back to article Mozilla tells Firefox OS devs to fork off if they want to chase open web apps vision

The Mozilla Foundation's Firefox development team has decided enough is enough and will stop supporting Windows XP and Vista in March 2017 and also bin Firefox OS. The OS first. In this post Mozillans Ari Jaaksi and David Bryant, respectively the head of connected devices and veep for platform engineering, write that “By the …

  1. Nate Amsden

    so they want to continue gecko..

    but last I heard anyway the future of firefox browser is the engine that runs on chrome ??

    (firefox user since phoenix 0.3 and like many others increasingly upset with the direction mozilla has taken firefox in recent years, if I wanted chrome I'd switch to chrome).

    1. joed

      Re: so they want to continue gecko..

      I'm in the same boat. But one has to admit that they are in tough spot. No real possibility to offer true web browser on iOS, marginalized on Android and MS is pushing the same agenda on Windows (because all OS vendors like to shamefully peek into user's data stream). So Mozilla is giving away independence for appearances, after all superficial user experience is all that mattered and dumbing down is they way to go (yeah right). They have alienated geeks while not gaining noobs (that settle for platform's defaults). The interface has got too chromey-feely, no man-in-the-middle sync got shafted and revolution is on the horizon. Still, for now there's about:config and Palemon (and alike) for for those that pick and chose for themselves. No matter whats it's still better than big brothers' browsers.

    2. Raumkraut

      Re: so they want to continue gecko..

      but last I heard anyway the future of firefox browser is the engine that runs on chrome ??

      Err, I don't know where you heard that, but it's nonsense. Maybe you read it on April 1st?

      AFAICT, the future of Firefox is some kind of Gecko/Servo hybrid, as there are already Servo features and code making their way into Firefox.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: so they want to continue gecko..

        i think @joed means skia the gfx engine

    3. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Re: so they want to continue gecko..

      Firefox user since phoenix 0.3 as well, but I just recently changed to Palemoon as of 2 weeks ago because I was tired of staying on FF 43 to keep fine-grain cookie control.

      Mozilla, you had me but you lost me.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You can tell an organization is past its sell-by date when it starts posts with mealy mouthed gibberish like "Today we are announcing the next phase in that evolution. "...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Well you wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. That kind of thing gets CEOs fired.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How long

    before their sponsors insist that they only support OS versions with Telemetry built in ?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    B2G

    What does that stand for, in this context?

    1. Lamb0
      Gimp

      Re: B2G

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_OS

      Firefox OS[4] (project name: Boot to Gecko, also known as B2G)[5]

      1. Gene Cash Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: B2G

        I thought it was Business-To-Geek

        1. Crazy Operations Guy

          Re: B2G

          Business-to-Government is the most common definition I run into.

  5. WatAWorld

    Doubtful that someone running an old unsupported OS is keeping their browser up-to-date

    It is really doubtful that someone running an old unsupported OS is keeping their browser up-to-date.

    The browser isn't going to fix the security holes in the OS and hardware.

    Mozilla will have statistics on what OSs it's latest browser versions have been installed on. Are any of the last 3 versions running on XP and Vista? Yeah right, none. I couldn't imagine otherwise.

    If people are content to run their old computers on unsupported old software, the web browser will be just another piece of old unsupported software. They can keep running the old versions.

    Don't make life more complicated that it actually is.

    1. imanidiot Silver badge

      Re: Doubtful that someone running an old unsupported OS is keeping their browser up-to-date

      I have a laptop that by now is over 10 years old running XP. I've tried Linux, Win 7 and Win 8 on it and none worked to my statisfaction for the purposes I needed. So it keeps running XP. I've patched it so far as I (as a semi-educated noob) can and it's running a recent version of firefox (not fully up to date as I haven't actually turned it on in 4 months now).

      I just keep it away from the rest of my network and am careful about what sites I visit. It's main purpose now is for retrieving data from a somewhat ancient FAI certified flight logger for gliders using a similarly ancient USB to serial adapter using similarly ancient software that simply refuses to work on anything more modern than win XP. Theoretically I should just switch to using a FLARM with build in logger and ditch the laptop for something more modern but I can't be arsed and I'm a cheapskate. (Plus the Flarm is about 3 times the price of a high end laptop)

    2. BinkyTheMagicPaperclip Silver badge

      Re: Doubtful that someone running an old unsupported OS is keeping their browser up-to-date

      You might have a point if the operating systems were unsupported, but they aren't. Vista is still supported until the start of April 2017, XP is technically still supported in embedded versions until 2019, but that's not for normal apps.

      I still have a laptop with a Vista partition, because I have the license, it works, and is still supported. Admittedly recently I have moved the main partition to FreeBSD, with a Windows 7 VM for Windows tasks.

    3. paulf
      Meh

      Re: Doubtful that someone running an old unsupported OS is keeping their browser up-to-date

      @WatAWorld "The browser isn't going to fix the security holes in the OS and hardware."

      True, but for someone who has decided they need to be running XP or Vista (for reasons that presumably make sense to them, having weighed up the risks of an OS with unpatched security holes) an up to date browser will be more likely to stop attacks getting as far as the OS compared to an out of date browser (assuming the system isn't air gapped).

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Re: Doubtful that someone running an old unsupported OS is keeping their browser up-to-date

        XP at home here, because it was built with it as Vista was a disaster and I am not spending money replacing a working OS.

        Yes I did the registry hack for support and yes FF is the main browser.

        But since PCs have now really been fast enough for the last decade and newer versions of windows are removing things I use, why should I change?

  6. ilmari

    FirefoxOS 2.6? My Firefox os phone is still stuck on 1.0!

  7. earl grey
    Trollface

    " peek into user's data stream"

    I thought you said "pee into the stream"...

    Back to the shadows for me.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon