On 19/05/12 01:52, Ragavan Srinivasan wrote:
> * Apps are primarily about mobile where the "browser" is either an
> invisible runtime (Android) or in the case of B2G, the phone is the
> browser.

I think you have got too caught up in the Apple/Google-promoted model of
"apps" as a different class of thing :-) Surely if "the web is the
platform", then also a web page _is_ an application.

If you have a mobile phone, it may allow you to take certain web pages
and promote them to top-level "apps", such that they can be run from the
home screen etc., but this is an implementation detail. Other than
perhaps that it triggers a different or more limited set of permissions
prompts, why should a web page need to care if it's being run in "app
mode" or in a browser window?

> Until such time, this is what I believe we should do:
> 
> * We should proudly promote Firefox (WebRT specifically) as the solution
> that is going to offer the best possible experience for users looking
> for cross platform apps.
> 
> * We should strongly encourage users visiting the marketplace from other
> browsers to download Firefox (and hence WebRT) and use it as the runtime
> for HTML 5 apps.

In this view, once other browsers start supporting WebRT, would they
appear in this list?

If not, how is that any better than "Chrome-only" stores and websites?

> Having said that, I also believe we should allow users to refuse the
> better experience and offer a downgraded experience (such as "visiting"
> their installed apps from a non-WebRT browser, launching these apps
> inside a tab etc).
> 
> The web is the platform - it is just unevenly distributed. :)

But the ability to have a website as a top-level app on your phone and
run in a chromeless window is not "the web", it's an implementation
detail. Say I write e.g. a task-tracking webapp, which only requires
Internet access in terms of major browser capabilities, and I make it
run equally well in Chrome, Firefox, IE and Opera. I then am considering
putting it in the Mozilla Marketplace, and pointing potential users
there. Why would I do that if, when a Chrome user goes there to use my
app, they get hassled to change browser?

"The web is the platform" also should mean that you don't have to use
Firefox.

Gerv
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