Database Users

Will Android Change to Chrome OS?

I was just thinking, what with Google making their upcoming Chrome OS, does anyone think Android will undergo a change, or a makeover?
Or in fact, a new line of ChromeOS Phones?
Just wondering...

I doubt it... there may be feature cross-merges... but after working so hard on Android, I doubt google would move to ChromeOS... which by the way is a netbook cloud OS, not a mobile phone OS...

craigacgomez said:
I doubt it... there may be feature cross-merges... but after working so hard on Android, I doubt google would move to ChromeOS... which by the way is a netbook cloud OS, not a mobile phone OS...
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+1. Chrome OS and Android are completely separate entities.

I really don't think this would happen. The reason being that Android is not completely owned by Google, its a project by Open Handset Alliance. ChromeOS is Google's OS for PCs. They might share some features but complete merging of the two is something I doubt...

Actually it was talked about not so long ago here.
Whether that is still the case is another question...

I think this is why it's not the best time to buy an Android tablet. With Chrome OS in development, tablets today will be put in an awkward spot without a way to upgrade confirmed.

I don't see this happening because they're meant for completely different functions. Trying to have them merge into one Super-OS for laptops, notebooks, netbooks, tablets, and cell phones sounds like it would yield a terrible OS. Not only that, but there would be certain parts of the merged OS that you'd never use when in a PC style environment and certain parts you'd never use in a cell phone environment.
The other problem I see is that Android OS has absolutely 0 to benefit from Chrome OS. Anything Chrome OS can do, Android can already do it. It's just the internet, after all. (/queue "Anything you can do, I can do better." )
What Google should do is make Android OS their main platform, and then allow Chrome OS to run Android apps.
BOOM!
That would be downright amazing.
I have no idea if that's possible though...
I know emulating Android on a PC is easy. But via a web browser -- can it be done?
Or maybe just a bootcamp-style switching between Chrome OS and Android?
Anyway, Chrome OS seems weak. I tried it when it first came out; not impressed. My phone does all that already. I'm pulling for Android all the way.
.

I never understood why they had two separate operating systems anyway. I would think Android would be a good platform for any hardware that would be better specced than a cell phone.

I think my biggest problem with Chrome OS is that it's dependant on the Internet.
That brings me to think of two issues:
- Constant streaming would hammer the battery compared to non-streaming OS's
- Nobody gets HSPA or WiFi EVERYWHERE.
This would be perfect when we have blanket LTE or WiMax, but not for another year at least.
It just seems like they constructed it like a phone OS
I Like Paul's idea. Although, I'm sure someone will make an emulator or something similar for android to run ontop of Chrome OS. Perhaps a cloud-based/Flash Android will arise, like all of those website desktops available.

Poll--Better Cornerstone build

Just wanted your opinions on which dev has the best Onskreen Cornerstone build right now. I have installed both CM9 and Eos i personally prefer Eos' build they are doing a great job with the dev so far. Great job on both roms though. And are there any other roms with OSCS built in these are the only two im aware of.
I can deal with the minor bugs I really couldn't see my TF without OSCS now im spoiled

I'd personally love a completely stock with cornerstone and stock buttons. I like the Asus quick panel and soundset
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

I like the Team EOS better.
After using Cornerstone for a day, you cannot imagine life without it. I know the feeling.

jinsoku3g said:
I'd personally love a completely stock with cornerstone and stock buttons. I like the Asus quick panel and soundset
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium
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This is pretty much what I'm holding out for, a nice stock rom with cornerstone.

st0nedpenguin said:
This is pretty much what I'm holding out for, a nice stock rom with cornerstone.
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Which can't happen right now because we ain't got no source code yet.

i flashed back to ARHD to many bugs for me to use as daily (especially now with the dock) waiting for a good solid CS build screen swapping would be cool if they release the source for that (not likely soon)

