Your math would check out if you had your details right. Firefox cuts a release every six weeks (not four). So a FFOS feature release would correspond with *every other* Firefox version (not every third).
Mozilla keeps backing up and making their release plans more like the old
Sorry if the term was used in a confusing way. The idea being communicated was that the different layers of Android (kernel, libraries, Dalvik, etc) are implemented in a way such that they cannot be separately updated. (Probably my understanding of the stack is flawed, I had been thinking that the code was perhaps not cleanly separate in the layers - hence the "vertical integration" idea.)
Either way, the point stands that Android cannot be updated piecemeal, thereby relying solely on carriers, greatly hurting the security and overall experience of users.
Thought I'd point out that it's the vertical integration design of Android that has led to this carrier conundrum in which updates and upgrades are forced to go through the carriers, but the carriers are focused on new sales not maintaining old hardware. So the engineering resources they're willing to invest are minimal, leaving users out in the cold.
This is something that's of interest to me in the design of Firefox OS, which completely separates out the the Linux kernel, and the two layers on top of that (the Gecko engine and the UI). All of these can be updated independently. Updates to the kernel require the carrier's knowledge of the underlying hardware, but most security, feature & performance updates will be to the top layers. So updates should be installable when they're first released. This should help to avoid a lot of what we're seeing with the carrier foot-dragging (or outright abandonment) hurting consumers.
I'm unfamiliar though with the the design of Ubuntu Touch and Tizen. Does anyone know if they have a similar advantage?
I'm fine with this as long as there are enough alternate scenes so that at any point in time I can say, "Kill yourself." and all on-screen characters will suddenly find creative ways to do so. This would be endlessly entertaining. I would be telling my friends which commercial to watch and when to say something. Maybe that's the future of commercials: viral Easter Egg hunts.
(No, I don't actually think this is a ad integration is a good thing.)
...unit tests are being added for the first time...
Wha? How can a project so large (and so old) not have unit tests on its spreadsheet application? This seems like it would be a basic necessity from the beginning.
It's no defense of Firefox, but one, not-fully-solved issue is crufty profiles. Over time a profile *can* acquire database corruptions as well as other issues (like already uninstalled addons having changed and left about:config settings). These can all lead up to:
- Poor memory use
- Slow startup/shutdown
- Increased jitters & pauses
- Instability
The profile isn't always the issue, but if you've chased down other potential causes (poorly behaving addons, plugins, etc) and your profile is a year or two old, you might consider doing a Reset. It will save your old profile to the desktop and import your data to a new one. Some data is not transferred - like preferences and addons - it's all listed on the page I linked. This can be a nice solution to chronic problems and one I'd recommend before giving up on Firefox.
IMO it would make more sense to use Firefox OS as a runtime on other smart phones. This way you could write a HTML 5 APP and it would work on browsers and in the Firefox OS runtime in any smart phone... sort of like what Java was supposed to be.
Any idea if something like this is actually being done?
I am not a Mozilla developer, but from following the development it seems that what you describe is what's being done. Mozilla is proposing/has proposed a slew of WebAPIs (some have been accepted as standards, some are in the process) that allow web apps to be first class citizens - like native apps - things like camera access, vibration, screen orientation, etc. But the problem is that even though Firefox OS and Firefox on desktop & Android may all support these new technologies, web app developers can't assume that these capabilities are present on Android. So Mozilla is whipping up GeckoView, similar to WebView but with WebAPI superpowers, that developers can package with their Web app. Web apps could then be offered and sold in the Google Play store. (In the future a shared library situation may be explored.)
Together all these niche phones would have a chance, but if all of them want to have their own app store and walled garden, they will all fail.
Firefox OS allows sideloading apps out of the box, but can also have can have multiple marketplaces installed. In fact, though many providers may include their own marketplace, a requirement of using the Firefox OS name is including the Mozilla Marketplace.
For those who read the title and came here to moan about bloat: The technologies mention in reference to 3D gaming are WebGL and asm.js. These serve to make things faster and their size is negligible (want to complain when the few extra bits in your JS engine make things go faster?). They can both be used in non-gaming situations, particularly processing-intensive stuff like dealing with images (processing, filters) and video (decoding - see ORBX.js). WebGL was already there, it's just better now.
