Same thing as what happened to Ubuntu Touch: Not enough funding and not enough developers or hardware, so a cycle developed of not having apps, so nobody used it, but nobody used it so there are no developers.
Honestly, I would've used either of these OSes. Always had a bit of an interest in Linux phones, personally. Only reason I don't use one is because there's two primary apps I use on my phone that I refuse to live without: Discord and Spotify. So unless Linux phones get ports of those apps, I don't have much interest in them. Lol
@troyt4969 KaiOS is still around, they're focusing more on getting cheap 4G phones into countries in Africa, Nokia just prefers to have their own proprietary os
Chrome OS? Might as well install some flavor of linux if you're going to be using a laptop. A privacy focused phone OS that gives the user control, that's what I would've loved to see
That version, the one you'd run as a home screen app, was never the best way to experiment Firefox OS. It was just an experiment that didn't run well. The best way to do it was with one of the official devices or with a real instalation with a compatible device such as a Sony Xperia Z3C. In both cases, the OS running would be Firefox OS and not Android with Firefox OS sandboxed into it. The real thing was faster and more stable. Oh, and I'm the one that uploaded that 2048 version to the Firefox Marketplace :)
Yeah i thought so too. I have never seen anything about Firefox OS until this video, but i could tell that this experimental version was replacing the actual phone launcher. So every time he launched an app like UA-cam from there and went back into the home screen, it had to reopen Firefox OS because the launcher got stopped in the background. So Firefox OS didn't "crash", it just had to relaunch entirely because Android killed it.
"Foxfood" is an internal Mozilla term like the "dogfood" as in "eating our own dogfood" to test software with a friendly staff & community audience before releasing more widely
Also, I had Firefox OS installed on a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact phone to entirely replace Android and it ran great. That weird OS-as-an-Android-app foxfood experience never really worked well, alas. But, it was an attempt to let folks try it out without having to entirely nuke their daily driver phone
@@lmorchard yeah i was reacting at that too, would it not also show Android Apps then and not only Firefox OS apps, so that would the Samsung S4 UA-cam app i think, i translated the App Store for the OS to Swedish and showed it off at conferences and expos here in Sweden, so still have a couple of developer and testing devices (that runs various versions of Firefox OS) and released devices a Sony Z3C Compact for once i think it is i got at Mozlando Mozilla Internal conference in Orlando in December 2015, that i reflashed with Android and a big freaking expo / conference show banner in my basement (Mozilla did not want it back after they killed it off) so it stuck in my apartment and basement here in Sweden was quite active in the Swedish Mozilla Community back then, now i only help out here and there with translations when i have time but not as much as i used too) (picked up one of the phones at Spotify from a guys wife, that guy now works on Microsoft Edge) dead OS but many fond memories
I went to a Firefox Dev Days in Vancouver around 2013, since they were pushing FirefoxOS pretty heavily at the time and wanted developers. It was OK! It felt primitive, but it had some potential, and it was pretty easy to get into. They had a competition to see who could design a working app for it in the shortest amount of time - they had 5 FirefoxOS dev-kit phones to give away, and I ended up winning one of them with my app. I think it was an app to tell you if you should bring your umbrella with you by querying some web APIs for weather. Pretty neat! The phone was slow, the OS was buggy, but I kinda liked the underdog-ness of it all. We certainly had fun playing with it!
they just pulled a microsoft were the king of the browser at one time, didn't keep up with advances, and fell behind, and worst of all, kept making awful decisions that pretty much EVERY user hated and if you keep making terrible choices, of course you'll drive even more people to your competitiors
Yeah, it's a shame. Installing Firefox in 2003/4 was legitimately a life changing experience. It was light years ahead of IE4/5 in performance and features. Also, I probably wouldn't have become a web dev if not for Firebug (OG inspector/console/dev tools).
IMO, the thing that killed Firefox OS is that Mozilla got caught in a bad spot between manufacturers, carriers, and other OS makers. Very different world than installing Firefox on a general-purpose PC. Never owned the stack from OS down to hardware, with hardware locked behind closed-source driver blobs and legal contracts. That gave manufacturers & carriers key gatekeeping leverage in OS distribution. And Mozilla didn't have the heft of a Google, Microsoft, or Apple to get what they wanted from the manufacturers & carriers. But, Mozilla really, really wanted this OS to escape a tinkerer market ASAP and get into average consumers' hands so that it could make a difference. That led to compromises on open source & open web aspects of the OS to just get it practically working & shipped. And there was a push to get it working on low-end devices like US$25 phones in "emerging markets" - which led to a lot of performance challenges, unsurprisingly. In the end, there wasn't really a point to an alternative, compromised OS that struggled in distribution, performance, and developer adoption.
The timing was just bad. If they had launched it around the time Pinephone and Fairphone were getting started, it would probably be the default OS on both those company's devices.
