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I don't know where journalists get their facts, but this article is terrible. 1) FirefoxOS was killed a year ago. 2) We never attempted to bring FxOS to other k

I don't know where journalists get their facts, but this article is terrible. 1) FirefoxOS was killed a year ago. 2) We never attempted to bring FxOS to other kind of connected devices beyond phones and TVs. If they had took the time to check the projects being worked on (see https://wiki.mozilla.org/Connected_Devices/Projects https://wiki.mozilla.org/Connected_Devices/Projects) they would have understood the activities a bit better. For instance, the device built for SensorWeb was based on a cortex-m4 CPU, running bare metal code written in Rust on top of freeRTOS.

ebbv 10y ago
Unfortunately Ars Technica is not even a shadow of the site it once was. It now reprints press releases and rumors like so many other tech sites.
- Macuyiko 10y ago
  Noticed this as well... Pity, cause I loved reading Ars back in the day. Do you know of any solid alternatives?
- awqrre 10y ago
  Ars Technica used to be very bad... I thought that it was getting better in the last year or two but I guess that I was wrong.
  - ebbv 10y ago
    When I refer to how it used to be I'm talking like 10+ years ago. It used to be one of the best tech sites bar none.
- binarycrusader 10y ago
  I'm not sure how you can make those claims; if anything, they've been even more active in reviewing hardware, etc. since they actually have better corporate sponsorship. The only thing I do miss are the articles written by Jon Stokes: https://arstechnica.com/author/hannibal/ https://arstechnica.com/author/hannibal/ But all things change, and the heady era of technological advances that we saw in the 90s and early 2000s are long gone, at least in the desktop and server computer world. Electronics has now become mainstream-consumer oriented and the sites reflect that interest, since after all, they only exist due to advertising funds.
- ikurei 10y ago
  What tech sites would you consider to be still good, or the least bad?
Touche 10y ago
Is the layoff part wrong too?
- fabrice_d 10y ago
  No.
fulafel 10y ago
At least in outside communication, a year ago Mozilla only said they are shifting Firefox OS from phones to other devices and IoT [1]. Then they went on to do some smart TV stuff but were looking at other applications as well. [1] https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2016/02/04/next-steps-for-connected-devices/ https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2016/02/04/next-step...
- avian 10y ago
  A single-board computer running Firefox OS was discussed last year here on HN. The post itself is now private. I think this was the demo, where they showed how to blink a LED from some HTML and Javascript: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10864089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10864089
trome 10y ago
The journalists definitely got their facts wrong here, but they missed the overarching story. Why is Mozilla acting like a tech company/startup, and not as a non-profit here to push Firefox and other projects under their management to new heights? Mozilla has basically ignored Firefox for the past few years and let it languish as a single threaded browser in a multi-threaded world, where the other 3 major competitors are highly optimizing their browsers to the respective laptop/tablet/phones. Google with Chromebooks (shipping more than Macbooks[1]) & Android, Microsoft with Surface, Apple with iOS (where they have an illicit monopoly) & on Macbooks. Mozilla can fight this battle and provide a better user experience, but as it stands a few years have been sunk down the drain on Firefox OS and Mozilla isn't even trying to leverage it into a Chromebook killer! Sure, trying to win on price (which is what Moz tried with Firefox OS) isn't going to be a battle that can be won. Google and others already have the relationships with manufacturers who know they can drive volume, but what they don't have is the community support & buy in that Mozilla has. Create a compelling user experience! Netscape won the war against the monoculture of a decade ago by creating a user experience that people loved, in spite of the IE6 monoculture of the time. Today, we have a Webkit monoculture, with Edge nipping at its heels. This is a very similar situation to a decade ago, where Deer Park Alpha lead the way out of the shadowy darkness, with flash free video & audio and performance and protocol support that ran circles around the others. 1 - http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/19/11711714/chromebooks-outsold-macs-us-idc-figures http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/19/11711714/chromebooks-outso...
- synotna 10y ago
  Electrolysis? Servo? Rust? I'm far from an expert, but the switch to multithreading has been perilous to not break everyone's favourite plugins, likewise the switch from XUL Electrolysis is basically here and working, slowly rolling out
  - sametmax 10y ago
    Indeed. From where I stand Mozilla is working hard at making the transition it's just: - it's a hard problem - they don't have the resources of MS or Google - they have a much bigger extension culture and must support it - the current work is not sexy and visible and hence get little advertisement Mozilla created an entire freaking language to level up their game. And in a few years it became one of the most promising technology of the decade, with a vibrant community. If it was a movie, this period of their life would be the scene with a small outsider named "Moz" training by night in a dirty gym or during the night under the rain. Next one will be the training paying off and him kicking the other guy's ass in the ring. But you need the unsexy and hard training first.

ebbv 10y ago

Unfortunately Ars Technica is not even a shadow of the site it once was. It now reprints press releases and rumors like so many other tech sites.

