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> I haven't used Firefox OS, but I've wrote PhoneGap apps for iOS and Android, and the biggest problem is just that it puts the developer experience before the

by Touche 13y ago

> I haven't used Firefox OS, but I've wrote PhoneGap apps for iOS and Android, and the biggest problem is just that it puts the developer experience before the end user experience and that seems backwards to what makes a great product. I strongly disagree with your definition of "user experience". I believe that changing phones and having to install different apps, with different UIs, or possibly doing without one because the new phone doesn't have an equivalent, is a bad user experience. This is my opinion as a user, not as a developer.

Tloewald 13y ago
So, as a user, you don't change phones to one that forces you to do without your favorite apps, learn a new UI, and so on.
- Touche 13y ago
  The fact that I need to worry about this at all is a bad user experience.
  - Tloewald 13y ago
    Because you expect to buy any product at any price and for everything to Just Work — fantasy.
  - benburton 13y ago
    You must have a really tough time renting cars.
    - erichocean 13y ago
      Or using remote controls.
poolpool 13y ago
So you prefer an objectively worse experience across all two serious platforms in case you switch? How often are you jumping between iOS and android that this is an actual, real concern?
- Touche 13y ago
  I disagree that all web apps are "objectively worse". I use HackerWeb[1] because I believe it to be better than any of the Android apps I've tried.. [1]http://hackerwebapp.com/ http://hackerwebapp.com/
  - girvo 13y ago
    To be perfectly fair, HackerWeb is the best web application I'm terms of cross platform performance I have ever ever seen. Edit, wait oops I thought you meant http://hn.premii.com http://hn.premii.com but HackerWeb is well done too!
    - Touche 13y ago
      "To be perfectly fair" implies that it shouldn't count. Does the Premii app demonstrate what can be done given the effort?
      - girvo 13y ago
        To achieve those results requires a lot of effort, and hardcore optimisation. Native coding gets you the same results, minus all that effort (as long as you're okay with targeting one platform), so yeah I was sort of saying it doesn't count IMO :) That said, I'm building all my applications using web tools, Facebooks React allows for some amazing native performance, cross platform! If the views are decoupled enough, you can get two UIs with the exact same logic client and server side, with near native performance to boot. Now it's not there yet, but it's super close, and once tooling is built up to tackle this use case with the new tech and architecture (client side), then I think it'll be a very big deal!
gobengo 13y ago
It seems to me that switching phones is .0001% of the user experience. Loading the app, tapping things to switch views quickly, etc is the vast majority.
- Touche 13y ago
  Of course, many users don't think about lock-in until they buy a Roku and discover all those movies they bought on iTunes won't play on it, but I think about it every single time I install an app. That's why I prefer apps that don't burden me with the worry.
air 13y ago
User using multiple applications on a single phone is quite a lot more common use case than user using single application on several phones. I'd opt for making the common use case consistent.

by Touche 13y ago

Tloewald 13y ago

So, as a user, you don't change phones to one that forces you to do without your favorite apps, learn a new UI, and so on.

Touche 13y ago
The fact that I need to worry about this at all is a bad user experience.
- Tloewald 13y ago
  Because you expect to buy any product at any price and for everything to Just Work — fantasy.
- benburton 13y ago
  You must have a really tough time renting cars.
  - erichocean 13y ago
    Or using remote controls.

poolpool 13y ago

So you prefer an objectively worse experience across all two serious platforms in case you switch? How often are you jumping between iOS and android that this is an actual, real concern?

Touche 13y ago
I disagree that all web apps are "objectively worse". I use HackerWeb[1] because I believe it to be better than any of the Android apps I've tried.. [1]http://hackerwebapp.com/ http://hackerwebapp.com/
- girvo 13y ago
  To be perfectly fair, HackerWeb is the best web application I'm terms of cross platform performance I have ever ever seen. Edit, wait oops I thought you meant http://hn.premii.com http://hn.premii.com but HackerWeb is well done too!
  - Touche 13y ago
    "To be perfectly fair" implies that it shouldn't count. Does the Premii app demonstrate what can be done given the effort?
    - girvo 13y ago
      To achieve those results requires a lot of effort, and hardcore optimisation. Native coding gets you the same results, minus all that effort (as long as you're okay with targeting one platform), so yeah I was sort of saying it doesn't count IMO :) That said, I'm building all my applications using web tools, Facebooks React allows for some amazing native performance, cross platform! If the views are decoupled enough, you can get two UIs with the exact same logic client and server side, with near native performance to boot. Now it's not there yet, but it's super close, and once tooling is built up to tackle this use case with the new tech and architecture (client side), then I think it'll be a very big deal!

gobengo 13y ago

It seems to me that switching phones is .0001% of the user experience. Loading the app, tapping things to switch views quickly, etc is the vast majority.

Touche 13y ago
Of course, many users don't think about lock-in until they buy a Roku and discover all those movies they bought on iTunes won't play on it, but I think about it every single time I install an app. That's why I prefer apps that don't burden me with the worry.

air 13y ago

User using multiple applications on a single phone is quite a lot more common use case than user using single application on several phones. I'd opt for making the common use case consistent.