Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war

Re:Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war by pjmlp on Sunday March 01, 2015 @05:02PM (#9129079)

> JavaScript is the path a lot of people want to walk for making mobile apps.

Web OS and Windows Phone support for JavaScript are a living proof people don't really want to.

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Re:Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war by SwellJoe on Sunday March 01, 2015 @07:10PM (#9129552)

I'm not sure that's the entire story of what's happening. There are a lot of factors that play into whether a new platform succeeds, and it is never just the way one makes apps for it that makes or breaks the platform. Obviously, there are people who will use any technology, no matter how poor, if it means they can make money in a growing market. iOS showed that; while the APIs for iOS are quite well-designed, ObjC is not particularly wonderful environment for GUI apps compared to many modern alternatives. But, a huge user base means people will learn ObjC in order to make apps for it. In fact, the only reason ObjC is relevant at all is because Apple put in on their phones and tablets. But, even Apple can't keep it alive forever...Swift is obviously their answer to more modern development approaches.

This has played out in many other markets, including desktops and servers, where higher levels of abstraction won mindshare over time as technology (both hardware and software) advanced to make it feasible. When I started using person computers (8 bit machines), software of any seriousness was written in assembly. The next generation (16 bit machines) brought good C and Pascal compilers, and applications built with those tools. Only now are we seeing serious talk of replacing C/C++ with something else for systems programming (maybe Rust, maybe Go, etc.).

Being right but at the wrong time is just as bad as being wrong. Maybe WebOS was right, but at the wrong time...maybe apps made in JavaScript five years ago weren't snappy enough on a phone. Maybe the tooling wasn't there. Maybe the VMs weren't good enough. Maybe they are, now.

I don't know. But, Mozilla has shown itself capable of taking on the biggest companies in the world with open web technologies, and holding their ground tenaciously. I believe they have the clarity of vision and the technical chops to pull it off.

Finally, I just want a Firefox phone. So, I may have rose-colored glasses. I think Firefox is the bee's knees, and I think Mozilla truly represents one of the most positive forces for good in technology today. I want Firefox OS to win. If it can't win, I want it to be a serious contender.

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Re:Mozilla to open first-world front in Firefox OS war by jbigelow76 on Sunday March 01, 2015 @07:42PM (#9129664)

I don't know. But, Mozilla has shown itself capable of taking on the biggest companies in the world with open web technologies, and holding their ground tenaciously.

There are zero switching costs associated with a browser. It costs nothing to download and run Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE, etc... The switching costs associated with phones is obviously much higher. Mozilla has to win ground in the mobile OS wars before they can even think about defending it.

Not trying to be a downer, I would like a viable mobile OS to break up the current duopoly, especially one that really embraces the web. I just think Mozilla has a hell of a fight ahead of it and it can't win it on merit alone.

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