
Firefox OS Pivot to Connected Devices - bpierre
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/12/09/firefox-os-pivot-to-connected-devices/
======
r3bl
So, at first, they've told us that they don't have enough resources to pour
into Thunderbird because they were working on something else. That something
else was Firefox OS. Okay, sure. I would _love_ to have a Mozilla developed OS
on my phone. Then, months have passed and, even though they have an agreement
with the country right next to mine, I was not able to have one without having
someone from that country who will sign a contract with the carrier. Then they
have decided to give Thunderbird away to some other project because they
wanted to focus on Firefox. Sure, why not? _But_ , a day or two later, they
have released an app for iOS that completely does not belong in their model of
service since it has nothing to do with Firefox and it won't actually work
with Firefox. And now they're telling us that they're moving Firefox OS to
"IoT devices", killing Firefox OS smartphone idea before I had a chance to
actually get my hands on one of them. Great work Mozilla!

~~~
randomsearch
+1 for the point about Thunderbird. We need good open-source mail clients. I'm
not sure we need a Firefox OS, and regardless they just don't have the market
power to make it work.

~~~
saljam
There's Mailpile: [https://www.mailpile.is/](https://www.mailpile.is/)

~~~
tehbeard
That looks neat but doesn't fufill the "low resource client on my desktop with
notifications" that Thunderbird does.

~~~
SunboX
Maybe re-package the Firefox OS Mail Client? ;) It's "low resource" ;) ->
[https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia/tree/master/apps/email](https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia/tree/master/apps/email)

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Sir_Cmpwn
So the OS was slow and difficult to use because of the silly idea of making an
entire OS's user interface run in a browser engine (and to be honest, not even
the fastest browser engine out there), and then they put it on low end phones
and it predictably failed. So they decide to "pivot" and put it on even lower
power IoT devices. Come ON, Mozilla.

~~~
neikos
Here comes the hope that they might focus on Rust for this. (And drop the idea
of browser stuff)

~~~
pcwalton
> (And drop the idea of browser stuff)

"Dropping the idea of browser stuff" was never a goal of Rust.

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grabcocque
Might have that on my headstone.

"Here lies Martin. Not dead, just pivoting to connected devices."

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pjmlp
Why would anyone pick this instead of Qt/QML, Java/JavaFX, Android/Java,
Win10/XAML which are already being used in production?

EDIT: Forgot to mention Tizen as well.

~~~
0xFFC
Something not related.why Oracle discontinued javafx scene builder?.it send
signal to programmer javafx is not serious.

~~~
pjmlp
Yeah, I was also pissed off with it.

However there are lots of IoT vendors that offer first class support for Java
on their SDKs.

There were lots of talks at JavaONE 2015.

Also there are car makers like VW exploring JavaFX for their infotainment
systems.

[http://www.bredex.de/blog_article_en/research-into-the-
use-o...](http://www.bredex.de/blog_article_en/research-into-the-use-of-
javafx-for-in-car-infotainment.html)

Gluon is anyway taking care of it.

EDIT: Changed a bit the content.

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devit
Why is Mozilla wasting time on this useless stuff?

What they need to do is work on their browsers, and specifically:

1\. Ship Electrolysis ASAP, so Firefox is once again as technically good as
Chrome and others

2\. Add support for syncing with Chrome and IE if possible, to smooth
transition for mainstream users

3\. Fund Servo as much as possible, and get it ready to ship it in both
desktop and mobile browsers as soon as possible

4\. Get the marketing people to work on a strategy to market Servo to get the
#1 browser market share spot again

5\. Stop eroding their reputation with dumb stuff like the Pocket and
Telefonica integrations. If they do something to make money, clearly state so
and make sure it's harmless to users and trivially disabled. Then, market
their reputation as a trustworthy non-profit much better.

If they REALLY want to do a mobile OS, just work together with Cyanogen on an
Android distribution with added/better HTML app support, instead of inventing
their own crappy thing.

~~~
Apocryphon
Working with Cyanogen isn't a bad idea. They really should just create a
united "open mobile software" group along with Canonical to pool together
their efforts.

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booop
Sigh.. Just let it die and move on.

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kenrick95
Something like [http://janos.io/](http://janos.io/) ?

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imrehg
I wonder what would be an example of a "connected device" in this context for
Firefox OS, as it feels really vague for the moment.

