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They tried to make a FirefoxOs for mobile in the past. It even shipped with some phone then in true Mozilla fashion (am I being harsh ?) they dumped it and then

They tried to make a FirefoxOs for mobile in the past. It even shipped with some phone then in true Mozilla fashion (am I being harsh ?) they dumped it and then it became a hit, rebranded as KaiOs in developping countries for unpowerful smartphones

twelvechairs 3y ago
There's /e/os now. I stand to be corrected but a lot of the privacy issues are more about the ubiquity of 'Google Play Services' rather than Android as a base OS. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki//e/_(operating_system) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki//e/_(operating_system)
- opan 3y ago
  Not sure why this gets recommended over LineageOS. It forcefully comes with Micro G, which can't really be removed, unlike Lineage where you can just choose not to install any gapps of any kind and use the device fine.
  - notpushkin 3y ago
    I think shipping microG by default is a fine choice nowadays. In default setup, it doesn't connect to Google servers at all (/e/ might have different configuration though), but it enables maps and geolocation in apps (using different APIs, not Google). It is also relatively small (4 MB should not be a problem on most devices). That said, I think a no-gapps build would be nice to have, too. (I use LineageOS as well, though. It works with microG too, but you need to get a build from here instead of the official one: https://lineage.microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/)
    - yellowapple 3y ago
      I gave /e/OS and microG a whirl when I bought my Fairphone (Murena preinstalls it on the phones they sell in the US), and it was cool how much it was able to do without the "real" gApps, but two snags ended up being showstoppers and pushed me to my usual LineageOS+gApps: 1. The Google account for my day job has various security settings that block authentication under various circumstances, including (I guess) Google services running under different signatures/IDs than expected 2. The App Lounge was really crashy for reasons I was never able to discern, and there was little rhyme or reason to certain Play Store apps being missing or uninstallable (namely: my banking app and T-Mobile's voicemail app)
      - notpushkin 3y ago
        Yeah, I've ran into a fair share of integrity-related problems on microG myself. Notably, apps for most banks I use work fine, but e. g. McDonalds app outright refuses to run. No discounted burgers for me I guess!
scrollaway 3y ago
The Flame phone was hot garbage. I had one gifted to me at a Mozilla conference. I wanted to offer it to my girlfriend at the time but it was just too terrible for me to do that to her. Its battery died three weeks later. I still have it if someone in Europe wants it for a museum or some such…
brohee 3y ago
It's alive in some smart TVs too. Pretty sure at least Panasonic runs a fork.
hadrien01 3y ago
FirefoxOS was a full OS made on web technologies, like Palm/HP/LG's WebOS. That means apps like Contacts or Dialer were JS apps. I believe the other comment about a new FirefoxOS was more about an equivalent to ChromeOS: a simple native UI shell and a browser on laptops. As a volunteer in an association helping people that have difficulties with new technologies, an OS with just Firefox would really make everything simpler. Just like ChromeOS, you'd only get a browser (more than enough for 95% of non-professional use cases), but without the Google crap (telemetry and the Google account)
- notpushkin 3y ago
  > a full OS made on web technologies I think that's not unlike what ChromeOS is trying to be? With the APIs like WebSerial and WebUSB enabling web apps to do the same things native apps could for years now. (Of course, you can use these in the standalone Chromium, too.) > an OS with just Firefox would really make everything simpler It's relatively easy to build a Linux distro that boots straight into Firefox! You can try Cubic, which allows you to create a custom ISO for Debian or Ubuntu with a pretty straightforward GUI wizard. I once used it to create an ISO for an arcade machine. [1]: https://github.com/PJ-Singh-001/Cubic https://github.com/PJ-Singh-001/Cubic
  - hadrien01 3y ago
    Sure, but the shell is still native. > which allows you to create a custom ISO That works for me, but not for most people that need automatic updates and some support (which ChromeOS or Windows provide)
- bacchusracine 3y ago
  Have you heard about Ubuntu-Web? It tries to do this with Firefox instead of Chrome and uses other web technologies. https://ubuntu-web.org/ https://ubuntu-web.org/
  - hadrien01 3y ago
    I hadn't, thanks for the recommendation! It seems to be exactly what I want, I'll test it one of these days.
rchaud 3y ago
Firefox OS was too ahead of its time. It made web technologies a first class citizen for mobile app development, well before mobile browsers were as capable as they are today. Back then, Apple and Android used their million-app inventory to eliminate rival platforms....you needed an app to do anything on a phone back then. Today, nobody's installing new apps if the function can be done on the website.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

