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Love some Firefox OS exposure. I'm a fan, really want to see the idea/project to succeed. If you think about purchasing a device, here's my take. - the Flame

Love some Firefox OS exposure. I'm a fan, really want to see the idea/project to succeed. If you think about purchasing a device, here's my take. - the Flame feels really solid and looks quite nice. - the performance is nice/comparable to other platforms - current version (running from git here) of the OS looks nice and modern - it is trivial to build and install it (given a supported device ofc) Ultimately it's not ready yet for daily usage for me, personally, but I suggest you check it out, give it a spin. I'm impressed how fast it improved already and hope to use the Flame as my default phone in the next couple month.

asadotzler 12y ago
The Flame is solid mid-range hardware and running Firefox OS 2.1 on it is pretty smooth. If you're a hacker type (presumably you are because you're reading Hacker News) and you don't have a heavy dependence on any particular app that isn't yet available for Firefox OS, it's ready or very nearly ready for you. If you're an app hacker, the Flame is the device for you. It's globally available for $145 + $25 S&H at http://www.everbuying.com/product549652.html http://www.everbuying.com/product549652.html
gcb0 12y ago
> If you think about purchasing a device don't. the work so far can all be done with emulator. DO NOT BUY A DEVICE. and as the parent just said, the performance on the emulator is MUCH better than the real device. it is just more waste in the world. Also, if anyone want a couple firefox phones msg me. i have a couple left. i got them when i believed that since they were going to be sold in stores, they would be consumer ready... and hence i needed to support them on my site... big mistake on all accounts. to being with they are not consumer ready. and it was close to impossible to find them in stores (despite them being advertised on billboards all over the city) anyway, if you want a phone, msg me. i have a few left. be warned that is harder to flash than a re-purposed android phone. much. much harder. (extremely closed components and hard to crate kernels) This is not hate on the project. just on their careless aggressiveness to go to market. the project has lots of future. just take your time before polluting the world with pure garbage.
- darklajid 12y ago
  Hmm.. I know I can only comment on the Flame, but your trouble with flashing seems odd. Update sources? git pull; ./repo sync -d Build from source? ./build.sh Flash to device? ,/flash.sh Done. Device reboots into a shiny new version. I couldn't imagine an easier way tbh. Regarding the rest of your comment: I do have pain points¹. I was a bit disappointed at times. But the progress is good and the current state (git, not what my flame came with, 1.3) looks very, very promising. 1: Keyboard's UX decision to be all caps (a la iPhone), lack of a working xmpp client, lack of a mail client w/ idle (mandatory) and server side search (optional but really helpful) support. Solve these and I need no apps/a different platform.
  - darklajid 12y ago
    Lots of negativity here. I juat grabbed the Flame from upstairs again to test a browser feature. Now I remember the one single point of cannot-use. Keyboard? Usable, merely annoying. XMPP? I.. would even fall back on SMS. Mail client: It works, kinda. Not well, not nice, but it exists. The single one rant-worthy FxOS thing is the 'search'. It seems they integrate some weird recommendation engine. And that feels like browsing the web, ca. 2000 and no adblock. It even comes with predefined 'categories' (looks like folders, but it will search the web for 'games' for example and list the lowest of the low, the worst corners of the internet, the online scum - as 'apps' on your phone). Hrm.. Damn, that really turns me off every time I give it a try.. Can you rip it out/disable it? Nope.
    - hsivonen 12y ago
      > It seems they integrate some weird recommendation engine. > And that feels like browsing the web, ca. 2000 and no > adblock. It even comes with predefined 'categories' > (looks like folders, but it will search the web for > 'games' for example and list the lowest of the low, the > worst corners of the internet, the online scum - as > 'apps' on your phone). Hrm.. Damn, that really turns me > off every time I give it a try.. Can you rip it > out/disable it? Nope. Probably a relevant bug report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1048771 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1048771

asadotzler 12y ago

The Flame is solid mid-range hardware and running Firefox OS 2.1 on it is pretty smooth. If you're a hacker type (presumably you are because you're reading Hacker News) and you don't have a heavy dependence on any particular app that isn't yet available for Firefox OS, it's ready or very nearly ready for you. If you're an app hacker, the Flame is the device for you. It's globally available for $145 + $25 S&H at http://www.everbuying.com/product549652.html http://www.everbuying.com/product549652.html

gcb0 12y ago

> If you think about purchasing a device don't. the work so far can all be done with emulator. DO NOT BUY A DEVICE. and as the parent just said, the performance on the emulator is MUCH better than the real device. it is just more waste in the world. Also, if anyone want a couple firefox phones msg me. i have a couple left. i got them when i believed that since they were going to be sold in stores, they would be consumer ready... and hence i needed to support them on my site... big mistake on all accounts. to being with they are not consumer ready. and it was close to impossible to find them in stores (despite them being advertised on billboards all over the city) anyway, if you want a phone, msg me. i have a few left. be warned that is harder to flash than a re-purposed android phone. much. much harder. (extremely closed components and hard to crate kernels) This is not hate on the project. just on their careless aggressiveness to go to market. the project has lots of future. just take your time before polluting the world with pure garbage.

darklajid 12y ago
Hmm.. I know I can only comment on the Flame, but your trouble with flashing seems odd. Update sources? git pull; ./repo sync -d Build from source? ./build.sh Flash to device? ,/flash.sh Done. Device reboots into a shiny new version. I couldn't imagine an easier way tbh. Regarding the rest of your comment: I do have pain points¹. I was a bit disappointed at times. But the progress is good and the current state (git, not what my flame came with, 1.3) looks very, very promising. 1: Keyboard's UX decision to be all caps (a la iPhone), lack of a working xmpp client, lack of a mail client w/ idle (mandatory) and server side search (optional but really helpful) support. Solve these and I need no apps/a different platform.
- darklajid 12y ago
  Lots of negativity here. I juat grabbed the Flame from upstairs again to test a browser feature. Now I remember the one single point of cannot-use. Keyboard? Usable, merely annoying. XMPP? I.. would even fall back on SMS. Mail client: It works, kinda. Not well, not nice, but it exists. The single one rant-worthy FxOS thing is the 'search'. It seems they integrate some weird recommendation engine. And that feels like browsing the web, ca. 2000 and no adblock. It even comes with predefined 'categories' (looks like folders, but it will search the web for 'games' for example and list the lowest of the low, the worst corners of the internet, the online scum - as 'apps' on your phone). Hrm.. Damn, that really turns me off every time I give it a try.. Can you rip it out/disable it? Nope.
  - hsivonen 12y ago
    > It seems they integrate some weird recommendation engine. > And that feels like browsing the web, ca. 2000 and no > adblock. It even comes with predefined 'categories' > (looks like folders, but it will search the web for > 'games' for example and list the lowest of the low, the > worst corners of the internet, the online scum - as > 'apps' on your phone). Hrm.. Damn, that really turns me > off every time I give it a try.. Can you rip it > out/disable it? Nope. Probably a relevant bug report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1048771 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1048771