Mozilla Makes Prototype of Firefox OS Available

Thinkcloud writes "Even though the operating system hasn't arrived in a version for smartphones and tablets just yet, Firefox OS is available as a prototype module that you can run on Windows, Mac or Linux computers (download page). The initial Firefox OS phones are expected to arrive in 2013, and it's been reported that Alcatel and ZTE are the first manufacturers on board."

Re:What Is To Be Gained?

[organgtool]

I tend to leave my browser open all of the time with quite a few open tabs. A few weeks after my switch to Firefox, my computer started slowing down while I was browsing the web. I figured one of the tabs had a JS proc that was running away with the processor, so I started closing tabs. After all of the tabs were closed, the computer was still slow, so I started the Task Manager. I couldn't determine why it was spinning the processor, but I did notice it was using 800 MB of RAM with no open tabs. I closed the browser down and restarted it and it ran fine, but I never need to do that crap in Chrome.

Re:Competition Is Good

[plover]

Nobody would argue that competition benefits the consumer. But how do you think they're going to effectively compete? What are the attributes where they could provide value that nobody else is delivering?
Perceived quality of OS: iOS +++; Android ++; Windows Phone ++
Perceived user OS experience: iOS +++; Android ++; Windows +++
Perceived user App experience: iOS +++; Android (variable); Windows (unknown)
Cost: iOS ---; Android -; Windows --
App store monopoly: iOS ---; Android +; Windows ---
App availability: iOS +++; Android ++; Windows -
Coolness factor: iOS +++; Android +; Windows ?
Compatibility with previous phone apps (can I transfer my Angry Birds high scores from iOS to Android?): (variable, depends on vendor support for the platforms)
Vendor lock in (how much do I have invested in my existing phone that I would throw away if I switched?): (varies over duration of ownership.)
Compatibility with friends phones: (entirely dependent on circle of friends)

And I'm sure you can insert a dozen other factors here.

Note that I'm not trying to start a flame war over the coolness of iOS vs Android vs Windows, I'm listing it as a user decision factor. If you want to give Android +++, iOS ---, and Windows +++++, go ahead.

After you list these all out, you have to come up with weights. How heavily does the coolness factor come into the buying decision? What about cost? What do people think about ease of use? And it's not like these are solid numbers. At best, they're educated guesses based on market penetration studies and user surveys.

So after all that analysis, where would Firefox OS fit? How would it break into the market? So far Microsoft has spent more money on advertising Windows Phone than Mozilla has ever had in total, yet they aren't exactly taking over the market. Are they counting on a very loyal user base? Are they going to provide fully open phones, yet have some magically strong UI guidelines that keep third parties in line for providing consistent interfaces? Are they going to give away the OS for free to phone makers?

Re:What Is To Be Gained?

[Anonymous Coward]

Keep in mind that when a process frees memory, often* memory is generally still shown by the operating system as allocated to that process, even if it's paged out and mostly idle. Chrome is sneaky in that every tab is its own process, and when a process exits all of its allocated memory is completely reclaimed by the operating system. So Chrome could leak memory, but if you close that tab, it becomes irrelevant. *(a big part of this is whether it's anonymous mmap'd memory or just the break value of the heap)