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j.mp/fxos-berlin

Hello ☺

My name is Michael Henretty

Engineer for Firefox OS

twitter.com/mikehenrty
github.com/mikehenrty
mikey@mozilla.com

A Brief History

  • What (Firefox OS)
  • Who (:gal, :cjones, Mozilla)
  • When (Summer 2011)
  • How (Magic)
  • ...but WHY???

In the Beginning

  • Summer, 2011
  • Firefox 4 hot off the press
  • Chris Jones & Andreas Gal
    • Working on PDF.js
    • What else can we do with JS?
    • A phone OS?
    • Let's do it until we can't

Architecture

  • 3 layers
    • Linux Kernel (Gonk)
    • Firefox (Gecko)
    • HTML5 (Gaia)
  • Gonk, similiar to AOSP + blobs
  • Gecko, rendering/layout
  • Gaia, all phone UI in HTML5
    • window manager

Can we build it?

  • July 25, 2011
    • Andreas announces B2G on mailing list
  • Sept 17, 2011
    • Initial commit
  • Jan 11, 2013
    • Branch v1.0 in Github
  • July 1, 2013
    • First FxOS devices released in Spain
  • Today
    • 30 countries
    • 17 commercial phones, 13 non-commercial
    • 1 TV, 2 tablets, 4 IoT boards

The Mozilla Mission

Our mission is to promote openness, innovation & opportunity on the Web.

mozilla.org/about/manifesto/

The FxOS Mission

Unleash the power of mobile on the web

  • Hardware APIs
  • Offline support
  • Push Notifications
  • Homescreen icons
"When native has something the web doesn’t, we should consider it a bug."
-Jake Archibald

The FxOS Mission

Bring the power of the web to mobile

  • Developer workflow
  • Cross-platform
  • Deep linking
  • Search bar
  • User workflow

The FxOS Mission

Privacy and Openness first

  • We don't sell data
  • We actively block trackers
  • Open source forever
  • Community driven

But who is it for?

  • the next Billion
  • emerging markets
  • my first smartphone
  • tech unsavvy
  • privacy concious

Some tough lessons

  • People don't buy technology
  • People don't care about Web vs. Native
  • People don't want "the Internet"
  • People do want services
    • Facebook
    • WhatsApp
    • Skype

More tough lessons

  • We are not Apple
  • We are a software company
  • Hardware is hard
    • Expensive
    • Open source is gray area
    • Never had real devices
    • So much out of our hands
  • We weren't using it ourselves

What's next?

  • TVs (already launched)
  • Connected Home
  • Smart Routers
  • Voice Assistance
  • (insert ideas here)

Wanna get involved?

That's all I have to say

Questions?

twitter.com/mikehenrty
github.com/mikehenrty
mikey@mozilla.com