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Tag: Boot 2 Gecko

  • Firefox OS Simulator Now Available As A Prototype

    Firefox OS is launching early next year, and Mozilla needs to make sure that developers have some apps ready before its launch. It’s a little early to get hardware into the hands of developers though. That’s where software solutions come in, and Mozilla had just the thing.

    Mozilla announced that the Firefox OS Simulator prototype is now available for download. It was introduced in an early form as a Firefox Add-On last month, but now the Boot2Gecko team is hard at work pushing the simulator towards a version 1.0 release.

    By using the simulator, developers will be able to install apps directly on to their Firefox browser. Apps can either be loaded from local sources, or they can be loaded from a URL, such as a GitHub repository. Once everything is set up, developers can launch the simulator to see how apps perform in the Firefox OS environment.

    Firefox OS Simulator Now Available As A Prototype

    Interestingly enough, the Firefox OS Simulator is built on the Boot2Gecko desktop project. It’s different from a regular hardware emulator in that it’s not built upon a virtual machine. That means that simulator will run much smoother on older hardware, but it also implies that Mozilla may one day bring its HTML5 app market to the desktop version of Firefox.

    You can grab the prototype Firefox OS simulator here. You can find more information at Mozilla’s GitHub page as well.

  • Excited About Firefox OS? Start Testing It Now

    Mozilla is officially getting into the OS business early next year with Firefox OS, the new name for the long-time coming Boot 2 Gecko project. The operating system will run on smartphones and be entirely dependent upon HTML5 for all of its apps. Mozilla is now offering developers a chance to try out the Firefox OS on desktop first before the phone version hits next year.

    On a Mozilla blog, the company details how they’ve been building up a team to work on Firefox OS. The phone OS they’re currently working on will consist of three layers – Gonk, Gecko and Gaia. Gonk consists of the kernel, low-level components, Gecko is the rendering APIs and Gaia is the HTML5 and UI layer. They will be aggressively testing these features with nightly builds for anybody to play around with.

    This is where you, the developer, comes in. The Firefox OS team has released desktop builds of the OS and are updating it daily. You can download it now and play around with all the features. Developers can even build their own Web app and test it against the OS to see if it runs. This is the same kind of software app developers use to make apps on Android or iOS.

    If you want to help contribute to Firefox OS, you’re going to need to set up a Gaia profile. Mozilla offers an easy set of instructions to set up your own Gaia profile. For more information about the Firefox OS project, hit up the MozillaWiki. You can download the Firefox OS from here.

  • LG To Unveil Mozilla Phone At Mobile World Congress?

    There are rumors this morning that LG Mozilla may be about to unveil the first smartphone to run Mozilla’s Boot 2 Gecko operating system at the upcoming Mobile World Congress.

    Citing “a source close to the matter” ExtremeTech says that the phone could be ready as early as next week, but that the Boot 2 Gecko OS probably won’t be ready for public consumption yet. There are no details yet on pricing or hardware, but the source says that the phone could be available as early as next week, though a mid-2012 date is more likely.

    Boot 2 Gecko is a completely open-source mobile operating system designed to use entirely with web-based technology like HTML5 and Javascript. The system is built on the same Linux kernel as Android, though it is not based on Android itself. It relies on the same Gecko rendering engine that powers Firefox.

    Boot 2 Gecko

    This rumor comes hot on the heels of Mozilla’s announcement that they would be opening the Mozilla Marketplace to developers at the Mobile World Congress. The Marketplace will host HTML5 web apps that will run in Firefox 13, coming this summer. A B2G-based smartphone would add a lot of extra incentive for developers to get their apps ready for the Marketplace sooner rather than later.

    What do you think? Would you buy a Mozilla-based smartphone? Let us know in the comments.