You can disable it if you want, but WebRTC stuff doesn't load additional components (encoding/decoding video for instance) unless you're using them - which would be no worse than Flash (better actually). And just like with Geolocation, a site has to ask permission - to which you can say "never".
Chrome already has WebGL, WebRTC and is optimizing for asm.js. It's possible to land these without adversly impacting performance/responsiveness, and for the past year Mozilla has had their eye on the metrics.
Foxconn stated that they intend to have FFOS running on all categories of the “8 screen” devices, from smartphone to tablets to laptops to TVs and outdoor signage.
Laptops, TVs and outdoor signage? Ambitious plans.
Just because we don't know their organizational structure, doesn't mean they're not an organization. There are, at least, likely leaders and followers and understood expectations/rules.
Pretty sure the fact that VP8 having not been released into the wild (or released at all) is why Mozilla originally backed Ogg Theora. (bonus fact: Theora is based on VP3, an earlier iteration of VP8.)
Firefox used to have the kitchen sink of preference windows. You could tweak to your heart's content. Course back then it was called the Mozilla Suite.
Re:multiple social providers on the desktop
on
Firefox 21 Arrives
·
· Score: 2
Firefox just comes with the Social API, as with addon APIs, you have to install something, otherwise it's just potential.
Slashdot Mirror
Your math would check out if you had your details right.
Firefox cuts a release every six weeks (not four). So a FFOS feature release would correspond with *every other* Firefox version (not every third).
Mozilla keeps backing up and making their release plans more like the old
In what ways have you seen this?
No need to turn it around, we can have both.
But if it turns out the cure is worse than the cause, these are good questions to answer.
Sorry if the term was used in a confusing way.
The idea being communicated was that the different layers of Android (kernel, libraries, Dalvik, etc) are implemented in a way such that they cannot be separately updated. (Probably my understanding of the stack is flawed, I had been thinking that the code was perhaps not cleanly separate in the layers - hence the "vertical integration" idea.)
Either way, the point stands that Android cannot be updated piecemeal, thereby relying solely on carriers, greatly hurting the security and overall experience of users.
Thought I'd point out that it's the vertical integration design of Android that has led to this carrier conundrum in which updates and upgrades are forced to go through the carriers, but the carriers are focused on new sales not maintaining old hardware. So the engineering resources they're willing to invest are minimal, leaving users out in the cold.
This is something that's of interest to me in the design of Firefox OS, which completely separates out the the Linux kernel, and the two layers on top of that (the Gecko engine and the UI). All of these can be updated independently. Updates to the kernel require the carrier's knowledge of the underlying hardware, but most security, feature & performance updates will be to the top layers. So updates should be installable when they're first released. This should help to avoid a lot of what we're seeing with the carrier foot-dragging (or outright abandonment) hurting consumers.
I'm unfamiliar though with the the design of Ubuntu Touch and Tizen. Does anyone know if they have a similar advantage?
Dude, E. Coli is like the Raspberry Pi of bacteria.
I'm fine with this as long as there are enough alternate scenes so that at any point in time I can say, "Kill yourself." and all on-screen characters will suddenly find creative ways to do so.
This would be endlessly entertaining.
I would be telling my friends which commercial to watch and when to say something.
Maybe that's the future of commercials: viral Easter Egg hunts.
(No, I don't actually think this is a ad integration is a good thing.)
...unit tests are being added for the first time...
Wha?
How can a project so large (and so old) not have unit tests on its spreadsheet application?
This seems like it would be a basic necessity from the beginning.
NP.
I did this on my brother's machine and his startup went from painfully slow to quick.
It's no defense of Firefox, but one, not-fully-solved issue is crufty profiles. Over time a profile *can* acquire database corruptions as well as other issues (like already uninstalled addons having changed and left about:config settings). These can all lead up to:
The profile isn't always the issue, but if you've chased down other potential causes (poorly behaving addons, plugins, etc) and your profile is a year or two old, you might consider doing a Reset. It will save your old profile to the desktop and import your data to a new one. Some data is not transferred - like preferences and addons - it's all listed on the page I linked.