Here is some important information from the CEO of Onskreen directly to Diane Hackborn of Google, I've not read this on this site, I was directed here after an email with consumer relations with Onskreen while asking if the window-swappng option was going to be re-implemented..their reply was basically "no, and here is why; read this comment" so here is what they said..
(my emphasis)
hansmeet sethi - I am the CEO of Onskreen and felt it was about time we weighed in on the public discussion. To start off with, we have been impressed by the level of discussion on this thread on the topic of compatibility. We take it very seriously and are glad that the rest of the community do as well.
+Dianne Hackborn - Thanks for sharing specific concerns and we can appreciate their gravity and the need for a dialogue. However, outside of the implementation details perhaps some background will help. Onskreen saw an obvious need in the UX of Android on larger screen devices (that is our business after all), and we worked to address that with Cornerstone. During the process, we have invested heavily to respect Android's intentions and compatibility of the Frameworks you helped build. When you get a chance to review the code, you will see that we went out of our way to not introduce app requirements, leverage the patterns already used, and treat running Applications in a way that they are oblivious to the Cornerstone experience. We rejected many features along the way to optimize for compatibility. The result is a product that we are proud of, respects the Android project, that the user and mod communities are excited about, and OEMs love. And frankly, once you use a tablet with multi-tasking there is no going back. We are the first to admit the product is not perfect, but was at a point where we felt comfortable sharing with the community to use, help improve and polish. We see the goal of this conversation as a way to come to an agreement on some of the aspects of Compatibility and deliver multi-tasking on Android.
Now - a few of your concerns:
- Orientation - Good points, and we spent a ton of time thinking through the UX here. Cornerstone adheres to the desired orientation of the Application running in the Main Panel (and rotation of the device). Cornerstone restricts the user from opening an app that won't support all orientations in the Cornerstone panel, so there is not a case where an app running there is forced into an orientation the app developer did not intend to run in (try opening Angry Birds in the Cornerstone and you will see this). There is more here but I will leave it at that for the time being.
- Screen size changes - You point out the complexity of a changing screen size on an app. We agree and this is the reason that swapping panels (applications moving from the main area to the cornerstone or vice versa) was removed from the product. Apps at this point just aren't enforced to consider this, so Cornerstone imposing it on them would be incompatible and we don't (although we all sorely miss the feature). One area we are still considering is the Config of the main app. Logically this should change when the user minimizes/maximizes the Cornerstone, however the implementation is not doing that because of compatibility issues it would introduce. To be fully compliant we are aware that we will may have to remove the ability to minimize/maximize the Cornerstone (we will miss that feature too). Perhaps you have some suggestions here?
- ProcessRecord/ActivityThread Configurations - As you mentioned, while the ActivityStack was refactored out during your exploration, other inherent dependencies on a static Configuration do still exist. Some interesting features could be enabled by expanding this, but we didn't make these changes so that the Cornerstone codebase could more easily be used in customized Android trees of OEMs and others, as well as perhaps in upcoming Android releases.
- CDD Compliance - We take this one very seriously and you bring up good points. However, our intention is that each area (the main panel and cornerstone panels) be designed as CDD compliant sizes. That is not fully the case in the .85 release that was open sourced. As we made the switch to v4.0.3_r1 and the 1280x800 reference device (Xoom), we haven't made all these changes yet. It may require that some of the panels in certain orientations run in a pseudo compatibility mode similar to how the Android OS supports legacy apps already so that their config is CDD compliant and the UX is optimized.
- CTS - One test in CTS calls for any Activity that doesn't have the focus to be moved to the paused state. This is obviously not the case in Cornerstone as Activities do stay resumed when not having the focus and still are visible on the screen. Google could ding Cornerstone for that and in truth they would be technically correct. However this would be silly considering the nature of the test when applied to a real multi-tasked environment. That is not our call however.
In short, we think about the same problems you do and we believe in the product as well as maintaining the integrity of Android applications and devices. You of all people can appreciate the complexity in working with the Android framework in the way we have to get Cornerstone built, and to call it a fork is doing the design and engineering effort that went into it a disservice. We see the point of AOSP and contributions like Cornerstone to create a dialogue, come to agreement and add great features to the platform. To that end, we are more than happy to continue this conversation. Some of us are in the bay area and happy to drop by Google if you prefer.
hansmeet.
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thats pretty cool but i will miss having the features im sure the community will implement our own twist on it though. to bad for the screen swapping though .
on a different note CM9 with cornerstone is moving along quite well a lot more stable ROM can i vote again lol

Cornerstone is just a placeholder for me until Windows 8 is released for tablets.
Definitely switching to Windows 8 unless Google adds to Android a comparable multitasking capability.

Just stock, I like stock ICS on TF101 (after reboot and pc connection issue removed...) and don't see any pro's in any other ROM for me...

Pretty much all of the concessions that they have or are discussing making to cornerstone are quickly removing the reason for having it at all. There are plenty of apps that already are not compatible with many devices and resolutions. Crippling a feature because you "can't" create new app requirements is silly. This is the area where google(and cornerstone) have the potential to destroy apple. As these devices get faster and bigger, you can't stick with the one app at a time paradigm.
I understand google is trying to remove the "fragmentation" but your OS can't evolve if that outweighs everything else.

gottahavit said:
Pretty much all of the concessions that they have or are discussing making to cornerstone are quickly removing the reason for having it at all. There are plenty of apps that already are not compatible with many devices and resolutions. Crippling a feature because you "can't" create new app requirements is silly. This is the area where google(and cornerstone) have the potential to destroy apple. As these devices get faster and bigger, you can't stick with the one app at a time paradigm.
I understand google is trying to remove the "fragmentation" but your OS can't evolve if that outweighs everything else.
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Google will add better multitasking to Android. They have to or they will lose to Windows 8.
Cornerstone is just not Google's answer to multitasking on Android. I bet Google has something better.