~~~
detaro
"Smart" TVs is one of the few things I can think of that seem to fit somewhat:
Have a display, apps make sense, ... A lot of IoT stuff is little boxes
without flexible UI, that does seem to miss the mark with FirefoxOS.

~~~
agildehaus
They were going to attempt that with
[http://www.matchstick.tv/](http://www.matchstick.tv/) but that project was
cancelled.

~~~
espadrine
Just to clarify, “They” here is not Mozilla. Matchstick was a separate
company.

By the way, it is bizarre that they do not mention their death on the website
([http://www.matchstick.tv/overview/company-
news/](http://www.matchstick.tv/overview/company-news/)). On their Kickstarter
article, their wording is a bit unclear, but it does seem like they have
stopped working on Matchstick
([https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/matchstick/matchstick-t...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/matchstick/matchstick-
the-streaming-stick-built-on-firefox-os/posts/1266549)).

~~~
robin_reala
Yep, they refunded my money.

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kailanblanks
As much as people here aren't a fan of the choice, I saw Firefox OS running on
TVs and other IoT devices at this year's MozFest and it was really impressive.
The developer APIs were easy to grasp and the UI was intuitive.

~~~
Gorbzel
No one (serious) thinks that Mozilla cannot deliver impressing feats of
engineering, at the very least because they've got quite a bit of tail left on
their goodwill for breaking the IE monopoly.

What people are implicating is their strategy. As others have mentioned, they
don't seem to lead entry into any space, and therefore their presence in the
space is constantly in the vein of catching up. Thus far, the only clear
reason I've ever heard them mention is the same "open web standards" argument.
Obviously this approach is valid, but with their browser success they should
know better than anyone that you cannot overtake Goliath with open standards
_if no one is using your product_.

Lo and behold, they've apparently shown a product at MozCon that Google and
Apple have already bet a ton on and released compelling consumer offerings
for. Regardless of how impressive the APIs and UI may be, history repeating
itself here.

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KaterKarlo
The Mozilla organization is disassembling itself.

~~~
x1024
I'm sure that if they rename a few more things that have "bro" in their title,
everything will change for the better.

Aaaaany day now.

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jcbrand
Sounds like Mozilla wants to jump on the Internet of things bandwagon.

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therealmarv
Noooo. I don't want any Firefox on my light bulbs. So when will this die? 1
year or in 2 years? And who is gonna patch my Firefox light bulbs then?! ;)

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ZenoArrow
What advantages would Firefox OS have over other Linux-based options for IoT?

~~~
Olap84
A consistent platform is the most obvious benefit.

Could it also be a fairly static non vendor customized and hence upgradable OS
also? Most Smart TVs are never updated after all

~~~
ZenoArrow
I don't see Smart TVs as a good market for Firefox OS, Android is the obvious
choice in this market. Generally, you'd want to target IoT devices where
battery life/power draw is important but you still want a rich UI.

Consistent platform could be a decent benefit for the markets where Firefox OS
makes sense though.

~~~
frik
Current gen SmartTVs use Tizen (Samsung) and WebOS (LG), Chromecast
(ChromeOS), Panasonic (FirefoxOS), Sony (Android), etc.

~~~
ZenoArrow
Fair enough.

------
khgvljhkb
Webkit is eating the world

~~~
mike_hearn
The last Palm OS was based on WebKit and it had similar issues to Firefox OS
(very slow, resource hungry).

~~~
castell
It got renamed to WebOS, and nowadays it runs in LG SmartTVs.

There is also ChromeOS and its similar to WebOS and FirefoxOS and runs on low
spec notebooks just fine.

There is little performance difference between Android and FirefoxOS, for both
you need at least 512MB RAM (memory), so that it works without lags.

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geon
Worked so well for Beos.

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davidbanham
s/Firefox OS/WebOS/g

