FirefoxOS is dead? Long live FirefoxOS?

It's rained a bit since we first talked about Firefox OS in this blog, and from then on, I must say very disappointed, that the evolution of this Operating System for mobiles has been very poor. That's what this post will be about, about my experience with Firefox OS, and its good and bad so far.

The bad thing about FirefoxOS

To be honest, I don't think that the bad thing I can find in this OS is the fault of the system itself, but of the way Mozilla is doing things. But let's start at the beginning.

When all the buzz about FirefoxOS started, my first thought was: WOW !! An Operating System that uses HTML and Firefox below, that means, a super updated Operating System. Well, I was wrong from start to finish for two fundamental reasons.

  1. Mozilla does not update FirefoxOS alongside the Web Browser, much less release updates Over the air better known as OTA.. This is left to the manufacturers and in the case of ZTE, to update from one version to another, you had to flash the phone, so we lost all data and settings.
  2. The first manufacturer to release a FirefoxOS phone was ZTE, and Support for the ZTE Open was disastrous, if not zero.

Basically those who bought a ZTE Open now have a paperweight. The last version of FirefoxOS that worked without apparent problems on a ZTE Open was 1.2. Later versions released by The Community mainly, had problems with the camera, radio, and other applications.

If they want to use Firefox OS 2.2 on a ZTE officially, because they have to buy a ZTE Open II or ZTE Open C and in particular, I do not recommend them. The support offered by ZTE is terrible, almost zero. I advise you to get a Alcatel or Flame, the latter is Mozilla's "official" phone.

The good thing about FirefoxOS

Let's start with the good thing about this OS for mobile devices from my point of view. First of all, it is a system that runs web technology in its upper layers, which is a success in many ways, but mainly, because with knowledge of HTML5, CSS3 y JS, we can customize all the details of its interface or create applications in a very simple way.

The OS runs quite well since its first versions and at least in the ZTE Open that I had at the time, it moved fluently for the hardware lost cost that owns that terminal.

Thanks to the advantage of using web technology (as I told you before) the Marketplace Mozilla has been improving visually and very good quality applications have been added in recent times.

FirefoxOS_Marketplace

Another great advantage that FirefoxOS has is that its status as Open Source allows the Community to make many contributions (and luckily) its own custom ROMs. This is of vital importance for something that I will explain later in the points that I consider negative, so we go to them.

Bad strategy on Mozilla's part?

I think Mozilla's strategy from the beginning was wrong. The first thing they had to do was guarantee a minimum of essential applications for users. I mean as it is logical to Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, that in many cases, we only found a direct access to the mobile version of these services.

I believe Mozilla has qualified and trained personnel to do this, but they did not. Then the obvious happened. They launched the ZTE Open with Movistar and many users returned the phone simply for not having these applications.

That the manufacturer is the one that updates its terminals is not bad as long as there is adequate support, we see it with Android terminals. However, Mozilla did not even bother to assign a couple of developers to officially maintain the versions of the ZTE Open and the Alcatel Touch Fire, which were the first two terminals to be commercialized, and as I said earlier, the support from ZTE was almost null. Do you want to have FirefoxOS on the ZTE Open? Well, download 20GB of packages to a server, and compile it yourself.

When we use FirefoxOS we realize that it lacks a lot of functionalities. As far as I tested (version 2.1) I did not have the option to rotate the screen when we wrote an SMS, and something as simple as that was annoying when the size of the terminal did not exceed 4 inches. Mozilla has focused more on the visual than the functional. And I wonder at what stage is the development of FirefoxOS? How long have we not heard from a new release?

Mozilla's idea

Mozilla's goal has never been to compete with Andriod or iOS (very silly if you consider it), but to reach emerging markets. So far everything is nice, but, I think they had the opportunity to do it in their hands and they lost it. The little success of the ZTE Open, and the departure of Android One put the stop much higher.

If you had $ 100, what would you spend on a FirefoxOS phone that lacks a ton of apps, or on Android One? Beyond the freedom, the monopoly, the bad practices of the companies, beyond all that is the user who is the one who in the end, decides on one system or another and almost always, by the applications.

We will see what happens in the end, and hopefully in the future FirefoxOS will become an OS that I can carry on my device without any problem, since I really like it a lot and it is necessary for the current ecosystem. Long live FirefoxOS !!

