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Mozilla Launches Firefox OS Simulator 4.0 With Test Receipts
An anonymous reader writes "As promised, Mozilla today announced the release of Firefox OS Simulator 4.0 with a focus on developers who want to make money in the Firefox Marketplace. You can download the new version now for Windows, Mac, and Linux from Mozilla Add-Ons. First and foremost, the new simulator supports test receipts for paid apps: each app's dashboard features a drop-down menu where you can select a receipt type. Choosing one of these will have the simulator add-on downloading a test receipt from a Marketplace receipt service and reinstalling the app using it. This lets developers test receipt verification with whatever receipts types they may require (valid, invalid, and refunded)."
So, now, we will have Blackberry and a few OSes.. IOS, Android of various flavors and Firefox OS.
The more the merrier!
I will say this however, the fact that you can develop using the Firefox Browser where the OS is added as an add-on does at the very least make things easier for us coders.
Wrong, an OS is a kernel + standard user space libraries + standard executables. Firefox OS is an OS using the Linux kernel much like OS X is an OS using XNU kernel, Windows Phone 8 using the Windows kernel, Windows Phone 7 using the Windows CE kernel, etc.
Firefox OS is an OS. It's not Firefox the browser. That's why they called it Firefox OS, not Firefox.
Why the fuck would they? Android is available on cheap phones
CDMA2000 carriers have been known to refuse to activate Android phones on voice-only plans, and GSM carriers have been known to "cram" expensive data plans onto a voice-only SIM inserted into a smartphone. This is just speculation, but perhaps a carrier might find some reason to charge less per month for a Firefox OS device than for an Android device. If the billing department of the wireless carrier with the best coverage in your area had a policy of treating Firefox OS phones as "feature phones" and Android phones as "smartphones", and you were on a budget, what would you choose?
But what about the browser?
Android is available on cheap phones
Apparently FXOS is supposed to run better than Android on low end hardware, though I still haven't seen anything to justify that claim. The other thing is they would still need to build up an application library to rival Google Play, but also to function well on the low end hardware that FXOS will ship on. They could have put in some mandates to avoid the version fragmentation and OEM/carrier forks that play havoc with the OS updating mechanisms, which would have actually been beneficial but it seems they haven't chosen to do that.
Carriers will treat it as a smartphone. When the central point of the OS as evidenced by the name is full blown web browsing, it's going to be treated as a peer to android/ios devices, period.
With Android as it is in Jelly Bean, firefox os has a very uphill battle ahead of it. If it managed to release prior to ICS, *maybe* it could have had an in, but as it stands Android is just too capable and clean. That's not to say something better can be done or that people like me nervous about just *how* much control Google gets to exert would be interested, but I'm not going to assume for a second that constitutes enough people for a viable mobile platform.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Does the world really need another 'App Store Platform'?
What about the IO subsystem? The memory manager? The filesystem? The boot block?
Firefox OS is a Firefox browser running on Linux with some bits taken from Android.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
and you are an asshole......
Maybe, but he's not calling himself an OS...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
And that stuff is present in Android and will be present in Firefox OS in the form of Linux.
Open up a bash shell on your android phone. It's Linux. Kernel, libraries and standard executables, all present and correct and Linuxy.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
GNU/Linux is an OS
FreeBSD is an OS
Windows is an OS
Android is an OS
Linux is a kernel. It's in rare times like these that the GNU folks aren't anal about their naming conventions.
Android and Firefox OS, which may or may not be based on Android, both use the Linux kernel with a differing but not entirely different set of middleware and end-user apps. A Linux-only OS will probably do nothing much more than boot and flash its revision name on the screen.
The rest of it is Linux. My Linux box has Firefox running on Linux, but I don't call it Firefox OS.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
<stallman>But Linux isn't an OS. It's a kernel.</stallman>
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
I'm not Stallman. I have no beard.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
that phone may actually have been subsidized (rented) from AT&T and is therefore still their property technically
Since when are subsidized phones actually leased? I thought they were purchased on the condition that the owner would pay the remainder of the subsidy when terminating service early. I'd like to see a copy of the contract that declares it a lease.
Another thing I should point out. Carriers don't operate the same way outside of the USA.
Slashdot is a Dice Holdings, Inc. service, and Dice is inside of the USA. Not everybody has the ability to leave the USA just for better phone service.
If it managed to release prior to ICS, *maybe* it could have had an in, but as it stands Android is just too capable and clean.
Clean, but not lean. This article claims that Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) requires more RAM than Firefox OS, and I guess that's why 256 MB devices are stuck on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).
The rest of it is Linux. My Linux box has Firefox running on Linux, but I don't call it Firefox OS.
Yes, things have changed in computing, we have a separation of kernel and userspace, user applications don't generally make kernel calls and you can have a userspace application that provides an environment for running another application within it. If you can't keep up then don't try and be pedantic because you just end up looking like an ignorant retard.
I would ask you to explain your definition of an operating system but given your position on this topic I presume you will define a kernel, thus proving you still havent caught up with changes in the last 20 years.
Open up a bash shell on your android phone. It's Linux. Kernel, libraries and standard executables, all present and correct and Linuxy.
Which libraries and executables? The only think Linux is the kernel.
If you find any bugs, would like to request any features, or want to help out by contributing to some open source code, please let us know in our issue tracker [1]. The beauty of open source is that you have the ability to affect the trajectory of the project! [1] https://github.com/mozilla/r2d2b2g/issues
People keep on getting confused by the name of "Firefox OS". It's not an OS in a browser. It's not just a browser with an app store for the plugins/extensions, like Chrome OS either. It's a full featured Linux kernel based operating system. You can probably compare it best to Badoo, Maemo and Android.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
I'm looking for this information all around. I'm wondering is Gunk/Gaia (parts of Firefox OS) open source, will I be able to modify it on my Firefox OS phone? Or did they sell out to carriers?
Erm no. The ability to use a few apps which interface with the Linux kernel and type in a shell that something resembles bash (not even close mind you, it's an even more cut down version of sh) does not make Android Linux. Nothing out of the box Linux works on Android. All the libraries except for the ones providing essential hooks into the kernel are missing. Those programs / libraries which do hook into the kernel are also different from their linux counterpart (go copy "mount" from you phone onto your ubuntu box and try boot up the system).
Really there's nothing Linux about Android other than the underlying kernel.
Erm no. The ability to use a few apps which interface with the Linux kernel and type in a shell that something resembles bash (not even close mind you, it's an even more cut down version of sh) does not make Android Linux. Nothing out of the box Linux works on Android. All the libraries except for the ones providing essential hooks into the kernel are missing. Those programs / libraries which do hook into the kernel are also different from their linux counterpart (go copy "mount" from you phone onto your ubuntu box and try boot up the system).
Really there's nothing Linux about Android other than the underlying kernel.
Linux _is_ a kernel. Everything else you are talking about is mostly the GNU part of GNU/Linux.
Android has the same amount of Linux than any flavor of GNU/Linux, so the GP is right, even though he uses the wrong terms.
There are 8 million webdevelopers and a couple of hundred thousand developers for iOS and Android.
That is why some think it might have some future, will it be the third platform ? It's goal is to give people all over the world better access to the web on mobile. It isn't trying to be first, second, maybe not even the third platform.
New things are always on the horizon
There are 8 million webdevelopers and a couple of hundred thousand developers for iOS and Android.
And the two aren't mutually exclusive, iOS and Android have web browsers - in fact Android even has Firefox - so anything that works on Firefox OS should work on iOS and Android anyway.
That is why some think it might have some future
I still don't see why, if you're a web developer you can already develop for all the major devices.