Macuyiko 10y ago
Noticed this as well... Pity, cause I loved reading Ars back in the day. Do you know of any solid alternatives?
awqrre 10y ago
Ars Technica used to be very bad... I thought that it was getting better in the last year or two but I guess that I was wrong.
- ebbv 10y ago
  When I refer to how it used to be I'm talking like 10+ years ago. It used to be one of the best tech sites bar none.
binarycrusader 10y ago
I'm not sure how you can make those claims; if anything, they've been even more active in reviewing hardware, etc. since they actually have better corporate sponsorship. The only thing I do miss are the articles written by Jon Stokes: https://arstechnica.com/author/hannibal/ https://arstechnica.com/author/hannibal/ But all things change, and the heady era of technological advances that we saw in the 90s and early 2000s are long gone, at least in the desktop and server computer world. Electronics has now become mainstream-consumer oriented and the sites reflect that interest, since after all, they only exist due to advertising funds.
ikurei 10y ago
What tech sites would you consider to be still good, or the least bad?

Touche 10y ago

Is the layoff part wrong too?

fabrice_d 10y ago
No.

fulafel 10y ago

At least in outside communication, a year ago Mozilla only said they are shifting Firefox OS from phones to other devices and IoT [1]. Then they went on to do some smart TV stuff but were looking at other applications as well. [1] https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2016/02/04/next-steps-for-connected-devices/ https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2016/02/04/next-step...

avian 10y ago
A single-board computer running Firefox OS was discussed last year here on HN. The post itself is now private. I think this was the demo, where they showed how to blink a LED from some HTML and Javascript: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10864089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10864089

trome 10y ago

The journalists definitely got their facts wrong here, but they missed the overarching story. Why is Mozilla acting like a tech company/startup, and not as a non-profit here to push Firefox and other projects under their management to new heights? Mozilla has basically ignored Firefox for the past few years and let it languish as a single threaded browser in a multi-threaded world, where the other 3 major competitors are highly optimizing their browsers to the respective laptop/tablet/phones. Google with Chromebooks (shipping more than Macbooks[1]) & Android, Microsoft with Surface, Apple with iOS (where they have an illicit monopoly) & on Macbooks. Mozilla can fight this battle and provide a better user experience, but as it stands a few years have been sunk down the drain on Firefox OS and Mozilla isn't even trying to leverage it into a Chromebook killer! Sure, trying to win on price (which is what Moz tried with Firefox OS) isn't going to be a battle that can be won. Google and others already have the relationships with manufacturers who know they can drive volume, but what they don't have is the community support & buy in that Mozilla has. Create a compelling user experience! Netscape won the war against the monoculture of a decade ago by creating a user experience that people loved, in spite of the IE6 monoculture of the time. Today, we have a Webkit monoculture, with Edge nipping at its heels. This is a very similar situation to a decade ago, where Deer Park Alpha lead the way out of the shadowy darkness, with flash free video & audio and performance and protocol support that ran circles around the others. 1 - http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/19/11711714/chromebooks-outsold-macs-us-idc-figures http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/19/11711714/chromebooks-outso...

synotna 10y ago
Electrolysis? Servo? Rust? I'm far from an expert, but the switch to multithreading has been perilous to not break everyone's favourite plugins, likewise the switch from XUL Electrolysis is basically here and working, slowly rolling out
- sametmax 10y ago
  Indeed. From where I stand Mozilla is working hard at making the transition it's just: - it's a hard problem - they don't have the resources of MS or Google - they have a much bigger extension culture and must support it - the current work is not sexy and visible and hence get little advertisement Mozilla created an entire freaking language to level up their game. And in a few years it became one of the most promising technology of the decade, with a vibrant community. If it was a movie, this period of their life would be the scene with a small outsider named "Moz" training by night in a dirty gym or during the night under the rain. Next one will be the training paying off and him kicking the other guy's ass in the ring. But you need the unsexy and hard training first.