The Community to the rescue

But as I already mentioned, not all is lost and it is thanks to The Community. There are many blogs that still keep fresh news about FirefoxOS and its applications, or there are even those who are dedicated to launching Custom ROMs for the forgotten ZTE Open like BeetleDeveloper.

Sample of the work or what to do the community is a collection of signatures that I read was being done, the purpose of it is to bring WhatsApp to FirefoxOS, or a Vine port to view unofficial videos.

Via or Source of the latter.


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  1.   Arthur Herrera said

    Well, we must not lose faith, DevCode Mozilla Peru is an example that there is material to make this Mobile OS work, many things have to be corrected but jumping from a browser to a Mobile OS if that is like giving them the benefit of the doubt, I have faith that in a few months (or couple of years) we will have more devices with the OS and that it will have better support, is my humble opinion.

    1.    elav said

      Hopefully and so be it. I really liked FirefoxOS, hopefully and it gets better and better.

  2.   Carlos said

    Well my perspective is different in certain points,

    I have an alcatel OTF and it has always had a good performance, it is very easy to replace wassapp.

    What is true is the little or no support that exists from the manufacturers but in the case of this there is a very good support from the community, they have also made the flashing and installation of custom roms very easy to do. install.
    The bad thing in my case I am from a country where the Alcatel OTF C arrived and as this phone did not arrive in Venezuela, now I will have to make my own roms and that is more problematic but if I can compile it I hope I can share them since I really like the OS

    1.    elav said

      Alcatel has always had better support than ZTE ..

  3.   Carlos said

    A and if there are OTA updates

  4.   Jesus Perales said

    I think your vision now is due to the bad support of the zte, I almost bought it because of the color but in the end I decided on the alcatel, if unfortunately we do not receive OTA updates, but in the following blog we can find the most updated roms.

    http://vegnuxmod.wordpress.com/

    I am using version 2.0 of the 2.1 branch that was recently updated and it is very good,
    The previous one gave me headaches and in itself I feel that it is evolving in very necessary functionalities but that, as it were, passed them by.
    I don't know what principle I'm using mozilla but I am very familiar with lean startup (Fail fast and fail cheap).

    Greetings.

  5.   falc said

    There are a couple of things that I disagree on.

    Mozilla does update Firefox OS along with Firefox, as shown in the "Release Management" article on its wiki: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/B2G_Landing

    Every two versions of Firefox there is a version of Firefox OS. Considering that Firefox has a 6 week release cycle, a new version of Firefox OS is released every 12 weeks.

    The problem of the lack of updates on mobile devices is not exclusive to Firefox OS, with Android we also see the same, and responds to a question of induced obsolescence (not to say programmed). It has been possible to create a custom in society for them to change mobile phones very frequently, and it is much more profitable for them to invent efforts to create different products, sell them and abandon them at the software level, than to provide a long-term after-sales service that does not generate extra income.

    The Fire Phone is Amazon's mobile, Mozilla's "official" is the Flame. And in this regard, it is open to criticism because it is a very interesting mobile that, unfortunately, is only sold through a single platform that causes many problems in terms of shipping and support: http://www.everbuying.com/product549652.html

    For the rest, I was convinced from the beginning that Mozilla wants Firefox OS to be a long-distance race, progressing little by little but without pause. It will get interesting when more models start to appear from more manufacturers with support for 2.x versions. It is a matter of time and the collaboration of many people in different areas.

    A greeting.

    1.    elav said

      If you're right, I got the wrong name .. it's Flame .. 😉

  6.   sieg84 said

    My brother has the alcatel one touch fire and yes. It was like a paperweight.

  7.   Mauricio Baeza said

    Indeed, my ZTE Open is now a paperweight, but I can give it several opportunities if there are derivatives of FirefoxOS, let's try ...

    regards

  8.   Sergio said

    OMG I almost had a heart attack when I read the title.
    I love firefox OS I always wanted to have one but here in my country they don't even sell it on hooks.
    I am currently doing a miriadax course on firefox os and a google + community where we talk about this beautiful OS
    https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/107872281797305803190

    1.    Boatman69 said

      I have a friend here who gives it to you for free.

  9.   yukiteru said

    Well, I have an AOTF with Firefox OS 2.0 (B2Gv32) and with weekly updates by OTA, and happy with it.

    1.    elav said

      Official updates? Congratulations..

      1.    yukiteru said

        No Alcatel officials, but from Mozilla and its automated build system for AOTF.