Android 0.9 beta was originally just an application for Windows phones. There were only like 16 apks and no app store when i installed it on my HTC touch.
@@saswatsarangi6669 Android was first planned to be a Linux-kernel based OS for home-use devices like smart TV's, fridges, and also cameras. Samsung's Tizen today can be an example for what the Android developers first thought of Android to become. But then Google and HTC got interested and Google of course, bought the Android project and made it into the phone OS we know today. would've been cool if we had Android for cameras and home appliances.
... but Android 1.0 released in 2008, yet Windows Phone didn't release until 2010. The wayback machine also seems to have Android 0.9 as a full OS. I wasn't able to find any application version of it.
Yeah. However the Firefox OS apk was more of a quick demo for people to try Firefox OS in any Android device without having to flash the OS into their devices.
@@LouisSubearth well it's not even trying to look like an OS, it's nowhere near in fact. Just a simple launcher with a somewhat unconventional skin, launching your existing system apps and already installed apps
Exactly what I thought myself. I legitimately didn't notice it was a tablet until he said "Galaxy Tab". And Samsung is probably the biggest contributor to "blame" for this
Should probably have tested it on a phone though. The UI was as clearly indicated by the blur and scaling quirks designed for a much smaller one with lower resolution of the era.
This brought back memories Sean! I actually owned a Firefox OS Smartphone from LG here in Europe back than! Always searching for the alternatives even back than! Thanks for the great video as usual!
I unironically used a Firefox Phone back in the day, circa 2011 I think? The phone was hot garbage. Phantom touches, lack of app support... It was NOT a good time. With better hardware, I'm sure it would've been a decent option.
Speaking as an "old people" myself, I'll have you know that I have no need for large icons - merely a terminal prompt and access to vi... albeit it probably needs to be in a big font these days.
Bulging batteries don't usually set themselves on fire unless they're punctured. There would be a lot more house fires if every old device people keep in a drawer set their houses on fire
Firefox OS is somewhat still alive as Panasonic MyHomeScreen OS for their smart TV but it’s days are numbered due their switch to Amazon FireOS for 2024 model years (which is as ironical as sad because it was genuinely fine tv system)
I still use those background images to this day, both in a browser style as well as my phone’s background. I liked it :) I bought a cheap phone with the OS on there, and played around for a while. It ran like a cheap phone, but that was more of a hardware thing than a software. I made a few apps for it, but they never got uploaded anywhere. Maybe if I charge that phone up, I can see about saving them . ..
An interesting fact is that disney actually put where's my water on firefox os. My theory is that disney just wanted to allow everyone to play wmw on any device, because they put wmw on almost every operating system imaginable, including, blackberry, windows phone (and windows 10), firefox os, and lg smart tv (yes, that's real, unfortunately it seems to be lost to time, since we only have videos on it, and a waback machine snapshot of the marketplace which featured wmw, but no actual app files).
I had one of these! Then I moved on to Windows Phone and my aunt used it as her first smartphone for a year or two. She eventually gave up on it and moved to Android. Was a cool project. I still use Firefox as my browser today!
Probably same reason every other TV OS is not great. It's next year and support is starting to crumble because the new TV OS is built for the twice as fast chip. And when it isn't, it usually would have been just for the better dropped. Because bloat happened, but no trimming.🙄
The OS was dead on arrival because it targeted budget devices but the OS was quite heavy. My experience with their prototype Geeksphone Peak was horrible. There was a retail phone with Firefox OS in my country too and it lost to similarly priced Androids in every sector.
Yeah, the sad thing was it ran great on mid- to high-end phones. But, those phones already had Android well established as the OS and no manufacturer or carrier wanted to take a chance with flagship-level phones on this weird alternative OS. So, "emerging markets" (i.e. cheap low-end devices) became the play - which, unfortunately, was not at all a great experience.
@@Darkest_matter theoretically yes, issue is FirefoxOS was built on top of a virtualized gecko engine (hence boot2gecko) as far as i remember.. not a great way to run things
KaiOS actually living on cheap non Android phone with non touch screen. Seriously, I had one phone with KaiOS and some community could flash unofficial ROM for Android.
I was a big fan of Firefox OS. I still own two LG Fx0. It is a very unique designed smartphone. Not to say, beautilful! It's really sad that mozilla was not patient enough to support it more long than they did.
the most awesome part about firefox os was that everything was just NORMAL WEB APPS like 90% of the apps worked perfectly fine just in any ol' web browser, only a few that required native apis, didn't
I had a MacBook with a swollen battery that I never noticed until I took it to camp once. Besides the usual effects of 40°C weather, it’s the only time I actually used the laptop keyboard (and not a connected keyboard). I could only use it plugged in because to use the actual keyboard part I had to remove the battery.
I tried an computer-based install when it came out and liked it, but the only native hardware was really low end phones that crippled the user experience.
