

Creating the future of mobile with Firefox OS – resources, docs and more - rnyman
https://hacks.mozilla.org/2012/10/creating-the-future-of-mobile-with-firefox-os/

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spinchange
I like the idea of Firefox tablets running this, but not so sure about
telephony. Not that it isn't an awesome or commendable effort, it's just going
to be tough to succeed where the likes of WebOS failed. A differentiator would
be going after lower end tablets and more WiFi centric devices. Same deal with
Opera. Like the Chromebooks, but in tablet form.

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jbk
Still no Native code options? No thank you...

Javascript is great for many applications, but multimedia and games are not in
this case.

Moreover, I don't see what Firefox OS brings that Android cannot do...

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tomjen3
People keep complaining about games, which is funny because it is my job to
make games using HTML5 and javascript.

No it is not good enough to produce an AAA title -- but those are far from the
entire market.

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jawngee
Are you listening to yourself? Can you imagine a "smartphone" mobile platform
without AAA game titles?

I'm assuming they will have some sort of NDK?

Neat project none the less!

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untog
_Can you imagine a "smartphone" mobile platform without AAA game titles?_

Absolutely. When the iPhone came out it had no AAA game titles- the major
publishers held off until they saw what the market was like. I remember my
first purchase (and addiction) being some sort of tank-shooting game that was
little more than a glorified QBasic Gorillas.

Don't get me wrong, they'd need AAA games eventually, but everything has to
start somewhere.

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freehunter
Everything has to start somewhere. Unfortunately, this starting point has
moved since the iPhone first came out. Microsoft learned this with Windows
Phone; there is reasonable (but low) adoption, unfortunately due to missing
features that developers and users consider to be standard, the ecosystem is
still missing a few apps and some of the existing apps are/were (things have
improved a little since 7.5) lower-featured than those same apps on other
platforms. Windows Phone 7 would have been the best thing ever invented if it
was released in 2007. Firefox OS would be as well. Windows 95 would have been
magic when it was released in 1985.

Everything has to start somewhere. But where it ends up is highly dependent on
how far it was when it was released.

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untog
True, but being the open project it is, Firefox OS doesn't have the same kind
of market pressure that WP, for example, does. They haven't even launched (in
any consumer-facing sense), so it might be a little early to judge the
platform.

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z3phyr
I am waiting for a 'boot to servo'.... B2S

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acabal
Isn't this basically what webOS was? Now that it's OSS, why not piggy back off
what they've already done?

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MatthewPhillips
Why throw away over a year's worth of work?

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acabal
I guess it depends on how far that work has come--if what they have after a
year is as good or better than webOS then OK, but if not, webOS worked pretty
well for all its rough edges.

I guess it pains me for two reasons--I'm a big webOS fan (still use an old Pre
2), and I hate seeing smart developers spending time reinventing the wheel.
Though in this case nobody could have predicted the path webOS would have
taken so it's not like Mozilla had a choice until very recently.

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MatthewPhillips
Firefox OS uses the same code base as desktop Firefox, so they don't have to
hire all new developers to work on a project that won't integrate with their
main product at all. Just makes absolutely no sense for them to adopt WebOS.
WebOS never had the same goals as Firefox OS, for one, their goal was simply
to use a platform that many devs are already familiar with and using, as a way
to gain adoption. It didn't work; turns out devs go where the users are, not
where their skills are.

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lukifer
WebOS didn't fail due to its web roots; it failed due to lackluster hardware,
being late to market, and an untimely power shift at HP. Users not caring
about the underlying technology cuts both ways; with better marketing and a
couple more years of iteration, it could have become a real contender.

