Comment by PeterWhittaker | Hacker News Reader

Comment by PeterWhittaker | Hacker News Reader

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everyone of us want Firefox OS (to) win

We do?

I'm not sure that I care one way or another. Does the device work as expected? Does it do useful things? Does it do the fun things that I actually want it to do?

Then I don't care much one way or another.

On a related but possibly tangential digression, I'm showing my age, yes, but I want my TV to be a TV - a device for showing for moving pictures provided via a suitably optimized device of another ilk (I'm quite happy to accept the second function of OTA tuning, just 'coz it's pretty much always there and saves me buying another device - what with having cancelled cable about 18 months ago).

So I neither want nor need it to have an OS.

There's an AppleTV sitting below my TV. It has an OS. I don't give a damn - it works pretty darned well, thanks.

I don't know what's inside my receiver to give it Internet capabilities, and don't care - I use them very little, when my 20 year old receiver died, I bought the best value receiver that had the features I wanted: 7.1, AM, FM, CD in, Aux in.... Yeah, that was about it. AirPlay is nice, glad to have it, use it occasionally, didn't want or need it, but its presence was no deal breaker. Internet radio? Don't use it at all. DLNA? Didn't even know what it was when I bought the thing. Don't use it at all right now (don't have a media server, why would I want one? I have Netflix and AppleTV and all of our Airs can stream to AppleTV directly).

I never want to buy or receive media again, they take up space, gather dust. I'll read books when they are given to me, or when they are the best form for the content, e.g., books that are image-heavy, but otherwise Google Play Books serves me quite well, thank you.

Did I mention OS in any of that? Hmm, nope.

Don't know. Don't care.

And the OS won't prevent any of the ills that come with any of the above, e.g., DRM-enabled-yank-back, unless you the user are going to pirate to get around the DRM.

Technology cannot solve that problem, only the law and the market can, and they need us - all of us - to realize that technology is not the solution and to get out there in front of the issue and agitate for changes in the law and market.

Why sure I care which OS wins? I'm pretty sure I don't. But I am willing to entertain serious answers to a serious question. Fire away.

    Does the device work as expected? Does it do useful 
    things? Does it do the fun things that I actually want 
    it to do?

Those aren't the only questions that people can ask about a phone or a mobile OS. I particularly would like a mobile OS that isn't tied to an advertising company (Google) and isn't a black box (iPhone). I don't even have full comfort over everything running on my Android device. I have no way of knowing which companies can access the data on that device and the ways with which they can access it.

If those are things you don't care about then yea, you certainly shouldn't care if FirefoxOS "wins". However, them "winning" shouldn't be looked at as them gaining dominant market share in mobile OSes, but rather (a) the open web prevailing and gaining development resources, (b) having a legitimate option for people who DO care about what software is running on their devices.

The article cited Panasonic as an organization interested in Firefox OS. To whom is Panasonic marketing its TVs? Gearheads like us who might care about the OS, or the mass market?

If the mass market, they aren't going to say "Not Android! Not iOS!" because many will ask "Why not? Those work pretty well, this won't work with my phone, ARGH!"

Instead, they will focus on capabilities, features, things that set them apart, and will not discuss the OS. Though they will have very carefully crafted messages about how their TVs do support interacting with your favourite smartphone.

As to the gearhead market, speaking as a recovering gearhead myself (:->), well, that's who Linux appeals to, right?

So it devolves into "Ubuntu Vs Firefox OS" for phones aimed at neckbeards.

No offense intended in any way. All tongue partially in cheek.

But the OS is irrelevant to the mass market and the market of people who care about the OS is relatively small. Good enough to support a few laptop suppliers here and there, maybe niche phone makers, but nothing big.

Broadly speaking, there are at least two communities on Hacker News: 1) People who want to grow big successful businesses based on tech, 2) hackers of all ilks and stripes who don't fall into #1.

My guess is that most of the people in Group#1 don't care what OS they use, what tools they use, as long as they deliver the capabilities and support the vision they require.

So my original comment was really about the hyperbolic statement that "we want Firefox OS to win". My bet is that many in Group#1 don't even care. Some do. More in Group#2 might. But to assert that everyone here does? Not so much.

(I love the Internet. I could care less what it runs on. Cisco Vs whomever is just so not interesting to most of us - unless we're "Group#2 networking gearheads".)

> I particularly would like a mobile OS that isn't tied to an advertising company (Google) and isn't a black box (iPhone).

http://source.android.com/ http://www.cyanogenmod.org/

Plenty of choices of Android builds that have no closed-source Google code whatsoever.

> I don't even have full comfort over everything running on my Android device. I have no way of knowing which companies can access the data on that device and the ways with which they can access it.

That has nothing whatsoever to do with the OS. You think just because it's Firefox OS suddenly OEMs are going to open source their drivers, ship unlocked bootloaders, etc...? If so, I've got a bridge to sell you.

Actually, OS choice does make a lot of difference.

If the OS is open source and well documented, the process for rooting, jailbreaking or exploiting the device on which it is running will be much easier.

The same couldn't be said about Apple TV, the 3rd generation and beyond is completely locked down.

I personally use Airplay extensively, it saves time transferring video files to my HTPC when I can beam them directly from my laptop.

tl;dr your experience represents you, no one else, stop trying to pretend otherwise.

tl;dr your experience represents you, no one else, stop trying to pretend otherwise.

Absolutely spot-on! Thank you for making my point better than I could!

Read the quote to which I was responding, that most of us here want Firefox OS to win. That represents the experience of a plurality but not all.

I don't care what anything runs on, because the cool stuff happens when you connect people and things. I don't understand the brain's operating system and don't need to to do cool thing with other people.

> We do?

Yes, we do. We, as in many of us here on HN, do want Firefox OS to win. And by win, we don't mean that other platforms have to lose.

Spare us the lectures about "normal consumers" not caring. We know all that. But we, the technologists, the ones who write apps and web sites, do often care about platforms, and some of us think that mobile platforms arena would be more interesting with a web-based platform in the game. The world is diverse. There is room for a variety of mobile platforms to fill in a variety of spaces.

Actually some of us hope that mobile brings back the browser to its right place, interactive documents.

I think it's "every one of us who wants to write native apps for mobile devices"

Even if only to exert more pressure on the competitors. If they feel some breath on their back, it can only increase the chance that your device of choice will be solid, do useful things and be pleasant to use (plus, last but not least, affordable)

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