Right now the FirefoxOS eco system is not mature enough for a serious smartdevice IMO.
I think that especially because FairPhone requires some explaining about what is the appeal of this phone, having to convince people about using FirefoxOS as well is a battle on two fronts, where I expect especially the FirefoxOS discussion is an uphill one.
Additionally, there are quite a few first time smartphone buyers among the FP crowd. Something like FirefoxOS might scare them away. Friends and relatives of those people, who do have a bit of smartphone experience, might advise them not to go with a phone they don’t understand themselves.
An interesting thought, but probably not a viable one.
The thing is that it’s already enough work to keep one OS working and bug-free for the FairPhone. If you could run Ubuntu or Firefox OS on the phone, and FairPhone would offer the option to get those OSes pre-installed, then that’d mean they would have to fully support and maintain those OSes for the FP as well, which is probably going to take way too much time, resources and money.
I think FP should just stick with a single OS and simply support developers who want to run other OSes on their phone where possible.
Should be definitely manageable to build and try out Firefox OS on the FP1. UnfortunatelyI’ll just don’t have the time to really dig into that. Maybe someone with a bit more experience can give it a shot. I’d love to see and try out the result…
I disagree. To be a role model for the industry, FP has to appeal to the mainstream user. How else are you going to prove it is possible to build a (as) fair (as possible) phone in an economically sustainable way? Because “sustainable” does not only mean “people” and “planet”. It’s also about “profit”!
FP is a niche product now, because it’s not well known. But once you explain, people are interested. Why? Because it’s a normal phone. But an ethical phone as well! If you explain it’s an ethical phone that works on a very different OS and without many of the apps you are used to now, how many people will still be interested? How long would it take FP to go bankrupt because they can’t sell enough phones anymore?
I agree on everything else @danielsjohan , but I would like to argue on that because I think that not everything is about profit. What if Fairphone would stop every development for the FP2 right now and just keep on working until all FP1s are dead? Of course FP’s mission would not have been fulfilled, but if done smartly, some people would have their income and livelihood for some years. No harm would be done.
Also Mozilla is non profit isn’t it? (It was heavily dependent from Google though and now is from Yahoo, which also definitely is not the way to go.) The Phone Co-op is interesting: A company owned by its customers?
Bottom-line: I think non-profit definitely is possible.
@madde Thank’s for your comment! I would love to be the one with “a bit more experience”. Unfortunately I do not know anything about Android programming… I really hope, there is someone out there, who can give it a try!
phew - just give it a try. You’ll learn a lot on the way and the instructions seem pretty straightforward to me.
Xda Dev forums or people in this forum could help you out. Maybe some guys in a local hacking-space may provide some help as well.
After all just make sure to have a backup file to use
and well - don’t blame me if your phone is in pieces
Ok, I am halfway through a backup with MTK Droid Root & Tools. This was already hard and I had to read a bit until I found myself able to do it. However, I guess the really hard stuff is still ahead… One grows with his/her tasks…
If I can motivate myself, I will write a forum post explaining my way of proceeding.
For the need of existing application, couldn’t it be possible for Firefox or Fairphone to create some kind of supported “suite” of most useful apps to advert with its OS?
Why are you worried about software so much? Developers are not those that we need to help. A lot of the unfairness of a phone is due to the hardware. Mining workers, assembly workers, logistics workers, … are those that profit the very least and have to work very hard.
With Firefox OS over Android you are not making much of a fairer world. FP gave you the option to NOT install Google Play if you want to feel extra and fancy. Fact is, the hardware is much more unfair than the software and should receive most attention.
I agree with @TheDon
Sometimes I feel people are forgetting what FP is about. People put all kinds of labels to the term “fair” (the software is not fair because Google, the phone is not fair because it contains proprietary software, the phone is not fair because I cannot run my own OS). The problem here is that FairPhone itself has been putting different labels to “fair”, or at least prioritized those labels they deem most important. If you cannot find yourself in the course FairPhone is steering in, then that’s a shame. Maybe some other phone is a better alternative then.
Yes, we should not forget the initial goals of Fairphone.
On the other hand: I think wondering about the Software goes in line with on of the 5 main areas, FP is addressing, namely Design.
So what I am trying to say is, that I think it is important to know what you can do with a phone, to explore all the features and go beyond making calls and writing texts. Only then you can value your smart phone. If you only make calls and write SMS, you do not need a smart phone.
Fairness in this sense is to value and make appropriate use of this mini-pocket-computer, which was produced by hard working people. Or have you ever valued a screw driver and thought about the people producing it?
There are a lot of companys, which are not respecting copyright, especially the software license of the Linux Kernel (GNU GPL v2). MediaTek is one of them and Fairphone uses their software, which infringes copyright (they published some parts of the source, but never something complete). It is okay to bundle Linux with proprietary software, but the Linux kernel itself has to be published with complete source (including a “build environment”, which allows to modify this kernel without any problems and run the modified kernel). Do you really consider software "piracy¨ done by smartphone producers to be fair? The copyright holders would be allowed to go to court and probably could disallow selling the Fairphone, but I do not see how that would be a good solution.
You’re speaking of the right to copy and modify some abstract piece of text. I am speaking of the right to have safety in the work environment, to right of being paid a fair wage, the right of unemployment aid and all the human rights that are trampled upon in so many places in the world.
The western world is obsessed with copyright and license with armies of lawyers to distract everyone from those problems where people are not having enough to eat, where they’re dying in mines, being crippled in their jobs that do not provide the safety that they deserve. What have we achieved if we had open sourced everything and the whole software was free!? People are still dying and suffering in producing and recycling those things where you super-free software runs on. Software can never be free if the hardware it runs on isn’t free. It’s not a single bit more fair if you run Firefox OS on a phone that’s manufactured by slaves, because the only one who receives that additional fairness is the first-worlder.
One grows with his/her tasks…
