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Apparently KaiOS is a fork of Firefox OS/B2G. So... where's the code, yo? I've scoured Github, but no sign of it. edit: nevermind: "KaiOS is based on the Fire

by culot 9y ago

Apparently KaiOS is a fork of Firefox OS/B2G. So... where's the code, yo? I've scoured Github, but no sign of it. edit: nevermind: "KaiOS is based on the Firefox OS open-source project and we are committed to abide by the rules of the applicable open source licenses. Therefore, we’ll make the source code available to the extent required by the applicable open source licenses." So that's a no on giving back to the B2G which born thee. Nice. Another closed-source OS is just what the mobile space needs.

bobajeff 9y ago
Checking out the site it looks like they are targeting feature phones and they appear to be quite successful at it. Which is funny because Mozilla tried that shortly before abandoning the whole project.
- zitterbewegung 9y ago
  I wonder where some of those people went when then? Did they move to Kai os or not? Or maybe the phone partners figured out that they could run the project themselves and when mozilla axed it they just moved on.
  - bobajeff 9y ago
    Well, some of them went to Acadine Technologies to work on H5OS.
fabrice_d 9y ago
It's not a "no on giving back". You only have to make available the source for products you ship, and KaiOS itself is not the one shipping the devices, so it's up to the OEMs to provide the source they use on their phones (they do their own customizations). That being said, I'm trying to get us to open source the "base" version which is provided to OEMs.
- beefhash 9y ago
  > I'm trying to get us to open source Can I assume you're involved with KaiOS development? Android vendors have a terrible reputation about pushing security updates in a timely manner (or at all for devices that aren't the current flagship). Do you have any plans to contractually force or otherwise encourage vendors to push security updates?
- paulie_a 9y ago
  Can you prevent the OEMs from customizing? That is my biggest complaint in regards to Android. Garbage software added on top of good hardware.
- toyg 9y ago
  > You only have to make available the source for products you ship That's a bit disingenous. Android wasn't shipping anything and it always released sources, as far as I know. Same for almost any Linux distribution out there. Common courtesy calls for distributing at least "release" versions, like RedHat and even Apple do. That, to me, sounds like you're currently taking the minimalist "we'll release the bare minimum we are legally forced to, and nothing else" stance, which is basically equivalent to "we are not going to give back anything if we can avoid it". I do hope this will change in the future, although given the realities of embedded development (cut-throat and all), I wouldn't be surprised if it never did. I think I'll keep rooting for more open players in the space.
- iuguy 9y ago
  You have to be aware that a "closed-source fork of Firefox OS" sounds ridiculous on every level. If you don't make it open source, that challenge will be levied at every opportunity, and rightly so.
- jan-kleks 9y ago
  Yeah, it would be awesome to have this open-source, with the help of the community one can achieve great things. There was this project for FirefoxOS to support J2ME apps -- https://github.com/mozilla/pluotsorbet https://github.com/mozilla/pluotsorbet It would be great to have something like that for "nostalgic" reasons. Many feature phones' users remember J2ME apps, games especially, very fondly. Check out also this J2ME project, which could potentially be ported to KaiOS as well: https://github.com/XerTheSquirrel/SquirrelJME https://github.com/XerTheSquirrel/SquirrelJME Also, have you considered some kind of support for "content blocking" (like in iOS, or in the form of typical browser plugin-ins), of course, I'm not saying that ANY content should be blocked by default. But taking into account that devices with KaiOS wouldn't be very powerful, it could be really useful to have such an option to avoid "unnecessary" stuff when browsing the Internet... Anyway, keep up good work!

by culot 9y ago

bobajeff 9y ago

Checking out the site it looks like they are targeting feature phones and they appear to be quite successful at it. Which is funny because Mozilla tried that shortly before abandoning the whole project.

zitterbewegung 9y ago
I wonder where some of those people went when then? Did they move to Kai os or not? Or maybe the phone partners figured out that they could run the project themselves and when mozilla axed it they just moved on.
- bobajeff 9y ago
  Well, some of them went to Acadine Technologies to work on H5OS.

fabrice_d 9y ago

It's not a "no on giving back". You only have to make available the source for products you ship, and KaiOS itself is not the one shipping the devices, so it's up to the OEMs to provide the source they use on their phones (they do their own customizations). That being said, I'm trying to get us to open source the "base" version which is provided to OEMs.

beefhash 9y ago
> I'm trying to get us to open source Can I assume you're involved with KaiOS development? Android vendors have a terrible reputation about pushing security updates in a timely manner (or at all for devices that aren't the current flagship). Do you have any plans to contractually force or otherwise encourage vendors to push security updates?
paulie_a 9y ago
Can you prevent the OEMs from customizing? That is my biggest complaint in regards to Android. Garbage software added on top of good hardware.
toyg 9y ago
> You only have to make available the source for products you ship That's a bit disingenous. Android wasn't shipping anything and it always released sources, as far as I know. Same for almost any Linux distribution out there. Common courtesy calls for distributing at least "release" versions, like RedHat and even Apple do. That, to me, sounds like you're currently taking the minimalist "we'll release the bare minimum we are legally forced to, and nothing else" stance, which is basically equivalent to "we are not going to give back anything if we can avoid it". I do hope this will change in the future, although given the realities of embedded development (cut-throat and all), I wouldn't be surprised if it never did. I think I'll keep rooting for more open players in the space.
iuguy 9y ago
You have to be aware that a "closed-source fork of Firefox OS" sounds ridiculous on every level. If you don't make it open source, that challenge will be levied at every opportunity, and rightly so.
jan-kleks 9y ago
Yeah, it would be awesome to have this open-source, with the help of the community one can achieve great things. There was this project for FirefoxOS to support J2ME apps -- https://github.com/mozilla/pluotsorbet https://github.com/mozilla/pluotsorbet It would be great to have something like that for "nostalgic" reasons. Many feature phones' users remember J2ME apps, games especially, very fondly. Check out also this J2ME project, which could potentially be ported to KaiOS as well: https://github.com/XerTheSquirrel/SquirrelJME https://github.com/XerTheSquirrel/SquirrelJME Also, have you considered some kind of support for "content blocking" (like in iOS, or in the form of typical browser plugin-ins), of course, I'm not saying that ANY content should be blocked by default. But taking into account that devices with KaiOS wouldn't be very powerful, it could be really useful to have such an option to avoid "unnecessary" stuff when browsing the Internet... Anyway, keep up good work!