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Mozilla Handing Out Free Firefox OS Developer Phones To Bolster App Marketplace
MojoKid writes "Is the world really ready to shift from native apps to HTML5 Web apps? Probably not, at least not in North America yet, but developing nations may see it differently. That's the hope with Firefox OS, a web-based operating system that's (in theory) a lot more open. Of course, one needs only look at Microsoft's battle to get Windows Phone into a place of competition to realize that gaining market share is no easy task, which is why Mozilla will soon be handing out Firefox OS developer phones in order to bolster that. The company's goal is to get app builders to build for Firefox OS, so Mozilla is sending out free Preview handsets for folks to tinker with."
very soon, when it gets some traction, goog will hav its presence with the ominous search box
It is called windows 8.
Win8 is full of JavaScript and it is designed to hold more as best I can tell.
Recall the litigation between Microsoft and Netscape. Well MS has done the same trick just not tied to a browser.
JavaScript is a POS in many ways but the modern versions with JIT and sandbox wrapper and security model may be sufficient.
I just wish a better language had been called on for the task.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
why don't they just use python for the high level stuff. Its a great stable, fun, easy to program, powerful language.
heck its already cross platform, it runs on windows, osx and linux, with native support for just about all interfaces and toolkits.
I'd love to see more diversity in this space but I think that Google is winning the battle. Chrome as a browser is pretty cool and Android as an OS is huge. I'd be surprised if Firefox can fight them off.
Yes...let's use the cripple the project with the shittiest language currently in existence.
We are still wasting time cleansing projects of mountains of shit Perl code thanks to teenage dumbfucks ten years ago babbling about Perl being "a great stable, fun, easy to program, powerful language"
Frankly, I have no faith at all in the security of HTML5.
Come back to me in 5 years when it has had enough cycles of exploitation and repairs, but today it's just in a state of "Let's bring back all the security problems of ActiveX and the first five years of Flash, but we'll pretend they're fine because it's an open language (though subject to implementation variances)."
and your suggestion is declined.
MathML
Now now Larry we talked about this - the irony of a Google exec posting anonymously will hurt the stock if the press gets wind of it.
This seems a bit unnecessary since there's enough demand to keep Geeksphone sold out.
Maybe those aren't getting into the hands of developers, but given that the phones are definitely sub-par for someone who just wants the latest and greatest, I would expect most are going to the people they are intended for.
I applied for a free phone with a "great app idea" even though I have no intention of delivering said app to Firefox OS (maybe to Android). I'll take a free phone though. I'll wipe it and put Android on it.
Richard, we know you don't even use a web browser at all. You send mail to a demon which runs wget and mails the page back to you. Put down the keyboard, stop trolling, and pick up a razor. Careful now.
why don't they just use $_MY_FAVOURITE_LANGUAGE for the high level stuff. It's a great stable, fun, easy to program, powerful language.
And would that be Python 2.7.4, or Python 3.2.4, or Python 3.3.1?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I for one plan to use it just because it's not Apple or Google.
Put simply:
I like the idea of not having Apple or Google know every little fucking thing about my life.
Where I am. What apps I use. Where I spend my money. What I browse. Who I call. Who I text. etc, etc.
Oh, I know I will be attacked by the Apple & Google zealots, which is why I'm posting anonymously despite being an avid Slashdot member for many, many years.
Some Q&A in anticipation:
1. But Apple & Google don't give a rats about an insignificant person
I don't give a toss -- I don't want to be a record in their database. It costs them nothing to record this information.
2. But your ISP / telco knows just as much information. If not more!
Not true, I often use a proxy.
As for my telco: they know my call / text history, perhaps the sites I browse when I browse on my phone, but nothing else. Email is over secure connection.
3. With a little effort, all this information can be gathered about you anyway
Fine, but why should I make it easy on them?
Ultimately, those who persecute me can continue to worship at the altar of Apple / Google. Just let me be.
http://www.zdnet.com/firefox-os-puts-a-good-50-smartphone-within-reach-7000015212/
are they suitable for carrying in my rectum?
With as stretched out as your rectum is you could carry a baseball bat and a phone in there. Dude you make the goatse receiver look tight.
Posting comment to undo wrong moderation.
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
Fanboys.
I don't know what's so great about Python. And I use it daily.
I don't know what's so great about Python. And I use it daily.
Same here. A major drawback of javascript is lack of strong typing. Python is just as bad.
Javascript is better for snippets.
Python is better for scripts.
Neither is ideal for large, robust applications.
Funny reading all these comments on how great FirefoxOS will be and how everyone will get access to sub $200 smartphones and how great it will be having an open phone, blah, blah, blah.
People were singing the praise when Google was doing the same thing and look how that turned out. Unless Mozilla or whoever is backing this endeavor can be like Apple and make/distribute their own hardware along with control the underlying OS and how it is bundled with the hardware it will fall the same way as Google did. Telco providers will just implement their own draconian limits on the device (with regards to updates/services) and you all will be no better than you were before.
GTalk, Chrome all of them install Windows Services. Why does a browser or a chat application need a Service running all the time? I uninstalled both when I realized this.
why don't they just use python for the high level stuff. Its a great stable, fun, easy to program, powerful language.
heck its already cross platform, it runs on windows, osx and linux, with native support for just about all interfaces and toolkits.
Because Python != Java Script. I don't even know that Python runs in Firefox, but I could be wrong...
Probably the fact that it enforces style on you so beginning programmers get used to making the code look reasonably presentable.
I personally both loath and despise it because you shouldn't have to know a language in order to read it. My skills with C aren't particularly good, but I can follow properly written code without too much trouble. Python, OTOH, hides so much of the syntax in white space that it's hard to follow unless you know the language.
Bloated? Firefox has the lowest memory utilization of any of the major browsers.
My biggest complaint is the organizational ADHD which leads them to not bother to finish anything.that they start. If they'd focus on their browser they wouldn't be hemorrhaging users the way that they are.