This can be a nice solution to chronic problems and one I'd recommend before giving up on Firefox.
IMO it would make more sense to use Firefox OS as a runtime on other smart phones. This way you could write a HTML 5 APP and it would work on browsers and in the Firefox OS runtime in any smart phone... sort of like what Java was supposed to be.
Any idea if something like this is actually being done?
I am not a Mozilla developer, but from following the development it seems that what you describe is what's being done.
Mozilla is proposing/has proposed a slew of WebAPIs (some have been accepted as standards, some are in the process) that allow web apps to be first class citizens - like native apps - things like camera access, vibration, screen orientation, etc.
But the problem is that even though Firefox OS and Firefox on desktop & Android may all support these new technologies, web app developers can't assume that these capabilities are present on Android.
So Mozilla is whipping up GeckoView, similar to WebView but with WebAPI superpowers, that developers can package with their Web app. Web apps could then be offered and sold in the Google Play store.
(In the future a shared library situation may be explored.)
Together all these niche phones would have a chance, but if all of them want to have their own app store and walled garden, they will all fail.
Firefox OS allows sideloading apps out of the box, but can also have can have multiple marketplaces installed. In fact, though many providers may include their own marketplace, a requirement of using the Firefox OS name is including the Mozilla Marketplace.
For those who read the title and came here to moan about bloat:
The technologies mention in reference to 3D gaming are WebGL and asm.js. These serve to make things faster and their size is negligible (want to complain when the few extra bits in your JS engine make things go faster?). They can both be used in non-gaming situations, particularly processing-intensive stuff like dealing with images (processing, filters) and video (decoding - see ORBX.js). WebGL was already there, it's just better now.
You can disable it if you want, but WebRTC stuff doesn't load additional components (encoding/decoding video for instance) unless you're using them - which would be no worse than Flash (better actually). And just like with Geolocation, a site has to ask permission - to which you can say "never".
Chrome already has WebGL, WebRTC and is optimizing for asm.js. It's possible to land these without adversly impacting performance/responsiveness, and for the past year Mozilla has had their eye on the metrics.
Mine is for cooking.
I like to cook the eggs while they're still fresh - very fresh.
http://youtu.be/0iTcwuzH58k
I have an idea, let's name it like a horrible medical condition!
That'll get consumers to accept it!
It's the internet. No one knows you're a dog (except the NSA).
Dr. Li Gong, SVP of Mobile Devices, President of Asia Operations, and CEO of Mozilla Taiwan (cited in the press announcement) also posted on his blog about the partnership. https://blog.mozilla.org/ligong/2013/06/03/foxconn-joins-the-firefox-os-eco-system/
This line in particular stuck out to me.
Foxconn stated that they intend to have FFOS running on all categories of the “8 screen” devices, from smartphone to tablets to laptops to TVs and outdoor signage.
Laptops, TVs and outdoor signage? Ambitious plans.
Are there any brain scans to confirm autism in mildly-autistic adults?
In the past year+ Mozilla has really tackled memory and this includes running it over the long term. Worth giving another try.
Other than forgetting to set the material in their CAD software, that is.
Must've accidentally left the hull on wood from his son's modeling project.
Just because we don't know their organizational structure, doesn't mean they're not an organization.
There are, at least, likely leaders and followers and understood expectations/rules.
Pretty sure the fact that VP8 having not been released into the wild (or released at all) is why Mozilla originally backed Ogg Theora. (bonus fact: Theora is based on VP3, an earlier iteration of VP8.)
Better yet, merge projects. ... Now that Oracle has washed their hands of OOo there is no "philosophical" reason not to do it.
Sure there is. It's called the not-in-my-house philosophy.
Firefox used to have the kitchen sink of preference windows. You could tweak to your heart's content.
Course back then it was called the Mozilla Suite.
Firefox just comes with the Social API, as with addon APIs, you have to install something, otherwise it's just potential.
...if you don't have a need for it or don't remember when you last used it, uninstall it.