horndroid said:
Google will add better multitasking to Android. They have to or they will lose to Windows 8.
Cornerstone is just not Google's answer to multitasking on Android. I bet Google has something better.
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The problem with windows 8 is that a windows tablet will always cost 100 dollars more than the same android tablet. Add to that the fact that you'll have to re-buy all your apps for ARM or Metro and they have a tough battle ahead in the consumer market.
Personally I Find Metro totally annoying on my 17" laptop, I think Microsoft is having an identity crisis with windows 8. The last thing I want on my laptop is forced full screen apps. Honestly Metro is a little to Android(ish) for what I would want on a tablet once they get a little more powerful and have better rez.
EDIT: I should qualify this with the fact that I am a die hard windows fan, I LOVE windows 7, prefer coding for windows over any other OS EVER, and absolutely hate MAC OS.

gottahavit said:
The problem with windows 8 is that a windows tablet will always cost 100 dollars more than the same android tablet. Add to that the fact that you'll have to re-buy all your apps for ARM or Metro and they have a tough battle ahead in the consumer market.
Personally I Find Metro totally annoying on my 17" laptop, I think Microsoft is having an identity crisis with windows 8. The last thing I want on my laptop is forced full screen apps. Honestly Metro is a little to Android(ish) for what I would want on a tablet once they get a little more powerful and have better rez.
EDIT: I should qualify this with the fact that I am a die hard windows fan, I LOVE windows 7, prefer coding for windows over any other OS EVER, and absolutely hate MAC OS.
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I don't care. All that matters is that Windows 8 will motivate Google to add some real multitasking capability to its Android OS. We all know how competitive Google is. They will do it, and it won't be Cornerstone. It will be something better.

horndroid said:
I don't care. All that matters is that Windows 8 will motivate Google to add some real multitasking capability to its Android OS. We all know how competitive Google is. They will do it, and it won't be Cornerstone. It will be something better.
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Kinda, my point. have you used Windows 8 Multitasking? it looks too much like Honeycomb except they keep apps actually running. This is of course Metro, native apps are still good old windows. This isn't Microsoft putting out something for google to steal or envy, it's Microsoft going "OHHH everybody love android and IOS, they must all want "one app at a time" style OS.

Why don't Operating Systems give you choice any more?

I can get on board with Windows Phone 8 or even IOS but the only thing I cannot stand is how they don't allow you to have choice. On Android even though it doesn't come as standard any more, I can still download the APK and install Flash Player myself. Average users can just use the OS and never install flash but I'm still allowed to install it as it's a personal need.
Now Windows Phone 8 is out and it is another OS that doesn't allow you to install software they haven't approved. It just pisses me off so much, especially seeing as they don't have BBCiPlayer yet which uses flash. I mean everyone will tell you these days that flash sucks, no one uses it and yet every site I seem to go to does, even Youtube has lots of flash only content you cannot play with HTML5. I mean is HTML5 even going to become the new standard? I don't see people picking it up very fast.
I just don't get why people don't want choice any more, they seem quite happy to defend being controlled and told how to use their phone. I find IOS harder to use than Android and many people I meet do, I mean things like sharing files between your device and your PC which should be so easy has become so hard. You used to be able to just plug in your phone and it would show as a HDD, now however with IOS and I'm sure Windows Phone 8, you cannot do that. I find it funny because people actually do find these so called user friendly devices harder to use. It's like Windows 8 now and how their new Metro UI has tried to make things look so simple that they've hidden all the options. Things once simple to do, you have to right click and then search in settings to find they've removed the feature to keep the UI looking clean.
I'm just sick of it, the least Microsoft could do is allow third party software to be installed as an option for advanced users. This would at least make up for the lack of functionality on a new OS... no BBCiPlayer? No problem, use the Desktop site which I always do on Android anyways as it has far more functionality and content than the app, the same goes for Youtube.

HTML5 is the new standard. It is adobe's policy and attempts to try to maintain the monopoly over the market-share, combined with pure ignorance from established web developers that still keep it alive.
Installing third party software on a phone is kinda dangerous. Your phone is not a desktop PC, it has limited uses, and it should be regarded as such...
Oh and there is really no reason not to have your functional app on the marketplace. If your app is that awesome and yet you can't get it from the marketplace, then there is something wrong with it.
Don't forget about piracy.

