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18 Carriers Sign Up for Firefox OS Phones
Several readers sent word of a Mozilla announcement that 18 carriers have committed to launching phones running Firefox OS. The carriers are primarily from markets in South America and Europe. They include Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, and Sprint. The devices running Firefox OS will be made by LG, ZTE, Huawei, and Alcatel, and all will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. The new mobile operating system is built to allow HTML5 apps to run directly on the device, a solution Mozilla thinks will give it an edge when playing catch-up to all the software available for Android and iOS devices. "Developers are busy and don't have time to learn a new programming language. We believe that the only remaining eco-system is the web and there are more developers for the web than for any other platform in the world," said Jay Sullivan. According to Reuters, "Mozilla will initially look to compete in so-called 'emerging economies' in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia, where many people still use older phone models and have yet to upgrade to more expensive smartphones that feature touchscreens and high-speed Internet connections."
... but when will the developer phones be shipping?
We believe that the only remaining eco-system is the web...
Didn't we already know this? http://xkcd.com/934/
... the quality of the average App will be about as good as the quality of the average website. Not like the existing ones are much better, though.
Uhm... If you've got Chrome on your Android, you've got the same "built to allow HTML5 apps to run directly on the device".
Seriously, guys...the quality of the posts being put up here are going waaaay downhill- you're posting some of the most IDIOTIC crap from the Pundits as if it were gospel.
It is finally here. Goodbye, Apple.
Since when has .NET had security nightmares? The .NET runtime is far, far more secure than ActiveX or that shitty Java plugin.
I believe the snapdragon boards have binary only components.
Are they trying to reinvent android ?
Unless this is baseless hype, but still, I'm seeing a lot about this one OS.
I understand operators not wanting to be beholden to an iOS-Android duopoly, but why pick Firefox as the 3rd player ? Are there no other reasonnably OSS, reasonably good, more proven mobile OSes ? MS, RIM, Bada are proprietary, but what about Meego, Tizen, even Ubuntu ? Why not just fork Android ?
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
No-one is talking about allowing random web pages complete access to the device. They're talking about letting people write apps in HTML5/JS. Still a bad idea, but not for any reasons related to browser security.
If you think running HTML on a device is a security hole, I have some bad news for you...
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Just give me one damn phone that lets me answer and make phone calls, send/receive text messages, and has a calculator.
Why should I give you anything? Just go and buy one, like everyone else has to, you whiny bastard
Developers are busy and don't have time to learn a new programming language. We believe that the only remaining eco-system is the web and there are more developers for the web than for any other platform in the world
You know where I've heard this before, almost word-for-word? It was how HTML5/JS Metro apps were pitched for Win8 on the BUILD conference two years ago.
And before that, it's what RIM has been saying about HTML5 apps for Playbook.
And before that, it was the killer feature of WebOS.
And, as we all know, all of the above are shining examples of a healthy app ecosystem, with thousands of useful, well-written, fast apps in their stores. Right?
the only remaining eco-system is the web
Right. Which is why there is about one million apps for iOS and Android.
The Web is not, never was and never will be the only eco-system. What about the many, many non-web Internet applications? Not everyone uses webmail, and even webmail uses SMTP, not SOAP or REST to deliver its messages. There are calender services, bittorrent, games and thousands of other protocols and services, none of which have anything to do with the web.
There's a lot that is a website these days, granted. But you are a total idiot if you think that nothing that is not a website exists, that HTML/JS is the only programming language left etc.
Heck, Apple even tried this already when they released the original iPhone and told us that Web Apps are where it's at and we don't need native apps.
How about a little more realism and modesty? The web is one eco-system, and a very strong one. Why this obsession with being "the only", this desire for monopoly and dominance? WTF is wrong with being one among many?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
"Developers are busy and don't have time to learn a new programming language. We believe that the only remaining eco-system is the web and there are more developers for the web than for any other platform in the world"
Yes, developers are busy writing native applications for iOS and Android, or using some sort of toolkit/engine for portability. HTML5 is an option in all the other platforms too, yet it's not as popular as C++, C#, Java or Objective C. I don't get the point of this OS.
