Slashdot Mirror
Mozilla Partners Up With LG To Combat Apple and Google
MrSeb writes "At Mobile World Congress, which begins in three days, Mozilla will finally take the wraps off the Mozilla Marketplace and allow developers to submit their open web technology (HTML5, JavaScript, CSS) apps. While the Marketplace will play an important role in keeping Firefox in step with Chrome, these apps will actually play a far more important role: Boot to Gecko (B2G), Mozilla's upcoming smartphone and tablet OS, will also use the Marketplace. For B2G to succeed it must have apps, and to create apps you need developers. That's why, at MWC, according to a source close to the matter, Mozilla will also be announcing that it has partnered up with LG to make a developer-oriented B2G-powered mobile device. Even more interestingly, Brendan Eich, Mozilla's Chief Technology Officer, says that it will unveil other partners at MWC as well — probably carriers, who are eager to use the open B2G and its Marketplace to escape the huge control that Apple and Google currently exert in the smartphone space."
Dear Mozilla,
I have been a tester from mozilla M18.
I hope this is true opensource and a good product.
Sincerely,
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
How would one make a barcode scanner application for this platform? I was under the impression that web browsers had no standardized, widely implemented way to (ask for the user's permission to) read from the camera and microphone (if any) connected to a device.
Come to think of it, the 'LG XULRunner' would actually be a better-than-average name for a cellphone...
I think a company announcing they're NOT doing a marketplace would probably get bigger headlines these days.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I just wish I could open up a wormhole, and send this headline to the version of myself who existed 10 years ago. That would be one confused sonofa...
Free unix account: freeshell.org
Give me a call when Chrome has NoScript and isn't developed by a company that has grown notorious for its privacy issues, user web tracking, and targeted ads.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
same here, but then I switched back sometime around FF10. Much happier with it than back in the 3.x days. I now go back and forth without much concern.
Mozilla has found another source of income in addition to Google. With LG's money, Mozilla will be able to add features that counter Chrome's increased share in the browser marketplace. I assume FirefoxOS will counter ChromeOS and webOS more than Android and iOS.
Wether or not this adversely affects Mozilla's ability to increase user satisfaction with FireFox being used as a browser remains to be seen. I hope and wish them the best, but am concerned that they will lose focus on their core product which should be a web browser people would actually like to use (or in my case continue to use).
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
Windows Phone 7 is peering through a window to watch the fight, eyes welling with tears.
Could be time to switch back for the same reasons.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/macbook-air-chrome-16-firefox-9-benchmark,3108-18.html
OMG!!! Ponies!!!
I hope it makes sense and is well done. I guess the sign of it becoming real is when google applauds it at the same time as apple/microsoft sue Mozilla. So, 6 months? Again, how it is designed is going to be important. Anyone can clone the whole smartphone layout as it exists but they're going to need to do something *different* for it to be worthwhile.
I should also point out that apple and google are considered competition, but Microsoft is not (as microsoft is not relevant in the smartphone market). Quite a telling point.
Um, am I right in thinking this will give carriers more control over my phone?
From TFA, "Basically, Apple and Google have so much control over the smartphone landscape that carriers have effectively become nothing more than retailers. Worse than that, their infrastructures have been reduced to that of a dumb pipe, where it is Apple and Google who ultimately decide how the network will be used."
I don't know about other countries, but the last thing I would ever do in the US is give a mobile carrier more control over my phone. It that is the case, I'll pass.
When did you last use FF ? v3.5 ?
I use both right now, on win7, Linux Mint and CrunchBang. My FF always has 20-30 tabs opened, it's my main browser, I only use Chrome when have no browser opened and I don't want to wait for FF to start with my 30 opened tabs.
Based on my experience, FF 10 isn't bloated at all. It's as fast as Chrome and has way more useful plugins.
On an unrelated note I trust mozilla a gazillion times more than I trust google.
The important thing is the Internet, not the Web. As long as we have interconnected networks, everybody can use them for whatever they like, be it the HTTP protocol or some other alternative.
Only if "there's an app for that".
Second, the usability of the web apps simply sucks, because the web wasn't designed for them.
It wasn't designed to let you read emails, view videos, listen to music, consult maps, play games, talk to your friends, buy books, either.
But since it was designed to be open and extensible, it was improved over the years and now you can do all that stuff pretty well. Can't see why this process of extension and improvement should be halted now, and left to proprietary architectures.