A pivot for Firefox OS to Connected Devices

[PMJ Creations]

Hello Mozilla India,

You all may have been seeing news spreading through social and news
channels saying Mozilla Firefox/Firefox OS is dead.

Ari Jaaksi <https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/ajaaksi/>, Mozilla’s SVP of
Connected Devices, announced
<https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/12/09/firefox-os-pivot-to-connected-devices/>
an intent to pivot from "Firefox OS" to "Connected Devices" and to a focus
on exploring new product innovations in the IoT space. Many people thought
Mozilla going to stop developing Firefox OS, but in reality Mozilla will
only stop offering smartphones through operator channels. Technologies
developed as part of the Firefox OS project will be the base prototype
of Connected Devices.

I would like to take your attention to the blog posts which Ari has
written, which would help you to understand more about the plans and next
phase.

1. Firefox OS Smartphones and 2.6
<https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2016/02/04/firefox-os-smartphones-and-2-6/>
2. Next Steps for Connected Devices
<https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2016/02/04/next-steps-for-connected-devices/>


Still have questions? Feel free to ask your questions here
<https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/t/firefox-os-connected-devices-announcement/6864>,
else reply to this email.

*Bottom Line: I can understand the feelings of those who put so much of
efforts into the Firefox OS projects. I value that.*
*But as I said, this is not the end of the Firefox OS. We have just moved
our focus more broader and beyond just the smart phones. *
*The purpose of this email is to provide more clarity to the community from
a PR perspective. *


Jafar Muhammed
Mozillian <http://mozillians.org/en-US/u/pmjcreations/>

[राजु विंदाने (Raju)]

Reply Inline

On 6 फरवरी 2016 12:26:42 am IST, PMJ Creations <pmjcre...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Hello Mozilla India,
>
>You all may have been seeing news spreading through social and news
>channels saying Mozilla Firefox/Firefox OS is dead.
>
>Ari Jaaksi <https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/ajaaksi/>, Mozilla’s SVP of
>Connected Devices, announced
><https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/12/09/firefox-os-pivot-to-connected-devices/>
>an intent to pivot from "Firefox OS" to "Connected Devices" and to a
>focus
>on exploring new product innovations in the IoT space. Many people
>thought
>Mozilla going to stop developing Firefox OS, but in reality Mozilla
>will
>only stop offering smartphones through operator channels. Technologies
>developed as part of the Firefox OS project will be the base prototype
>of Connected Devices.

Since those connected devices will not include new phones but devices like smart TVs, should we expect FxOS to come on devices which power IoT such as Single Board Computers(Raspberry Pis, Beaglebone etc.)?

>
>I would like to take your attention to the blog posts which Ari has
>written, which would help you to understand more about the plans and
>next
>phase.
>
> 1. Firefox OS Smartphones and 2.6
><https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2016/02/04/firefox-os-smartphones-and-2-6/>
> 2. Next Steps for Connected Devices
><https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2016/02/04/next-steps-for-connected-devices/>
>
>
>Still have questions? Feel free to ask your questions here
><https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/t/firefox-os-connected-devices-announcement/6864>,
>else reply to this email.
>

No other device than Panasonic Smart TVs have been announced to get FxOS. What other devices or things should we expect to get FxOS running up on?

FxOS 2.6 was the last one. Is it really the end of it?

>*Bottom Line: I can understand the feelings of those who put so much of
>efforts into the Firefox OS projects. I value that.*
>*But as I said, this is not the end of the Firefox OS. We have just
>moved
>our focus more broader and beyond just the smart phones. *
>*The purpose of this email is to provide more clarity to the community
>from
>a PR perspective. *
>
>
>Jafar Muhammed
>Mozillian <http://mozillians.org/en-US/u/pmjcreations/>

>_______________________________________________
>community-india mailing list
>communi...@lists.mozilla.org
>https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/community-india

--
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

[PMJ Creations]

Hey Raju,

Great questions.

Q1. Since those connected devices will not include new phones but devices

like smart TVs, should we expect FxOS to come on devices which power IoT
such as Single Board Computers(Raspberry Pis, Beaglebone etc.)?

A. The Connected Devices team has been working on a Product Innovation
Process to identify their new IoT product programs. And they do have a good
set of projects under their programs. So they might be looking into
projects like Single Board Computers, based on their Process. And I can
say, our contributors will get more opportunities to work with IoT projects
soon.

Q2. No other device than Panasonic Smart TVs have been announced to get

FxOS. What other devices or things should we expect to get FxOS running up
on?

