HP webOS should marry Firefox OS

[sgamao]

Originally Posted by geekpeter

closest to that is html5 apps but again they still cant do everything required on their own, even then html5 isnt the saving grace over flash many think it is, their both as slow as each other in differing places.

i understand and share your views but tbh companies make more cash having the segregated markets, forcing ppl to repurchase the same apps on new eco-systems, i doubt it will change when it allows for more income.

..and by the way HTML5 apps will be runned from devices with Android, iOS, BB10 and WP.. An os primarly based on HTML5 cannot be a game-changer..

[deCorvett]

I haven't read the entire thread, so sorry if something I'm commenting has been said.

From a technical standpoint, webOS and Firefox OS are like oil and water. Yes, both are liquids, but...

FirefoxOS is, literally, Gecko on top of Linux, while webOS has a much more sophisticated design.

Enyo2 apps can run on FirefoxOS? yes, with some updates in Enyo (Remember FirefoxOS isn't available). That's all: no background services, no system manager calls, no built in database support...

It's all much simpler on FirefoxOS, because it's designed to be (basically) just a browser. You can do some special calls with Javascript, but that's all, because Mozilla wanted exactly that: while possible, firefoxOS apps being a local copy of a mobile website.

I could go into more detail, but basically trying to put together FirefoxOS and webOS isn't feasible without severely hurting at least one of both concepts.

[deCorvett]

Originally Posted by sgamao

..and by the way HTML5 apps will be runned from devices with Android, iOS, BB10 and WP.. An os primarly based on HTML5 cannot be a game-changer..

No. HTML5 is a path, not a goal.

What people tends to miss is the fact that HTML5 is becoming a stronger player each year, and while Apple (what an irony) and Google (another great bit of irony) are pushing strong native apps, the interest for developers is exactly the opposite, and HTML5 is good for users.

Apple hurts HTML5 by closing JIT to 3rd parties (just remember how webapps were the only choice on iPhone's launch) and claiming security issues. Really? Sure it's more secure to visit any undetermined website than using an app Apple has reviewed.

Google is doing it not pushing Chrome as the engine for hybrid apps. Webapps, AFAIK, continue using the same buggy and clunky Android browser we saw before Chrome, while web navigation is done through the more efficient Chrome's implementation of webkit.

HTML5 is good for users because it ensures almost inmediate availability of apps/services everywhere as soon as there is the interest to make it available (call it userbase, call it money, call it whatever).

You can say games. HTML5 isn't ready (yet) for doing some kind of stuff, but it's simply a matter of time (look at 2:25):



That means it can be a game changer? no. But as always, is not what you use, but how you use it. It's not webOS itself who failed, but business decissions. Business decissions that we all know now were wrong.

[sgamao]

Originally Posted by deCorvett

I haven't read the entire thread, so sorry if something I'm commenting has been said.

From a technical standpoint, webOS and Firefox OS are like oil and water. Yes, both are liquids, but...

FirefoxOS is, literally, Gecko on top of Linux, while webOS has a much more sophisticated design.

Enyo2 apps can run on FirefoxOS? yes, with some updates in Enyo (Remember FirefoxOS isn't available). That's all: no background services, no system manager calls, no built in database support...

It's all much simpler on FirefoxOS, because it's designed to be (basically) just a browser. You can do some special calls with Javascript, but that's all, because Mozilla wanted exactly that: while possible, firefoxOS apps being a local copy of a mobile website.

I could go into more detail, but basically trying to put together FirefoxOS and webOS isn't feasible without severely hurting at least one of both concepts.

For what i can understand (i am not an expert) it would technically be a step down for webOS to try to melt itself into Firefox OS but it doesn't sound impossible.
webOS had since its born all features to be a real alternative to iOS and Android but HP have played all cards wrong. The two giants OSes have grown and in the mean time Windows and BlackBerry have found the energy and the ideas to try a come back and while webOS only lives in some ports Firefox OS has prepared two nice developer devices and it seems it will hit some markets pretty soon.
Other platforms are going to join the party (Jolla, Ubuntu, Tizen) but the one which seems to me sharing some fundamental concepts with webOS is the one from the Mozilla Foundation.

[deCorvett]

Originally Posted by sgamao

For what i can understand (i am not an expert) it would technically be a step down for webOS to try to melt itself into Firefox OS but it doesn't sound impossible.
webOS had since its born all features to be a real alternative to iOS and Android but HP have played all cards wrong. The two giants OSes have grown and in the mean time Windows and BlackBerry have found the energy and the ideas to try a come back and while webOS only lives in some ports Firefox OS has prepared two nice developer devices and it seems it will hit some markets pretty soon.
Other platforms are going to join the party (Jolla, Ubuntu, Tizen) but the one which seems to me sharing some fundamental concepts with webOS is the one from the Mozilla Foundation.

But why would anybody want to stripe down webOS to make a Firefox clone? There is no reason to do that, from a technical, economic or user standpoint.

Stripping down webOS will not make appear manufacturers magically, and not that Firefox is in great shape on this: they've partnered with a little spanish Android startup with minimal presence in the market and zero marketing muscle. From a hardware standpoint it's not different of Phoenix releasing a phone with webOS on it.

FirefoxOS is entirely dependant on what Telefonica decides to do with it, as Telefonica is the only strong partner for Mozilla. And Telefonica will shoot and see the raw numbers on the first three months and push it or forget it depending on those numbers. Firefox OS may end in the same exact situation as webOS stands right now. The exact same.

All we need now is to know what Gram is exactly, and what it proposes. I wouldn't discard completely the possibility of seeing some kind of Gram branded hardware, when Open webOS becomes a finished product. They can't design or manufacture it, but they can hire someone to do it, and make it available on small scale. If these spanish guys (they're 11 or 12 people, no more) are doing it, they can too.

[drahgon]

Originally Posted by deCorvett

I haven't read the entire thread, so sorry if something I'm commenting has been said.

From a technical standpoint, webOS and Firefox OS are like oil and water. Yes, both are liquids, but...

FirefoxOS is, literally, Gecko on top of Linux, while webOS has a much more sophisticated design.

Enyo2 apps can run on FirefoxOS? yes, with some updates in Enyo (Remember FirefoxOS isn't available). That's all: no background services, no system manager calls, no built in database support...

It's all much simpler on FirefoxOS, because it's designed to be (basically) just a browser. You can do some special calls with Javascript, but that's all, because Mozilla wanted exactly that: while possible, firefoxOS apps being a local copy of a mobile website.

I could go into more detail, but basically trying to put together FirefoxOS and webOS isn't feasible without severely hurting at least one of both concepts.

Yes webOS has a more sophisticated design, but none of it is necessary to actually run an app. It is there to add extra features not available using just web technologies. You could literally take an html5 website and plunk it into webOS and it would work. No special api calls at all. Also any website could technically be a webOS app. All you would need to do is add webOS api calls and check that you are running on a webOS device.

HP currently prevents api calls in the browser but If they allowed it would be possible. So firefoxOS and webOS are quite similar

[sgamao]

Doesn't developing apps through Enyo for the Firefox browser mean that the very same apps will work on Firefox OS too?