    2.    auroszx said

      It goes, and lets you install them and everything? I was arguing with @ cargabsj157 that their ROMs cannot be updated via OTA due to SHA1 problems. Or is it that you use a more pure B2G?

      1.    yukiteru said

        I use a pure B2G, but I still have the same problem as the ROMs of @ cargabsj157, the "solution" for the moment is; modify by hand the script file within each updater-script, located in the META-INF / com / google / android / directory, of the compressed update.zip file, and remove the assert lines corresponding to each sha1 check, save the changes in the update.zip and apply the update. A very dirty solution but one that allows you to enjoy the update without any problem. At the moment I have compilation No. 20141022000201, with commit 812ae91c dated 2014-10-21 16:21:18.

      2.    auroszx said

        Ah, well then we are in the same. For now I keep flashing. Mozilla should indicate in its wiki how to make an update repo, since in its Github there are not all the manifest of the devices to which B2G has been ported.

      3.    yukiteru said

        I prefer to do the OTA avoiding doing the flash all the time, I only flash when I change the B2G version. Anyway, modifying the update.zip is simple, it is not a big deal and you get the benefit of it, by not deleting your personal configuration.

    3.    Isaac said

      hello, can you explain a little better how to update firefox os the way you do. Thanks a lot

      1.    Jesus Perales said

        I think it would be good if I made a post on desdefirefoxos explaining it

    4.    Vlad said

      I have a Hamachi (Alcatel One Touch Fire) which I use to work and if the truth is, the only thing I complain about is not being able to download attachments and view them if they are very heavy, I used whatsapp with openWapp and after For a while they banned me from whatsapp for not using the official application (which bothered me a lot to the point of sending that service to hell, it is not vital for me), facebook works well, youtube great if you only use it to watch videos, how it works In general, it is very acceptable and the interface is very beautiful, but what makes me love my Hamachi the most is the philosophy of firefox which I admire, for me it is a device designed for non-profit purposes for the benefit of humanity, previously I had faith in it to Android that faith died (an example is that stupid application that does not interest me as it is called which does not let you use or YouTube without installing that memory devouring garbage.) So in summary I LOVE MY FIREFOX OS LONG LIFE FFOS ...

      regards

  10.   French said

    My FirefoxOS hesitated with its version 1.1, in fact ZTE gives technical support that leaves much to be desired. To update the system it was necessary to flash it, thus losing the guarantee of operation.
    The concept of FirefoxOS is not only to free you through an open multimedia programming language, such as HTML5, but it is also the only one with the "anti-tracking" function, you can change the PIN.
    On Android it is possible to anonymize it, but it requires multiple apps to ensure it:
    http://gutl.jovenclub.cu/blackphone-privatos-contra-firefoxos
    Losing thus Performance (stability and performance)
    By the way, do you know how to recover the usb-mouse detection? I accidentally deleted usb-creator-gtk.

  11.   inty d carhuarupay said

    Well, another option is the Nokia 520 like this from where I write that it comes out at 100 dollars and is better than many similarly priced android.

    What happens is that firefox must be on 50 dollar phones to succeed.

  12.   maxiro said

    Greetings, I would be interested in having a FirefoxOS, but I don't know which cell phone to choose, and from what I see, ZTE is not a good choice, which one do you recommend? Since you know more about the subject.

    1.    auroszx said

      As the owner of a first generation Alcatel OTF, I can say that at least it is not that bad compared to the Open. My choices would go like this: Flame (Mozilla-Alcatel), Geeksphone (any, but preferably the Peek Developer Phone, if not, the Keon or the Revolution), Alcatel; and then a common phone with a functional FxOS port. Neither ZTE, nor those from India that are coming out (they lack power, they are inferior to OTF and Open).

  13.   jesus said

    Hello, I managed to update (reading tutorials) the ZTE Open to 1.3 which is only in English, French, Chinese and Arabic. Does anyone know how to put Spanish into it? (or in a more modern version).

    1.    auroszx said

      If the ROM doesn't bring it, you have (as a minimum) to recompile Gaia on your machine with Spanish support and flash it. I think.

  14.   auroszx said

    The problem is that Mozilla has not prioritized where it should when developing the system. Things like "Electrolysis" (correct multi-thread support in JS) should be done by now, instead of changing the interface 3 or 4 times from version 1.0 to 2.2. Please, things as simple as choosing a region-independent time format were barely included in 2.2, and surely in several Haida apps (the stock layer) it still cannot be written horizontally.

