Hi Chris,
+Aaron Train (Android WebRT QA)
+Stephen Donner (k9o QA driver)
+Tony Chung (Mobile QA lead)
+Kevin Brosnan (Contributor turned employee)
Good feedback. Comments inline.
Sincerely,
Jason Smith
Desktop QA Engineer
Mozilla Corporation
https://quality.mozilla.org/
On 5/8/2012 7:44 PM, chris hofmann wrote:
>
> I think its probably a premature optimization to be dropping platforms
> at this stage of the requirements definition and it definitely doesn't
> match the the initial context section of the document.
>
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Kilimanjaro/ProductDraft#Context_-_The_Web_is_the_Platform
>
> especially this part....
>
> A people-centered system will enable users to identify themselves
> to websites and apps on their own terms*; to take their apps
> easily from one OS to another;* to disclose only what they want
> about themselves in proportion to the value they receive.
>
>
> If we want to meet that requirement we will need to do tablets and linux.
Right, I agree that the vision reflects the need for tablets and linux.
From the tester's perspective, I'm a little less worried about the risk
of not having tablet support, as the web apps integration for android is
built into fennec native and reusing some of it's functionality. Fennec
native itself, can run on a tablet, so we might still be okay to get
some tablet support (I'll want to confirm with it with some testing
though, Aaron & Tony probably could provide more insight here).
For linux, I believe the original rationale for not going for support
initially was linux's low marketshare along with added engineering
resources needed for it (i.e. it doesn't get the same benefit tablet
gets above). However, a recent discussion I had with a contributor
turned employee (Kevin Brosnan) makes me rethink that the primary reason
for supporting linux is not marketshare. A rationale like you stated
above relates to openness - the user makes the decision to use apps
wherever they like. Another relates to paying attention to the needs of
contributors - What do they find important? Note that I know linux users
also happen to be loud, so not supporting their platform could hurt us
from PR perspective (e.g. blog posts bashing us). Overall, I definitely
believe we need to rethink our strategy on linux based on the rationale
provided.
>
> I think the problem here is problem one of not having a deep enough
> understanding of how we will do *any* of the OS integration for these
> requirements:
For linux, this is being thought about by one of our contributors,
Marco. He's written up a specification of what he thinks should be done
here -
https://etherpad.mozilla.org/tzkVRnfvm1. Feel free to provide
feedback.
>
> P1: Launch from native standard launch points (start menu, dock, start
> page, Home Screen etc.)
> P1: Launch in chromeless window, outside the browser application (bug
> 740586 <
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=740586>) (bug
> 743917 <
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=743917>)
>
> The other requirements appear to be largely cross platform.
>
> Its always been easier to find windows and mac knowledgable people to
> figure out the OS integration parts. We just need to find the right
> engineer to figure out these requirements for Linux and Tablets, and
> as the last line indicates iOS. That will be an even tougher
> integration job.
Right, although I actually think keeping iOS out of scope is alright to
do for now, as we need to nail down the web apps UX flow correctly on
one mobile operating system and being successful, before we tackle
another operating system. For linux, this is probably a good opportunity
to form a community around web apps integration into linux, as even
today I've seen interest in this.
Good call. Myk Melez is looking to get a module owner defined for the
web app runtime on desktop on the governance discussion thread. Let's
get that defined quickly and come up with a way to get patch support
both internally and externally to get support platforms such as linux. I
would be more than happy to help out with promoting community
involvement with this. Myk - What do you think?
>
> -chofmann
>
> On 5/8/12 7:19 PM, Rodrigo Garcia wrote:
>> On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 10:08 PM, Bill Walker<
bwa...@mozilla.com> wrote:
>>> Rubén,
>>>
>>> Thanks for your interest in the Marketplace!
>>>
>>> I can understand your frustration in our launching the Marketplace without Linux support. As you heard, Marco Castelluccio is working on the Web Runtime (WebRT) for Linux as we speak.
>>>
>>> Unfortunately, we need to start getting feedback about the Marketplace now if we are going to meet our Kilimanjaro goals of making the Marketplace awesome for B2G. Given our finite engineering resources and schedule, we decided to make the announcement to Mozillians before WebRT for Linux was finished.
>>>
>>> I'd be happy to try to answer any other questions, but I'll be on PTO for a week. Likely others on this list can chime in, too.
>>>
>>> yours,
>> Hi Everyone,
>> I agree with Rubén Martin. IMHO is very, very, very sad that
>> MozillaLabs team has chosen Windows and OSX as the initial supported
>> platform, putting Linux support on the queue. I think is a very bad
>> signal either for the Market and for our volunteers. I hope this
>> decision will be revisited.
>> If the problem is related with resources or budget for the project,
>> I'm sure the organization can do an extra effort to correct this
>> decission.
>>
>>