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Comment by ksec | Hacker News Reader

Number 1 reason why I didn't pick up an Panasonic 4K TV, because i knew Firefox OS will be dead some day. And number one reason why I REALLY want an APPLE TV Set rather then Apple TV STB.

Most of the Smart TV on the market today are total piece of Junk. They are what "Smart"phones were before the iPhone came out. As a matter of fact, SmartTV from China are pretty good on the software front, and lacking ( price cutting too much ) on the hardware.

Just wanted to mention about Mozilla leadership. And so call leadership in general, HOW DID these *&@^$% ever got to their position? This is speaking from a user who has been with them before the Firefox era.

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I want a dumb display and a smart STB -- because I don't want to have to replace a thousand-dollar display just to get new STB hardware.

It's why I have a TV and a Roku, rather than a Roku TV. Why combine them when their upgrade cycles don't match up?

Also a fair point. But then I want a Real DUMP TV. Or a Display Panel only with speakers. A Single Port for the STB, and have everything attached via the STB, including the TV Aerial line. Why? Because i dont want a Remote for my Dump TV, another Remote for my STB, a remote for DVR etc. I want a single user interface to control my experience on my TV. We are well into 2016 and i dont see any improvement in sight.

The UX we currently have TV Sucks.

P.S - The problem with this solution is that no manufacture is willing to sell you a display panel only.

AFAIK at this point the dumb TVs all have worse displays.

Which is why I just ignore the smart stuff and use a capable STB instead.

emodendroket is stating that "ignoring the smart stuff" means disregarding high-quality imaging available on the top-of-line products.

Twirrim is stating that "ignoring the smart stuff" doesn't necessarily mean buying a dumb TV, and that they buy a smart TV, ignore a bunch of the TV's features, and replace them by using a separate set-top box.

Ah, of course. Ok, chalk it up to muphry's law.

Consider a short-throw projector instead: zero "smart" features, multiple inputs, relatively portable, adjustable screen size.

But it doesn't have to be that way, even if it is right now. I wish there were a way to explicitly signal "I bought this Smart TV as a dumb display, and I'm using smart features, just not the ones provided by the TV". If enough people were known to be doing that, it might suggest a market for high-end dumb TVs.

Get yourself a big computer screen instead? That's what I use.

Same here. Super happy with an Nvidia Shield TV.

All I want is a high-quality, instant-on 55" IPS LCD panel with four HDMI inputs, proper support for HDMI CEC (ARC, power on/off, and input changing), and maybe an ambient light sensor.

I don't want smart features, a fancy remote with two dozen buttons, TV tuning, or anything. I'd be happy with a thin TV but I don't need one.

Just give me a way to put my PS4 on the wall and I'll be happy as a clam.

Well, in fairness, David Bryant joined Mozilla in mid-2015 and Ari Jaaksi in late 2015; Firefox OS was dead in the water before either joined. The leadership problems exist above them.

Mozilla has no technical leadership problems, but they have some huge people and business leadership problems, and until they figure out a path forward, the path will continue to be a meandering trail to the bottom :(

Mozilla has zero focus. Their constantly creating new online initiatives and abandoning old ones. It's like groundhog day.

I agree. Examples: they abandoned their Persona project. At a time where identity, sign-in, authentication and security are as important as ever, they've left the field wide open to privacy-invasive companies like Google and Facebook.

Rather than build an OS, why not create the foundation or platform for others to build on? I am thinking of Electron here. Although, I am not a fan of Electron, the framework and approach are gaining a lot of traction with developers. Where is the slim, fast, embeddable Firefox engine that's easier to deploy and develop than Electron (and superior to the heavy embedded Chrome)?

What about offline capabilities for web apps? Firefox should be trailblazing in this space. This is a huge privacy advantage (amongst other things) over cloud-based systems.

I really want to see Firefox succeed, but am worried they have lost direction and focus, or even the ability to excite and inspire developers with their future plans.

They abandoned Persona because nobody used it and it cost money to operate. They tried promoting it, it wasn't enough to overcome social media SSO. I hate it, but they just lost.

UX were bad, it wasn't a marketing fault ( Although they did a poor job promoting it also ). User didn't understand what was going on, and therefore reluctant to use it.

As far as I'm concerned I think you should get only the TV screen and choose your own 'smart' box.

I bought a 2015 Sony TV with Android TV and I'm very happy with it.

Just give it a couple more years. I was very happy with my GoogleTV until Google abandoned the platform.

You may not get updates after sometime, even for security issues. That's a big issue if you use the TV's "Smart Features" and someone is spying on everything you do with it or everything you watch on it.

This is a problem for TVs and other home appliances that are usually replaced by people once every several years or even once a decade or longer, on average (this does vary across regions and on incomes, but it's definitely a whole lot longer than people's replacement times for smartphones).

Do you really use any apps?(i.e. downloaded from the appstore) I have a LG(WebOS) but I never bothered to download any 3rd party apps.

I believe most of the top has been with mozilla since before Firefox.

Exactly the reason why they are still the way they are.

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