Design Principles Behind Firefox OS Explained

At MozCamp Warsaw, a presentation was given on the design principles behind the core Firefox OS experience. Layering of applications (if you're wondering why the Firefox mobile interface has that weird curve by the tab control, you'll find answers here), an emphasis on content over visual frills for their own sake, consistent iconography, and clean typography dominate.

Comments

But,

[Anonymous Coward]

can you run Chrome on it?

I'm guessing the main principle...

[unitron]

I'm guessing the main principle is to find ways to annoy people who liked the previous versions and to hide stuff from them.

How very Microsoft of them.

Re:I'm guessing the main principle...

[squiggleslash]

Just wait to you use the new GNOMEphone!

Re:I'm guessing the main principle...

[serviscope_minor]

GNOMEphone, eh? I can see it now.

In the name of simplifications they'll remove some or all of the numbers from the keypad, because an internal user study told them that all 10 digits is simply too complex.

Then someone will write into the forum to complain.

"I frequently need the digits 5 to 9 (inclusive) to call a wide variety of my contacts. These are vital to my workflow"

"WONTFIX. Our dicision is final."

"FUCK YOU I NEEDED 9 BECAUSE A FIRE STARTED MY HOUSE BURNED DOWN"

"Please take your unhelpful comments elsewhere"

Deja vu

[ebh]

EmacsM-^H Firefox would be a great OS if only it had a decent text editorM-^HM-^H web browser.

Smoking crack

[onyxruby]

Designing an OS? Are you serious? Have you ever looked at the documentation on Firefox beyond the user stuff? Mozilla's support for using Firefox on more than one computer at a time is so bad that the web is littered with abandoned effort after abandoned effort from end user to do it for them!

How on earth do they think they are going to support an operating system which /requires/ management when they can't even support a browser that requires management? You shouldn't have to go dozens of web sites to track down the settings and troll developer forums to get the settings needed to mass deploy an application.

Mozilla, you really, really need to spend some time talking to people in the enterprise and learning what their needs our for managing fleets of computers. I've been on more than one meeting where Firefox was axed from deployment - even though every single person in the room personally used it, preferred it, acknowledged it was more secure - strictly because it is completely unmanageable for an enterprise. Don't get me start on their administrative toolkit either. It isn't close to usable and doesn't begin to cover what is needed.

I'm sorry, until you can get your act up to speed for a single application support at least somewhere to the level of say, Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle, your simply being absurd. It's not about the technical capabilities of your applications, it's about the ability to use and administer it on an enterprise scale.

I'm sorry, the enterprise experience with trying to manage Firefox is so bad that the idea of a Firefox Operating System is going to cost the poor person who suggests it their reputation at best.

Re:Smoking crack

[onyxruby]

lockPref("app.update.mode", 0);
lockPref("app.update.service.enabled", true);
lockPref("app.update.enabled", true);
lockPref("app.update.interval", 14400);
lockPref("app.update.auto", true);
lockPref("app.update.autoUpdateEnabled", true);
pref("toolkit.telemetry.prompted", 2);
pref("toolkit.telemetry.rejected", true);
pref("toolkit.telemetry.enabled", false);

Yeah, I think I got that memo. Now, I want you to find a single source me on their website that explains all of those settings, what they do, their values, what file you put them in, their context and how to implement them for all users at an enterprise level.

For enterprise deployments, your need to be able to set your configuration for any number of settings with ease. You can't do that with Firefox in the enterprise, I'm sorry but you just can't. I might need to configure any number of well over a thousand some settings, of which auto update is only one of them.

This is what Firefox needs to be able to stand a chance in hell of making it in the enterprise. Understand that the enterprise /wants/ to use Firefox - badly.
1. Enterprises need a single file that they can easily manipulate to change as needed for all users. Mozilla.cfg sort of handles this, but only in a limited capacity.
2. Central sources for documentation. Why does about:config only have some entries defined? I shouldn't have to troll developer forums or bug reports to find out how to manipulate something.
3. Easier support. The fact that it's open source is meaningless when programmers are not the ones supporting and distributing Firefox into production. IT professionals who are /not/ programmers need to be able to readily research and configure Firefox the way they want it.
4. Don't make judgement calls for my organization. You feel wonderful about browser rights, that's nice. I'm not confusing 75,000 users with a prompt about their 'browser rights' and crap-flooding the helpdesk. I should be able to easily disable this kind of thing without spending a lot of time trying to find the right setting.
5. Whoever came up with a six week release schedule needs to be placed into a monastery where they measure time by the seasons to gain some perspective. This places a heavy burden on enterprises and is a support burden. No other software product has this kind of release schedule and it goes against industry best practice.

Re:Smoking crack

[Gordo_1]

[rant...]
5. Whoever came up with a six week release schedule needs to be placed into a monastery where they measure time by the seasons to gain some perspective. This places a heavy burden on enterprises and is a support burden. No other software product has this kind of release schedule and it goes against industry best practice.

Simmer down and go here:
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all.html

Re:So?

[Lennie]

Why would you say that ? It can run on an Android Linux kernel or even the less obvious choice of running it on the Raspberry Pi:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Boot_to_Gecko/B2G_build_prerequisites

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Firefox-OS-Mozilla-Raspberry-Pi,16883.html

You did not read Slashdot yesterday ?:

http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/12/07/06/1551237/telefonica-shows-prototype-firefox-os-phone

The plan is to release a phone early next year:
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/firefox-os-will-be-on-zte-phones-early-next-year-50009258/

Re:Memory is Cheap

[serviscope_minor]

Why are we still complaining about how much memory ANYTHING takes up anymore?

How much will it take to replace my 1GB Eee900 (with 1G and almost impossible to upgrade to 2) with something which isn't any heavier? A lot more than $79, that's for sure.

Also, how do I plug that $79 DIMM into my android phone?

Your friendly neighborhood software development manager.

Ah, so you're personally responsible for the bloated monstrosities that pass a programs these days.

Please, PLEASE quit your job.

Re:Memory is Cheap

[partyguerrilla]

This is a mobile OS.

Re:Where's the d@mn home button?

[allo]

you know, that you can move the buttons in any way you want? right click the menubar, then select customize. now you can move buttons.

These are not design principles.

[lennier]

These are styling principles.

Yes, I know the entire commercial world in 2012 has decided to remap the dictionary and call "design" what the world of commerce in 1982 would have called "style", and "architecture" and "engineering" what the world of 1982 would have called "design". And product designers no longer actually design things but just draw sketches of what the colouring of the pictures on the skin of the 3D printer will look like, while the product architects, who don't have architecture degrees, build flowcharts for the engineers, who don't hold engineering degrees, to build.

But darnit, I still remember when "design" meant how a product works at a technical level, and that's what I came to the article expecting to read, and that's the opposite of what I got.

Get off my perfectly manicured ironically Le Corbusier-inspired post-post-postmodernist lawn.