> For example, if there was a device that focused on running progressive web apps well, there would be a market today than compared to the past when horsepower wasn't at the level it is at now.
How does that explain the failure of FirefoxOS?
Re:Librem 5 Phone Funded
by Brakenshire on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @09:21AM
(#15441511)
PWA's weren't ready 2 years ago when FirefoxOS was being pushed, they're probably still not ready but there is major progress. It's mostly about scale and ecosystem now, development of well designed touch-friendly web components, iOS implementing Service Workers as is currently underway, and so on. That's not to say they can or will replace native apps, but there will be a growing overlap.
FirefoxOS lacked official support from key apps (eg. Whatsapp), and then lacked support from Mozilla leadership.
With today's PWAs it would be a wonderful OS.
I keep seeing webapps failing since Nokia introduced Web Runtime for Symbian.....
Chrome OS has proven the viability of an HTML5-based OS.
In Mozilla's case it was an inability to define a market more than the technology stack. I had a Flame. While the OS started a little rough around the edges, by Firefox OS 2.5 it was perfectly usable as a daily driver with modest specs by 2017 standards.
Only in the US school system, because it isn't used anywhere else.
Even here, most people buy Chromebooks to replace ChromeOS with an usable version of GNU/Linux, just like we used to do with Windows 95/98 back in the day.
Palm's webOS is an html/js based mobile phone OS that predated the JS based excitement.
For example, if there was a device that focused on running progressive web apps well, there would be a market today than compared to the past when horsepower wasn't at the level it is at now.
The flip side is also being able to run these sorts of operating systems on more devices.
I use my phone more and more for computer replacement tasks on Android. Would be neat to be able to run the odd android app in a container, etc.