1:45 I had the same bulging on a tablet, but after leaving it on a charger for a while it reformed and is now totally usable again with acceptable battery life 🤔
Thanks for showing this, it saves me time in replicating what you already did (in the name of curiousity), you got another subscriber from Manila Philippines, MABUHAY!
My favorite part of Firefox OS is the Fira Sans font which I still use today on my phone. They really nailed it by getting Erik Spiekermann's excellent Meta font an updated look and releasing it fully open source.
Back then I thought FireFoxOS would be interesting, boy was I disappointed when I learned it was mobile only. I was hoping it would be a way to resurrect old computers, oh well, disappointing.
I’m a long time subscriber and always enjoy your willingness to share your talents with the world. I’ve got an old TabE and I’d like to see you put Chrome OS Flex on something like it. Idk if it’s possible, but your channel seems like the place to find out.
I've recently learned that flashing custom ROMs onto Android devices is now pretty much pointless as a large swathe of today's apps are designed to detect modded/rooted Androids and not work based on 'security' concerns. There are ways around it, but they are janky and unreliable and require HOURS upon HOURS of flashing kernels onto already sluggish NAND flash from millions of read cycles... As for using this OS as some kind of 'dumbphone' equivalent or secure OS that helps you hide from 'Big Brother', it won't do that either...
@@FunkteonI've been running a custom ROM for quite a long time though, the apps i use don't really detect it, even the banking app i use which usually would either stop working or disable fingerprint. 90% of the time i'd say its just root that gets detected and causes apps to stop working, custom roms by themselves are fine for daily use. tho i had encountered one or two that were crap. but its prob cause they were GSI roms which weren't fully compatible with my last phone anyway. play store was even complaining with some of those lol
Sean, we need longer videos. I love you and I know that you have to appease the algo, but the community can correct me if i'm wrong here - I'd love longer videos at the expense of fewer uploads.
I havent heard of Firefox OS in ages. I actually remember wanting the LG Fx0, which ran Firefox OS. They really popped off with the design on that thing
one moment i couldnt find people talking about this os and now i am seeing more and more people uploading about it. I wish this OS was still around though . Never got to use it
Thanks for doing all this so i didnt have to! I was straight up looking to install OSes today, that's how i found this. back to Haiku and Steam OS for now.
I had a firefox os phone as a daily driver for about a year. It had one, and just one problem: it did not had any kind of cut and paste functions altogether. That such a basic function was unavailable was what made me switch to an Android phone as soon as possible.
My first smartphone was a firefox os phone which I bought with my own money during college. I would say it ran way better than this android apk version. I loved that phone so much.
0:01 I switched out the Firefox logo on my current system with this one. I just don't like the current minimalistic one. On the other hand the logo somewhat is a good representation of Firefox in general. The browser got worse over time just as it's logo did.
I really enjoyed this. Thank you. Is it possible to do a video on Windows Phone /Windows Mobile? I really loved it back in the day and miss it. Keep up the great work.
Dude you used Samsung Tab 4 which for me its the best looking tab of all time. I remembered bought this instantly, upgrading from Tab 2 which has hugeee bezel around it. While the Tab 4 is looking super slim, super beautiful. Its 7 inch screen also perfect for me as I find any tablet bigger than 7 are too much I'd rather use laptop. God that thing still looking great after all these time
Well that made me nostalgic ... I owned both a ZTE open and a Firefox Flame, both pretty underpowered devices for their time but they ran pretty well thanks to the pretty barebones OS (especially the ZTE Open, this thing was pretty reactive despite having only 256mb of ram)
i think the main problem was the "to low hardware requirement", because almost all device only reaching that, and on that level off hardware, the whole system was super sluggish... I know a multiple case, how people "ran away with scream" from the platform after "accidentally" buying a firefox os device.. As a developer i waned to buy a "decent" hardware version device, but was almost impossible, even if the manufacturer maked a "stronger hardware" phone version, that was sold immediatly, and only the "not mutch cheaper", but mutch slower version was avaiable...
In 2014, I also had an Alcatel One Touch Fire device (I buy from Tesco), FirefoxOS 1.1 by default, then it was updated to 1.3, but I could only use the 1.4 update in a different root version, but I was able to test both versions 2.0 and 2.2, but I preferred 1.4, which I liked it. Although enough was quite unstable and very limited (especially with only 256mb ram), I still liked it. But I was sad that the development of FirefoxOS ended soon, so I was forced to look at Android devices again... Although I used the device with Android 4.0 root version until 2022, but only for listening to music. Since then, I've only kept the poor device in its box as a souvenir. Although there was no interest in it 10 years ago and the dog didn't need it either, it was still so unique to me that I love foxes.
Can Foxfood realistically install Firefox OS apps into its contained environment when it's living on top of Android? Or do you actually need to go straight to a full Firefox OS install to get the marketplace apps?
