4 ms·

How could an MPL & GPL licensed project be closed sourced? Mozilla didn't relicense Firefox iirc.

nine_k 7y ago
How macOS can be proprietary, while Darwin is open source? By being mostly proprietary in new and important parts, built on top of an open foundation which itself is not the most valuable part for customers. I suspect that key parts of Kai OS are proprietary, and the foundation left from Firefox OS is very basic. Important, but totally insufficient.
- synchronise 7y ago
  Actually, there's not been much change from the original fork of FirefoxOS besides the UI changes to be better for non-touch devices. GerdaOS (LineageOS for KaiOS) allows people to import and run FirefoxOS packages without modification, though many apps will need some changes to allow it to work without a touchscreen. The unofficial rumour mill says that with the extra investment from Google, KaiOS will probably shift to Chrome(ium) at some point in the future, but that's just a rumour and remains to be seen.
  - metildaa 7y ago
    I doubt KaiOS would switch to Chromium, the focus seems to be using near zero resources while remaining somewhat fast. Mozilla spent years with dozens to hundreds of devs working on getting it to be snappier than every other low end phone, short of Google paying for this type of dev work on KaiOS, there will likely be nothing more than security patches and cosmetic changes to KaiOS.
lloydde 7y ago
You are correct. The parent is mistaken, or at least exaggerating and at worst libelous. “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.” https://support.kaiostech.com/support/solutions/articles/35000078432-can-i-access-the-source-code- https://support.kaiostech.com/support/solutions/articles/350...
- icebraining 7y ago
  Frankly, that doesn't mean much; the MPL allows one to freely mix open and proprietary files on the same project. Sure, they can't literally close Mozilla's code, but they can still make their forked project mostly proprietary.
  - anyzen 7y ago
    In other words, Android is "open source" too. But I still don't have control over my phone.
    - littlestymaar 7y ago
      You can install a plain AOSP and have (almost[1]) full control over your phone though. [1] almost, because every smartphone needs proprietary drivers to run …
      - dmos62 7y ago
        > every smartphone needs proprietary drivers Free phones are slowly popping up https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/
        littlestymaar 7y ago
        The librem looks nice but if I'm not misunderstanding, it's still pretty much vaporware at this point. I sincerely hope it reaches its goals though.
      - pjmlp 7y ago
        Next version of AOSP will have a smaller userspace.
      - mort96 7y ago
        No, you can't. Not when more and more phones ship with locked bootloaders and a smaller and smaller percentage of phones actually work well with some AOSP spin and none of the apps you use work without an unrooted, closed-source-Google-API-infested phone.

How macOS can be proprietary, while Darwin is open source? By being mostly proprietary in new and important parts, built on top of an open foundation which itself is not the most valuable part for customers. I suspect that key parts of Kai OS are proprietary, and the foundation left from Firefox OS is very basic. Important, but totally insufficient.

synchronise 7y ago
Actually, there's not been much change from the original fork of FirefoxOS besides the UI changes to be better for non-touch devices. GerdaOS (LineageOS for KaiOS) allows people to import and run FirefoxOS packages without modification, though many apps will need some changes to allow it to work without a touchscreen. The unofficial rumour mill says that with the extra investment from Google, KaiOS will probably shift to Chrome(ium) at some point in the future, but that's just a rumour and remains to be seen.
- metildaa 7y ago
  I doubt KaiOS would switch to Chromium, the focus seems to be using near zero resources while remaining somewhat fast. Mozilla spent years with dozens to hundreds of devs working on getting it to be snappier than every other low end phone, short of Google paying for this type of dev work on KaiOS, there will likely be nothing more than security patches and cosmetic changes to KaiOS.

lloydde 7y ago

You are correct. The parent is mistaken, or at least exaggerating and at worst libelous. “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.” https://support.kaiostech.com/support/solutions/articles/35000078432-can-i-access-the-source-code- https://support.kaiostech.com/support/solutions/articles/350...

icebraining 7y ago
Frankly, that doesn't mean much; the MPL allows one to freely mix open and proprietary files on the same project. Sure, they can't literally close Mozilla's code, but they can still make their forked project mostly proprietary.
- anyzen 7y ago
  In other words, Android is "open source" too. But I still don't have control over my phone.
  - littlestymaar 7y ago
    You can install a plain AOSP and have (almost[1]) full control over your phone though. [1] almost, because every smartphone needs proprietary drivers to run …
    - dmos62 7y ago
      > every smartphone needs proprietary drivers Free phones are slowly popping up https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/
      - littlestymaar 7y ago
        The librem looks nice but if I'm not misunderstanding, it's still pretty much vaporware at this point. I sincerely hope it reaches its goals though.
    - pjmlp 7y ago
      Next version of AOSP will have a smaller userspace.
    - mort96 7y ago
      No, you can't. Not when more and more phones ship with locked bootloaders and a smaller and smaller percentage of phones actually work well with some AOSP spin and none of the apps you use work without an unrooted, closed-source-Google-API-infested phone.