Goodwill Updates - A Firefox OS Feature Idea
A common aspect amongst the regions Firefox OS targets is a lack of dependable bandwidth. Mobile data (if available) can be slow and expensive, wi-fi connections are rare, and in-home internet completely absent. With the lack of regular or affordable connectivity, it’s easy for people to ignore device and app updates and instead opt to focus on downloading their content.
In the current model, Firefox OS daily pings for system and app updates and downloads the updates when available. Once the update has been installed, the download is deleted from the device storage.
What if there was an alternative way to handle these numerous updates? Rather than delete the downloads, they are saved on the device. Instead of each Firefox OS device being required to download updates, the updates could be shared with other Firefox OS devices. This Goodwill Update would make it easier for people to get new features and important security fixes without having to rely on internet connectivity.
Goodwill Update could either run in the background (assuming there is disk space and battery life) or could be more user-facing presenting people with notifications about the presence of updates or even showing how much money has been saved by avoiding bandwidth charges. Perhaps they could even offer to buy Bob a beer!
Would this be worth doing to help emerging markets stay up to date?
PS. Hat tip to Katie and Tiffanie for the image and idea help.