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Comment by lovelearning | Hacker News Reader

Tizen, Firefox OS and Ubuntu are probably the candidates, but I think Tizen has a combination of things going for it:

1) It's not based on AOSP (unlike Firefox OS)

2) Supports both native and HTML5 apps (Firefox OS apps are limited to HTML5)

3) Backed by Samsung, still a powerful hardware player in most markets. Both Firefox OS and Ubuntu [have had/will have] a tough time getting device manufacturers to adopt their OS, but Tizen doesn't have that problem.

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Sorry but I don't buy into Tizen.

They already did a full native API revamp a few times, with no upgrade path every time it was done.

First they threw out the APIs they got from Meego and replaced with straight Bada C++, then they did a facelift, but kept the Bada feeling to the APIs[0], now C++ is out the door and one is supposed to use EFL with C.

Also the documentation leaves a lot to wish for.

[0] Similar to the Symbian C++ dialect, dual step initialization, handles, macros for exceptions

Yeah, sounds bad. The constantly changing API is just too much to keep up with.

Just on point 3, it's not really a matter of getting device vendors to use it. I think it's pretty clear today that incumbent platforms live and die by the quality of their apps and the app delivery and discovery mechanisms.

By extension that means the quality of the developer environment, APIs, device functionality you can use, and related tooling.

Tizen is nothing without that. Samsung Mobile picking it up for 1, 10 or 100 handsets doesn't guarantee success.

It's true that sales volumes are not guaranteed, but what I meant was that because of Samsung, Tizen is in a position to atleast circumvent the chicken and egg problem that dogs any new mobile OS.

Manufacturers hesitate to bring out devices with a new OS until there is enough developer and user mindshare, but developer and user mindshare grow only when there are enough competitive devices on the market.

Right now, Firefox OS is found only on some low to mid range devices. Ubuntu OS did not even hit the crowdsourced funding target last time. Tizen is in a better position to circumvent this, if Samsung commits to Tizen (which I don't see them doing at the moment) and avoids making the same mistakes as Bada.

The only Tizen phone out in the wild has had some bad reviews. I think Samsung is committed to Tizen for at least a couple more years, mainly as a foil to Google Android, as Samsung has stated repeatedly.

There's also Salifish OS (https://sailfishos.org/). AFAIK, it's open source except the UI. Personally, I'd love to see a true open source OS succeed, but I don't believe it will happen.

There is still a little bit more closed source than only the UI [1]. However, the folks at Jolla are quite committed to open-sourcing as much as possible.

[1] http://jollafr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/oss-vs-nonoss....

[2] http://merproject.org/meetings/mer-meeting/2014/mer-meeting....

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