    In my humble opinion, the development should have been approached like this: performance optimization of the HTML5 suite, basic functionality (all common functions, Find My Phone and the support of themes and home screens is over for now), minimal interface (the one from 1.1 / 1.3, but with consistent and functional animations), advanced functions (accessibility, FMP, etc) and then the extras (themes and customization). That the system is open does not mean that they cannot specify the priority of certain commits, they have to learn to say no.

    1.    elav said

      Finally someone who understands me .. I think we have talked about this a lot in private AurosZx and I see that Mozilla keeps making the same mistake, over and over again. Right now my old ZTE Open has it my brother-in-law, and sometimes he asks me questions like how does this OS have no such thing, if a Nokia from 10 years ago has it?

  15.   Manual of the Source said

    I don't see what's new. Regarding the abandonment of terminals, Android has the same problem, if you buy a low-cost terminal, forget that it is updated not at least once. I got to have a Sony Ericsson E15a with Android 2.1 and a Galaxy Y with Android 2.3 that obviously neither Google nor their respective brands ever bothered to update and they have remained that way to this day. My current LG L7 II has Android 4.2 and not even looking to upgrade to KitKat, so in no time it will be another paperweight just like those two. And so it happens and will continue to happen with 99.99% of all Android devices on the market; only the "flagships" are supported and the rest are simply lost into oblivion.

    Regarding Firefox OS being very green, it is logical that this is the case for an OS that barely has a year and a half of life. Again, Android was just as "skinny" when it came out and it took several years for it to become decent. We must also not forget that Mozilla does not have the same economic power or relationships with other companies that Google has, so it is obvious that it cannot progress at the same speed and that the availability of apps is much lower; This does not mean that you cannot continue to evolve at your own slower pace.

    In short, could Mozilla have done better? Yes much better. A thousand times better. Firefox OS is dead? No. But it will take much longer to progress than most expect. If by the end of 2016 or the beginning of 2017 it still does not take off, then yes I would say that it will be necessary to prepare the swallows, but not before, and definitely not now.

    1.    eliotime3000 said

      That same. Firefox OS is not dead yet, but many of them want to kill it.

      It only needs promotion and that it be tested on high-end equipment to be able to test 3D games that use HTML5 and CSS3 technology.

    2.    solidus said

      Well, not all android remember that the moto g started from 4.3 step to 4.4.2 4.4.3 4.4.4 and now it goes to 5.0 lollipop the problem of android is not itself of android when updating the problem is that each brand puts it its custom android layer which does not update the mobile manufacturer all could have pure android nexus style and everything with update but it would be difficult to choose from one mobile to another but today I think motorola got it right and was able to get out of bankruptcy thanks to its moto g and moto x line also with great support and prompt updates

  16.   cristian said

    For me he was born dead, which does not mean that it is good, but it will never be massive ...
    I loved symbian, but he died alone and abandoned ... and incredible projects like moblin-meego-tizen were lost

    1.    eliotime3000 said

      That same. The problem is that these projects die because they do not give a ball or simply assign animals the task of promoting them.

  17.   toñolocotelan_te said

    Well, I have NEVER seen a cell with FirefoxOS and I live in a country where maybe they don't have money to pay for airtime or some plan, but EVERYONE has a cell phone, and if in a place like this you don't see FirefoxOS, then it's as if FirefoxOS did not exist ... or does not like

    1.    eliotime3000 said

      In Peru, the Firefox OS is adorning the side of the iPhone 5 / 5S.

  18.   eliotime3000 said

    As I said at the beginning, I am against Telefónica distributing Firefox OS, since said company is a pot of crickets as far as management is concerned (and I am not referring exclusively to its telephone and internet service, but to its management usually).

    At this point, I would have liked Firefox OS to be available now on my Galaxy Mini, but unfortunately, the joke is that the pace of Firefox OS updates is focused on things that don't really give it the proper importance (themes, skins, etc), and as I've seen, neither ZTE nor Alcatel gave it a decent enough deal to make Firefox OS look good, but DO NOT!, the same song as Android had to happen.

    On the other hand, the joke is that I see that there is little interest in forking Firefox OS as it is frequently done with Android, so until now I do not see that anyone dares to adapt Firefox OS for low-end "obsolete" cell phones such as the Galaxy Mini or another cell phone that has been despised by the developers of smart phones such as Samsung or LG (imagine that I had to use the CM 7.2 on the poor Galaxy Mini because it could not hold even the CM 10 and had fewer functions and / or came with enough bugs).

