Tizen 2.0 Magnolia SDK and Source Code Released

jrepin writes "The Tizen 2.0 source code and SDK are now available. 'This release includes an enhanced Web framework that provides state-of-the-art HTML5/W3C API support, a Web UI framework (including full-screen and multi-window support), additional Tizen device APIs, such as Bluetooth and NFC support, and access to the device's calendar, call history, and messaging subsystems are now available. Other highlights: The Web Runtime framework supports new configuration elements for specifying the required features and privileges, and provides the basic runtime environment for NPRuntime plugins; the Native framework supports full-featured application development and provides a variety of features such as background applications, IP Push, and TTS (Text-To-Speech)."

YAHASWW (yet another HTML5 apps story without Web)

[spage]

Tizen joins Blackberry 10, Firefox OS, webOS, and Windows 8 in saying "Write HTML5 apps for our platform". Unfortunately these are all also-ran platforms, but it does make it easier for PhoneGap [wikipedia.org] to target them along with turning HTML5 into Android and iOS native apps.

So where are these HTML5 apps? I don't want to have to connect to a a web site and hand over my personal details to maintain a list or edit a photo in my browser. I should be able to try out any application in my browser, and if I like it "pin it" to run locally. I hoped FLOSS developers would step up and develop these, but they seem stuck in the 90s arguing irrelevancies like GTK vs. Qt and Python vs. C++.

Instead there are hundreds of thousands of "apps" that are nothing more than HTML5 packaged a certain way, all dumped into a few needlessly platform-specific App stores.. It's a travesty of the principles of the web, and for no good reason. At least Mozilla has the right vision [mozilla.org]:

The Mozilla Open Web Apps project proposes some small additions to existing sites to turn them into apps that run in a rich, fun, and powerful computing environment. These apps run on desktop browsers and mobile devices, and are easier for a user to discover and launch than Web sites. They have access to a growing set of novel features, such as synchronizing across all of a user's devices.
...The only thing you have to do to create a Web app from a Web site is to add an app manifest. This is a JSON file that describes your app, including its name, its icons, and a human-readable description.