Firstly the phone has limited uses? I've got the same Nokia phone that I've had since 2003 and it works fine. I've had the GS2 for a year and a half now and loaded countless custom roms and third party software and the phone is perfectly fine. Also on that point like I've said I've loaded countless amounts of third party software on Android from torrents or other sites and my phone has been fine. I've put lots of different firmware types on my phone and it has been fine. I don't see anything dangerous about it other than being an idiot enough to load some virus onto your phone.
Apps don't get to the market half the time not because there is anything wrong with it but because Microsoft or Apple simply don't want it on their platform. There is nothing wrong with saying you can flick this switch to open you phone but then have a warning saying you void your warranty or whatever if you brick your phone. Why don't they do this? I just think it all comes done to being scared of piracy more than anything and tbh that isn't a good enough excuse.
HTML5 isn't the new standard because 90% of the sites I go to still use flash and not HTML5. I just don't get why they'd say you can never install this on your phone, why not? All these fanboi claims of how bad it is has led to the downfall. I don't know what machines these people are using, I guess they're made up ones because I've never had a problem with flash, it has always run fine and never crashes all the time like people say... not on my GS2 and not on my Desktop. I'd say Flash is one of the most stable things on my system, I mean games crash far more often, surely ban games then for being unstable and poorly coded? Frigging barely any games are multithreaded even now, BAN THEM ALL!

^ What he said ^
All in all WP8 was a huuuge disappointment. At least for me

Venekor said:
Firstly the phone has limited uses? I've got the same Nokia phone that I've had since 2003 and it works fine. I've had the GS2 for a year and a half now and loaded countless custom roms and third party software and the phone is perfectly fine. Also on that point like I've said I've loaded countless amounts of third party software on Android from torrents or other sites and my phone has been fine. I've put lots of different firmware types on my phone and it has been fine. I don't see anything dangerous about it other than being an idiot enough to load some virus onto your phone.
Apps don't get to the market half the time not because there is anything wrong with it but because Microsoft or Apple simply don't want it on their platform. There is nothing wrong with saying you can flick this switch to open you phone but then have a warning saying you void your warranty or whatever if you brick your phone. Why don't they do this? I just think it all comes done to being scared of piracy more than anything and tbh that isn't a good enough excuse.
HTML5 isn't the new standard because 90% of the sites I go to still use flash and not HTML5. I just don't get why they'd say you can never install this on your phone, why not? All these fanboi claims of how bad it is has led to the downfall. I don't know what machines these people are using, I guess they're made up ones because I've never had a problem with flash, it has always run fine and never crashes all the time like people say... not on my GS2 and not on my Desktop. I'd say Flash is one of the most stable things on my system, I mean games crash far more often, surely ban games then for being unstable and poorly coded? Frigging barely any games are multithreaded even now, BAN THEM ALL!
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Yes, a phone has limited uses, you can't replace your PC with your phone no matter how much you want that.
Second, downloading apps from torrent is illegal. You have quite a lot of gutts to post such misery on a developer's forums, and i, as a developer, take great offense to that, so please get my sincere GTFO.
Third, Custom roms are something that android needs to survive, without it there would be no android. Windows Phone doesn't need that.
About HTML5, yes it is the standard, but people aren't forced to adapt by the standards instantly, they have a lot of time. But as this time runs out, flash will become extinct, therefore there is no reason to implement flash on new phones, as in 3 year's time, flash will be gone.
If your games have worse stability than flash I suggest you:
Get new RAM, your existing one is damaged.
Reinstall your Operating system, and don't pirate it.
Check your error logs, you will see flash is very unstable.

A ton of websites use HTML5.
Not a lot of websites use the new HTML5 video and audio elements.
A lot of the websites that do use them, either fall back to flash / Silverlight or use flash / Silverlight, first, and fall back to the HTML5 video and audio elements.
The websites that I work with, that use video and audio, do Silverlight, first, and fall back to HTML5 video and audio.
The biggest reasons are...
1: Very little native full-screen support (Chrome has it, but that's about it)
2: Firefox and Opera don't support MP4 / MP3 (we have to produce video is MP4 and WebM and audio in MP3 and OGG)
3: Our live broadcasts use the SmoothStreaming technology (only iOS and Android 3+ support that for HTML5 video - Silverlight supports it and supports most computers)
It is worth noting that I COMPLETELY agree with the point of this thread, though.
The iPhone started a trend of consumerizing smartphones.
As such, a lot of big business is still using Blackberry and Windows Mobile.
I would not be surprised, at all, if, in the next five years, we started seeing another separation of consumer versus professional.
The last few years have really tried to re-integrate the two and it hasn't worked, very well.
JJ

If 90 percent of the sites you visit still use flash then you're going to some low-quality porn sites... Also, WP8 does have disk mode, it also syncs through media player in the same way WinMo did.

mcosmin222 said:
Yes, a phone has limited uses, you can't replace your PC with your phone no matter how much you want that.
Second, downloading apps from torrent is illegal. You have quite a lot of gutts to post such misery on a developer's forums, and i, as a developer, take great offense to that, so please get my sincere GTFO.
Third, Custom roms are something that android needs to survive, without it there would be no android. Windows Phone doesn't need that.
About HTML5, yes it is the standard, but people aren't forced to adapt by the standards instantly, they have a lot of time. But as this time runs out, flash will become extinct, therefore there is no reason to implement flash on new phones, as in 3 year's time, flash will be gone.
If your games have worse stability than flash I suggest you:
Get new RAM, your existing one is damaged.
Reinstall your Operating system, and don't pirate it.
Check your error logs, you will see flash is very unstable.
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Click to collapse
"downloading apps from torrent is illegal"
Uh... Not really. He never said what apps he was downloading. Torrents != piracy.

