Mozilla Hacks

Firefox OS – video presentations and slides on the OS, WebAPIs, hacking and writing apps

By Robert Nyman [Editor emeritus]

Posted on November 7, 2012 in Featured Article, Firefox OS, and Presentation

In August, Mozilla’s Director of Research Andreas Gal, and one of the lead engineers for Firefox OS, Philipp von Weitershausen, gave a couple of presentations in Brazil about Firefox OS. We’re now happy to share both the videos and the slides, in various formats for you to see or use, giving your own presentations!

Videos

The videos are available on YouTube in the Mozilla Hacks channel, and they are split up into:

Firefox OS – Introduction & Components

FirefoxOS – Developer Enviroment, Apps, Marketplace

FirefoxOS – WebAPIs & UI hacking

Note: if you’ve opted in to HTML5 on YouTube you will get HTML5 video.

Slides

There were four different slide decks being used:

They are also available in Portuguese:

We’ve also made these slide decks available in other formats if you want to reuse them and give your own presentations about Firefox OS (and if you love talking about the Open Web, have you considered becoming an Evangelism Rep?).

Keynote format

PowerPoint format

About Robert Nyman [Editor emeritus]

Technical Evangelist & Editor of Mozilla Hacks. Gives talks & blogs about HTML5, JavaScript & the Open Web. Robert is a strong believer in HTML5 and the Open Web and has been working since 1999 with Front End development for the web - in Sweden and in New York City. He regularly also blogs at http://robertnyman.com and loves to travel and meet people.

More articles by Robert Nyman [Editor emeritus]…

34 comments

  1. Guest

    Great Work!
    One question: when will you decide it’s time to make b2g work on desktop windows? It’s a prerequisite to get more people on the project.

    Thanks

    November 7th, 2012 at 09:09

    1. Robert Nyman

      Thank you!
      When it comes to building Firefox OS and flashing it on phones, I’m not sure when that would become available on Windows.

      The general goal at the moment, though, is to give people the chance to try out apps on Firefox OS without the need for a device, and there r2d2b2g is the best option now.

      November 7th, 2012 at 09:18

    2. Paul Rouget

      Doesn’t it work on Windows already (I never tested) http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/b2g/nightly/latest-mozilla-central/

      November 7th, 2012 at 09:23

      1. Robert Nyman

        I though the comment was in reference to building Firefox OS and flashing devices. When it comes to desktop builds of Firefox, they do exist on Windows, but I believe r2d2b2g is a better option for most then.

        November 7th, 2012 at 09:28

  2. todor

    I’ve installed r2d2b2g on both Windows 7 and Mint 13 x64. And the experience is very bad – too laggy and buggy, don’t work like normal for me.

    November 7th, 2012 at 10:39

    1. Robert Nyman

      It’s a work in progress. But they are more than open for feedback! Please comment on the post linked above.

      November 7th, 2012 at 12:15

  3. Eduard Gotwig

    When are you going to introduce a resizable b2g?

    Currently there are just black bars, etc. :/

    Tough, it seems to work in the browser somehow.
    (I’m not talking here about the extension)

    November 7th, 2012 at 10:47

    1. Robert Nyman

      Where do you see the black bars? On a device with Firefox OS installed?
      The idea is that the UI shall be responsive.

      November 7th, 2012 at 12:16

      1. Eduard Gotwig

        I think you know about it…

        I just talk about, that if you resize, the system does not at all react to that, in window mode:

        http://i.imgur.com/Yxc3Z.png

        November 7th, 2012 at 13:44

        1. Robert Nyman

          In the Firefox OS desktop build? I see.
          Best thing there is probably to file a bug for the B2G builds.

          November 8th, 2012 at 01:53

          1. Eduard Gotwig

            https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=809800

            It could be that this is a duplicate.

            November 8th, 2012 at 04:06

          2. Robert Nyman

            Could be, but that’s ok. Thanks for reporting!

            November 8th, 2012 at 04:09

  4. Jos Hirth

    Can you use the `let` and `const` keywords by default?

    Is there proper remote debugging à la Opera or Chrome?

    November 7th, 2012 at 19:26

    1. Robert Nyman

      Regarding keywords, if you declare it as strict:

      ‘use strict’;

      A good example is, for instance, looking that the JavaScript code for the web browser in Firefox OS in Gaia, our UI.

      There is remote debugging for Firefox on Android. When it comes to Firefox OS, you have a number of options listed in the Firefox OS Debugging documentation.

      November 8th, 2012 at 01:37

      1. Jos Hirth

        Cool. So, this might be the first environment where you will be able to use `let` in production. (Node.js still needs a command line switch.)

        The remote debugging video looks great. Hope this lands in Firefox OS soon-ish.

        November 8th, 2012 at 21:49

  5. kracekumar

    I clone b2g & ran `./configure.sh emulator` almost 1 GB of space was used still clone wasn’t complete. Apparently I heard in IRC normal setup is 6 – 9GB of space. during clone I noticed all android tags of v1.1 and older was cloned. It really pissed off and pl rethink this strategy .

    November 7th, 2012 at 20:00

    1. Robert Nyman

      I believe that it’s not optimal, but it has been the best way at the moment to ensure that things work for you. Building the entire thing is a, currently, not for the faint of heart.

