"'But how is it going to beat Android or iOS?' That's the reaction many people have when I tell them that I am working on Firefox OS, the new mobile operating system from Mozilla. It is a logical reaction. After all, we live in times where every major software company and its mother is releasing a mobile platform, struggling to lure developers into their new proprietary environment, APIs, libraries, etc. And indeed, many of these companies barely make it or don’t make it at all. But Firefox OS will not be directly battling against other mobile platforms. Its main objective is to change the way the world develops mobile apps, and even in the unlikely event that Firefox OS itself disappears in the process, if web-apps become mainstream, it will have succeeded."
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2009-08-27
Apps within Firefox OS are webapps. The main launcher is a webapp, the phone app is a webapp, the lockscreen is a webapp... All the functionality is provided via JavaScript libraries that implement open standards. Some of those standards are already in use in browsers (local storage, geolocation, touch API...), and some others are being developed now, like the phone API.
There are 3 key benefits to this:
1.- Easy customization and openness. The HTML, CSS and JS that drives the phone is there. Change it and the functionality changes.
2.- Simplicity. The only thing you need to make a phone that works is to run a web runtime. A web runtime is a complicated program, yes, but it's *just one* program. This is similar to what Android does, but Firefox OS is much smaller and easier for phone makers.
And the important one:
3.- Freedom. Webapps run everywhere. Right now, everyone of us is tied to a mobile OS. It would hurt me to move away from Android, because I'd lose all the apps I bought. With webapps, I can buy Angry Birds to play it on my Firefox OS phone, then move to Android and keep playing. This is possible because the appropriate runtime is available on Android too (Firefox for Android supports webapps in the same way Firefox OS does, but someday Android will support all the standards required by default). After using Android, I could move to my computer and keep using Firefox OS apps, given I have a browser installed.
The webapp distribution model is similar to Android's. You can install or buy the apps through an app store, everyone can set up their own store, or you can distribute the app in any other way you want (you can point people to the URL of the app, or you can distribute the folder containing it)
Edited 2013-02-11 18:21 UTC
Member since:2006-07-12
Member since:2012-10-25
The nomenclature needs work. I think we need to draw a strict line between local apps that just happen to be written in HTML5/CSS/JS/DOM, and apps that are just fancy bookmarks to sites written in HTML5/CSS/JS/DOM.
Oh, yes, I agree completely with your point about benefits of the cross-platform nature of web technologies. As an OS nerd, I'm excited by the prospect that one day hobby OSes will only have to port WebKit/V8 to be able to run everyone's favourite programs.
Edited 2013-02-11 20:40 UTC
The third and final WWDC product I want to talk about is - of course - OS X 10.9 Mavericks. While iOS 7 was clearly the focus of this year's WWDC, its venerable desktop counterpart certainly wasn't left behind. Apple announced OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the first OS X release not to carry the name of a big cat.
We already talked about iOS 7 yesterday (after a night of sleep, it's only looking worse and worse - look at this, for Fiona's sake!), so now it's time to talk about the downright stunning and belly flutters-inducing new Mac Pro. As former owner and huge, huge, huge fan of the PowerMac G4 Cube - I haven't been this excited about an Apple product since, well, I would say the iMac G4. This is the Apple I used to love.
Apple held its big keynote event thing at WWDC earlier this evening, but since I was away with friends I've had to read up on it later in the evening. The company announced iOS 7, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and they gave a preview of the new Mac Pro. Especially the Mac Pro impressed me, and while iOS 7's new Holo/Metro-inspired theme looks messy and garish to me, I do commend Apple for finally breaking the mold. This news item will focus on iOS 7 - I'll dive into the Mac Pro and OS X 10.9 tomorrow (it's late here now).
And yes, the PRISM scandal is far, far from over. More and more information keeps leaking out, and the more gets out, the worse it gets. The companies involved have sent out official statements - often by mouth of their CEOs - and what's interesting is that not only are these official statements eerily similar to each other, using the same terms clearly designed by lawyers, they also directly contradict new reports from The New York Times. So, who is lying?This story is getting bigger and bigger. Even though most Americans probably already knew, it is now official: the United States government, through its National Security Agency, is collecting the communications and data of all American citizens, and of non-Americans using American services, through a wide collaboration with the large companies in technology, like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and so on. Interestingly enough, the NSA itself, as well as the US government, have repeatedly and firmly denied this massive spying on Americans and non-Americans took place at all.Ah, patents - the never-ending scourge of the technology industry. Whether wielded by companies who don't actually make any products, or large corporations who abuse them because they can't compete in the market place or because they're simply jerks, they do the industry a huge disservice and are simply plain dangerous. According to The Wall Street Journal (circumvention link), president Obama is about to take several executive actions to address patent trolls - which may seem like a good idea, but I am very worried that all this will do is strengthen the positions of notorious patent system abusers such as Apple and Microsoft.
With version 13.05, the developers of the Genode OS Framework take measures to ensure that Genode continues to scale well with a growing number of users and the steadily broadening platform coverage. Further highlights are the improved SoC support for Exynos 5, OMAP4, Raspberry Pi, i.MX, and new components for realizing headless systems.At the D11 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook once again took the stage to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. While most of the interview can be replicated by picking and reading 10 random Apple fanblog stories - there were still a number of very interesting things that warrant some closer scrutiny.
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Member since:
2005-11-10
I've played a bit with Firefox OS last week in FOSDEM and I was quite interested in it, in a strange way. My understanding, like the article states, is that Firefox OS is not meant to compete with Android nor iOS, at least not as a direct competitor. So what niche is it trying to carve? Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see, but if it succeeds in giving us a cheap, open device, I'll buy it for sure.
One thing that was not clear in the article is that Firefox OS can run local web applications, with no need for an permanent Internet connection. For example, the calculator is still a web application, but it's running on your Firefox OS device, not online.
Oh, I also wanted to state that the Mozilla brand is more than Firefox or Thunderbird. There was a concrete initial objective in the Mozilla project, "freeing the web", and that did happen. Chrome may have surpassed Firefox in terms of popularity, but I don't think Chrome would exist without all the previous work done by Mozilla and its users.
Edited 2013-02-11 16:50 UTC