Mozilla picks JavaScript titan Eich to lead charge against 'Droid, iOS JavaScript daddy and Mozilla chief technology officer Brendan Eich is taking over Firefox’s dive into mobile as the open-source shop hits an important juncture. He’s taking over as Mozilla fights for the hearts and minds of devs who might once have defaulted to Firefox, but are now being dazzled with open-source choices. As …
Oh dear. HTML 5 apps. That right there, be itself, could be the reason for an epic fail.
Not that HTML 5 is bad, but hordes of Java/Objective-C developers probably aren't going to reset their brains into HTML 5 mode. I think the HTML5 evangelists, who trumped up its abilities no end, have sold Firefox OS down the river.
They really need to stick the Dalvik VM on top of it, if it's technically and legally possible.
Given that people had to reset their brains to switch to Android/IOS (Android may use Java, but the set of libraries is completely different, and not compatible with non-mobile Java, or indeed non-Android mobile Java), I'm not sure support one specifc language is any more a problem than every other mobile platform which does the same. And HTML5 is at least a good contender for something that truely is cross-platform, running on all mobile and non-mobile devices.
Even with mobile platforms supporting native code with other languages like C++, it seems that most people prefer to rewrite applications in the "officially approved" language and API.
Having said that, I think it would be a shame if Tizen and FirefoxOS don't support other languages at all, as this does make porting things an awful lot easier.
Compatibility with Android is more if a company wants to sell this as a successor to Android (e.g., it would be important for Samsung, if they ever want to switch from Android to Tizen as their flagship OS).
...or tablets, since a closed OS like Android or even iOS actually makes sense for a device that connects to the telephone network;
I'd offer one that could boot up into Tizen, Sailfish, Ubuntu for Smartphones, or the Firefox OS. Because I think that a tablet that is also a "real computer" is a very important product category, something that meets a real need... but that need won't be met if we have to wait for the market to pick a winner from such a crowded field.
The more likely result is that they'll all fail. They need, instead, to join forces.
Exactly. There is not enough room in the market or time in a development team's schedule to add another platform to their list. Company I worked for recently was making apps for Android, iOS, legacy BB, and hadn't even started designing apps for Win8, due to no time, not depth in the team to work on more platforms and management's decision to just concentrate on the two biggest markets. This OS would fly completely under the radar.
It's easy to say, "hire some HTML5 devs then", until you do the maths. It's just too big of a gamble for most small/medium sized development companies that aren't rolling in cash.
The end of the beginning of the end and the beginning of the end of the end.
Methinks "be" embodies all that's wrong with Mozilla... a corporatesque management clique strutting around bugzilla wailing "IE parity" while crushing innovation with "wontfix". Ug. Must keep the bug numbers down!
Open projects, in particular, need energetic and enthusiastic management to inspire innovation and collaboration, not some quazi-balmer despots stamping on anyone who isn't readily beaten into compliance. I'm not sure that's a particularly wise tactic even in proprietary circles, when exercised on paid minions... but I KNOW it's cyanide to a "community" project... as Mozilla once was.
As far as I can tell (it's been a while but I don't think it has improved!), there's very little left to Mozilla other than those Google employs... and they'll all evaporate the moment Google tires of it's little IE wannabe.
RIP Netscape.
/exasperated rant
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