Firefox OS Is About Pushing the Boundaries of What Is Possible with the Web on Mobile

Tyler Moore

4/24/14

Firefox OS

Firefox OS

“Firefox OS is about pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the Web on mobile and enabling entirely new segments of users to come online with their first smartphone.It’san open source mobile operating system based on Linux, open web standards and Mozilla's Gecko technology that provides a reinvention of what mobile platforms can be.” - (developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox_OS/Introduction)

Firefox OS is an operating system that has been developed by Mozilla. It is specifically for smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. Mozilla is Famous for its very popular Firefox web-browser. According to w3schools data, the Firefox web-browser is and has been a very popular, second only to Google( Credited with Firefox, many have high hopes for Mozilla’s project “Boot to Gecko”, or the Firefox OS.

The Firefox OS project was started July 25, 2011. The Firefox OS is Linux-kernel based as well as open-source. It was created using Gonk, which has a Linux kernel as well as the user-spaceHAL. HAL stands for hardware abstraction layer. “Gonk is a device porting layer: an adapter between the hardware and Gecko. Gonk is a relatively simple Linux distribution that can be treated as a Gecko Port paired with Gecko poring layers.” (developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox_OS/Platform/Gonk) See gonk here: The Gonk software was paired with the Gecko web browser engine, which Mozilla also used in their Firefox web browser. Gecko was designed in C++ as a cross-platform layout engine. Gecko’s fuction is to read and render web content (examples: HTML, CSS, XUL, JavaScript). The Firefox OS uses Gaia for user interface, the front end of the operating system. It includes common handheld device elements. The default apps are as follows: Bluetooth, Browser, Calendar, Camera, Clock, Contacts, Cost Control, Dialer, FL. FM, Gallery, Homescreen, Keyboard, Music, PDF.js, Ringtones, Search, Setringtone, Settings, SMS, System, Video, Wallpaper, and WAPPush. It is written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Firefox OS looks very similar to Android. However, it differs greatly in its use of HTML5 open Web standard. It has its own Mozill app store called the Firefox Marketplace.Some of Firefox OS’s top compatible devices included Nexus S, Nexus S 4g, Kean, Inari, Unagi, and the emulators ARM and x86. It can also be run on a desktop (although it is primarily designed for smartphones and tablets). It also is compatible with Samsung Galaxy S2, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and Nexus 4. However, the operating system may be less reliable on these devices. Its first version was the Firefox OS 1.0 released date was December 22,2013. Since then there have been 6 other versions including 1.0.1, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.2.0, and the most recent version 1.3.0 which was released March 17, 2017. The development phases for each version include pre-planning, planning, active development, convergence and stabilization, and shipping and updates. Get Firefox OS: developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox_OS/Building_and_installing_Firefox_OS.

Development Phases (Wiki.mozilla.org/file:DevelopementPhases.jpg)

The Firefox OS was well not well received by some, including Andy Boxall who stated “I used the Firefox OS for 30 days and it made me want to quit phones forever” (digitaltrends.com/mobile/firefox-os-review/#!FJhVB). Andy pointed out many downsides to the Firefox OS. One is that contacts are hard to add if they are not already stored on your SIM card or in Facebook, making one manually enter contacts. The twitter app was slower than the Android counterpart and had issues updating. The standard map app was Nokia’s Here Maps which is gives no turn-by-turn navigation. Also there was no messaging auto-correct. Overall, Andy stated that the Firefox OS would not stand a chance fighting against Android. Many people would agree with him, believing that Android is already such a large and excellent option that few would be willing to try the Firefox OS. However many of his complaints were aimed at the ZTE phone he was using, and he was using the first version. Firefox OS solves some issues that Android does not. It is can fit on a small amount of memory, making it usable on very cheap phones. There are over a billion smart phone users around the world but over 4 billion people with mobile phones. If smartphones could be as affordable as a normal phone it opens Firefox OS to a market that cannot be reached by the expensive iPhone or Samsung Galaxy. So far, Firefox OS is not close to touching Android’s massive fan base, but it has potential to become a large smartphone operating system in the future.

Sources:

digitaltrends.com/mobile/firefox-os-review/#!FJhVB

developer.mozilla.org

blog.mozilla.org

Wiki.mozilla.org

digitaltrends.com/mobile/firefox-os-review/#!FJhVB,