Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS
hacks.mozilla.org
hacks.mozilla.org
If you think about purchasing a device, here's my take.
- the Flame feels really solid and looks quite nice.
- the performance is nice/comparable to other platforms
- current version (running from git here) of the OS looks nice and modern
- it is trivial to build and install it (given a supported device ofc)
Ultimately it's not ready yet for daily usage for me, personally, but I suggest you check it out, give it a spin. I'm impressed how fast it improved already and hope to use the Flame as my default phone in the next couple month.
If you're an app hacker, the Flame is the device for you. It's globally available for $145 + $25 S&H at http://www.everbuying.com/product549652.html
don't.
the work so far can all be done with emulator. DO NOT BUY A DEVICE. and as the parent just said, the performance on the emulator is MUCH better than the real device.
it is just more waste in the world.
Also, if anyone want a couple firefox phones msg me. i have a couple left. i got them when i believed that since they were going to be sold in stores, they would be consumer ready... and hence i needed to support them on my site... big mistake on all accounts. to being with they are not consumer ready. and it was close to impossible to find them in stores (despite them being advertised on billboards all over the city)
anyway, if you want a phone, msg me. i have a few left. be warned that is harder to flash than a re-purposed android phone. much. much harder. (extremely closed components and hard to crate kernels)
This is not hate on the project. just on their careless aggressiveness to go to market. the project has lots of future. just take your time before polluting the world with pure garbage.
Update sources? git pull; ./repo sync -d
Build from source? ./build.sh
Flash to device? ,/flash.sh
Done. Device reboots into a shiny new version. I couldn't imagine an easier way tbh.
Regarding the rest of your comment: I do have pain points¹. I was a bit disappointed at times. But the progress is good and the current state (git, not what my flame came with, 1.3) looks very, very promising.
1: Keyboard's UX decision to be all caps (a la iPhone), lack of a working xmpp client, lack of a mail client w/ idle (mandatory) and server side search (optional but really helpful) support. Solve these and I need no apps/a different platform.
Keyboard? Usable, merely annoying. XMPP? I.. would even fall back on SMS. Mail client: It works, kinda. Not well, not nice, but it exists.
The single one rant-worthy FxOS thing is the 'search'. It seems they integrate some weird recommendation engine. And that feels like browsing the web, ca. 2000 and no adblock. It even comes with predefined 'categories' (looks like folders, but it will search the web for 'games' for example and list the lowest of the low, the worst corners of the internet, the online scum - as 'apps' on your phone). Hrm.. Damn, that really turns me off every time I give it a try.. Can you rip it out/disable it? Nope.
Probably a relevant bug report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1048771
You made my day, thank you!
Also, I think this is your 3rd time(in my recent memory) derailing a Firefox OS thread to talk about how there are no phones in stores etc. Are you an astro turfer or are you just really angry at Mozilla for some reason?
I'm sorry but he's right. The OS is not good, the phones are not powerful, they are barely available and because they are web based they have no unique selling point over any other platform.
You can get more powerful Android phones for cheaper and they run more stuff.
The thread (if you have missed it) was about Firefox OS devices and how a person was recommending against buying a device. I agree with this sentiment and was mentioning that there are cheaper Android devices which are a better purchase.
> You also just kind of seem like an astroturfer.
Take off your tinfoil hat. Just accept that some people do not like Firefox OS or the devices.
No where in the start of this thread or in the article did it involve which system is the best, nor did it ever even mention Android, iOS etc etc.
It makes absolutely no sense to consider Firefox OS by itself. It needs to be considered within the larger context. Unfortunately, like others have pointed out, Firefox OS is not competing very well against the alternatives at this point.
It currently provides a worse experience than its competitors in pretty much every way. I don't think this is something that can be denied. Mozilla and the Firefox OS community will need to face these problems.