    1.    cristian said

      in Chile all the diffusion was this: yao
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsuE80zW4w4

      1.    eliotime3000 said

        In Peru they put the same commercial, but until now I haven't found the Ylvis song, this one complete in Spanish. : v

        Seriously speaking, the Firefox OS phones are still on display at Movistar stands, but almost no one dares to buy and / or try them (I tried an Alcatel One Touch Fire and it seems decent with respect to functions and all that, but the problem is that it is clunky on the camera and slows down fast in certain games).

    2.    auroszx said

      The other day I asked @asadotzler a quick question about ARMv6 support. On the Wiki it says that it is supported, but nobody bothers to port it. What I got out of the conversation is: you can port it to ARMv6 without problem, as long as you have a kernel compatible with Android 4.0+ that works for your ARMv6 device (or rather, that the code is available or you upload it to Github in some way ). I would do the test, but I am short on time and resources (1Mb internet). If your Galaxy Mini has a CM9 available, check if its kernel is on Github and try compiling Firefox OS.

      1.    eliotime3000 said

        Well, we will have to try, just to compile it yourself.

  19.   Firefox OS a great base for programming said

    Another advantage of Firefox OS is that it is a very good environment for programming and what you do will work for practically any mobile because html5 is a standard.
    By the way, I have an open ZTE and no paperweight at all, I find it incredible how fluid it goes with such limited hardware.

  20.   Joshua Aquino said

    Could it be installed on the Open II? 🙁 I had to sell it because after weeks of having it I didn't find anything (not even on xda). I got stuck in 1.3 and I could only test that one, it wasn't that bad, but what you're saying is true, they have bad support. One of the features I saw missing (at least in 1.3) was text selection and being able to copy it.

    1.    auroszx said

      That feature is in 2.2, maybe 2.1 too. Regarding whether it is possible: if ZTE released the kernel, or if it shares the kernel with Open C, it is possible, but not so simple.

  21.   charlie brown said

    In my opinion, another Mozilla error that has worsened the situation was the choice of ZTE as the manufacturer of the terminals, since the quality of its equipment leaves much to be desired, in addition to not showing the slightest interest in collaborating in the maintenance of this SO. When I refer to the quality of the equipment, I speak specifically of the ZTE Open, since I have one for less than a year and although I am extremely careful with all my gadgets, the battery has already started to present problems and lasts on average about 24 hours in stand-by mode, in addition, dust has begun to get on the screen, which shows a bad sealing of the same; in short, the quality of the components and the manufacturing process are simply deficient.

    It is clear that this OS and these terminals are aimed at the lower income sector and emerging markets, but that does not imply at all that quality can be neglected. Along that path, and given Mozilla's attitude, I don't see much of a future for Firefox OS, unless they radically change their attitude.

  22.   jmsanzd said

    I have had the Geeksphone Peak since January.

    It came to me with version 1.1 installed. The new version is supposed to come out every 12 weeks. At this point, as a stable version, we continue with 1.1. 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 have been skipped (and let's not talk about 2.0 or 2.1). If you install them on your own, and you have problems with them, the "solution" they give you is "Return to the stable version" ...

    The new "trial" versions are improving, but they do not have the necessary stability. There are serious mails synchronization failures, with the wifi…. It gives the impression that the system is fully in beta. And in 10 months they have not gone from there. Indeed, my phone with FFOS has become almost like a paperweight (my 11-year-old daughter uses it as an emergency phone). It is very disappointing.

    1.    auroszx said

      Well, they will be specific Geeksphone errors, because I don't have those problems with WiFi and synchronization in the OTF.

  23.   dwarf said

    Hello, I have come to bring Cancer to the arsonists who cried a few months ago with some news.

    Does anyone remember the mess that broke out with Brendan Eich? No? Oh too bad, I do, and the thing is that the «homophobic tyrant, destroyer of Mozilla's ideals ...» had as an action plan to dedicate himself to the operating system, to have it as one of the highest priorities only surpassed by the browser, he was looking to build a plan and a specialized team for the system, he was obviously a CEO with extreme experience (and creator of the programming language that the system uses) and, since we are all so especially sensible and consistent in everything we say, for a donation of 1000 $ 8 years ago, we made him resign and we were left without a CEO for who knows how much… Well done guys, you have achieved that the unbroken freedom of I don't know who is respected!

