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Firefox OS Will Win Big With Developers - Mozilla

judgecorp writes "Mozilla's mobile operating system Firefox OS will win overwhelming support from developers because it dropped XUL in favour of HTML5, says the head of Mozilla Europe in an interview. Firefox OS is more open than iOS and Android, and 75 percent of apps are already written in HTML5."

25 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. Uh huh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This just in: Mozilla employee tells us that Mozilla product will be a huge hit!

    Why don't we wait until it comes out before making such claims?

  2. No, it won't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually it won't.

    Developers will look towards the jobs which earn money, meaning the popular platforms like iOS and Android. To even think Firefox OS will in any way take a reasonable portion of the marketshare is a complete and utter joke.

    Mozilla missed the mobile boat 2 years ago. Hear that mozilla? It's the sound of a fog horn in the distance, get swimming(which is what they're doing right now).

    They should refocus their efforts or they're going to drown.

    1. Re:No, it won't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think they were told the same thing about developing a browser when internet explorer owned the market.

    2. Re:No, it won't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Developers will look towards the jobs which earn money, meaning the popular platforms like iOS and Android. To even think Firefox OS will in any way take a reasonable portion of the marketshare is a complete and utter joke.

      A lot of apps are written in HTML5 and then converted - using tools like PhoneGap - to apps for iOS and Android, so there's already a huge developer base writing apps with these tools.

      I can definitely imagine devs writing an Open Web App and then using one of these native wrappers to package it up for the other operating systems.

  3. phones? idk...but a cheap tablet for schools... by malelder · · Score: 4, Interesting

    while I'm not sold on the idea that we need another phone OS, I would think the combination of a cheap tablet with an HTML5 based OS on it is a decent alternative to laptops and netbooks for elementary education purposes. Books, interactive exercises, and word-processing abilities all in one. Allow a school to run their own Google Office-style server to keep things local...could be neat (:

    --


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  4. Best of luck (seriously) by Qwavel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It is going to be really tough for Mozilla to make headway with their own mobile OS. Palm, Nokia, RIM, etc. have all failed in spite of enormous efforts, and the only ones that have succeeded now have complete ecosystems built around their devices.

    So, I believe that the chances of Firefox OS succeeding are really slim.

    And this is coming from someone who believes that Mozilla saved the Web, and who runs firefox on their phone (which is part of the problem - I already have mobile firefox).

    1. Re:Best of luck (seriously) by Microlith · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Palm

      Carrier manhandling (never trust those bastards) and getting snapped up by HP were the biggest contributors to their fall.

      Nokia, RIM

      Unrepentant managerial incompetence. Hell, Nokia had a winner in the N9 but their internal practices kept it from seeing the light of day early enough to actually be of use.

      the only ones that have succeeded now have complete ecosystems built around their devices.

      But the presence of those "ecosystems" does not preclude competitors. Nor do they mean that no one else should try. This is probably the worst argument I've seen, if anything it gives even more reason to hate ecosystems as they seem more adept at inhibiting competition and user choice than anything else.

      I believe that the chances of Firefox OS succeeding are really slim.

      Depends on the market they go into. Success doesn't mean that they drastically displace iOS or Android, only that sales of devices running the platform are profitable. Profitability means that there's opportunity to grow.

      On top of that, if you focus on regions using GSM that don't have their handset choices constrained by the regional carriers you have a far better chance than in backwards markets like the US.

  5. And WebOS failed because? by mystikkman · · Score: 3, Informative

    WebOS also promised that you can write apps in HTML/JS and look at what happened to the Touchpad when it took on the iPad.

    Developers flock to the platforms with most users, ease of development is only a small factor because the alternatives like iOS, Android and WP have reasonable dev environments. If the market was owned by Blackberry, he would have a point, since it's just TERRIBLE for development.

  6. Hope they enjoy shitty performance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    HTML5, while faster than previous incarnations of HTML+JS, is still massively slower than native applications. I predict a very sluggish experience.

  7. 75 Percent by Fallingcow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    75 percent of apps are already written in HTML5

    OK, maybe. But what percentage of good apps are written in HTML5?

    1. Re:75 Percent by goruka · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Exactly my thoughts. To be more specific, writing non-retardedly simple games is a feat with html5 due to slow performance and huge memory consumption.
      Even in Android Java is often bypassed in favor of NDK for complex projects and portability reasons, where you want to use C/C++ or your own, more fittin, scripting language such as Lua or Python.
      Mozilla developers seem to have very strong ideals of a world where the only programming language is HTML5 and the only platform is the web, and I remember there was a lot of hype about that philosophy a few years ago, but app stores with native apps have clearly shown the future is somewhere else. Even Google has aknolwedged that in Chrome by allowing Native Client..

  8. Go for it by DJ+Jones · · Score: 3, Funny

    Firefox already uses more memory than any OS I own so what the hell, go for it. Maybe Windows 8 can become a light-weight browser that runs on top of it.

