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Mozilla announces HTML5-based phoneMozilla announces HTML5-based phonePosted Mar 1, 2012 1:18 UTC (Thu) by paravoid (subscriber, #32869)Parent article: Mozilla announces HTML5-based phone
As a free software enthusiast, I have mixed feelings about this.
On one hand, it's Mozilla that we know and love, it's free software and it's an effort driven by a community project and run by that.
On the other hand, the platform not only seems to accept proprietary components (like rild) as a compromise, but even embraces them and tries to actively support closed source components (the bug report about the libc counts the fact that uClibc & (e)glibc are GPL'ed as a disadvantage!). Additionally, it speaks about an "open platform", as in the Web, with open standards and all that, which of course says nothing about the freeness of such (Web) applications or reassures me about preserving my essential freedoms. Not unlike Android, but a big difference with free operating systems and platforms that most people around LWN are accustomed to.
All in all, it seems to me as an effort to build a proprietary platform with a free software layer between closed-source components and well-defined APIs to interface between them. What's the point? We already have Android for that, what we really need is a *more free* platform!
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Mozilla announces HTML5-based phone Posted Mar 1, 2012 5:12 UTC (Thu) by kripkenstein (subscriber, #43281) [Link]
> All in all, it seems to me as an effort to build a proprietary platform with a free software layer between closed-source components and well-defined APIs to interface between them. What's the point? We already have Android for that, what we really need is a *more free* platform!
This platform is more open than Android. First and foremost, development is done in the open, not in the form of code drops like Android does. Participation in development is open just like regular open source projects. Second, the platform is built on open standards, not proprietary ones. Open standards aren't the same as open source, but both are important.
There are compromises though, like the ability to interface with binary blobs on the device, like Android does. I don't like this either, but without that it would be much, much harder to get device manufacturers and carriers on board. Is this the right amount of compromise, that keeps the platform open while allowing it to succeed, without giving up too much? Time will tell. But it's significantly more open than Android, that much is already clear.
Mozilla announces HTML5-based phone Posted Mar 1, 2012 11:29 UTC (Thu) by alankila (subscriber, #47141) [Link]
I think the strategy is a sound one. Piggybacking on android should allow this OS to become an aftermarket OS choice for a number of phones, and will indeed make it easier to ship in place of Android out of the box, too. I have nothing against web applications as the primary way applications get made on an operating system, but it seems to me that support for HTML5 is still lacking and the APIs for all the hardware on tablets and phones are either not there or not implemented the same way, or whatever. WebGL support, for instance, would be very welcome.
Mozilla announces HTML5-based phone Posted Mar 6, 2012 22:11 UTC (Tue) by roc (subscriber, #30627) [Link]
B2G supports WebGL. It also supports new Web standard APIs for features like fullscreen, battery, and so on.
Mozilla announces HTML5-based phone Posted Mar 7, 2012 9:04 UTC (Wed) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] B2G supports WebGL, but most other phone platforms don't. This makes it non-standard feature as far as developers are concerned. The fact that you have “standard” stamp from W3C or IETF does not make your platform the default choice for developers. Think desktop: POSIX is standard and Win16 is too while Win32 is non-standard, but how many developers develop for POSIX and/or Win16 and how many develop for Windows?
Mozilla announces HTML5-based phone Posted Mar 7, 2012 11:35 UTC (Wed) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link] B2G supports WebGL, but most other phone platforms don't. This makes it non-standard feature as far as developers are concerned. WebGL is essentially OpenGL ES 2.0, which all mobile platforms worth mentioning do support. There are various web browsers with WebGL support for Android, and WebGL can apparently be made to work on iOS, too. Not exactly non-standard.
Mozilla announces HTML5-based phone Posted Mar 7, 2012 16:25 UTC (Wed) by kripkenstein (subscriber, #43281) [Link]
> B2G supports WebGL, but most other phone platforms don't. This makes it non-standard feature as far as developers are concerned.
WebGL is certainly a standard. It's just a new one, it will take time for everyone to implement support. But they will catch up to B2G and do that.
Mozilla announces HTML5-based phone Posted Mar 4, 2012 7:26 UTC (Sun) by tajyrink (subscriber, #2750) [Link]
As long as the proprietary components are clearly defined and separated, it's fine. Not fine as "really fine", but certainly an acceptable compromise if it allows for success in vendor and consumer reach this year and not in five years.
When not fixing all the problems at once, it's good that at least more problems aren't created.
Mozilla announces HTML5-based phone Posted Mar 1, 2012 13:01 UTC (Thu) by samth (subscriber, #1290) [Link]
Even apart from the technical details (which kripenstein describes), when you watch the demo videos, you can see them show off the "View Source" button for the user interface. All by itself, that's a big sign of how open this is.
Mozilla announces HTML5-based phone Posted Mar 1, 2012 16:25 UTC (Thu) by gerv (subscriber, #3376) [Link]
It would be nice to fix ALL THE PROBLEMS at once, but I think to begin with we might just settle for fixing several big ones, at which other companies have already failed. :-)
If B2G required every bit of software right the way down to be open from the start, it would never ship a phone and therefore have zero market impact. The fact that some bits of the stacks of some phones will be proprietary doesn't mean we think this is a good thing, or that we won't be using various means to try and improve matters.
Gerv
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