I'm guilty of handwavy explanation, so I will try and get back to concrete cases.

The reviews by CNet and The Verge were accurate a long time ago – given the date, CNet's review was done with an early beta, and I have no clue about the date at which The Verge's review was done, but I suspect that the review was published long after the actual review. I have seen the speed of my phone increase considerably since then, both when I was running 1.0.x and now that I'm running 1.1.x.

If you want to know for yourself the actual performance of a FirefoxOS phone, the only way is certainly to get your hands on one. My personal experience is that, comparing with equivalently-spec'd unmodified Android phones, my FirefoxOS phone runs absolutely great. I have not attempted to compare with Cyanogen-ed phones.

> The user is locked into the Firefox browser, like Safari on iOS.

Actually, with effort, it should be possible to port WebKit/KHTML or any other rendering engine to FirefoxOS, e.g. by using Emscripten or Mandreel. Of course, this port will have to use the platform's display API (typically, Gecko's implementation of <canvas>) and the platform's VM, so the benefit might be limited. But if somebody considers this useful or fun, please, by all means, do port any other browser to FirefoxOS, we will be glad to help you.

That's not quite the answer you would get from Apple if you wanted to port Firefox or old-generation Opera Mobile (not Turbo) to iOS.

> So how does this phone benefit Joe User? It's an android kernel, but the user is cut off of the diverse android app ecosystem.

Several comments have already provided an answer to that question. I will try and sum up a few of them quickly:

- all your private data doesn't belong by default to some company;
- the Mozilla community has proved time and time again how it is able to provide applications localized for regions/minorities that big companies simply ignore, and I expect that this will also be the case for FirefoxOS phones;
- payment APIs implementations are adapted to local markets, i.e. in countries where people typically don't have a credit card, they do not have to use one if they wish to buy an application;
- users are even more free from the Marketplace than on Android - I expect that this means we'll soon see numerous marketplaces specialized in local interests (e.g. Venezuelian marketplaces, Catalan marketplaces, but also a company's internal marketplace, etc.), or in application domains (e.g. Gaming, e-books, adult stuff, safe-for-kids stuff, etc.);
- cheaper phones through higher-performance on entry-level hardware – recall that, in Spain, the phone is sold at 69€ including 30€ prepaid communications, without contract;
- no vendor lock-in – if you change phone or if you use your desktop computer, your applications follow you;
- breaking monopolies in regions in which you have the choice between a feature phone or a 600$ smartphone + contract.

I realize that people following Hacker News are no Joe Users and that they often have access to technologies that Joe User hasn't even heard about, both in terms of hardware and in terms of software (e.g. Cyanogen). But this first generation of FirefoxOS phones is not designed with them in mind. It is designed primarily for Joe "I'm ignored because my region or my language is not fashionable or rich enough" User.