Well, I have a couple of phones with Firefox OS, and I used it as my main daily phone at the time. The customized Linux kernel with Mozilla Gecko, which could be used with HTML and CSS, was a very clever idea. The OS was very fast and outperformed Android with similar hardware specifications. By the end of its life, there was even an alpha-stage Viber application (which I had installed on an Alcatel One Touch phone). There were a ton of useful programs in the Marketplace, although not as many as the software available for Android. All in all, it's a shame that this system is no longer available.
both were quite bad too but os/2 made more sense before windows 3.0 while Firefox os came out when there was already too much competition. and judging from this video its really bad os/2 was at least functional the big problem was installing it
This made me miss using my LG Fx0. That phone was--and still is--absolutely beautiful, even if it's just sitting on my shelf now. ATT hates good phones. FirefoxOS was my favorite phone OS. The apps were basic but worked extremely well, the discovery system for web apps was useful and accurate, the marketplace (when it worked) was filled with useful stuff, and it all worked rather cohesively. I was devastated when it was killed off. Still haven't fully forgiven MoCo for that decision.
Same thing as what happened to Ubuntu Touch: Not enough funding and not enough developers or hardware, so a cycle developed of not having apps, so nobody used it, but nobody used it so there are no developers.
But it still exist as ubports
At least they got an active community still making ports
Honestly, I would've used either of these OSes. Always had a bit of an interest in Linux phones, personally. Only reason I don't use one is because there's two primary apps I use on my phone that I refuse to live without: Discord and Spotify. So unless Linux phones get ports of those apps, I don't have much interest in them. Lol
Solving a problem no one had
I need Ubuntu touch on my iPhone.
Fun fact. KaiOs is the third largest phone OS of the world and it's an OS that was based on FirefoxOs
And sadly, the same thing happened to KaiOS. Not enough funding, Nokia had to make a custom OS on their new dumb phones
That's sad @@troyt4969 another great tech thing got wasted
@troyt4969 KaiOS is still around, they're focusing more on getting cheap 4G phones into countries in Africa, Nokia just prefers to have their own proprietary os
@@AidanTheCross nokia's own OS Sucks tho
That's good to know. Basically, straight talk is going to complain that my phone isn't compatible. Right after I remove the new phone from the box.
5:36 I didn't expect an os to have jiggle physics.
delet this
@@stevethepockety?
Catalina works for Mozilla?
@@stevethepocket best reply, im ded XD
"Gigantic icons."
I imagine in an alternate timeline Firefox OS would be a privacy-focused competitor to Chrome OS
Well up until Mozilla bought an ad company and started toggling ad personalization on without consent nor notification.
Chrome OS? Might as well install some flavor of linux if you're going to be using a laptop. A privacy focused phone OS that gives the user control, that's what I would've loved to see
@@kendokaaa GrapheneOS, CalyxOS and lineageOS are all options
@@duplicake4054I have LineageOS on my Switch
@@duplicake4054 Me who uses Android: 💀
That version, the one you'd run as a home screen app, was never the best way to experiment Firefox OS. It was just an experiment that didn't run well. The best way to do it was with one of the official devices or with a real instalation with a compatible device such as a Sony Xperia Z3C. In both cases, the OS running would be Firefox OS and not Android with Firefox OS sandboxed into it. The real thing was faster and more stable. Oh, and I'm the one that uploaded that 2048 version to the Firefox Marketplace :)
Hell yeah! Thanks for your service!
Yeah i thought so too. I have never seen anything about Firefox OS until this video, but i could tell that this experimental version was replacing the actual phone launcher. So every time he launched an app like UA-cam from there and went back into the home screen, it had to reopen Firefox OS because the launcher got stopped in the background. So Firefox OS didn't "crash", it just had to relaunch entirely because Android killed it.
Hey, thanks =)
"Foxfood" is an internal Mozilla term like the "dogfood" as in "eating our own dogfood" to test software with a friendly staff & community audience before releasing more widely
Also, I had Firefox OS installed on a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact phone to entirely replace Android and it ran great. That weird OS-as-an-Android-app foxfood experience never really worked well, alas. But, it was an attempt to let folks try it out without having to entirely nuke their daily driver phone
@@lmorchard yeah i was reacting at that too, would it not also show Android Apps then and not only Firefox OS apps, so that would the Samsung S4 UA-cam app i think, i translated the App Store for the OS to Swedish and showed it off at conferences and expos here in Sweden, so still have a couple of developer and testing devices (that runs various versions of Firefox OS) and released devices a Sony Z3C Compact for once i think it is i got at Mozlando Mozilla Internal conference in Orlando in December 2015, that i reflashed with Android and a big freaking expo / conference show banner in my basement (Mozilla did not want it back after they killed it off) so it stuck in my apartment and basement here in Sweden was quite active in the Swedish Mozilla Community back then, now i only help out here and there with translations when i have time but not as much as i used too) (picked up one of the phones at Spotify from a guys wife, that guy now works on Microsoft Edge) dead OS but many fond memories
That is just silly. I love it!