twelvechairs 3y ago

There's /e/os now. I stand to be corrected but a lot of the privacy issues are more about the ubiquity of 'Google Play Services' rather than Android as a base OS. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki//e/_(operating_system) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki//e/_(operating_system)

opan 3y ago
Not sure why this gets recommended over LineageOS. It forcefully comes with Micro G, which can't really be removed, unlike Lineage where you can just choose not to install any gapps of any kind and use the device fine.
- notpushkin 3y ago
  I think shipping microG by default is a fine choice nowadays. In default setup, it doesn't connect to Google servers at all (/e/ might have different configuration though), but it enables maps and geolocation in apps (using different APIs, not Google). It is also relatively small (4 MB should not be a problem on most devices). That said, I think a no-gapps build would be nice to have, too. (I use LineageOS as well, though. It works with microG too, but you need to get a build from here instead of the official one: https://lineage.microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/)
  - yellowapple 3y ago
    I gave /e/OS and microG a whirl when I bought my Fairphone (Murena preinstalls it on the phones they sell in the US), and it was cool how much it was able to do without the "real" gApps, but two snags ended up being showstoppers and pushed me to my usual LineageOS+gApps: 1. The Google account for my day job has various security settings that block authentication under various circumstances, including (I guess) Google services running under different signatures/IDs than expected 2. The App Lounge was really crashy for reasons I was never able to discern, and there was little rhyme or reason to certain Play Store apps being missing or uninstallable (namely: my banking app and T-Mobile's voicemail app)
    - notpushkin 3y ago
      Yeah, I've ran into a fair share of integrity-related problems on microG myself. Notably, apps for most banks I use work fine, but e. g. McDonalds app outright refuses to run. No discounted burgers for me I guess!

scrollaway 3y ago

The Flame phone was hot garbage. I had one gifted to me at a Mozilla conference. I wanted to offer it to my girlfriend at the time but it was just too terrible for me to do that to her. Its battery died three weeks later. I still have it if someone in Europe wants it for a museum or some such…

brohee 3y ago

It's alive in some smart TVs too. Pretty sure at least Panasonic runs a fork.

hadrien01 3y ago

FirefoxOS was a full OS made on web technologies, like Palm/HP/LG's WebOS. That means apps like Contacts or Dialer were JS apps. I believe the other comment about a new FirefoxOS was more about an equivalent to ChromeOS: a simple native UI shell and a browser on laptops. As a volunteer in an association helping people that have difficulties with new technologies, an OS with just Firefox would really make everything simpler. Just like ChromeOS, you'd only get a browser (more than enough for 95% of non-professional use cases), but without the Google crap (telemetry and the Google account)

notpushkin 3y ago
> a full OS made on web technologies I think that's not unlike what ChromeOS is trying to be? With the APIs like WebSerial and WebUSB enabling web apps to do the same things native apps could for years now. (Of course, you can use these in the standalone Chromium, too.) > an OS with just Firefox would really make everything simpler It's relatively easy to build a Linux distro that boots straight into Firefox! You can try Cubic, which allows you to create a custom ISO for Debian or Ubuntu with a pretty straightforward GUI wizard. I once used it to create an ISO for an arcade machine. [1]: https://github.com/PJ-Singh-001/Cubic https://github.com/PJ-Singh-001/Cubic
- hadrien01 3y ago
  Sure, but the shell is still native. > which allows you to create a custom ISO That works for me, but not for most people that need automatic updates and some support (which ChromeOS or Windows provide)
bacchusracine 3y ago
Have you heard about Ubuntu-Web? It tries to do this with Firefox instead of Chrome and uses other web technologies. https://ubuntu-web.org/ https://ubuntu-web.org/
- hadrien01 3y ago
  I hadn't, thanks for the recommendation! It seems to be exactly what I want, I'll test it one of these days.

rchaud 3y ago

Firefox OS was too ahead of its time. It made web technologies a first class citizen for mobile app development, well before mobile browsers were as capable as they are today. Back then, Apple and Android used their million-app inventory to eliminate rival platforms....you needed an app to do anything on a phone back then. Today, nobody's installing new apps if the function can be done on the website.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]