SilverHedgehog said:
"downloading apps from torrent is illegal"
Uh... Not really. He never said what apps he was downloading. Torrents != piracy.
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Preach, preacha!!!
I would agree that a majority of torrents are copyrighted material, but certainly not everything.
Almost every Linux distribution utilizes torrent as their main means of downloading.
JJ

Venekor said:
On Android even though it doesn't come as standard any more, I can still download the APK and install Flash Player myself. Average users can just use the OS and never install flash but I'm still allowed to install it as it's a personal need.
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On my Jelly Bean I can't do this.

How is having Flash choice?
Can I get Flash from Microsoft or Flash from Apple or Flash from Google? nope, all versions of flash were done by one company. That's not competition or freedom, that is lock in. If Adobe didn't like your OS and phone you didn't get Flash.
HTML5 is like a universal language for all web enabled devices, we're better without these proprietary closed and restricted plugins.

After years if constantly flashing new ROMs and such. I for one am glad to be at WP8.
"Hello, my name is LudoGris and I am a flashaholic. I recently switched to Windows Phone 8 and have not had the urge to flash anything since. I am well on my way to being cured." ?
Sent from my RM-820_nam_att_100 using Board Express

LudoGris said:
After years if constantly flashing new ROMs and such. I for one am glad to be at WP8.
"Hello, my name is LudoGris and I am a flashaholic. I recently switched to Windows Phone 8 and have not had the urge to flash anything since. I am well on my way to being cured." ?
Sent from my RM-820_nam_att_100 using Board Express
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I got a little laugh out of this one. Thanks. I agree a bit here. That's what happened to me when I went from pre WinMo 7 to iOS. Now I'm back on Android because of how tired I was of the inability to do something as simple as customize the homescreen. Really, I don't care which one I use and, honestly, I'd use different ones at different times depending on needs and even mood. I flash a little bit with my Android but really like to get settled on something and not have to worry about it. That doesn't work out that often on Android, unfortunately. That's why I relate to the comment on "flashaholic...being cured". I'd like to try out WinPhone 8 for a little bit, but the first thing to turn me off big is the same thing that bothers me on the Win8 desktop, the integration with the MS ecosystem. I'm tied to Google apps and don't feel like switching. It makes most sense for me to use a Google OS because of the strong integration with Google apps.
All that being said, it's just a phone, it's just a desktop, just let me get what I want to get done on the two and have a real life! LOL

The basic fault with the argument here is that the ability to sideload applications has been there in various ways since WP7 came along. It wouldn't help you with your problems though. IE9 on WP7 and IE10 on WP8 simply don't have any plugin support so you wouldn't be able to add any.
The complete architecture of Android is more open and geared towards customization. The effect of that is that we frequently have Apps that don't run (well) on different OS versions, have stuttering problems or have to wait for ages and ages until the customized code gets updates. Allowing for a lot of flexibility with the system makes updating and changing code really challenging. I've encountered numerous of those problems on my GS2. Of course it's running reasonably well after I put CM9.1 on there and didn't bother to change much else but that's hardly how I would use my primary phone (installing Twitter killed Video playback for me on the Stock ROM - for whatever reason).
So basically as a consumer the tradeoff comes down to having everything work as intended without much possibilities to make the system misbehave versus a customized system that I can break at times. It seems there is not much of a middle ground there. We'll have to see how this plays out in the end as Microsoft is indeed adding integration points for developers to use to the system that make it more flexible while still enforcing certain guidelines.
On the whole Flash vs. HTML5 debate. Actually HTML5 can't replace Flash and Silverlight in many use cases. There are not even any standard proposals for certain functionalities that have been part of those Plugins for ages. Webcam-Support, DRM'd Video/Audio, etc. For those reasons alone it will be quite a long time before HTML5 really could replace them. Another important part is that there has been lots of money invested in building sites on top of those technologies. Over 90% of all Web activity still originate on classic PCs/Notebooks that have Flash support so unless your target audience is particularilly Smartphone/Tablet focussed (e.g. Gadget Blogs, etc.) you simply don't feel much pressure to move away from something that works just fine right now.
However Apple led the charge to kill Flash, Microsoft chimed in and in the end even Adobe decided to jump onto that train - even though none of them had a clue how to replace the technology. This clearly showed when Microsoft decided to revive Flash in Windows 8's Metro IE. I still doubt we will see any renewed development of Flash for mobile operating systems and it remains to be seen how long it will keep running on Android given that it has been abandonned by Adobe. It all comes down to the fact that the industry decided to move away from Flash and for better or worse that is what is happening right now. As soon as mobile really becomes important for the web industry things will start changing, right now it simply isn't or it is far easier to simply write an App then messing with a website that's working right now.

