Ben, This is very well written. Thank you. On 23 February 2016 at 08:08, Benjamin Francis <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 4 February 2016 at 08:35, George Roter <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> Through the work of hundreds of contributors we made an awesome push and >> created an impressive platform in Firefox OS. However, as we announced in >> December, the circumstances of multiple established operating systems and >> app ecosystems meant that we were playing catch-up, and the conditions were >> not there for Mozilla to win on commercial smartphones. >> > > I want to follow up on this one point because I've seen this text quoted > in the press and internally so many times and I think the way it's worded > provides a misrepresentation. > > There is a common misconception that what we set out to do with the Boot > to Gecko project was to build an operating system that could compete with > Android and iOS to become the "third platform" on mobile. As I understood > it that was never our goal, and neither was our intention for "Mozilla to > win on commercial smartphones". Had anyone told me that was the goal I > would never have joined Mozilla to work on the Boot to Gecko project four > years ago. > > The original stated goal > <https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mozilla.dev.platform/dmip1GpD5II/CzJSSUMq5HsJ> > was to prove that the *web* could be that platform, on both mobile and > desktop. "*We aren't trying to have these native-grade apps just run on > Firefox, we're trying to have them run on the web*." B2G/Firefox OS was a > means to that end by enabling us to prototype new capabilities for the web > and to give us a seat at the standardisation table in those areas. We > succeeded in building "*prototype APIs for exposing device and OS > capabilities to content*", a "*privilege model to make sure that these > new capabilities are safely exposed to pages and applications*", a "*low-level > substrate to boot on an Android compatible device*" and "*apps to prove > out and prioritize the power of the system*". > > Not all of the new APIs we created went on to become web standards and at > some points as the project grew we lost sight of that goal. Also in setting > out as a technical experiment explicitly focused on proving the technology > rather than providing a compelling end user experience, we probably didn't > do the project justice by giving it a fair chance of succeeding as a > product. But the fact that Boot to Gecko has gone on to become Firefox OS > and shipped on over 15 commercial smartphones in over 30 countries has > already completely exceeded my personal expectations for it as a product. > > Meanwhile there are now over 100,000 cross-vendor web apps on the open web > using new standards like Service Workers, Push Notifications and Web > Manifest and they're growing fast. Mozilla can not claim sole > responsibility for this, but to me this is a much better measure of success > against our mission than any over-ambitious sales targets of OEMs or mobile > carriers for their own products. The process of creating new web standards > might take longer than the lifecycle of some products, but the health of > the web is what matters for Mozilla's mission, and is what we should > continue to work towards with Firefox OS and other projects in the > Connected Devices team. > > The reason I bring this up is not to defend the B2G project, but to try to > set the scene for our work in Connected Devices going forward. In creating > a "platform" for the Internet of Things we should make sure not to build a > Mozilla platform, but to build a Web of Things built on open standards > which can eventually stand up on its own and exist without Mozilla's > involvement if it has to. That might involve building some great Mozilla > products along the way and by focusing on creating a compelling end user > experience we'll greatly amplify the impact we can have with those > products. But ultimately we should measure our success by the health of the > Internet as a global public resource open and accessible to all. > > I continue to be excited about expanding Firefox OS into new areas and > tackling new challenges in this increasingly connected world, with whatever > tools we need to achieve that! > > All the Best > > Ben > > _______________________________________________ > dev-fxos mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-fxos > > -- Zambrano Gasparnian, Armen Automation & Tools Engineer http://armenzg.blogspot.ca
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