

Firefox OS has a long way to go to compete with Android - jeffreyfox
http://www.androidauthority.com/can-firefox-os-compete-with-android-118797/

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sabret00the
I've written a huge amount about Firefox OS (B2G) and how much I feel that the
undertaking it required for a company of Mozilla's size, was a mistake. I
believe in Firefox and the power of Sync and I also believed in Thunderbird,
especially the concept of an Android port.

Firefox on all platforms is a guest and I can understand wanted to have some
firm roots. In one blog post I wrote that I'd have loved to see Mozilla put
out a version of Android where they gut it and remove Webkit and replace that
with Gecko.

Firefox's greatest problem of late is often described as a lack of
imagination, but in truth, that's simply a symptom of limited resources.
They're unable to induct a steady flow of volunteering coders and it's a
shame. It's meaning that features are being neglected and delayed.

Take Panorama for example, users should be able to open Panorama and see all
their windows on all their devices and open that in the existing viewport
(window). The possibilities of Panorama are like something straight out of the
future and yet it's been neglected to keep bread and butter features up to
date along with implementing what is perceived as the uninspired design. Think
about when Mozilla unveiled their plans for the Download Manager, literally a
month or two later it was implemented by Safari, while Mozilla still hasn't
completed their own idea. And I still think they should work on improving
their feed reader, implement it in a way like Brief. I know when Limi came
over from Google, he mentioned how little traction RSS has, but sometimes it's
worth reaping the marketing on your niche features, rather than simply
catering to the mass market and being thought of as just-the-same.

In regards to the philosophy behind Firefox OS, it doesn't take a genius to
work that the App culture is here to stay for a while at least and that Mobile
Web Apps are simply a Eutopian daydream. That can't be changed for now. What
can be changed is that Mozilla work hard on making sure people understand the
role of the web and the benefit that coding openly can bring. i.e. not using
an embedded browser for authentication in your Android apps. Allow users to
use Firefox so as they can use their stored passwords. But then, I'm a big
believer that the Evangelism Team over as Mozilla needs more resources. The
time for Mobile Web Apps will come, I'm sure, but not for now. The alternative
is just so much easier from an end user point of view and it would seem that
attempting to force the issue isn't helpful from a developers point of view
either, ask Facebook.

Right now, Firefox OS's only competitors are Chrome OS and WebOS. It'll be
interesting to see how each of those three evolve.

~~~
tangue
I wish the best for Firefox OS, because we need it badly, but Mozilla will had
to improve its relationship with developers. I spent a lot of time for an app
in XUL and feel betrayed when Mozilla removed native support for webapps in FF
4. Another point that worries me is the rapid release cycle. Most app
developers are small teams and I wouldn't bet on a platform that change every
six weeks, following iOS and Android every six months is painful enough.