    Anyway, we have what we deserve.

    1.    auroszx said

      Is that yes, there are all kinds of stupid people. You should not mix professional history with personal, and they did it without foundation.

    2.    yukiteru said

      Hahahaha if I remember that show too @nano, and you're right, in several of the interviews that were made to Brendan Eich, he always put on the table the importance of Firefox OS in the new approach that Mozilla Foundation was taking. But hey, he's gone and I don't think he wants to take over any project at Mozilla Foundation again after such public derision.

  24.   william_oops said

    That the Alcatel OTF support is better than the ZTE? OTA updates? Wow ... here in Uruguay I have not received any version update of the system, I am still in the 1.1 with which it came from the factory. The only thing that has been updated OTA have been the applications and some other firmware.

    To my enthusiasm the idea of ​​BTG ... I even advised my partner to buy one, to be patient, it was going to get good ... but I was like a fool. It is real that it works agile, very agile. But it "hangs often", so you have to do a hard reset, sometimes the alarm doesn't work, etc. As someone here said, they have focused more on looks than functionality. Notice that you cannot even forward an SMS that we have sent ... you have to write it all again if you want to send the same thing to another person ... unfortunate. Nor does version 1.1 allow you to choose a musical theme as a ringtone ... something basic basic.
    I expected much much more from Firefox OS ... being Open Source I imagined that its development would be much more agile ... I was wrong. There was even talk of tablets with the Mozilla operating system ... they are conspicuous by their absence.

    Nor is it so clear to me, in terms of updates, how far Mozilla's responsibility goes and how far the manufacturers' responsibility goes.

    I will keep waiting patiently. That if ... my insurance partner is not going to accept any other advice from me regarding mobile telephony.

  25.   Juan said

    FirefoxOs is not going to die, as long as it continues to function as an umbrella so that Google is not accused of monopolizing with Android. It doesn't matter if it works or if it's a paper mache castle, that people use it, or that just a couple of widows in their basements stick to it, it'll be there to cover Google's back. That is and has been its function, regardless of rhetoric or promises. In a few years they will see it more clearly, seeing how every detail «error» in the development of the arena has been handled.
    It would only disappear if for some reason (which I cannot imagine) the risk of claiming Android disappears.

  26.   SynFlag said

    You mention the screen rotation ... I remember when no one asked for that and we used SMS perfectly on cell phones like Alcatel 331a, Nokia 1100 without any problem and even without errors, that if they give us virtual keyboards.

    Returning to the topic of the post, yes, it was a bad move by Mozilla, but the worst thing is that there were rumors of an App for WhatsApp and others, but it never appeared. I think it was rather a whim of Telefonica, Mozilla took advantage of it but did not give it the necessary push due to economic issues. Precisely, if they have qualified personnel, why don't these apps exist? You also have to see the topic of agreements, perhaps WhatsApp already had agreements with Android and WP ... therefore, it could not or did not want to sign with FirefoxOS

  27.   NULL said

    From a developer's point of view FirefoxOS is Beautiful.

    About the article, I still have a lot of faith in the fox.

  28.   agodinez said

    Well, from my point of view, I think that Firefox OS is for people who like programming, who likes to do things yourself, I think it is not for people who like to raise their apps or waste time on networks social 🙂

  29.   psep said

    Well, of all the possible arguments against Firefox OS ... well, the ones you expose are debatable.

    Fragmentation is an issue, but of the operators and the companies themselves. Updating via OTA is always their responsibility, even if you don't want to. With Android it happens the same way. The solution would be to switch to another rom, but that is already reaching for the device.

    With regard to popular applications, it is up to the developer companies that own the products. You cannot develop a client app for a service that does not have an API, for example and if they persecute those who use other mechanisms to use (such as WhatsApp).

  30.   Salamander said

    I think that the issue of being able to update older devices does not interest mozilla or zte, it is a strategy so people will stop for another phone, everyone earns less the customer

  31.   Palomares said

    Long live FFOS!

  32.   Juan said

    I see comments everywhere and the truth is that most (if not all) are First World comments (for which FirefoxOS is not initially thinking about) wanting to pay Third World prices.

    I got a ZTE Open C on Ebay and gave it to my 17-year-old son as a replacement for the Galaxy Ace (GT-S5830) he had, at the time that Ace cost USD 150, now he has a phone that cost me $ 85, with a processor twice as fast (be more careful because this dual core). The screen is bigger, the battery lasts at least twice as long (and that's like 100mhA smaller).

