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Benjamin Kerensa: LinuxFest Northwest 2013: Recap of Day 1

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IMG 20130427 073018 225x300 LinuxFest Northwest 2013: Recap of Day 1

Linux Fest Northwest Expo Hall before opening!

Welcome to the first daily recap of LinuxFest Northwest 2013 (LFNW). I’m up in Bellingham, Washington evangelizing Firefox OS, WebFWD and Mozilla Reps. Just in the first few hours we had close to 50% of LinuxFest Northwest attendees visit the Mozilla booth and a majority of those people who visited the booth said they are long time Firefox users many of whom also use Firefox for Android and many of them have heard about Firefox OS but had not had the opportunity to actually get more information. This presented an excellent opportunity to let visitors check out Firefox OS running on one of the developer handsets and then educate them about the platform and how to get involved.

 

Mozilla Booth

Me showing attendees the Firefox OS platform

We were lucky to be in a nice area of the expo floor and just to the left we had folks from the EFF and just across was the Ubuntu booth ran by the Ubuntu Washington LoCo and the Greater Seattle Linux User Group (GSLUG). Lanyards and buttons were really popular and we gave almost all our lanyards out during the first few hours of the expo hall opening.

Geeksphone

Although I do not yet have a Geeksphone but instead have another handset running Firefox OS one of the most popular questions I got asked was “Where can I buy a phone running Firefox OS?” This started the discussion about the recent Geeksphone launch and in turn people were really surprised to hear how affordable those phones were.

Highlighting MoCo Session and Other Tidbits

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LFNW Attendee shows Firefox shirt he won.

I want to suggest to those who will be at LFNW tomorrow that they try and make it to Spencer Krum and Ben Kero’s session about Git on the server. Ben Kero is a Mozilla Systems Administrator and well known in the Pacific Northwest Open Source community and his session should be informative for those who are interested in getting started with Gitolite.

One other thing I got to do today was to sit down with Thomas from Slashdot to do an interview about Firefox OS. I also went on Linux Action Show live to discuss Firefox OS and even discuss Ubuntu for a bit.

 

The post LinuxFest Northwest 2013: Recap of Day 1 appeared first on Benjamin Kerensa dot Com.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet Ubuntu

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Benjamin Kerensa: Firefox OS and Ubuntu Touch: Who Will Prevail at MWC13?

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example apps 200x300 Firefox OS and Ubuntu Touch: Who Will Prevail at MWC13?

We are all aware of the current mobile duopoly which is iOS and Android, but at the Mobile World Congress or MWC13, as its commonly being called, there will be a line up of two platforms that attendees will be eager to have a look at: Firefox OS and Ubuntu. Indeed there will be other contenders like Tizen and Sailfish OS, but let’s be honest, if any two open source platforms have a chance of breaking up the mobile duopoly, the best bet is in Firefox OS and Ubuntu Touch.

So between Firefox OS and Ubuntu Touch which platform will have the most buzz? I’m betting on Firefox OS considering their platform is mature. has a great line up of apps, and perhaps the better development tools when compared to Ubuntu Touch, which seems to be building its platform on using a mashup of Cyanogenmod and demo applications that are mostly just a UI shell and for all purposes are demoware.

Performance

I have tried out the Ubuntu Touch image on a Galaxy Nexus device. I have also had multiple opportunities to test the Firefox OS platform on development devices, Comparing the two, I found the Firefox OS UI not only to be much faster and more fluid to the Touch, but months ago, when I was playing around with Firefox OS, it was much more mature than the Ubuntu Touch platform is today.

Apps

Firefox OS already has a impressive line up of apps available in the Firefox Marketplace, many of which are officially supported by the service providers. Ubuntu Touch mostly has non-functional demo applications and has no official support from the likes of Twitter, Evernote and other major services. In fact, just a few days ago I asked someone at Canonical whether they even had permission to use the  trademarked branding of Twitter, Facebook and Skype and they had no clue and thought that the trademark policies of these brands would openly allow them to use the brands and make a show like there was official support from these brands for the Ubuntu Touch platform.

Development Advocacy

Firefox OS set out from the start to not only provide excellent developer tools to contributors but also to host events worldwide to support and accelerate app development by supporting its local communities worldwide through the Mozilla Reps program. Ubuntu has yet to use and empower its LoCo’s (Local Communities) to host events and bring potential developers into the fold.

Firefox OS boasts a emulator for the Ubuntu Desktop yet Ubuntu Phone has no comparable emulator so developers can test their apps and see how they function.

Openness

Firefox OS has been an open platform from the start and has had a very open dialogue with its community while Ubuntu Touch has seen a lot of behind the scenes privacy and limited involvement with the Ubuntu …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet Ubuntu