3 ms·

So building from source is pretty trivial. Start here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/Firefox_OS_build_prerequisites https://devel

So building from source is pretty trivial. Start here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/Firefox_OS_build_prerequisites https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/... And we do have nightly builds for the desktop emulator: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/b2g/nightly/latest-mozilla-central/ http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/b2g/nightly/latest-mo... "Expanding device count" requires quite the bit of engineering and working with device manufacturers. If you think it's easier than I claim, here's a starting reference and we accept pull requests: https://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G/Porting https://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G/Porting EDIT: Also to the above point: https://autonome.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/firefox-os-devices-and-dark-matter/ https://autonome.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/firefox-os-devices... For now, the emulator works, third party devs in target markets are getting devices, and a developer phone is shipping in February. And we're having hackathons around the world this week: http://news.softpedia.com/news/With-the-First-Firefox-OS-Phones-Out-Mozilla-Is-Holding-20-Hack-Days-This-Week-323162.shtml http://news.softpedia.com/news/With-the-First-Firefox-OS-Pho... What else can Mozilla do to help create excitement? That's a genuine question, not sarcastic.

jay_kyburz 14y ago
I think you need to hire some really kick ass designers and make this stuff pixel perfect. I'm not sure what fonts are being used but it doesn't look "Apple" polished to me. The home screen icons are not as good as they could be either.
tmzt 14y ago
Maybe a developer portal page linking to the desktop simulator download? This would feel more "official" and "complete" than a wiki page, or grabbing a nightly from FTP. Android's success was the way it brought in early developers and enthusiasts. The HTC/T-Mobile experiment could just as easily have failed and Android may have failed along with it, but it had developer attention and momentum, as well as an entire 'fanboy' set waiting for it on launch. The Building FirefoxOS site sounds like it could fill a similar niche as Burning Edge did for the first Firefox (post Firebird) releases, highlight what's new in each nightly release. I hope we will see more capable hardware and global launch, this is the third platform we need. EDIT: Sorry, I didn't mean that Building FirefoxOS could fill that niche, only that site similar to Burning Edge could.
contingencies 14y ago
Thanks for your reply. I know sometimes it's hard to take a step back and see others' experience, so let me try to show you what I meant about difficulty. Firstly, I am definitely not the garden-variety user when it comes to mobile devices. I was involved in the launch of the Galaxy Series devices and even spent time at Samsung HQ in Korea for this purpose, and have since run custom ROMs on my phone... so came to this with a relatively strong knowledge, compared to most. If you can't make the process work for me, it's not going to work very well for others. The build page you mentioned is not the right one for SGS2, which is an extremely popular device, yet in the category 'third tier' supported (ie. effectively ignored). You should get someone from Samsung to solve this. They have entire skyscrapers devoted to different phone platforms at their headquarters in Suwon, Korea, made vast and record profits this last quarter, and it should not be an issue for them to provide a useful contact for their most popular devices. Next point. Since the build process itself is IIRC is only supported on Ubuntu or something, I had to download that and set up an entire VM before cloning the code. Second, cloning the code takes years on a third-world connection (literally hours and hours, it's something like a few GB in size). Third, it wasn't hugely clear that I needed to upgrade from a custom ROM with Ice Cream to a stock ROM with Ice Cream in order to install (in fact, the notion that the existing firmware would be hacked in to the new FFOS image was really not clear at all, and should have been). This resulted in builds failing in non-obvious ways. Realizing the situation, since I didn't have a stock ROM image just lying around, now insert many hours of downloading different ROM images, trying to install them, getting errors with them. If must have downloaded and tried at least five of these already. There were also lots of fun errors related to a bug in recent versions of the upload tool, which bricked my phone. Thankfully, because I am somewhat familiar with the Linux boot process and persistent, I did manage to unbrick the phone an eventually get what might be a valid Android ICS ROM going that might be good to install FFOS. Unfortunately, after spending more than two days on this already, I simply didn't have time to continue prior to my current period of travel. I am motivated to help, pre-experienced, willing to flash my device and use it on a daily basis even if it's going to reduce functionality vs. Android, but... FF(O)S, people! You can't provide a faster route to an install? What would have made things easier was a source for something I could 'just flash'. I don't care if it's semi or illegal and it comes from a torrent. I have to go through those routes anyway just to get from Custom ROM -> ICS stock -> FFOS. Give me a script, give me a daily build.

jay_kyburz 14y ago

I think you need to hire some really kick ass designers and make this stuff pixel perfect. I'm not sure what fonts are being used but it doesn't look "Apple" polished to me. The home screen icons are not as good as they could be either.

tmzt 14y ago

Maybe a developer portal page linking to the desktop simulator download? This would feel more "official" and "complete" than a wiki page, or grabbing a nightly from FTP. Android's success was the way it brought in early developers and enthusiasts. The HTC/T-Mobile experiment could just as easily have failed and Android may have failed along with it, but it had developer attention and momentum, as well as an entire 'fanboy' set waiting for it on launch. The Building FirefoxOS site sounds like it could fill a similar niche as Burning Edge did for the first Firefox (post Firebird) releases, highlight what's new in each nightly release. I hope we will see more capable hardware and global launch, this is the third platform we need. EDIT: Sorry, I didn't mean that Building FirefoxOS could fill that niche, only that site similar to Burning Edge could.

contingencies 14y ago

Thanks for your reply. I know sometimes it's hard to take a step back and see others' experience, so let me try to show you what I meant about difficulty. Firstly, I am definitely not the garden-variety user when it comes to mobile devices. I was involved in the launch of the Galaxy Series devices and even spent time at Samsung HQ in Korea for this purpose, and have since run custom ROMs on my phone... so came to this with a relatively strong knowledge, compared to most. If you can't make the process work for me, it's not going to work very well for others. The build page you mentioned is not the right one for SGS2, which is an extremely popular device, yet in the category 'third tier' supported (ie. effectively ignored). You should get someone from Samsung to solve this. They have entire skyscrapers devoted to different phone platforms at their headquarters in Suwon, Korea, made vast and record profits this last quarter, and it should not be an issue for them to provide a useful contact for their most popular devices. Next point. Since the build process itself is IIRC is only supported on Ubuntu or something, I had to download that and set up an entire VM before cloning the code. Second, cloning the code takes years on a third-world connection (literally hours and hours, it's something like a few GB in size). Third, it wasn't hugely clear that I needed to upgrade from a custom ROM with Ice Cream to a stock ROM with Ice Cream in order to install (in fact, the notion that the existing firmware would be hacked in to the new FFOS image was really not clear at all, and should have been). This resulted in builds failing in non-obvious ways. Realizing the situation, since I didn't have a stock ROM image just lying around, now insert many hours of downloading different ROM images, trying to install them, getting errors with them. If must have downloaded and tried at least five of these already. There were also lots of fun errors related to a bug in recent versions of the upload tool, which bricked my phone. Thankfully, because I am somewhat familiar with the Linux boot process and persistent, I did manage to unbrick the phone an eventually get what might be a valid Android ICS ROM going that might be good to install FFOS. Unfortunately, after spending more than two days on this already, I simply didn't have time to continue prior to my current period of travel. I am motivated to help, pre-experienced, willing to flash my device and use it on a daily basis even if it's going to reduce functionality vs. Android, but... FF(O)S, people! You can't provide a faster route to an install? What would have made things easier was a source for something I could 'just flash'. I don't care if it's semi or illegal and it comes from a torrent. I have to go through those routes anyway just to get from Custom ROM -> ICS stock -> FFOS. Give me a script, give me a daily build.