And these "astroturfer" accusations from you are kind of weird. Pointing out obvious flaws with software and hardware does not mean that the people pointing them out are being paid by Apple, or Google, or any other company or organization. It probably just means that they'd like to see these problems resolved, for the sake of Firefox OS and its potential success.
Discussion about which is a better option for the consumer is a very valid discussion and is important to the long term survival of the platform. But, in my opinion, it just doesn't have anything to do with the topic at hand.
It's like if there was an article about a release of the next version of Android and someone came in taking about how the smaller subset of target screen sizes in iOS make it a better platform to design for. Its a valid discussion, but just doesn't have anything to do with the topic at hand.
The "astroturfer" comment is because I can't see any sane reason, beyond self interest or possibly just to troll, why anyone would bother to hop into a thread and just say Android is better when there was no mention about Android in the article at hand.
I bought a ZTE Open off of ebay back in April. My Nexus 4 broke in July. I have been using the ZTE Open as my daily device since.
I built from source (Boot2Gecko 1.4.0.0-prerelease) and, from my experience:
- Sometimes when I open an MMS message and click the back button, my phone reboots - If I open a content-heavy webpage or app the app will force close - Sometimes when I'm scrolling through the gallery app my phone freezes - Sometimes my handset earpiece doesn't work and I have to make calls on speakerphone - Sometimes the camera app freezes after taking a picture
Now, I'm not sure if these are issues with the ZTE Open's specs, the state of the build I flashed, or the method in which I flashed it, but those are my daily struggles using the phone.
That being said, as a phone (phone calls + sms + mms) it works, mostly.
I haven't been keeping it updated though. I should build the most recent and flash it soon.
When discussing Firefox OS, it's perfectly reasonable and relevant to bring up issues surrounding the quality and the ease of acquiring devices that run Firefox OS. These factors have an absolutely massive impact on the experience of everyone involved, from developers to end users, and will directly influence the ability of Firefox OS to capture any substantial share of the market.
Attacking the people who raise awareness of these very real problems with these unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about "astroturfing" or weird accusations of "anger at Mozilla" won't do Mozilla or anyone else any good.
Instead, maybe listen to what people are saying! The limited availability of phones running Firefox OS is causing people problems, and affecting its adoption and usefulness. The devices it has been available on so far have not been very good, even compared to where Android and iOS were years ago. People aren't just making these problems up; they're very real problems! The same goes for problems that people bring up about Firefox, or Rust, or any of Mozilla's other offerings.
Admitting to the existence of these problems, and then resolving them, will have a much more positive impact than attacking anyone who happens to bring them up. The fact that people have to bring them up again and again indicates that they aren't being resolved properly, and that more work is needed.
The topic is Firefox OS. Anything having to do with Firefox OS is worth discussing, and is perfectly valid discussion. That includes its problems. That includes how it is (or is failing to) compete with established players like iOS and Android. That includes the sorry state of the devices it comes with.
Deviation is perfectly fine. The point of the discussion is to share ideas. It's not to engage in mindless affirmation of whatever the linked-to article may say.
I purchased a ZTE Open C just to try out Firefox and the internet browsing experience. You can't change tabs unless you scroll all the way to the top, otherwise the address bar is hidden. Needless to say, browsing becomes very taxing if you're viewing even moderately large pages.
Did you mias that (we can argue about whether that's intuitive) or does that plain not work for you? Scrolling back to the top should definitely be unnecessary..
Works just fine for me (typing on Android, in Aurora).
Doesn't work. AFAIK, there isn't a way to show the address bar unless you scroll all the way up to the top. I'm aware that Firefox on Android has the behaviour you mention.
Also, I haven't yet found a way to quickly scroll up to the top of a page.
Yep, seems to be missing here as well (2.1 prerelease). Sorry for speaking first, testing later.
It's another great example of how the Firefox developers have added in functionality that just makes the browsing experience less efficient or more confusing, without any real benefit. Getting a sliver more of screen space just isn't worth the inconvenience this "feature" brings, especially on larger mobile devices.
