Firefox OS 2.5 Developer Preview, an Experimental Android App

Yes, devices are becoming more hostile to the use, I agree with most of your points. However, I don't think that there is a pure technical solution (open firmware updates etc.) as it depends on technical expertise of the users. Instead, we should support non profits and b-corps which can be trusted by users.

All of this is true, but if people keep buying devices with their firmware locked and that aren't being kept up to date, then nothing will ever change, unless government regulations are introduced and that can create other problems.

I've had very positive experiences with my Nexus devices, though not all models are the same. Acquaintances have had good experiences with other, more open models, like OnePlus One. Yet I'm seeing even software developers buy phones that are tightly locked and that aren't being kept up to date properly, software developers who should have known better by the nature of their work. And then they bitch and moan about it.

This notion of buying things based on ethical and health-related considerations has become more prevalent in recent years in other markets (e.g. food, clothes), yet in the software industry after the great run we've had in early 2000 in regards to open standards and open-source, it seems that we are going back, willingly giving up one freedom after another.

But and I think this is important - I rather prefer the current ecosystem of fragmented Android phones, because the very essence of open-source is the right to fork. And if anything, Android is not fork-able enough due to Play and the Play Services. If you want a tightly controlled OS on a tightly controlled device, iPhone/iOS is that way. And I own both, I'm glad that both options exist and I hope Firefox OS will become a good alternative as well.

While I would also want everything free or open source, firmware is not necessarily like other free or open source projects that can just assume that they are running within a standard environment. It has a tendency to be much more specific to the hardware, so unless that hardware conforms to some standard to reduce the need to have to have many different firmware projects, there may not be the resources available to maintain all of those projects.

rms is not wrong, imo, but it would take much more effort than just putting the source out on the net somewhere. Since you have to get that source reviewed, compiled, and somehow put into the fridge or dishwasher now you need the fridge or dishwasher listening for firmware updates from the manufacturer and user and that has additional cost, probably beyond what would be needed for a repairman to update it, since it would have to be more straightforward to do for a regular user, or automatic. And some users may not want automatic updates, so you'd have to make that optional somehow. All of that adds to cost, so companies have little incentive to do all of this when weighing against the risk of the appliance's firmware getting misused and the cost of that.

Honestly: I don't know, haven't tried it so far. But Mozilla's Nightly (Aurora?) does on Android, so it should be possible.

Yes it does, from the nightly channel.

Yea, I know all of that.

>It's possible to build it without those problems (see Fennec on F-Droid in fact)

Fennec is stuck on 40 because of difficulties with building it, and even when one person managed to build it, .apk didn't start on others developers phone. A few people tried upgrading it to 41 and all failed, I guess fennec is kill now. I talked about it a few times on their IRC with people responsible for fennec.