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To not only stage FirefoxOS as a potential desktop OS replacement, but 1-up Android and iOS, how about: * Add support for various types of USB devices. Anythin
by hakaaaaak 14y ago
To not only stage FirefoxOS as a potential desktop OS replacement, but 1-up Android and iOS, how about:
* Add support for various types of USB devices. Anything that is supported in Linux via a driver you could install via FF OS would be available to HTML5 apps. Printers, displays, thumbprint scanners, etc.
* Similar support for bluetooth devices, etc. as long as the driver could be coded to work on the device hardware, obviously.
* Gonk should be more dynamic, letting you declare drivers, etc. that you want to use via a path. It's primary purpose would become managing permissions between HTML5 apps and devices. As new devices come out, those could be added easily either by discovery or manual install. When the OS-level drivers are available, it would only be a matter of the HTML5 app declaring what it is able or needs to use and then it asks you (or you configure it) to allow access to the drivers/etc. and then your HTML5 app could use your new bluetooth retina scanner, for example, or control some new helicopter+videocam toy.
The way Firefox OS is now is just a Javascript replacement of Android's interface and it provides a similar level of access to the hardware. That is not enough. I don't want or need a Javascript phone and Javascript gaming device. I want to be able to use the same OS on my desktop as my phone, and if my phone has a USB plug, I should be able to plug one side into my Firefox OS phone and the other side into a label printer and print a label from my HTML5 app if I want. Is that level of integration ever going to be possible?
- fzzzy 14y agoYep. The entire goal of this project has always been to fill in all the gaps in web apis like these you suggest.