I went to a Firefox Dev Days in Vancouver around 2013, since they were pushing FirefoxOS pretty heavily at the time and wanted developers. It was OK! It felt primitive, but it had some potential, and it was pretty easy to get into. They had a competition to see who could design a working app for it in the shortest amount of time - they had 5 FirefoxOS dev-kit phones to give away, and I ended up winning one of them with my app. I think it was an app to tell you if you should bring your umbrella with you by querying some web APIs for weather. Pretty neat! The phone was slow, the OS was buggy, but I kinda liked the underdog-ness of it all. We certainly had fun playing with it!
Man it's crazy to hear "Firefox" and "underdog" in the same sentence when back in the day they were almost dominating the web browser world
Wouldn't know. Chrome garbage isn't allowed on my devices, I'm in Firefox right now.
just like Nokia
they just pulled a microsoft
were the king of the browser at one time, didn't keep up with advances, and fell behind, and worst of all, kept making awful decisions that pretty much EVERY user hated
and if you keep making terrible choices, of course you'll drive even more people to your competitiors
Firefox is my choice. Don't need Google to see all of my browsig, so I'll never use Chrome.
Yeah, it's a shame. Installing Firefox in 2003/4 was legitimately a life changing experience. It was light years ahead of IE4/5 in performance and features.
Also, I probably wouldn't have become a web dev if not for Firebug (OG inspector/console/dev tools).
IMO, the thing that killed Firefox OS is that Mozilla got caught in a bad spot between manufacturers, carriers, and other OS makers. Very different world than installing Firefox on a general-purpose PC. Never owned the stack from OS down to hardware, with hardware locked behind closed-source driver blobs and legal contracts. That gave manufacturers & carriers key gatekeeping leverage in OS distribution. And Mozilla didn't have the heft of a Google, Microsoft, or Apple to get what they wanted from the manufacturers & carriers.
But, Mozilla really, really wanted this OS to escape a tinkerer market ASAP and get into average consumers' hands so that it could make a difference. That led to compromises on open source & open web aspects of the OS to just get it practically working & shipped. And there was a push to get it working on low-end devices like US$25 phones in "emerging markets" - which led to a lot of performance challenges, unsurprisingly. In the end, there wasn't really a point to an alternative, compromised OS that struggled in distribution, performance, and developer adoption.
The timing was just bad. If they had launched it around the time Pinephone and Fairphone were getting started, it would probably be the default OS on both those company's devices.
@@lmorchard at least it lives in in kaios which achieved the $25 device thing
It did live on in a bunch of early smart TVs for a while before Android took over that space too
Android 0.9 beta was originally just an application for Windows phones. There were only like 16 apks and no app store when i installed it on my HTC touch.
Fun fact.
"My days calendar" is the only original apk that can be used to this day
Thats good to know
Wait really😅. Really. I thought it was an os for camera, Google acquired it
@@saswatsarangi6669 Android was first planned to be a Linux-kernel based OS for home-use devices like smart TV's, fridges, and also cameras.
Samsung's Tizen today can be an example for what the Android developers first thought of Android to become. But then Google and HTC got interested and Google of course, bought the Android project and made it into the phone OS we know today. would've been cool if we had Android for cameras and home appliances.
... but Android 1.0 released in 2008, yet Windows Phone didn't release until 2010.
The wayback machine also seems to have Android 0.9 as a full OS. I wasn't able to find any application version of it.
You didn't install a new OS at all: you installed a launcher. That is not the same.
exactly 😊
Was about to comment this
Yeah. However the Firefox OS apk was more of a quick demo for people to try Firefox OS in any Android device without having to flash the OS into their devices.
@@LouisSubearth well it's not even trying to look like an OS, it's nowhere near in fact. Just a simple launcher with a somewhat unconventional skin, launching your existing system apps and already installed apps
At first I thought this was regular smartphone, this shows how big they got through recent years.
Exactly what I thought myself. I legitimately didn't notice it was a tablet until he said "Galaxy Tab". And Samsung is probably the biggest contributor to "blame" for this
I absolutely thought it was a Galaxy me lmao
Should probably have tested it on a phone though. The UI was as clearly indicated by the blur and scaling quirks designed for a much smaller one with lower resolution of the era.
This brought back memories Sean! I actually owned a Firefox OS Smartphone from LG here in Europe back than! Always searching for the alternatives even back than! Thanks for the great video as usual!
I unironically used a Firefox Phone back in the day, circa 2011 I think? The phone was hot garbage. Phantom touches, lack of app support... It was NOT a good time. With better hardware, I'm sure it would've been a decent option.
It transformed into mischievous Fox Spirit and had to be sealed away
6:42 that tablet seriously looks like a bigger phone lol
That's why they were called phablets!
i'm getting the "designed for old people" vibe cause of the large icons
It was designed for a phone, it’s just scaled up because he’s running it on a tablet. Screens back then were a lot smaller
Funny because Kai OS it's closest decedent is used on basic phones where the primary target is old people.
