Mozilla Will Stop Developing And Selling Firefox OS Smartphones (TechCrunch) [LWN.net]

Mozilla Will Stop Developing And Selling Firefox OS Smartphones (TechCrunch)

Posted Dec 8, 2015 21:40 UTC (Tue) by d33tah (guest, #90623) [Link] (8 responses)

I hate this marketing babble. Last time they spoke about advertisements they were as formal. That's quite contrasting in comparison to the language Google Chrome/Chromium uses for example in its error messages. The only spark of humor I saw in Firefox was in about:config.

Mozilla Will Stop Developing And Selling Firefox OS Smartphones (TechCrunch)

Posted Dec 8, 2015 22:16 UTC (Tue) by ovitters (guest, #27950) [Link] (4 responses)

In Netscape days Netscape used to be hugely uncomfortable with saying (in bugreports) that a decision was taking with money in mind. Seems Mozilla lately has the same problem. Additional example: Pocket.

Mozilla Will Stop Developing And Selling Firefox OS Smartphones (TechCrunch)

Posted Dec 14, 2015 10:52 UTC (Mon) by gerv (guest, #3376) [Link] (3 responses)

No money was involved in the Pocket deal. That may be why :-)

Mozilla Will Stop Developing And Selling Firefox OS Smartphones (TechCrunch)

Posted Dec 14, 2015 15:25 UTC (Mon) by ovitters (guest, #27950) [Link] (2 responses)

I read that here: http://www.ghacks.net/2015/12/05/mozilla-has-a-revenue-sh...

Still wondering if it is not a NSA type thing (very picky play with words). Not trying to be argumentative, just that above is weird and expected to have seen a rebuttal.

Mozilla Will Stop Developing And Selling Firefox OS Smartphones (TechCrunch)

Posted Dec 14, 2015 15:38 UTC (Mon) by gerv (guest, #3376) [Link] (1 responses)

OK, I haven't seen the contract, so I can't say for certain whether there's a revshare deal or not. I'm pretty darn certain there was no payment for placement - that's been made very clear. In the end, it comes down to a question of trust. I trust those who made this decision that they are telling the truth when they say that they did it because it was a popular added-on feature that we thought all users would benefit from. If people want to believe that the decisionmakers actually knew most people would hate Pocket but did it anyway because they were hoping to cash in, I'm not sure there's anything anyone can say which would dissuade them from such a negative view.

But I also deny the implication of the linked article that Mozilla is required by its commitment to transparency to disclose the terms of every business deal it makes. That certainly isn't the case for Firefox OS, for example.

Mozilla Will Stop Developing And Selling Firefox OS Smartphones (TechCrunch)

Posted Dec 14, 2015 19:23 UTC (Mon) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]

The linked article makes no such implication. It does say that, to fulfill #8 ("transparent community-based processes promote participation, accountability and trust"), that Mozilla should be up front about the coarse terms of the deal. You must agree with that, no?

It does seem like Mozilla is engaging parsing to make it look like no money is changing hands. I still have a really hard time believing that... why would Mozilla give Pocket such huge placement out of pure altruism? I speculated before about the decision being based on relatives or drinking buddies... but a secret revshare deal makes a lot more sense!

Mozilla Will Stop Developing And Selling Firefox OS Smartphones (TechCrunch)

Posted Dec 9, 2015 1:30 UTC (Wed) by flussence (guest, #85566) [Link] (2 responses)

At least they aren't lying here like they did on DRM: they certainly proved the Web is now flexible enough to replace Java, and it runs just as fast too. What a difference 20 years of Moore's Law can make.

Mozilla Will Stop Developing And Selling Firefox OS Smartphones (TechCrunch)

Posted Dec 9, 2015 12:19 UTC (Wed) by flammon (guest, #807) [Link] (1 responses)

I don't think Moore's law applies here. Java and JavaScript equally benefit from hardware improvements. JavaScript however is much faster now because of the competition and tremendous amount of development that went into optimizing the compiler.

Mozilla Will Stop Developing And Selling Firefox OS Smartphones (TechCrunch)

Posted Dec 12, 2015 15:36 UTC (Sat) by alankila (guest, #47141) [Link]

Well, take a thousandfold improvement of speed from one place and maybe something like hundredfold improvement of speed from another. Both have contributed.