I want the manufacturers to sign. The carriers should do what they do: be carriers. They should not be hardware and software providers.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
It's easy to be secure when no one uses it.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Because then they would still beholden to the Microsoft tax
The Microsoft Tax, is about patents...mainly those that concern interfacing with Windows Computers/Services, Microsoft Bully Boys are going to be knocking on your door whatever OS you choose. Although considering these companies are already heavily involved (and successful) with android its unlikely they are not prepared for Microsoft.
lol you really are in denial aren't you, i know you're clearly anti-microsoft (from your regular posts), but you you *can* have that position without also being ignorant, it would give you much more credibility and you won't look like a religious nutbag.
While I'm usually not fond of "web apps", the Firefox OS way of doing web only means you never deal with native apps. Many posts seem to lament this but this lack of a native ecosystem actually is something good for me : I don't want to maintain yet another computer, and be "forced" to carry it 24/7, and I don't want to lock myself into either existing "app" ecosystem. Even if a lock-in to e.g. the Android platform is not a very strong one, it's still a lock-in and has its own complexities (Android 2.x vs 4.x, ARM vs x86, Google app store vs sideloaded apps).
I actually have no smartphone, If I get a Firefox one it would be my first one. And who cares if I check mail or take text notes etc. in some web interface instead of a native application? I've only ever used webmail anyway, since about 2001. I wouldn't have any strong performance requirements (I am not interested in 3D games on a device that doesn't even have suitable controls) and I think low end smartphones will at least have a single core 1.x GHz CPU, be it MIPS, ARM or x86 and those will be enough to deal with the inefficiencies of running a card game on javascript and showing me pictures and maps in a web browser.
adblock, noscript, greasemonkey......... ;p
Or at least less privacy invasive /w free software drivers and a modem that can't spy on you? Unless this is the case I don't care that much. Freedom in the phone world sucks. It is non-existent. We need another company like ThinkPenguin to get off the ground in the phone world and promote free software and protect users.
Unfortunately too many people care only about the practical benefits of having the source code. That isn't helping. I am after practical benefits like better support but outright ignoring the non-free parts is detrimental.
Isn't for everyone...
If the patents are invalid then why would any company pay?
It's not size: Samsung fought Apple and Apple is much larger than Microsoft.
It's not dependence: Microsoft depends on Samsung more than the other way around
Except those things aren't true, Apple wanted Samsung Phones banned from being sold...or worse to produce Windows Phones, While Microsoft simply wants to make Android less attractive to manufacturers of Android products.
The bottom line is the whole thing is about *cost* we suspect Samsungs Price involved buying Windows licenses [as Samsung is dependent on one supplier for its OS :)] for their PC hardware and producing a Windows Phone, instead of actual money,
Just curious...
> Developers are busy and don't have time to learn a new
> programming language. We believe that the only
> remaining eco-system is the web and there are more
> developers for the web than for any other platform in the world...
Developers aren't lazy slobs who follow the path of least resistance. Developers who want to get paid will go where the money is. That requires many things; chief among them, a way to collect money. iOS delivers this in spades; Android delivers a little bit. Making money with a web app will be exceptionally hard. Yes, there are advantages to web technologies, but not enough to make a web-based OS on a phone take off.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
so Samsung didn't fight Apple? Apple isn't bigger than Microsoft? you think Samsung actually has a dependence on Microsoft? Windows PCs are a comparatively tiny part of Samsung's profits, Microsoft has no leverage over Samsung.
Reread my comment its on the money. Samsung simply fought Apple because apple threatened its lucrative revenue stream...Android Phones. Samsung negotiated with Microsoft...because it could be bought off with few windows licenses and a slapping Windows Phone on one of its models.
So yeah irrelevant questions [and silly and...just plain wrong]. If your question had been what gets Samsung stuffing more dollars in its g-string?
instead of flamboyant saturated colored squares as in Android, Windows 8 or Unity, we have disks! square tiles should be relegated to the bathroom and snooty sushi restaurant tableware!