Speaking as an "old people" myself, I'll have you know that I have no need for large icons - merely a terminal prompt and access to vi... albeit it probably needs to be in a big font these days.
Rather "designed for phones"
man your house is a fire hazard. I wouldn't let a bulging battery near my stuff
This is why i have a fireproof container at home.
🤷♂ This happens to batteries sometimes. You replace them carefully and they don't explode. Keep a metal bucket full of sand nearby
Bulging batteries don't usually set themselves on fire unless they're punctured. There would be a lot more house fires if every old device people keep in a drawer set their houses on fire
@@hyperturbotechnomikeexplosion proof pie tin
@@kendokaaa this, especially if the battery has run dry, ie. no charge.
I wouldn't damage them on purpose, but an empty battery is pretty harmless.
The same thing that happened to Windows Phone and Ubuntu Touch. Google blocked them until they invested in KaiOS.
I think XDA developers has a full install of Firefox OS.
Firefox OS is somewhat still alive as Panasonic MyHomeScreen OS for their smart TV but it’s days are numbered due their switch to Amazon FireOS for 2024 model years (which is as ironical as sad because it was genuinely fine tv system)
He not understand )))
2:02 THE BLACK SPOT!!!!!!
I'm willing to bet that's supposed to be a DankPods reference
@@resolvanlemmyIt indeed is.
Quite the nugget
The black spot ipod n-a-n-o
Man I remember all those alternative OSes that existed... This video took me back 😅
I still use those background images to this day, both in a browser style as well as my phone’s background.
I liked it :) I bought a cheap phone with the OS on there, and played around for a while. It ran like a cheap phone, but that was more of a hardware thing than a software. I made a few apps for it, but they never got uploaded anywhere. Maybe if I charge that phone up, I can see about saving them . ..
An interesting fact is that disney actually put where's my water on firefox os. My theory is that disney just wanted to allow everyone to play wmw on any device, because they put wmw on almost every operating system imaginable, including, blackberry, windows phone (and windows 10), firefox os, and lg smart tv (yes, that's real, unfortunately it seems to be lost to time, since we only have videos on it, and a waback machine snapshot of the marketplace which featured wmw, but no actual app files).
It stood out to me as a bit odd that the firefox OS had chrome seemingly as the default browser, being on the homescreen
I had one of these! Then I moved on to Windows Phone and my aunt used it as her first smartphone for a year or two. She eventually gave up on it and moved to Android. Was a cool project. I still use Firefox as my browser today!
I had a Panasonic TV with FirefoxOS. It was.... not that great.
Why?
Probably same reason every other TV OS is not great.
It's next year and support is starting to crumble because the new TV OS is built for the twice as fast chip. And when it isn't, it usually would have been just for the better dropped. Because bloat happened, but no trimming.🙄
I'm wandering... Is the FirefoxOS apk any different than a launcher? Or is it just reskin of the android stock launcher
It's an app that advertises itself as a launcher which technically is something any app can do.
@@antikommunistischaktion That makes sens, ty for clarifing
I would've expected it to be a VM
4:43 watching you just deny those permissions hurt my soul
The OS was dead on arrival because it targeted budget devices but the OS was quite heavy. My experience with their prototype Geeksphone Peak was horrible. There was a retail phone with Firefox OS in my country too and it lost to similarly priced Androids in every sector.
Yeah, the sad thing was it ran great on mid- to high-end phones. But, those phones already had Android well established as the OS and no manufacturer or carrier wanted to take a chance with flagship-level phones on this weird alternative OS. So, "emerging markets" (i.e. cheap low-end devices) became the play - which, unfortunately, was not at all a great experience.
I wonder why they made it like that. Budget devices and HTML5 + JS + accelerated Canvas with dodgy hardware support sounds like a nightmare.
Even KaiOS is pretty terrible on budget devices. The whole Firefox OS codebase is a mess.
@@joe--cool it sounds good to me.. you only need a browser and nothing else.
@@Darkest_matter theoretically yes, issue is FirefoxOS was built on top of a virtualized gecko engine (hence boot2gecko) as far as i remember.. not a great way to run things
KaiOS actually living on cheap non Android phone with non touch screen. Seriously, I had one phone with KaiOS and some community could flash unofficial ROM for Android.
I was a big fan of Firefox OS. I still own two LG Fx0. It is a very unique designed smartphone. Not to say, beautilful! It's really sad that mozilla was not patient enough to support it more long than they did.
Dont let the Lexy kitty see that Spicy Pillow
the most awesome part about firefox os was that everything was just NORMAL WEB APPS
like 90% of the apps worked perfectly fine just in any ol' web browser, only a few that required native apis, didn't
As a KaiOS user since 2018, watching this feels like learning the lost history of my ancestors LOL.