    1. Re:Go for it by asa · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Firefox has better memory management than any other popular browser. If you aren't seeing that, then you aren't on the latest Firefox version or you've got some horribly leaky add-ons installed. (The add-on problem is fixed in Firefox 15 Beta and will be available in 6 weeks.)

  9. Firefo 14 will encrypt searches by SternisheFan · · Score: 4, Informative

    "With Firefox 14, Mozilla will automatically encrypt searches conducted via Google's search engine in the browser's location bar, search box, or the right-click menu. The idea is to "protect your data from potentially prying eyes, like network administrators when you use public or shared WiFi networks," Mozilla said in a blog post. At this point, Google is the only search engine that will support encrypted searches, "but we look forward to supporting additional search engines with this feature in the future," Mozilla said." (From the PC Mag article) http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407263,00.asp

  10. *facepalm* by girlintraining · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Assuming your platform will "win big with programmers" is silly. Programmers will work with whatever you give them, and combine it with whatever they know. And no two programmers will have the same approach. Thinking you know what programmers want is like believing you know what women want. As if every woman (like every programmer) would be a cookie cutter copy of the other.

    There are only a select few things I've found that programmers esteem and have in common, and it all has very little to do with programming per-se. They are patient. They often have the ability to hyper-focus for hours or (in extreme cases) days on a specific problem, going without food, water, sleep, social contact... in fact, interrupting them may get something chucked at your head. Prolonged and intense programming over a period of days or weeks can result in epic logic failures in their daily life -- "Hey hun, can you go to the store and if they have bread, pick up some eggs?" Programmer comes home with just eggs. They can and sometimes do become obsessed with details of a project (not just computer projects... ANY kind of project) and totally lose track of everything else; time, space, the fact that the house around them is on fire, that the girlfriend (cough, hi) is threatening to bean them if they don't come to bed and cuddle them, etc. Programmers are also endlessly fascinated with a difficult to define quality I call "Niftiness". If something is nifty, they will be drawn to it like a moth to fire. However, what is nifty to one is completely mundane to another... and "Niftiness" is a time-sensitive thing... it degrades rapidly with time.

    You'll note that nowhere in there did I mention anything resembling a computer, or anything about programming itself. Programming attracts a particular kind of person; It is not the result of a particular way of doing something.

    --
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  11. Re:Article Summary... by game+kid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Or, "Everyone uses HTML5, right? So if we just gut our UI code and write it in HTML5 and tout its HTML5 use enough times on HTML5 news sites and our HTML5 wiki-thing, then we'll get lots of HTML5 fans to use our HTML5 OS. HTML5 HTML5!!!!! *continues to yell 'HTML5' and 'Beefcake' with decreasing coherence*"

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  12. Re:Article Summary... by aix+tom · · Score: 3, Funny

    They are still on HTML5? Shouldn't they by now be on at least HTML23 to get ahead of Google?

  13. Re:Article Summary... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    HTML23 was soooo 30 minutes ago. Firefox 143 has HTML25.

    Oops writing this post took long enough that we are now on Firefox 150.

  14. Re:This sounds awfully familiar. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Firefox OS? Didn't Netscape try to do that with Communicator 4 and fail horribly?

    No and yes.

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  15. I Welcome FirefoxOS by corychristison · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think Mozilla is absolutely insane coming in to the market so late, but I welcome the competition. As others have pointed out, I am not sure how well it will go over as a Phone OS, but I can absolutely see it as a hobbyist OS. It would be great on tablets, set top boxes (or flash the firmware on your Smart TV), Raspberry Pi.

    I already have a few idea's I could use it for. Small personal projects, mostly based around a Raspberry Pi. I use and like Android but FirefoxOS would be better suited from what I have read so far.

    I do web development for a living. The idea of HTML5 apps excites me as it is a system I know very well.

    Huge win if they come out with an easy to install distro for Raspberry Pi.

  16. Firefox OS Is Just What I Need by l0ungeb0y · · Score: 3, Funny

    Finally -- an OS that CAN'T PLAY MP3's. I'm sure it will be very popular.
    Mozilla is floundering hard -- maybe they should just go away.

  17. Re:Um... what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    By installing the certificate for their proxy on all their desktops, so it's seen as a certificate to trust.

  18. Re:And WebOS failed because? by Patch86 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The fact that apps can be written in the exact same programming language for Win Phone 8 and Firefox OS is a point in Mozilla's favour, not against them.

    They're banking on cross-compatibility between the other platforms to ensure that they get a decent ecosystem very quickly. That's presumably what both Mozilla and MS picked HTML5- maximum cross-platform capabilities.

  19. Re:This sounds awfully familiar. by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

    The point of Firefox "OS" is to use the web browser to display a popup saying:

    A script on this page is running slowly.

          [stop] [continue]

    FTFY.

    --
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  20. Re:XHTML by RaceProUK · · Score: 3, Informative

    There is an XHTML5 standard - it's the HTML5 standard, but using strict XML syntax.

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