Android doesnt let you customize as much as maemo5, but still people choose it.
C'est la vie, necafé?
Personally Im enjoying wp8 for what it is: a smartphone OS. If it was a laptop Id be inclined to agree that it would be too limiting, but its not.

Slai said:
Android doesnt let you customize as much as maemo5, but still people choose it.
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While people like to customize, they also want to have an OS that's actually supported.

LudoGris said:
After years if constantly flashing new ROMs and such. I for one am glad to be at WP8.
"Hello, my name is LudoGris and I am a flashaholic. I recently switched to Windows Phone 8 and have not had the urge to flash anything since. I am well on my way to being cured." ?
Sent from my RM-820_nam_att_100 using Board Express
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@LudoGris
Do you know if your device is gonna get software upgrades or have you been able to flash new software. I have the same version as you have but won't be able to flash something new on it.

itsa porno thing
Just go to the jack-shack its cheaper

I was like you : I thought using iOS or WP was a regression because of lack of freedom. I used to heavily flash my Android devices... then I discovered WP (7.5 first, then 8). I really like it because it's simple... and it's working ! No need to flash, no need to choose another launcher, no need to get lost in settings : it works ! It's stable, fluid and ergonomy is great.
I really like WP8 "launcher" AKA Metro. I think it has the best way to personalize information by choosing what is the more pertinent for each user.
I can live in a closed OS if it answer to all my needs... With WP8, it's the case !

zepretender said:
I was like you : I thought using iOS or WP was a regression because of lack of freedom. I used to heavily flash my Android devices...
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We probably don't need another "me too" here, but I have to say, you've summed up my experience perfectly I was thrilled to flash AOKP's ICS and JB onto my old single-core Samsung Fascinate, and then I could get Nova Launcher with gestures and docks and more options than I can recall; but all those new features were slow, slow, slow. So I flashed the Devil kernel and tried different govenors, but of course YGWYPF and my battery life went down the tubes. I had replaced almost all the stock apps with better versions from the market, but my app collection grew to well over a hundred and I needed Titanium Backup to manage it all. So here I am doing like high-level IT support just to get my phone to work as a phone. It was very pretty but my wife was complaining about how I always missed her calls.
My new HTC 8X is such a revelation. There's nothing to do except use it, and it works perfectly. There's no lag ever; everything is right there or at most one or two clicks away, and the stock apps are just fine, thank you. Sure, I have my hit-list of missing features but none rise even to the level of annoyance, and I expect there will be improvement.
My only concern is developer interest. I read this about an IDC survey:
According to IDC, which surveyed almost 5,000 developers, Windows 8 and Windows Phone are in a lot of trouble. While iOS (iPhone, iPad), Android (handsets and tablets), and HTML5/mobile web fall well above that crucial 50 percent mark, Windows 8 and Windows Phone fall well short. Only 33 percent of developers said they were very interested in writing Windows 8 “Metro” apps. And only 21 percent were interested in doing so for Windows Phone.
(Fully 85 percent of responders were very interested in writing iPhone apps, and 83 percent were very interested in writing iPad apps. Android handsets and tablets came in at 76 percent and 66 percent, respectively, whereas HTML5/mobile web was at 66 percent as well.)
So we'll see. I think the new handsets from Nokia and HTC will help draw attention to how good the O/S is; but it seems Microsoft is trying now to make itself into a better Apple, only Apple was there first.

Why should we bother with Firefox OS?

I love Mozilla, but from what I've read it doesn't seem like there is really any point to Firefox OS.
Other than flaming me, could you please list some specifics as to why it's beneficial?
I've talked to a lot of people in person about it and they all seem to talk about potential to grow like Android. The main problem I see with this is that whereas Android filled an obvious gap in the market, Firefox OS is trying to carve a niche in now heavily fortified waters. The fact that Windows Mobile both says they'll be happy for 1% of the market, buys off Nokia and pays off devs to port apps, it should be a pretty clear sign this will be a major challenge for Mozilla when a company with a scrooge mcduck tower of cash is piling money on the issue and still getting limited results.
For the record, I'm going to install it on my of my old devices just to play around with it but in the meantime if anyone could pose a good argument for Firefox OS then I'd all ears. It'd be nice to know the time I'll spend setting it up is worth more than just curiosity and Mozilla sympathy.
Or just flame me and call me a noob

in my opinion, we definitely need firefox os. if it will be of any advantage for your user experience, is heavily dependent of its success. but it's the only smartphone os, that uses a really open approach. since most apps are shortcuts for browsing to a certain web page on your smartphone, basing the whole os on a browsing engine makes a lot of sense. and it makes lots of things easier for devs.