I had a MacBook with a swollen battery that I never noticed until I took it to camp once. Besides the usual effects of 40°C weather, it’s the only time I actually used the laptop keyboard (and not a connected keyboard).
I could only use it plugged in because to use the actual keyboard part I had to remove the battery.
I tried an computer-based install when it came out and liked it, but the only native hardware was really low end phones that crippled the user experience.
@@kingedwin windows phone was smooth af on lowend phones.. so why can't firefox be. (i loved my lumia 920)
0:41 IE still reigning supreme in 2013! I honestly thought it wasn't no. 1 by then anymore.
I loved Firefox OS! My first smart phone was Firefox OS. Even today, I love the concept.
You could say ChromeOS follows the same direction, as it was based on Chromium. Unfortunately they are moving to Android.
I really wish FirefoxOS had gotten big...
1:45 I had the same bulging on a tablet, but after leaving it on a charger for a while it reformed and is now totally usable again with acceptable battery life 🤔
when i was younger i had a galaxy tab 3. this video just took me straight back
Thanks for showing this, it saves me time in replicating what you already did (in the name of curiousity), you got another subscriber from Manila Philippines, MABUHAY!
My favorite part of Firefox OS is the Fira Sans font which I still use today on my phone. They really nailed it by getting Erik Spiekermann's excellent Meta font an updated look and releasing it fully open source.
Kind of weird that Firefox OS is a mobile OS whereas Chrome OS is a desktop OS.
That tablet seems like a candidate for linage.
6:55 the fun shake button
This is very, VERY cool!
Thank you very much, Action Retro!
Also, good luck at your band's gig! I am now double honked off that I couldn't make VCF this round. (what an EPIC band it is, too.)
I would 100% love a Firefox alternative to Windows OS. Pretty please.
One of my favorite channels. Thank you!
I still have my galaxy tab 4 and somehow it isn’t horrible to use in 2024 lol
It got fat from all the cookies.
So you didnt flash anything, just installed a launcher that is made to look like firefoxOS?
Back then I thought FireFoxOS would be interesting, boy was I disappointed when I learned it was mobile only.
I was hoping it would be a way to resurrect old computers, oh well, disappointing.
@@paulstubbs7678 you can technically made that yourself. get chrime OS and delete chrome and replace it with firefox.
Plot twist, i use firefox since 2017 until today since i found that chrome is ram consume monster
It likely would have saw more success if it was called FireOS, but I get the name was already taken by Amazon.
I’m a long time subscriber and always enjoy your willingness to share your talents with the world. I’ve got an old TabE and I’d like to see you put Chrome OS Flex on something like it. Idk if it’s possible, but your channel seems like the place to find out.
Now let a group of the most of genius Linux users revive this OS
I've recently learned that flashing custom ROMs onto Android devices is now pretty much pointless as a large swathe of today's apps are designed to detect modded/rooted Androids and not work based on 'security' concerns. There are ways around it, but they are janky and unreliable and require HOURS upon HOURS of flashing kernels onto already sluggish NAND flash from millions of read cycles... As for using this OS as some kind of 'dumbphone' equivalent or secure OS that helps you hide from 'Big Brother', it won't do that either...
@@FunkteonI've been running a custom ROM for quite a long time though, the apps i use don't really detect it, even the banking app i use which usually would either stop working or disable fingerprint. 90% of the time i'd say its just root that gets detected and causes apps to stop working, custom roms by themselves are fine for daily use.
tho i had encountered one or two that were crap. but its prob cause they were GSI roms which weren't fully compatible with my last phone anyway. play store was even complaining with some of those lol
I think Capyloon does that but is underfunded
Sean, we need longer videos. I love you and I know that you have to appease the algo, but the community can correct me if i'm wrong here - I'd love longer videos at the expense of fewer uploads.
THANKS, you are the only one that i see changing a bad component before start to do anything :)
Only 2 OS is dominating in the market😢😢😢. Sad to see this😢😢😢.
Man the Galaxy Tab at the beginning, I thought it was a phone from today
Firefox OS did give us the LG Fx0 with its transparent housing which looked INCREDIBLE.
which looked fire
fox
I havent heard of Firefox OS in ages. I actually remember wanting the LG Fx0, which ran Firefox OS. They really popped off with the design on that thing
it is actually just a preview and not the actual complete os
I forgot all about this OS I remember it being very interesting.
one moment i couldnt find people talking about this os and now i am seeing more and more people uploading about it. I wish this OS was still around though . Never got to use it
i always wanted a home screen with jiggle physics
Seeing unlocked a memory I forgot i had. Talk about a throwback!
Thanks for doing all this so i didnt have to! I was straight up looking to install OSes today, that's how i found this. back to Haiku and Steam OS for now.
i sincerely, unironically love the jelly icons, they're so fun :)
I hope you are well because I’m getting the feeling that you are having a struggle. If you are then I send you good wishes and vibes.
