Mozilla Puts An End To Firefox OS

[Luke_Wolf]

Microsoft's Continuum is supposedly ready, Ubuntu convergence is not yet ready, however I am pretty sure Ubuntu will use convergence heavily in marketing because the full desktop experience is something no one else has, Continuum doesnt have full desktop, it is more like a glorified mobile experience at the moment.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/04/29/continuum-windows-10-phone/

um... continuum is ready, it is a full desktop, and within the limitations of not running x86 it can run full desktop applications. With the x86 part of it potentially being solved with the win32 bridge, but we'll see what they do

[cjacker]

When Apple came out with its revolutionary iPhone, I bet the executives at Google looked at it and thought, "This is the future. Soon everybody is going to start making their own iPhones. We should make an OS of our own for smartphones, while there are no competitors". When Android became popular, in part because it was free for the manufacturers to put on their phones, Microsoft woke up and went "Oh! Smartphones will be the future!" and started making its next Windows for smartphones. When Windows Phone sales were low, Mozilla and Canonical decided to jump on the bandwagon with their own android-a-likes. Now Windows Phone sales are still low and Mozilla finally realized: they were too late. Canonical hasn't realized it yet, so we're waiting for you Mark!

Canonical was NOT able to earn money via their Desktop/Server product, that's why they try to make a Phone os.

Past few years, Mark even tried persuade China gov official, tried to find partners in China and hope China gov can treat Ubuntu as a 'standard' OS, that's why Ubuntu Kylin edition exist, but still failed.

[Nobu]

If this means a better Firefox browser, either mobile or desktop, then I'm all for it. I might have gotten a Firefox phone, if the hardware was half-decent and it had support for a good number of apps (beyond just social stuff). But Firefox mobile is bad enough on my current phone (a galaxy S3), so I didn't hold much hope for it on a lower end phone.

[Kano]

It is really interesting to boot a different OS on a smartphone or tablet but to start a browser it was a bit overkill to flash the device with a new OS without any useful app. So basically it is the right choice to focus development on the real thing. The competion against Chrome and maybe later Edge (now it does not support addons) is more important and others could optimize the OS.

Btw. recently a Kanotix user found out how to get an UEFI shell on a simple Intel based Android tablet. And this UEFI was even 64 bit (ver -s). Windows based tablets with the same CPU usually use a 32 bit UEFI. If somebody has such a device let me know via pm. OTG cable, USB hub, USB keyboard would be nice to debug. Medion/Lenovo Intel Andoids seem to use volume+ and power as hotkey during start (exit or reboot to quit UEFI).

I found out somebody tried that one year ago, but you can start more than just GRUB...

[pal666]

When Apple came out with its revolutionary iPhone, I bet the executives at Google looked at it and thought, "This is the future. Soon everybody is going to start making their own iPhones. We should make an OS of our own for smartphones, while there are no competitors".

1) there was nothing revolutionary in iphone. it was not even smartphone.
2) apple came out with iphone in 2007. android was started in 2003 and bought by google in 2005. you are living in some fantasy world

[anth]

When Apple came out with its revolutionary iPhone, I bet the executives at Google looked at it and thought, "This is the future. Soon everybody is going to start making their own iPhones. We should make an OS of our own for smartphones, while there are no competitors". When Android became popular, in part because it was free for the manufacturers to put on their phones, Microsoft woke up and went "Oh! Smartphones will be the future!" and started making its next Windows for smartphones.

That timeline doesn't seem quite right. The iPhone cam out in 2007. Android had been working on a mobile phone software since before it was bought by Google in 2005. Windows Phone had been on smartphones since 2002.

[Cerberus]

Canonical was NOT able to earn money via their Desktop/Server product, that's why they try to make a Phone os.

Past few years, Mark even tried persuade China gov official, tried to find partners in China and hope China gov can treat Ubuntu as a 'standard' OS, that's why Ubuntu Kylin edition exist, but still failed.

Wrong, Canonical is making money from server and cloud, in fact Ubuntu has quite a presence on the cloud, and is getting bigger and bigger on servers as well, including cooperation with big names in the cloud/server/mainframe industry.

Desktop isnt profitable that is true, and that wont change anytime soon probably because of several factors, most importantly lack of certain proprietary programs on Linux.

[Cerberus]

http://www.engadget.com/2015/04/29/continuum-windows-10-phone/

um... continuum is ready, it is a full desktop, and within the limitations of not running x86 it can run full desktop applications. With the x86 part of it potentially being solved with the win32 bridge, but we'll see what they do

If it cant run x86 it is not a full desktop. If Microsoft implements x86 support than it might be called a full desktop. Currently it is a glorified mobile experience. Same holds true for Ubuntu, convergence without x86 support would be nothing but a glorified mobile experience.

[coder111]

I'm not sure why you think Android is free. Maybe it was in 2007, it certainly isn't now.

First, while core OS is open-source, Google Apps aren't. And anyone who wants to ship an Android phone has to pay up to Google to use those. With the exception of Amazon, who have their own app store, etc. Apparently, the money you pay is not "licensing", but "testing fee". http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...ds-open-source Read more here: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/...ans-necessary/

Second, anyone who is selling Android devices must pay up patent fees. I know for a fact MICROSOFT is getting paid for all Android phones sold, not sure about other patent holders. http://www.computerworld.com/article...--really-.html http://www.howtogeek.com/183766/why-...d-device-sold/

When Apple came out with its revolutionary iPhone, I bet the executives at Google looked at it and thought, "This is the future. Soon everybody is going to start making their own iPhones. We should make an OS of our own for smartphones, while there are no competitors". When Android became popular, in part because it was free for the manufacturers to put on their phones, Microsoft woke up and went "Oh! Smartphones will be the future!" and started making its next Windows for smartphones. When Windows Phone sales were low, Mozilla and Canonical decided to jump on the bandwagon with their own android-a-likes. Now Windows Phone sales are still low and Mozilla finally realized: they were too late. Canonical hasn't realized it yet, so we're waiting for you Mark!

[TheBlackCat]

Microsoft's Continuum is supposedly ready, Ubuntu convergence is not yet ready, however I am pretty sure Ubuntu will use convergence heavily in marketing because the full desktop experience is something no one else has, Continuum doesnt have full desktop, it is more like a glorified mobile experience at the moment.

Plasma Mobile has a fully desktop.