Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Thoughts on Firefox OS (aka Boot to Gecko)

[Alexandre Oliva]

[Catching up on oldish email]

On Jul 25, 2012, Michael Mehrazar <kopolee11@gmail.com> wrote:

> I was wondering is there had been any discussions on Mozilla's
> proposed Firefox OS. (Codenamed Boot to Gecko) For those unfamiliar,
> it is Mozilla's proposed free/open source operating system for
> smartphones. It seeks to support solely HTML5 apps, which will be part
> of the "open Web".

> Should Firefox OS be considered Software as a Service
> (SaaS), because of its reliance on web apps?

AFAIK Firefox OS can run stand-alone, even disconnected, with HTML5 apps
installed locally, rather than running off the web.

It brings HTML5/Javascript into the scope of application development
languages, rather than just web apps, putting it on equal footing as say
Java, that can be used for applets but also for full-blown apps.

Now, one thing I actually *loved* when I saw a phone booted to Gecko was
the “view sources” button, that would display the HTML5 with links to
Javascript et al, IIRC relating visual elements with corresponding
portions of the HTML.  It got me wondering how cool it would be if it
wasn't just “view sources”, but if the sources could be modified (even
if the files had originally come from the web) and that was reflected on
the running application!

Unfortunately, I was told the, rather than adding this feature, the
button was planned to go away when it went “final” :-(

If anyone's involved, can you please relay my dream above with them? :-)

Thanks,

-- 
Alexandre Oliva, freedom fighter    http://FSFLA.org/~lxoliva/
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Gandhi
Be Free! -- http://FSFLA.org/   FSF Latin America board member
Free Software Evangelist      Red Hat Brazil Compiler Engineer