Mozilla Will Stop Developing And Selling Firefox OS Smartphones (TechCrunch)

Posted Dec 8, 2015 22:01 UTC (Tue) by bjacob (guest, #58566) [Link] (2 responses)

Oh good, Firefox OS has been Thunderbirded.

Mozilla Will Stop Developing And Selling Firefox OS Smartphones (TechCrunch)

Posted Dec 9, 2015 4:41 UTC (Wed) by ceplm (subscriber, #41334) [Link] (1 responses)

Yeah, I was thinking about "Hey You Got Peanut Butter in My Chocolate", err, "Hey You Got Thunderbid in My Firefox OS" all day yesterday. I used to be (yes, used to be) owner of no less than four FxOS phones. RIP

Mozilla Will Stop Developing And Selling Firefox OS Smartphones (TechCrunch)

Posted Dec 15, 2015 15:38 UTC (Tue) by ceplm (subscriber, #41334) [Link]

It is probably time to publish here URL for my post-mortem of Firefox OS https://matej.ceplovi.cz/blog/firefox-os-post-mortem.html

Mozilla needs a serious reboot

Posted Dec 9, 2015 15:45 UTC (Wed) by b7j0c (guest, #27559) [Link] (4 responses)

FirefoxOS was already long dead, so Mozilla only needed to bury its corpse. Shuttleworth needs to follow suit on Ubuntu Phone, which is also DOA. Sorry folks, the race is over.

Whats left? A browser with declining marketshare...a free programming language....

Google and Apple tolerate them, not much more at this point

They should get in bed with Microsoft. Microsoft's own mobile platform is effectively dead, and they seem to be putting an emphasis on getting exposure on iOS and Android for their own apps...Mozilla could help here. They're basically in the same boat; needing Apple and Google to survive in a mobile world.

Yeah there is the Tizen partnership, but only Tizen exists so Samsung can continue to fantasize that it is a platform company instead of being just a parts supplier. Samsung will eventually throw in the towel on Tizen.

Mozilla needs a serious reboot

Posted Dec 9, 2015 16:02 UTC (Wed) by pboddie (guest, #50784) [Link]

What this probably means is that just like Tizen, Firefox OS will be directed towards other products. And no-one with any sense of history would "get in bed with Microsoft".

Mozilla needs a serious reboot

Posted Dec 9, 2015 21:20 UTC (Wed) by scientes (guest, #83068) [Link] (2 responses)

Ubuntu Touch is selling a fully converged device, which is not-yet-realized market opportunity that will not go away. Furthermore, those developing free mobile GPU drivers testify that GNU/Linux is far easier to develop from than Android/Linux, which has a massive problem with ancient kernels and unpatched security holes. You didn't even mention Jolla and SailfishOS.

Mozilla needs a serious reboot

Posted Dec 10, 2015 10:35 UTC (Thu) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

“Fully converged device” in the end is just a phone or tablet with attached keyboard. It must be good phone first - and Ubuntu Touch is not that. That's why Microsoft is terrified and still is pushing Surface: if “convergence ploy” will work out then Windows-on-desktop will die and will be replaced by Android. It does not really work (Surface is good laptop but bad tablet), but at least some applications are there. Where the Ubuntu touch apps will come from?

Mozilla needs a serious reboot

Posted Dec 10, 2015 17:10 UTC (Thu) by b7j0c (guest, #27559) [Link]

true, i didn't mention jolla because not only is jolla dead, its corpse has been turned into fertilizer

and what is your point about GPU drivers? the market is flooded with android devices. there is probably five-too-many participants in this market. clearly developing for android is not a bother for them. or do you propose that vendors give up a near-two-BILLION user ecosystem in favor of one with ....dozens?.... because GPU drivers are easier to develop?????

the "ancient android/security" response is basically a bullet point for idiots now. guess what - your linux kernel probably has a security hole no one knows about. your router is probably running an trivially exploitable firmware. your car can probably be hacked by anyone determined enough. your home alarm system probably has a hardcoded backdoor. remember heartbleed? everyone who took the moral high ground about keeping their software up to date was actually running a ridiculous exploit. the hardware in your laptop probably also contains a harcoded backdoor of some kind. iOS user? haha apple has sat on known exploits for months, and in any case their OS is also likely riddled with holes, even in its most recent incarnation. but if it keeps you comfortable knowing that the android empire will collapse any minute now because samsung takes six months to release an update, rock on!