They just need to get this thing moving. I am planning to buy a tablet this Christmas and I want FFOS to be a very good choice by then. Come on Mozilla.
Microsoft pursued a strategy that enabled people to make web apps in HTML5/Javascript as first class apps in Windows 8. Why is it not being adopted/praised as much as Firefox OS is? Is it because it's Microsoft? Is it because the Win8 HTML5/JS apps are more closed-system-esque than Firefox OS apps will be?
A lot of people denounce Windows because of its lack of app ecosystem. Does everyone think that Firefox OS will have a better chance at solving this problem and thus deserves praise for creating an ecosystem exclusively for web-based apps?
I agree that this pretty much seems like another Windows Phone, that won't really make huge competition for iOS or Android devices. I hope I'm wrong though because I hate Java.
Yes, basically. At least for me. It comes down to trust. I trust Mozilla that they want to do good for the community. I trust Microsoft first and foremost wants to make money for their shareholders and only after that for the community. This is fine, they're a for-profit company. It's just that doing good for your shareholders doesn't always lead to doing good to the community.
Not to mention Microsoft doesn't exactly have the greatest of reputations when it comes to vendor lock-in issues.
I took it all a bit personally :)
I am a fan of JS on windows 8 and winphone 8. However, I own a win7 phone and got burned by their non-backwards compatible upgrade to 8. So I have no love for MS, although I am a big fan of the tiled UI.
I think that FFOS will provide a better place where I can put together an app in Linux with vim. I don't want to install eclipse to write for Android, buy a macbook to write an iOSx app or install visual studio.
I hope that FFOS can be an easy to fiddle playground for me. We'll see.
Well you don't need eclipse to write for Android
I suppose there is some maven support for building Android. An even better reason to hope for the best for FFOS.
As far as Google is concerned, Java does not run on Android and you might be bearing witness to something that Google disclaims.
Firefox OS doesn't need an app ecosystem, they just need developers to make good web apps. Hence their tools like Javascript, Emscripten, and Asm.js... I've been testing the Aurora browser on Android, and it's already impressive how well interactive web apps work on their browser, I could definitely see Firefox OS taking off...
> while MS has held back web development
Judging from past sabotages by Microsoft, I really, really doubt their "HTML5/JS" apps will be portable/cross-platform (eg, just wait until they start "deprecating" standard functions in favor of their "safe" Windows specific library calls).
That by itself is a concept absolutely no one has any problem with.[1]
The problems people have are either with Windows 8 itself and/or Metro sucking, and in some cases seeing parts of it as the first step in turning a previously-open ecosystem into an iOS-style walled garden.
[1] Well, OK, I think JavaScript is a scourge on par with PHP, bubonic plague, and small children, so I guess I do have a problem, but it's not one anyone else cares about.
1. Does it work. 2. Does it work well (ie fast, do what it is suppose to do). 3. Does it not cost anything (or if it does cost anything, an amount which is appropriate). 4. Do his friends have it.
That's really all they care about. At the end of the day, nobody cares if it's Firefox OS, Android, iPhone. So long as they can do what they want to do at a cost they can afford. Their friends have a similar device or allow transplatform communication. And they can get all them fancy stuff their friends show them (ie amazing apps, themes, custom phone skins, etc).
The people who care about the other stuff don't make up most of the market.
And that is something Microsoft as well as Google, and Apple get. The goal is to have a cool phone, with stuff that is cool, at a cool price. That's why people like Microsoft pay app developers to port their "cool apps" to MS App Store. As well as give "celebrities" free phones. All in the name of coolness!
Plus Windows 8 RT isn't selling.
But I agree, it's very exciting!
I hope so, too, and I write books about Android programming. Without competition, especially competition from systems that will try to differentiate by being more open than Android, there is a substantial risk that Google will become increasingly closed and conservative about developing Android.
Windows lacked competition for more than a decade. That created mind-set that couldn't disrupt it's own business, and consequently missed both handsets and tablets.
So I hope there are five or six viable mobile technology platforms and ecosystems.