that, it might suggest a market for high-end dumb TVs.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

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Post by nir » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 6:03 PM UTC

vamur wrote: post #75

nir wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As it stands you either give Apple complete control of you software/hardware or you give Google full access to every detail of your life. There should be a sticker "Don't blame me, I supported Firefox OS"

You can easily disable Google services on most Android devices. Or purchase a Cyanogenmod compatible device and use a third party store.

People reading HN could, but the general public doesn't really have that option.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

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Post by lagadu » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 6:04 PM UTC

truth_sentinell wrote: post #124

freehunter wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a former long-time user of Windows Phone, it's not "unaddicting" in a way that's boring. There are plenty of apps to waste your time with. It's just that you don't need to. When I used Windows Phone, I didn't need to open an app to see the weather, or to see my text message, or to see my email. The live tiles made sure I could see all of that from the home screen. One glance across the screen and I knew everything…

So why did you leave it and what do you use now?

I can't speak for the user you replied to but I can speak for myself: they stopped making good devices. I had a lumia 920, then I upgraded to the 930 which I still consider one of the best phones I've ever had, for its time. Then MS just... stopped. Took them forever to come out with the 950 and it was nowhere near competitive both in hardware quality and design with the ios and android competition. That was the last. Everything was awesome until after the 930 they simply stopped coming out with competitive devices for me.

Roughly at the time the 950 came out I switched to androidland. This year I wanted my upgrade to be the iphone but when the rumours about the lack of headphone port became undeniable I ended up by upgrading into a new android phone, which I'm using right now.

All of this sucks because there's absolutely nothing that comes close to the fantastic design and usability patterns of windows phone.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

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Post by mmagin » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 6:05 PM UTC

rocky1138 wrote: post #230

dpark wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This looks like a rehashed Casiopeia. (Actually the Casiopeia looks considerably sleeker in comparison.) This is the clunkiest-looking device I've seen in a long time. At some point can we acknowledge that shrinking a laptop to be palm-sized doesn't make for a good form factor? A tiny keyboard and a resistive 720p 5" touchscreen sounds like a terrible experience. The picture shows it literally rendering a standard de…

A full Linux desktop screen wouldn't be used for long periods of time. The ideal situation is that we, as hackers, can build our own mobile UI free from the clutches of Apple and Google, and that you can just plug it into HDMI anywhere you are and get a full computer, which is something you can't do with any phone currently. To your question regarding SMS, there are already people working on it. A Vim plugin sounds e…

By full computer, you mean something of 'low-end chromebook' spec. Usable mobile power management and thermal design isn't really going to achieve what you get with a good laptop or desktop.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

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Post by khedoros » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 6:06 PM UTC

wyldfire wrote: post #222

Twirrim wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why I just ignore the smart stuff and use a capable STB instead.

emodendroket is stating that "ignoring the smart stuff" means disregarding high-quality imaging available on the top-of-line products.

Twirrim is stating that "ignoring the smart stuff" doesn't necessarily mean buying a dumb TV, and that they buy a smart TV, ignore a bunch of the TV's features, and replace them by using a separate set-top box.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

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Post by aikah » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 6:07 PM UTC

twelvechairs wrote: post #14

A major shame that we are moving our technology from open playforms built to empower to walled gardens built to consume. One day maybe it will shift towards something more progressive again.

> A major shame that we are moving our technology from open playforms built to empower to walled gardens built to consume. One day maybe it will shift towards something more progressive again.

In order for a solution to be successful it must be good at first place. FirefoxOS wasn't good at first place no matter how open it was.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

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Post by zbraniecki » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 6:07 PM UTC

creshal wrote: post #38

franze wrote: post #11

I still love my FirefoxOS Geeks Phone Keon 2013, it still is my go-to backpacking phone. ongoing long battery runtime, a decent browser for the https://mbasic.facebook.com/ , gmail HTML, hacker news. necessary apps are there and work fine: For me that's HERE maps & alarm function. I love it, because it's un-addicting. android and ios are designed to get your attention, all the time. FirefoxOS ist a tool that is there…

Yes, thanks Mozilla for making a timer app that by default neither beeps nor vibrates. Thankfully I only lost one oven load of food before I noticed. And thanks Mozilla for making an OS that glitches out if you use the power button in the wrong moment, nothing wakes you up better than having to reboot your phone to stop the damn alarm clock. FirefoxOS is such an unfinished shitfest. I have no idea how 1.3 passed QA.…

And for that reason, it's worth recognizing how much work ahead there is for the web platform to be capable of delivering full OS experience.

Only now, pieces of the HTML/DOM/JS spec that have been kickstarted out of need when FxOS was being developed start landing in the spec.

Whoever will try next, will have an easier job because of the FxOS experience.

source: I'm an engineer who worked on FxOS in 2014-2016

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#250

Post by walterbell » Tue, Sep 27, 2016, 6:09 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #144

adamc wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mozilla of course has every right to determine how it wants to allocate its resources... but to me, this action speaks loudly that you cannot really count on them to stay the course. So, from an outsider perspective, every initiative must be analyzed skeptically, since they may leave you holding the bag. This is always true to a degree, but the more true you think it is, the less likely you are to jump onto said init…

> This is always true to a degree, but the more true you think it is, the less likely you are to jump onto said initiatives. While I'm sad since I can't now run Firefox OS on my OpenMoko phone, while listening to my ogg vorbis files and rocking Chandler, the revolutionary PIM app and posting updates to Diaspora, this should have been the conclusion from the beginning. It was pretty clear that nothing much was ever go…

Chandler (epic distraction) may have wandered off into the sunset but people are still running predecessors Lotus Agenda (DOS era) and Ecco Pro (Win 95 era) to this day. Ecco Pro has even been binary patched to enable Lua scripting. The computer industry has many commercial failures that shipped elements of technical excellence.