On 4/12/14, 2:53 PM, Ernesto Acosta wrote:
It is intolerable lack of communication that exists with ZTE. It is
intolerable that offer little support to ZTE Open, to the point that
they have not even given an official explanation of why updates have
not gone.
In social networks ZTE only promotes and supports for their Android
phones. Now there's a comment on the net that says that ZTE will not
give more support to ZTE Open.
Honestly, never, I will buy another product from ZTE, at least
FirefoxOS included.
I stay with my ZTE Open because I have no choice, but the next think
about buying a Geekphone or any other phone to go on sale FirefoxOS
if they sell any. _______________________________________________
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Hey,
Bummer that you are having a bad time with a Firefox OS device. I know
that it is totally frustrating to have one's phone, our most intimate
device, not feel reliable and not be a joy to use.
The blame, however, does not lie solely, or perhaps even at all, with
ZTE. My own feeling is that the blame for lack of communication,
explanation, and support lies much closer to home. While I originally
blamed the hardware providers like you are doing, I now believe that
Firefox OS itself, and Mozilla, deserve the core of the blame.
The fundamental irony of Firefox OS is that Mozilla builds the *only*
operating system on which the Firefox browser runs where that Firefox
browser CAN NOT BE UPGRADED!
Building a Firefox OS where the browser (i.e. the entire Gecko layer,
not the 'browser' app) could be updated by end users would solve most of
your issues: you would get an up to date browser environment and would
be able to install the new version of the core Gaia apps. Conversely,
the current situation, where you can not even install security updates
to Gecko, leaves you and all of us users, vulnerable to any security
flaws discovered in the software. This situation is also terrible for
app developers since we are going to have to code either to the lowest
common system (Firefox 18 if I remember correctly) or to support the
multiple browser versions on the different devices using duplicate code.
The situation also sucks for Mozilla developers because they will not be
getting their great work out to the largest possible audience. This is
lose, lose, lose.
This design flaw, as best as I can tell, is purely architectural; there
appears to be no fundamental technical limitation which would prevent
such updates to Gecko. (The technical limitation of support for new Web
API which depend on operating system level code changes is real and
would require an upgrade to the operating system itself which is more
complex and may or may not involve device manufacturer support; however,
those API represent a small issue compared to security updates, updates
to the core HTML/CSS/Js execution environment, and updates to the main
Gaia applications which ought to be as regular as updates to the Firefox
browser on any other, i.e. 'desktop', OS.)
The design flaw preventing Gecko upgrades on Firefox OS is Mozilla's;
the lack of a response to that flaw is also Mozilla's. A good response
to your issue would be to acknowledge it and explain the various ways in
which it is being addressed. However, there is no one on the Firefox OS
team who has taken on the responsibility to foster communication between
end users and the project leadership. This is a failure of the the
leaders of the project who should either be doing that work or
delegating it to make sure it gets done. We end users can not simply
solve this on our own: developing a clean architectural separation
between Gaia and Gonk requires a complete knowledge of both the multiple
code layers and of the Android+B2G build system, something that only the
whole project, working together, can achieve. The (re)focus on fixing
your issue is also the responsibility of the leadership. A good response
to your issue would be for the leadership to make sure communication
around the issue happened, a decision was made as to how to go about
fixing the issue, and the project stayed focused on fixing that complex
and central issue. Instead, the Firefox OS project seems to be a bunch
of separate code teams, each doing great work building new features and
better applications but leaving the core issues unaddressed. (I have a
long email set to go out to the Board of the Mozilla Foundation on this
issue of the lack of effective communication, leadership, and end-user
focus in the Firefox OS project since the board members are the only
ones that I know of who could assess the project to see if my analysis
makes sense and deal with it if I am right; however, that letter is on
hold until the CEO and board situation settles down.)
This of course does not help you, an end user and probably a developer.
I only encourage you to see that it is as reasonable to expect Mozilla
to fix the Firefox OS architecture as it is to expect ZTE to do a better
job supporting their phones and to provide "Over the Air" or "over the
network" updates. Furthermore, on this list at least, it seems we should
be doing everything we can to make Firefox OS rock all on its own,
rather than punting the blame for our unsustainable system to others.
cheers,
~adrian
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