A. The team is actively developing and evaluating projects like FoxLink (a
personal Web of Things) and Vaani. Vaani is a very interesting Firefox
OS based Virtual Assistant. You can see a demo here
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=827y8fur5pc>. Interested in contributing?
Here is the Repository <https://github.com/mozilla/vaani>.

Q3. FxOS 2.6 was the last one. Is it really the end of it?

A. Not at all. As I said, Mozilla will only stop offering smartphones

through operator channels. Technologies developed as part of the Firefox OS

project will be the base prototype of Connected Devices. There is no change
in our plans with Panasonic on their SmartTV line of products. The
Connected Devices team will continue working with Panasonic on a SmartTV
experience based on the Firefox OS 2.6 release and beyond.

Any more questions, feel free ask.

Jafar Muhammed
Mozillian <http://mozillians.org/en-US/u/pmjcreations/>

On Sat, Feb 6, 2016 at 2:28 AM, राजु विंदाने (Raju) <rajuv...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[राजु विंदाने (Raju)]

On 6 फरवरी 2016 11:09:07 am IST, PMJ Creations <pmjcre...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Hey Raju,

Hi Jaffer

>
>Great questions.
>
>Q1. Since those connected devices will not include new phones but
>devices
>like smart TVs, should we expect FxOS to come on devices which power
>IoT
>such as Single Board Computers(Raspberry Pis, Beaglebone etc.)?
>
>A. The Connected Devices team has been working on a Product Innovation
>Process to identify their new IoT product programs. And they do have a
>good
>set of projects under their programs.

"They do have a good set of projects under their programs" (other than smart TVs nothing else has been announced)

I hope we get more detailed and clear announcement soon. So we stop being skeptical.

So they might be looking into
>projects like Single Board Computers, based on their Process. And I can
>say, our contributors will get more opportunities to work with IoT
>projects
>soon.
>
>Q2. No other device than Panasonic Smart TVs have been announced to get
>FxOS. What other devices or things should we expect to get FxOS running
>up
>on?
>
>A. The team is actively developing and evaluating projects like FoxLink
>(a
>personal Web of Things) and Vaani. Vaani is a very interesting Firefox
>OS based Virtual Assistant. You can see a demo here
><https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=827y8fur5pc>. Interested in
>contributing?
>Here is the Repository <https://github.com/mozilla/vaani>.

I read all the blog posts and saw the demo of Vaani before replying. Vaani seems cool to me. And as it seems from the video, vaani could be integrated into things beyond smartphones. This particular thing excites me.

I also hope that, since we are a Privacy respecting organization, we will not be causing data Privacy issues which are with Cortana, Siri and Google Now. Although I do not know how will we be achieving this.

>
>Q3. FxOS 2.6 was the last one. Is it really the end of it?
>
>A. Not at all. As I said, Mozilla will only stop offering smartphones
>through operator channels. Technologies developed as part of the
>Firefox OS
>project will be the base prototype of Connected Devices. There is no
>change
>in our plans with Panasonic on their SmartTV line of products. The
>Connected Devices team will continue working with Panasonic on a
>SmartTV
>experience based on the Firefox OS 2.6 release and beyond.
>

I am more into working with embedded devices and as soon as something gets announced for these devices I'll start exploring and contributing to it.

[Rabimba Karanjai]

> Since those connected devices will not include new phones but devices like smart TVs, should we expect FxOS to come on devices which power IoT such as Single Board Computers(Raspberry Pis, Beaglebone etc.)?

Yes.
There are community driven projects in a lot of them including Chirimen and RPI. You already can find ways to get a very old FxOS on your raspberry pi. A port for RPI2 is in progress and should be ready in coming months.
There has been a few disconnected tries for beaglebone but not a publicly releasable one yet. But there are ways to get it running. Expect more of these as community gets involved more and more.

> FxOS 2.6 was the last one. Is it really the end of it?

It actually was the last officially supported one. There won't be anymore major releases (stable) after this one for phone. Not talking about community driven initiative if that may ever happen.

> I also hope that, since we are a Privacy respecting organization, we will not be causing data Privacy issues which are with Cortana, Siri and Google Now. Although I do not know how will we be achieving this.

The way Vaani works as of now does not actually put it in same league as siri/google now. i.e. it cannot answer intelligent questions for you. It is not a personal assistant (yet). So there is no data that goes out of your device (yet). It is just a command and execute portion (as of now). That may change in future though.

[youra...@gmail.com]

> free download mozila firefox OS 2.0