That was a great impersonation of an idiot. *golf clap*
So let's see, what's going on in the mobile world: BlackBerry slowly going under and being replaced by Windows Phone (Symbian is going away, too). iOS and Android continue to dominate the market. Ubuntu is starting to make tablet and smartphone OSes. How does Mozilla figure Firefox OS is going to stand out?
David
They could stop making OS's that require you to use specific programming languages and go back to the desktop model that lets you program in whatever language you want to.
I write apps in Linux in C as well as C++, but Ive also wrote a few apps in Python. Others use Perl, Cobol, pascal, Java, asm and many others.
UDL
Yeah, and JRE is far more secure than ActiveX or that shitty (and mostly not used and not installed) Silverlight plugin.
Apples, oranges, same thing.
Wait, wait, I hear you say. We are talking about firefox, firefox the giant slayer who took on IE like David took Goliath! That happened because millions of users faithfully downloaded and installed firefox with great determination and perseverance, IE had many security holes, Microsoft took its users for granted. Now in the smart phone arena, iPhone takes the place of IE, but without that many known and visible security holes. But a strong alternative to iPhone exists, by a well funded opponent, Android. There simply are not enough determined firefox fans left to make a big dent. In fact firefox has ceded dominance to Chrome even in the browser arena. Firefox peaked at 47% share in 2009. Chrome has been gobbling up the market share of both firefox and IE. Firefox is still the second most popular platform, though.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Also providers will only need to worry about writing changes to the Linux underpinnings (Gonk) for their hardware *once* and then leave all the Gecko updates to Mozilla.
Instead of leaving their users behind in features, stability and security because they're not willing to provide the resources to update their Android branch, they can theoretically leave most of the heavy lifting to Mozilla.
Mozilla has truly separated Gonk (Linux) from Gecko and Gaia (the UI) so that updates can be delivered separately.
The average user knows jackshit about "best-of-breed". He's going to use any trashy bit of crap that amuses him, no matter the consequences.
"Do you want to run Dancing Pwnies? It is asking for root permissions, user permissions, web permissions, phonebook permissions, and more - granting all these permissions will seriously compromise your phone's security!"
User says, "Dammit, I just want to watch the dancing pwnies, yes, yes, yes, show me dancing pwnies!"
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
"Just give me one damn phone that lets me answer and make phone calls, send/receive text messages, and has a calculator."
Available at WalMart, for as little as about sixty dollars. Net10, StraightTalk, Verizon - all of them sell such phones. Most have a built-in crappy browser, but you don't have to actually use it. Calling plans for said phones start at about a dollar a day, or you can get $45 to $60 prepaid plans with unlimited everything. Again, the browser sucks so bad that you won't want to waste time browsing.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Ho-hum. So, some people still haven't figured out how to read versions? You haven't adapted from the old days? Go on, just reinstall Firefox version 3.14159 and stick with it.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
The list of developers providing content goes on and on.
If you’ll permit me a humblebrag, this is all the work of the content BD team, one of the best BD teams around and which I’m honored to say I lead (or I’m the overhead, depends on who you ask.)
Here’s what some of the biggest developers in the industry are saying about FirefoxOS:
“Every device is better if it’s social and we’re excited that Firefox OS users will have easy access to the mobile Web-based version of Facebook that will take advantage of our current and future features,” said Vaughan Smith, VP of Mobile Partnerships at Facebook.
“Firefox OS provides us with a great opportunity to reach new consumers in emerging markets,” said Glenn Roland, VP of New Platforms and OEM at EA. “We’re pleased to bring HTML5 versions of top games including Poppit! from Pogo, as well as several popular mobile titles to the cross-platform Firefox Marketplace this year.”
“Bringing such popular titles as Where’s My Water? and Where’s My Perry? to the Firefox Marketplace is a great opportunity to increase our network of players in developing markets,” said Bart Decrem, SVP of Disney Mobile Games. “Having worked with Mozilla in the past, I’m especially enthusiastic about the potential of Firefox OS.”
“Firefox OS enables the new MTV Brasil app to give people access to all of the news, video and multimedia content developed for mobile devices, including shows that are currently on air,” said Robson Gomes, MTV Brasil Technology Manager. “Firefox OS makes it easier to give people the content they want and this is another important tool to access MTV Brasil’s universe of humor, music and lifestyle.”