      I’d personally recommend r2d2b2g or the desktop builds if you want to test it, unless you have very specific reasons to hack on low level things for Firefox OS.

      Also, as you mentioned, people in Mozilla’s IRC can be very helpful with advice on what’s best, in channels like #b2g and #gaia.

      November 8th, 2012 at 01:48

  6. mpmedia

    Congratulation , that’s a great idea and i’m sure it will work. Where can i find the doc about Firefox OS apu ?

    November 7th, 2012 at 20:01

    1. Robert Nyman

      Thanks!
      There is an entire section on MDN with Firefox OS documentation.

      November 8th, 2012 at 01:54

  7. orfeo34

    Why the Mozilla Dev Team always use Macbook for their conference?

    November 8th, 2012 at 05:26

    1. Robert Nyman

      Within Mozilla, we use both Windows, Mac OS X and a variety of Linux flavors. With that said, Mac OS X has been pretty popular.

      I can only say for me personally, but for me Mac OS X offers a really good mix of good and consistent UI while I also have the power of the terminal and hacking things that way.

      November 8th, 2012 at 06:04

  8. Kroc Camen

    It looks great and I want this to be available on handsets in the UK. Just one word of warning: if a phone user has to *ever* register an account to be allowed to download a free app, you will have failed. This also goes for if they have to hand over personal details to be allowed to use the phone for the first time.

    I have the right to not trust Mozilla with my data any more than anybody else. All companies are fallible, all technology is too and the safest and must trustworthy thing is to not store personal details at all.

    I’m seriously worried about the entire market of devices (iOS / Android & Windows 8) *all* requiring users to register accounts and hand over large amounts of personal data just to be able to effectively turn the device on. It’s scary, really scary if this were all to backfire at some point in the future.

    November 8th, 2012 at 13:36

    1. Robert Nyman

      Thanks for your comment. I agree user data is a very sensitive topic, and has to be handled with the greatest care.

      At this time, you can install any app without giving user data. For Marketplaces (not just Mozilla Marketplace will be the only option to install from) it will be up to each of them what they will request.

      November 9th, 2012 at 15:06

  9. shijen

    Projects like firefox os are really inspiring to me. Thank you and Mozilla foundation .

    November 10th, 2012 at 10:38

  10. Flaki

    I purchased a Samsung Nexus S last week for the exact reason to try B2G/FirefoxOS on a device, first-hand.

    Right now, based on the desktop builds and r2d2b2g, I’m waiting for the OS, especially GAIA to mature but I am very excited and looking forward to seeing this become a reality. Hope all goes well, and can’t wait to see B2G devices flood the market! Keep up the amazing work and the good spirit!

    November 11th, 2012 at 12:34

    1. Robert Nyman

      Thank you!

      December 5th, 2012 at 01:52

  11. Daniel

    “Note: if you’ve opted in to HTML5 on YouTube you will get HTML5 video.”

    This is not true. I’ve opted in but am served flash video. Some great ones, but still flash…

    November 11th, 2012 at 14:13

    1. Robert Nyman

      You are supposed to, at least. I guess you need to talk to Google about that.

      December 5th, 2012 at 01:53

  12. Sofi

    Amazing videos! solved too many questions !!!Thank you very very much!!!

    as user:

    I hope this phone come to my country, because i am angry with 0% Privacy Policy (existing in other phones) and not real control my personal data (is stupid everything is in cloud but i don’t want them there and i can’t do anything about it).

    I want 4 more things for b2g:
    * private browsing
    * privacy policy for apps
    * when I give access to apps (gps etc) can easily say no i don’t want now this apps have access and easy close by the phone.
    * third-party cookies (control) and DNT for apps

    as programmer : I’m excited!!!! I really liked & love b2g

    1.These videos should be add on MDN :D
    2.also the git link (https://github.com/mozilla-b2g) mast add on MDN as official repository because was looking for repository and i have found the git but i thought it was clone and I’m confused :) the repository is important when someone wants to help with some tools like git (tools) and Tortoisegit (for win).

    I was looking for repository b2g in SPACE and was in front of my eyes :D

    Thanks again for the video :D

    December 3rd, 2012 at 22:47

    1. Robert Nyman

      Thanks, glad you like it!
      Regarding the 4 things wish list, I hope we will see them too, but I just can’t promise anything.

      With the videos, we made the decision that YouTube is the de facto channel, and the exposure we get there is really good. Besides, they do serve it as HTML5 video for those who have opted-in.

      With GitHub, it is listed in the Preparing for your first B2G build on MDN (which might not have been the most obvious place to look)

      Again, glad you like it and I hope you will appreciate where it is going!

      December 5th, 2012 at 02:03

      1. Sofi

        Thanks for the link! you use most Mercurial or Git ? i come from trac/svn (7 years) so i need a little time with git but definitely i will try to help :)

        is really something we need, one real phone, will not put us in “jail” :)
        This is the most important of all !!!

        Thank you again!

        December 6th, 2012 at 01:43

        1. Robert Nyman

          Mostly Git for me, at least!

          December 6th, 2012 at 02:14

          1. Sofi

            Thank you! That was all i need to know !! :D

            December 6th, 2012 at 02:24

  13. flakefrost

    I would love to see Firefox OS knock the socks off of Android! There’s so much potential for App developers and simplicity always wins.

    January 4th, 2013 at 00:25

Comments are closed for this article.