![]() This is possible because the appropriate runtime is available on Android too (Firefox for Android supports webapps in the same way Firefox OS does, but someday Android will support all the standards required by default). With webapps, I can buy Angry Birds to play it on my Firefox OS phone, then move to Android and keep playing. It would hurt me to move away from Android, because I’d lose all the apps I bought. Right now, everyone of us is tied to a mobile OS. This is similar to what Android does, but Firefox OS is much smaller and easier for phone makers.ģ.- Freedom. A web runtime is a complicated program, yes, but it’s *just one* program. The only thing you need to make a phone that works is to run a web runtime. Change it and the functionality changes.Ģ.- Simplicity. The HTML, CSS and JS that drives the phone is there. ![]() Some of those standards are already in use in browsers (local storage, geolocation, touch API…), and some others are being developed now, like the phone API.ġ.- Easy customization and openness. The main launcher is a webapp, the phone app is a webapp, the lockscreen is a webapp… All the functionality is provided via JavaScript libraries that implement open standards. Chrome may have surpassed Firefox in terms of popularity, but I don’t think Chrome would exist without all the previous work done by Mozilla and its users.Īpps within Firefox OS are webapps. There was a concrete initial objective in the Mozilla project, “freeing the web”, and that did happen. Oh, I also wanted to state that the Mozilla brand is more than Firefox or Thunderbird. ![]() For example, the calculator is still a web application, but it’s running on your Firefox OS device, not online. One thing that was not clear in the article is that Firefox OS can run local web applications, with no need for an permanent Internet connection. So what niche is it trying to carve? Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, but if it succeeds in giving us a cheap, open device, I’ll buy it for sure. ![]() My understanding, like the article states, is that Firefox OS is not meant to compete with Android nor iOS, at least not as a direct competitor. I’ve played a bit with Firefox OS last week in FOSDEM and I was quite interested in it, in a strange way. ![]()
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