It seems promising to have a fully custoimizable and open source OS for low end phones. FOS could extend the lifetime of many phones which is a nice perspective instead of throwing away functional hardware.

FirefoxOS is:
Customisable, free
Hardware UN-requiring
This means that low end phones can use the fos because they don't need powerful hardware, and poorer people in countries like Brazil or Ghana can use modern phones for little price. It's not really meant for our newer phones high-end.

defender of the Open Web
Most important is that Firefox OS seems to be the most tangible defence to keep our Open Web environment from becoming closed. With Firefox OS, the millions of new users from Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Central / South America who are now just starting to buy low cost smart-phones will enjoy using, coding and Creating in Java and HTML 5, and be free to ignore 5.1 with its restrictions such as DRM.
Right now, the Web, Free and Open as we know it seems to be dying! Here's what Danny Obrien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote on October 2 (link to full article after the quote):-
… where you cannot cut and paste text; where your browser can’t “Save As…” an image; where the “allowed” uses of saved files are monitored beyond the browser; where JavaScript is sealed away in opaque tombs; and maybe even where we can no longer effectively “View Source” on some sites, is a very different Web from the one we have today. It’s a Web where user agents—browsers—must navigate a nest of enforced duties every time they visit a page.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/10/lowering-your-standards

I think why people should bother with B2G/Firefox OS is because it's not as complicated as Android - Android has a bunch of stuff that most of the time people won't even bother using so that's one benefit with B2G... Apart from the fact that it's not very hardware dependent, it's also simple and fast and aims at open source which Android seems to be lacking nowadays...

Because no Google there..
Sent from my GT-N5110 using xda app-developers app

Because we like to evolve, have choices and detest monopoly (imagineyou turning into an android ;p)

Becouse is extra
Sent from my GT-S5670 using xda app-developers app

No google, is the point!

I would love to see FireFox as an mobile /tablet platform, because it has given middleware which can run webapps. which i feel is far better than any other achievement unlike any other platform where middleware are heavy sometimes VM's to run app in UI. Firefox gives ability to run apps with PC like standards(HTML5, CSS3) etc.
i personally tested and best thing is there search is quite competing with google search for Android. try one .
Lot of other competeres try making webapps as there UI framework but fais may be because there inexperience, i am hoping Firefox with there vast knowledge can create a ecosystem where mobile ui/ PC ui will became synonyms. in that case nothing except a good webkit will solve all issues. till then we can wait.
~Amit

amorley said:
I love Mozilla, but from what I've read it doesn't seem like there is really any point to Firefox OS.
Other than flaming me, could you please list some specifics as to why it's beneficial?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In 2002 and 2003, the world was saying the same thing about Mozilla's browser. What's the point? IE 6 was pretty amazing (seriously!) when it came out and most Web developers I talked to were happy to have one target client. That sentiment was very different after 2005 when Firefox demonstrated to the world that the Web was stagnating. Most Web developers changed their tunes and started demanding Microsoft release newer versions with modern capabilities and erase IE 6 from the face of the Earth.
Mozilla is a non-profit dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what's possible with Web technology while putting users at the center of their computing experience. We are here with no other agenda. We're not trying to sell ads. We're not trying to sell hardware. We're not trying to grow subscribers. We're trying to put users in more control and to expand the possibilities for the best operating system ever created -- the Web.
That's enough reason for me.
- Asa
(15 year Mozilla veteran)

As a developer I love it because I don't need to code twice (at best) if I want my app to work on multiple devices, screen sizes, OSs, future OSs, etc. The WEB is the platform so my app can easily intercomunicate with other webapps regardless of their underlying technology, because the WEB has standards. This will result in better and rich apps with better and rich services WITHOUT being enslaved by any platform/SDK specifics.
FirefoxOS is the next common-sense step on mobile technology and I'm pretty sure we are going to see Boot2Webkit, Boot2Blink, from the other companies... and if we don't, we will see more companies following the same fate as Nokia, Microsoft...

amorley said:
I love Mozilla, but from what I've read it doesn't seem like there is really any point to Firefox OS.
Other than flaming me, could you please list some specifics as to why it's beneficial?
I've talked to a lot of people in person about it and they all seem to talk about potential to grow like Android. The main problem I see with this is that whereas Android filled an obvious gap in the market, Firefox OS is trying to carve a niche in now heavily fortified waters. The fact that Windows Mobile both says they'll be happy for 1% of the market, buys off Nokia and pays off devs to port apps, it should be a pretty clear sign this will be a major challenge for Mozilla when a company with a scrooge mcduck tower of cash is piling money on the issue and still getting limited results.
For the record, I'm going to install it on my of my old devices just to play around with it but in the meantime if anyone could pose a good argument for Firefox OS then I'd all ears. It'd be nice to know the time I'll spend setting it up is worth more than just curiosity and Mozilla sympathy.
Or just flame me and call me a noob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because Mozilla is helping build a internet the world needs and has been for years. Mozilla is also the most privacy focused company making software and has won awards backing that.

