Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by hardwaresofton 2412 days ago
If only someone had created a viable alternative to both Google and Apple's phones. Maybe they could base it on the browser? Web technologies are getting pretty good these days. One of the popular browsers that are an alternative to safari and google chrome... Like some sort of browser-OS.
2 comments
scarface74 2412 days ago
Every platform that has tried that for the last decade has failed - Palm, Firefox, RIM, and Microsoft have all had development platforms “based on web technologies”.
link
hardwaresofton 2412 days ago
This was a bit tongue-in-cheek -- I was referencing FirefoxOS, and insinuating that mozilla should have stuck to their guns (and maybe changed their batshit market strategy of racing other android vendors to the bottom-most market segment) and kept FirefoxOS in their portfolio.

If a phone OS isn't a strategic bet, I don't know what is. All the people spending money on the librem would have happily bought FFOS phones, if they made proper high spec ones (I still have one of the highest spec FFOS phones ever made and it wasn't that impressive).

link
rimliu 2412 days ago
How do you carry a browser in your pocket?
link
hardwaresofton 2412 days ago
I'm not sure I understand this question but it's pretty doable -- https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Archive/B2G_OS

The comment was tongue in cheek -- mozilla had already done everything I suggested (the effort was called FirefoxOS), but they mismanaged and abandoned it. The renewed focus on Firefox the browser (if that had anything to do with it) was good, but some of the other stuff they started pushing like WebVR is/was pretty short-sighted in my opinion.

If mozilla wanted to set themselves up as the open alternative to apple/google, keeping a phone in the portfolio is/was pretty important. Maybe the cost was just too unsustainable but from what I can see it was mismanaged more than impossible to make profitable.

link