> You are wrong on the long term goal and vision for FxOS: in 2.6 we started to add very webby stuff to the overall UX with "pin the web" features.
(I should say that I don't think there was a more webby version of Firefox OS that would have had more success.)
The webby features weren't the point of FxOS. It was always clear what the point was: create a phone OS/platform built entirely on web technologies, with Gecko as the core. UX was an afterthought and the basic transitions were all based on phone apps and not the web. And it
> And I wonder who the platform team was supporting then, because they were not supporting b2g either...
It's interesting that you felt they weren't supporting b2g, because from the other side we got the message that other things couldn't get done because of b2g.
There were really three directions vying for attention with Platform: Firefox OS, Firefox, and Platform's own goals (generally related to advancing web technologies). Notably when Platform was moved into the Firefox group there was also a message that we should stop trying to get ahead on new web APIs, and the focus became very clear: support Firefox. At the time of Firefox OS it wasn't at all clear what the focus was.
When things are confusing I think there's a tendency to fall back on your own competencies, and for Platform that meant sticking to what they knew how to do, not the most most gnarly (but potentially very impactful) b2g needs.
> I'm sympathetic to the idea of building a great desktop browser, but at this point in time that should not be MoCo priority #1. Hopefully the platform improvements done recently will be reused in a different context.
The desktop browser is why Mozilla has any money to do anything, of course it should be priority #1! People spend millions of hours every day in Firefox, and those people are worthy of attention.
I'm not sure why you think you know what the absolute truth about "the point of FxOS", but that doesn't matter anymore.
The way they played the "platform can't cater to all needs" story is a shame. I was naive enough to think I could trust people in MoCo to not just lie to my face but they acted like any corp. No real justification was given (I asked for numbers, bugs, etc. for months with no answer), 2 VPs did the dirty work for their CEO and the top level module owner declined both to support a community led project around b2g and to write down that they declined (exercise left to the reader to guess who this is. Hint: Brendan Eich was not top level module owner anymore).
Read [0], watch [1] and tell me if you are proud of your leadership for not even engaging a discussing on the topic.
(I should say that I don't think there was a more webby version of Firefox OS that would have had more success.)
The webby features weren't the point of FxOS. It was always clear what the point was: create a phone OS/platform built entirely on web technologies, with Gecko as the core. UX was an afterthought and the basic transitions were all based on phone apps and not the web. And it
> And I wonder who the platform team was supporting then, because they were not supporting b2g either...
It's interesting that you felt they weren't supporting b2g, because from the other side we got the message that other things couldn't get done because of b2g.
There were really three directions vying for attention with Platform: Firefox OS, Firefox, and Platform's own goals (generally related to advancing web technologies). Notably when Platform was moved into the Firefox group there was also a message that we should stop trying to get ahead on new web APIs, and the focus became very clear: support Firefox. At the time of Firefox OS it wasn't at all clear what the focus was.
When things are confusing I think there's a tendency to fall back on your own competencies, and for Platform that meant sticking to what they knew how to do, not the most most gnarly (but potentially very impactful) b2g needs.
> I'm sympathetic to the idea of building a great desktop browser, but at this point in time that should not be MoCo priority #1. Hopefully the platform improvements done recently will be reused in a different context.
The desktop browser is why Mozilla has any money to do anything, of course it should be priority #1! People spend millions of hours every day in Firefox, and those people are worthy of attention.