Disabling it via 'Settings' -> 'Display' -> 'Scroll title bar' was the first thing I had to do when trying out Firefox on Android, and that was just to bring it up to a minimal level of usability.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.gaia/QP7...
The GP complains about being _required_ to scroll to the top to reach the address bar/the tabs, which is plain wrong (but might be a case of bad discoverability?).
This is very common feedback and I assure you it hasn't fallen on deaf ears.
From version 2.1 the address bar will show as soon as you start to scroll up and you'll be able to manually trigger it from the statusbar as well (see the UI mockups in the blog post). You will also be able to switch between browser windows by swiping from the edge of the screen. After using this for a few weeks I really miss it when I use Android!
You don't have any contact details in your profile, so it's not possible to message you privately.
(Or if anyone wants to give me a Firefox phone I'd be immensely grateful)
The blink/webkit monoculture is causing issues but every app is embedding it because gecko as a platform for embedding is essentially dead.
As someone who working on a project that is beyond your average webapp [1][2], That is one of the most infuriating things to read. I need a Magic Justin! Where can you get a Magic Justin?
[1] http://i.imgur.com/cLcirMy.jpg [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHwNxDWwuY4
Having a built-in IDE significantly lowers the barriers for locals in developing countries to quickly make apps that apply to their local community.
though another hack should be able to take of this easily... maybe even without forcing extension authors to change their extensions...
These won't be similar to the old Firefox extensions because that really does not make sense on FirefoxOS, but this is similar to user scripts and user styles.
You're missing the point here. Firefox OS doesn't aim to compete with Android. If you're running Android then you can use the Firefox for Android browser and install the same apps. Firefox OS phones are targeted at people from emergent countries who can't afford smartphones with Android.
There are countries where the cheapest Android device is about twice the price of Firefox OS. In this context, people from poorer chunks of society can buy Firefox OS and not get into debt.
Firefox OS is a tool to bring more people to the internet. To pick people that are currently using old symbian phones, asha and other feature phone platforms and offer them an affordable priced smartphone that doesn't break the bank.
Its made to be a simple experience for the first time smartphone buyer. Its not here to replace Android or iOS.
There are millions of people that are experiencing the internet for the first time not thru a desktop/laptop machine but thru mobile devices. Lots of these people would get into debt to buy devices. Thats the target demographic.
If you don't understand this then its very easy to compare the platform to Android expensive devices.
And yes the platform is young but it is growing fast. If we achieve all our objectives the apps will work the same on Firefox OS and Android (thru Firefox for Android).
The Web API is getting more complete and standarized. Soon you will be able to rely on HTML5 for your cross platform apps and not be locked in silos. This is more important than people realize. Being able to interoperate across platforms and devices is one of the key success features of the web.
Now for a personal opinion. I have all the Firefox OS devices and some iOS and Androids in here. As a developer, Firefox OS is the most hackable and fun platform to program for. I have the absolute entry level phones and the current flame device running our nightly version.
The flame is my currently daily driver and of course there are difficulties. Apps missing, features missing. Its getting better and it is open in a sense that no other platform is. I'd rather invest my time and effort on it now so that in the near future with have a great open platform that keep being a fanboy of some closed expensive thing where I have no say.
iOS and Windows are closed platforms. Android is somewhat open but since their current tendency to move good bits into play services and not opening their built in apps such as gmail and also the fact that you can't contribute code and that the development is behind a closed door makes it less open and desirable in the long run.
We can bitch all day here about missing features in any young platform. The fact is, if you care for an open source mobile platform then you can join the Mozilla community and help build one. If you don't care about open source but care about society, you can also join and help build a system that is affordable in emergent countries. If you don't care about any of the stuff I mentioned, you can keep using whatever you'd like. We're not forcing anyone to do anything. We're building this platform because the world needs a mobile operating system that is developed in the open and that is truly open source. Its young but its learning tricks every night...