> Even if the source code is publicly available, and outside contributions may be accepted, Mozilla is still going to act as a gatekeeper, which inherently limits which contributions will or will not make it into Firefox OS.
Even the Linux kernel has submodule maintainers, and Linus himself, who will need to approve your changes.
Your other option is to fork, apply your changes, and then use your custom-baked FirefoxOS on your phone.
> Likewise, the claim that Firefox OS "doesn't limit your freedom" is suspect, too.
It respects your freedom (see: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) which means that you're free to add support for programming additional languages, if you like. Your additions may never make it into FirefoxOS core, but that doesn't mean your phone can't have those additions.
> And the "HTML5 is a first-class citizen" distinction seems quite irrelevant in practice, as well.
No it doesn't. Think about your argument in terms of natural languages. There are countries where English, French, Spanish are the official languages. There are also countries, where these languages may be spoken, but they're not official.
Even the Linux kernel has submodule maintainers, and Linus himself, who will need to approve your changes.
Your other option is to fork, apply your changes, and then use your custom-baked FirefoxOS on your phone.
> Likewise, the claim that Firefox OS "doesn't limit your freedom" is suspect, too.
It respects your freedom (see: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) which means that you're free to add support for programming additional languages, if you like. Your additions may never make it into FirefoxOS core, but that doesn't mean your phone can't have those additions.
> And the "HTML5 is a first-class citizen" distinction seems quite irrelevant in practice, as well.
No it doesn't. Think about your argument in terms of natural languages. There are countries where English, French, Spanish are the official languages. There are also countries, where these languages may be spoken, but they're not official.