I've been trying hard to get our teams to develop for it but there doesn't seem to be much enthusiasm for it in China...

I have the Mozilla Flame phone and currently it's stable version is Firefox OS 2.0 and honestly, the improvements they've made make FFOS more unique and beneficial for the user. It's almost up to scratch, just a one or two releases and the features will be there. The speed already is there.

to be free from the grasps of a company who spys on your every move

As a user since version 1.0 on a ZTE Open, I have to say that I don't see a single compelling reason for an end-user to buy a FFXOS device, other than possibly price (debatable: many Android handsets fall into nearly the same price point, and the Lumia 520 is basically the same price as the ZTE Open C and better in every possible regard).
I get that it is an incredibly important vision that Mozilla have for the future of HTML5 and apps, but that matters most on the back end for developers and those who provide apps and services. I also understand that Mozilla have made great efforts to ensure that Open WebAPI is as painless as possible for developers to use, and that using very few lines of code, you can write powerful solutions. These are all fantastic things, and the web and technology in general stand to benefit massively from this.
However, from a purely end-user point of view, I find the UI/UX to be lagging severely behind every other platform, not to mention the relatively poor functionality of the stock apps. They do nothing other platforms don't do better.
The performance is abysmal, even on the Flame, and the battery life fluctuates wildly and does not impress me at all given my usage pattern.
I've filed endless amounts of suggestions for expansion and improvements to UI/UX and 99% of the time am met with blind reticence.
The feel I get is not that this is a platform for everyone by everyone, but a platform for a very small subset of the population (which if you analyze what the platform ships with stock and how they market it, Mozilla seems to have no idea who this population is) controlled by a team with a death-grip on it, fingers in their ears, blindfolds on, chanting "This is perfect, this is perfect, you don't know what you're talking about!".
People's tepid response to the platform and its slow adoption rate should stand as testimony to the fact that the platform is far from perfect.
****, the keyboard STILL sucks complete ass even on v2.2 nightly. Something as fundamental as the primary ****ing input method still isn't even done half-assed correct, so what do you think the rest of the experience is like?
Such a frustrating platform... I really wanted this to be the Phoenix that takes the principles and ideals of webOS from the ashes and sets the world of technology on fire, but it looks more like a poof of smoke at this point.
I'll continue daily-driving the Flame, I'll continue filing bugs and suggestions, and I'll likely continue to pull my hair out in frustration. Hopefully at some point all of my frustration will amount to something positive and I'll be able to whole-heartedly endorse this platform to other end-users and evangelize for it. Currently, that is not even a remote possibility.

Because we should be more principled and not support companies that pay no tax.

I wonder how many people are actually using FFOS as their only phone.
I have a ZTE Open, I am downloading and compiling FFOS builds once every few weeks, hack around just for fun.
But I have an Android for my daily use.

I'm so sad to hear firefox os is dead

I love firefox os. Has fast UI based on html, Has many applications
Maybe late Fx0 discount was caused by it.... How about your opinion?

I believe that Firefox needs greater support from developers. I read that Firefox will stop their phone production venture. I am not sure if that will mean that Firefox OS days are counted. Still shameful to learn that people values having their identity compromised in android, IPS, windows, .... platforms that use our data for profit.

It looks like just a launcher.

H2015H said:
I believe that Firefox needs greater support from developers. I read that Firefox will stop their phone production venture. I am not sure if that will mean that Firefox OS days are counted. Still shameful to learn that people values having their identity compromised in android, IPS, windows, .... platforms that use our data for profit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel it the same way. While I didn't use FFOS apart from some testing (missing Viber app is a no-go for me) I'd been looking forward to having a privace-friendly open-source mobile OS. Well, shoot ...

Firefox isnt dead......it is alive. Infact its developers preview 2.5 is out and available on mozilla official site. And it is available for android in apk. Full package:thumbup:

Dead? The boot2gecko github repo was updated just 12 days ago, the gaia repo - a few hours ago.
Firefox OS isn't dead yet, but it's certainly on it's way.

@nigdyci really? Good to hear

Yeah...it a way better than android...ui alot like apples ios