    He installed OpenWapp and keeps talking to everyone who has WhatsApp, wants YouTube, there it is. Browse, use the round games, have all his contacts, email, Facebook whenever he wants and Hangout if I want to talk to him via Google chat.

    Ah that it does not have Instagram and another lot of 1st world bullshit, they will come. That ZTE does not provide good service (which equipment provider does it, I have an HTC ONE X that was expensive and has had to disassemble and amend it like 3 times). That the specs are low (it cost $ 80 with shipping, what more do I want). That there are cheap low-end Android phones (yes let Google start that game of updates to see how long that phone lasts). That 4G does not do, who cares if the telephone companies under the excuse of 3G or 4G what they do is raise the price and provide an equally poor service.

    Which brings me to one of the reasons why I'm trying FireFox OS (aside from the price): the must-have updates from Google. Equipment that is in perfect condition (read the original Samsung Mini S, original Samsung Ace, the 1st Google phone, and a couple more that I have touched), at the point of forcing the installation of G + and other services, the equipment is unusable (space is running out of memory, the ram does not hold, etc, etc

    It is time to see this new system and the equipment that goes on the market from the perspective of people who, if they have to pay USD $ 250 to $ 400 for a "low to medium range" phone, means not eating for a month (or all year in some places ) or get into debt, so that they can be communicated.

    Many parts of the world there is no Wi-Fi in every corner or 4G (or 3G), in my grandmother's town the only free Wi-Fi was put by the state recently in the local park (I had to put a directional antenna and make inventions to have signal, because the 3G of the mobiles works halfway). So if in "fairly developed" places there are these connectivity issues, I can't imagine South Asia or Africa. It seems excellent to me that instead of wanting to push 1st world solutions in these places, someone has landed on the reality that is lived and is looking for a solution around that reality and not that of Silicon Valley.

    In short, the other month I get myself another ZTE Open C for another member of the family.

  33.   oscar said

    I think this post is bullying but really speaking I think the difference between Firefox Os and android is that android is manufactured by an immensely rich company while Firefox Os is a company with very little profit motive and therefore with more difficulties to carry it out. I finish this great project.

  34.   David said

    I do not totally agree with the article, because you have to take into account certain things:
    1. The updates are not the fault of Mozilla but of the manufacturers and telephone operators. These do not carry the updates as they should, for example here in Colombia the OTF update 1.3 has not even arrived and I contacted the manufacturer and he told me that the operator did it, I spoke with a Movistar advisor and they told me that it was the manufacturer who was in charge. So mozilla is not to blame there for the updates.
    2. The OS yes, it was designed for low-cost devices although I am not in favor of putting so many things into it because I would not like to see another heavy android for these devices. I had the bitter experience of having a low-end android smartphone and it was not so fluid, it got to the point that when making calls it took seconds to make them and this happens with the current ones that have Android 4, it is very heavy and It is because of the many things it has, Firefox I think of it as something light that does not consume much and that is attractive.
    3. What about the most popular apps (WhatsApp, instagram, facebook, twitter and google +), mozilla is not to blame there either. Mark Zuckerberg still does not want to use HTML5, and that his native app will continue to work even though it is bad on android. Yes, the community is in charge of creating apps under this standard of HTML5, CSS3 and JS but these companies do not promote support for this OS. The only one that at least did something was Microsoft and it has already released 3 apps for the OS.

  35.   CodingFree said

    Good afternoon,

    To download some ROMs you can also visit http://www.codingfree.com

    Greetings and good entry.

  36.   OTF fans said

    The important thing is not that I do not want to compete or not with android or ios, but rather that we are locked in a globalized world where our ideas standardize and we cannot be different from others without being compared, personally since I found out about the project I was excited to know that there would be a different system than usual and that we could differentiate ourselves from the other systems, and simply be different, but with the passage of time I have noticed that they want firefox to be android or ios in a certain way I prefer firefox As such and what it is, I like to be and have what is different and not compare or equal what is different, do not mess up firefox with the same android programs, you have to be original.

  37.   yunier j said

    I think that the main problem lies with the phone manufacturers because of the bad support they give, and on the other hand with Mozilla because they did not realize it before. What they have told me is that the current versions are being made so that it does not depend on the manufacturers but each device depends on (private) drivers and that is the difficult thing to obtain