I’m betting on Firefox OS considering their platform is mature. has a great line up of apps, and perhaps the better development tools when compared to Ubuntu Touch, which seems to be building its platform on using a mashup of Cyanogenmod and demo applications that are mostly just a UI shell and for all purposes are demoware.
I have tried out the Ubuntu Touch image on a Galaxy Nexus device. I have also had multiple opportunities to test the Firefox OS platform on development devices, Comparing the two, I found the Firefox OS UI not only to be much faster and more fluid to the Touch, but months ago, when I was playing around with Firefox OS, it was much more mature than the Ubuntu Touch platform is today.
Apps
Firefox OS already has a impressive line up of apps available in the Firefox Marketplace, many of which are officially supported by the service providers. Ubuntu Touch mostly has non-functional demo applications and has no official support from the likes of Twitter, Evernote and other major services. In fact, just a few days ago I asked someone at Canonical whether they even had permission to use the trademarked branding of Twitter, Facebook and Skype and they had no clue and thought that the trademark policies of these brands would openly allow them to use the brands and make a show like there was official support from these brands for the Ubuntu Touch platform.
Firefox OS set out from the start to not only provide excellent developer tools to contributors but also to host events worldwide to support and accelerate app development by supporting its local communities worldwide through the Mozilla Reps program. Ubuntu has yet to use and empower its LoCo’s (Local Communities) to host events and bring potential developers into the fold.
Firefox OS boasts a emulator for the Ubuntu Desktop yet Ubuntu Phone has no comparable emulator so developers can test their apps and see how they function.
Firefox OS has been an open platform from the start and has had a very open dialogue with its community while Ubuntu Touch has seen a lot of behind the scenes privacy and limited involvement with the Ubuntu Community. It would seem this walled garden approach that Canonical has taken in launching the Ubuntu Touch platform may have actually hindered progress.
Firefox OS being a project of Mozilla, which is a non-profit, is also better geared to be a more open and transparent platform considering that Mozilla does not have the same commercial aspirations that Canonical has.
Mozilla has been touted as one of the most trusted internet companies when it comes to user privacy while Canonical has faced criticism both from its community and from the greater open source community for privacy fails in its Unity dash. It is unclear what impact the privacy concerns that were raised by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Free Software Foundation will have when it comes to consumers making decisions on whether to trust this mobile data with a platform that Canonical controls and seems unwilling to bend to community feedback.
I think Canonical has a long way to go not only from the app development aspect and refining their platform, but also in ensuring that end-users and the community feel like Canonical is being receptive to their concerns, because at the end of the day, Canonical is not buying the product. It’s the users and community members that have the buying power and the power to advocate for the platform being more greatly adopted.
As for Firefox OS, I believe all the right moves are being made and that’s clearly being shown with how remarkable the product is becoming
woosh to both you and the fail mod. grats.
Have you ever heard about a little thing called permissions? If you have a phone capable of installing applications check it out. It's marvelous.
[......] i know you're clearly anti-microsoft (from your regular posts) [......]
You must be one of the Microsoft Slashdot monitors.
"App" here refers to nothing more than hosted HTML page(s) + manifest.webapp....Or did I miss something ?
[......] i know you're clearly anti-microsoft (from your regular posts) [......]
You must be one of the Microsoft Slashdot monitors.
Isn't the term Microsoft Shill?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Just give me one damn phone that lets me answer and make phone calls, send/receive text messages, and has a calculator.
A calculator? Whydoes a phone need a fucking calculator? It's just feature bloat.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Nah, binarylarry is a well-known troll.
.NET is security nightmare. It is too damn secure. You cannot launch apps from network shares and trying to disable that security is PITA. I knew how to disable all the security crap in .NET 2.0 but after that I just gave up. If I have to run MY OWN apps I just copy them to the local disk.
A calculator? Whydoes a phone need a fucking calculator? It's just feature bloat.
<fry> can't tell if joking or serious </fry>
Anywhere else I'd see this as a joke but here on slashdot who knows..