Fun fact I use to write apps for Firefox OS for a little bit. I had a few apps I published on the store during my high school years.
I had a firefox os phone as a daily driver for about a year. It had one, and just one problem: it did not had any kind of cut and paste functions altogether. That such a basic function was unavailable was what made me switch to an Android phone as soon as possible.
My first smartphone was a firefox os phone which I bought with my own money during college. I would say it ran way better than this android apk version. I loved that phone so much.
Never met a single Galaxy Tab 4 that wasn't spicy (phone/tablet repair is a hell of a drug)
wow, I have the exact tablet but in white. Now I know what it could run if I wanted an alternative.
0:01 I switched out the Firefox logo on my current system with this one. I just don't like the current minimalistic one.
On the other hand the logo somewhat is a good representation of Firefox in general. The browser got worse over time just as it's logo did.
I really enjoyed this. Thank you. Is it possible to do a video on Windows Phone /Windows Mobile? I really loved it back in the day and miss it.
Keep up the great work.
That crashed so often it's a good job it has that weird jello distorting GUI to cushion the shock.
I went back to fire fox about 3 months ago and have loved evey minute!
Dude you used Samsung Tab 4 which for me its the best looking tab of all time. I remembered bought this instantly, upgrading from Tab 2 which has hugeee bezel around it. While the Tab 4 is looking super slim, super beautiful. Its 7 inch screen also perfect for me as I find any tablet bigger than 7 are too much I'd rather use laptop. God that thing still looking great after all these time
Thanks for the chuckle, brother: 'This penguin looks mildly disturbed'. X'cellent!
My 10 year old Panasonic Viera TV runs on Firefox OS and it’s glorious. Does everything a modern tv does without the bloatware and ads
Well that made me nostalgic ... I owned both a ZTE open and a Firefox Flame, both pretty underpowered devices for their time but they ran pretty well thanks to the pretty barebones OS (especially the ZTE Open, this thing was pretty reactive despite having only 256mb of ram)
i think the main problem was the "to low hardware requirement", because almost all device only reaching that, and on that level off hardware, the whole system was super sluggish...
I know a multiple case, how people "ran away with scream" from the platform after "accidentally" buying a firefox os device..
As a developer i waned to buy a "decent" hardware version device, but was almost impossible, even if the manufacturer maked a "stronger hardware" phone version, that was sold immediatly, and only the "not mutch cheaper", but mutch slower version was avaiable...
In 2014, I also had an Alcatel One Touch Fire device (I buy from Tesco), FirefoxOS 1.1 by default, then it was updated to 1.3, but I could only use the 1.4 update in a different root version, but I was able to test both versions 2.0 and 2.2, but I preferred 1.4, which I liked it.
Although enough was quite unstable and very limited (especially with only 256mb ram), I still liked it. But I was sad that the development of FirefoxOS ended soon, so I was forced to look at Android devices again... Although I used the device with Android 4.0 root version until 2022, but only for listening to music. Since then, I've only kept the poor device in its box as a souvenir.
Although there was no interest in it 10 years ago and the dog didn't need it either, it was still so unique to me that I love foxes.
I listen to tech podcasts regularly and in 2010, I never have heard of this…
Share some of your favorite tech podcasts
Can Foxfood realistically install Firefox OS apps into its contained environment when it's living on top of Android? Or do you actually need to go straight to a full Firefox OS install to get the marketplace apps?
Well, I have a couple of phones with Firefox OS, and I used it as my main daily phone at the time. The customized Linux kernel with Mozilla Gecko, which could be used with HTML and CSS, was a very clever idea. The OS was very fast and outperformed Android with similar hardware specifications. By the end of its life, there was even an alpha-stage Viber application (which I had installed on an Alcatel One Touch phone). There were a ton of useful programs in the Marketplace, although not as many as the software available for Android. All in all, it's a shame that this system is no longer available.
That is not an OS. It is a launcher!
I'm surprised that the battery didn't go into a super critical state.
Its crazy how similar the history of Firefox os is to IBM OS/2 Warp. Even down to the windows compatibility layer and android apk.
both were quite bad too but os/2 made more sense before windows 3.0 while Firefox os came out when there was already too much competition. and judging from this video its really bad os/2 was at least functional the big problem was installing it
This made me miss using my LG Fx0. That phone was--and still is--absolutely beautiful, even if it's just sitting on my shelf now. ATT hates good phones.
FirefoxOS was my favorite phone OS. The apps were basic but worked extremely well, the discovery system for web apps was useful and accurate, the marketplace (when it worked) was filled with useful stuff, and it all worked rather cohesively. I was devastated when it was killed off. Still haven't fully forgiven MoCo for that decision.
Its also still in use today.. WebOS is firefox os. Its on most lcd tv sets and oled tv sets these days.
Never knew Mozilla made an OS! Pretty neat.
Firefox is serene and nice I sometimes miss exploring the old browser.
Tablet model?