Mozilla is currently a friend to Android, supporting the Firefox browser for smartphones and tablets, but their long term vision is to develop open software that will eventually replace Google’s mobile OS. The project is called Boot to Gecko (B2G), and it’s a lot closer to reality than many realize.

Jay Sullivan, VP of Products [...]]]>

Mozilla is currently a friend to Android, supporting the Firefox browser for smartphones and tablets, but their long term vision is to develop open software that will eventually replace Google’s mobile OS. The project is called Boot to Gecko (B2G), and it’s a lot closer to reality than many realize.

Jay Sullivan, VP of Products at Mozilla, recently shared his vision for the Firefox project in 2012. “We want the platform in Firefox to enable app-quality experiences and developer productivity that rivals native platforms.” Very simply, they believe the open web can displace proprietary, single-vendor stacks (Android, iOS, WP7, etc) for application development.

You can see more of the Mozilla’s vision to become something bigger than Firefox in a video they recently uploaded to YouTube.

So does that mean we will see a Firefox phone? Publicly, Mozilla says they have no plans to build or distribute a custom device. However, if Boot to Gecko is successful then it could form the basis for one.

Their first test will come later this month at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Mozilla will demonstrate a working version of Boot to Gecko that developers can use as their day-to-day phone. The team at Mozilla selected the Samsung Galaxy S II as their development platform because the device was commercially available to Mozilla employees and it includes all the latest hardware like NFC.

If things go according to plan, Mozilla hopes they can convince an ODM or OEM to help them launch the first actual device that would ship with Boot to Gecko.

In an online FAQ, Mozilla says that they don’t expect Boot to Gecko will affect their relationships with other organizations such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft, but this project clearly competes with other products that those companies are working on.

Google’s version of their web operating system is called Chromium OS and it currently targets the desktop environment. These products are already in the market under the Chromebook brand, with retail prices starting at $299. I received a Samsung Chromebook at last year’s Google IO, but it didn’t quite offer the experience that I wanted so I gave it to my mom. She loves it.

Mozilla doesn’t seem to think that Boot to Gecko competes with Chromium OS because they are “aiming at mobile/tablet devices rather than a notebook form factor.” Google might have started with notebooks, but they already acknowledged that a tablet version of Chrome OS is in the works.

I have said before that I think Chrome OS will eventually come to smartphones, but I didn’t think it would happen for another five years. Google recently released Chrome browser for Android, so it’s not that much of a stretch to assume they are working on Chrome OS for smartphones.

Now with Mozilla pushing the boundaries of an open web operating system on mobile devices, it could force Google to accelerate their plans. Or not. Mozilla only has 20 engineers working full-time on Boot to Gecko, and I doubt that Google sees them as a threat yet.

Whatever happens, I’m interested to see where this goes – both with Mozilla’s Boot to Gecko, and Google’s Chrome OS. Google could definitely make Chrome OS their mobile platform of choice one day, but they already have so much invested in Android. I can’t picture any current scenario where Google would stop supporting Android, but anything is possible.

The main benefit of a web operating system to the average consumer, is a platform that is always up to date. Every time a user would turn their device on, it would automatically update itself. This would certainly solve Android’s nasty fragmentation problem, but I’m not sure if the wireless carriers are ready to go down that road.

Eventually though, someone will launch a retail mobile device with a true web operating system. It could be Mozilla or Google, or heck even Facebook. I’ll be at Mobile World Congress this month to let you know how close Mozilla is to achieving their vision.

How long do you think it will be before we see a smartphone that boots to the web?

Update: The collection of web apps that make up the UI for Boot to Gecko is called Gaia. The following are the designs provided by the Gaia team of the browser and gallery web apps. Apparently it was already demoed in public because I found some pics from a Dutch site and Japanese site.

Gallery

Update 2: Ryan Paul of Arstechnica just posted a first look at Boot to Gecko and Gaia.

Google’s biggest pride when it comes to Android has definitely been that it’s “open source.” Android is without a doubt the most successful smartphone OS currently, partly due to the fact that it is open. But just how open is our favorite smartphone OS? Open source is defined as a software with a shared [...]]]>

Google’s biggest pride when it comes to Android has definitely been that it’s “open source.” Android is without a doubt the most successful smartphone OS currently, partly due to the fact that it is open. But just how open is our favorite smartphone OS? Open source is defined as a software with a shared source code, which may be distributed in its pure state or modified. That’s simple. But the definition is not where the matter ends. While Android is mostly open source by definition, there’s a whole ethos to the Open Source movement (Open Governance). And that’s where Android falls short.

Vision Mobile has conducted a study that places Android as the least “open” of the open source mobile platforms. Android was put to the test against a diverse variety of mobile platforms, including MeeGo, Linux, Qt, WebKit, Mozilla, Eclipse and Symbian.

We selected these projects based on breadth of coverage; we picked both successful (Android) and unsuccessful projects (Symbian); both single-sponsor (Qt) and multi-sponsor projects (Eclipse); and both projects based on meritocracy (Linux) and membership status (Eclipse).Liz LaffanVision Mobile

You may ask what this open governance entails. After all, not everyone is familiarized with the open source world (though we all brag about it!). Vision Mobile used 13 metrics in 4 categories to grade the “openness” of each platform. The list is as follows:

• Access: availability of the latest source code, developer support mechanisms, public roadmap and transparency of decision-making
• Development: the ability of developers to influence the content and direction of the project
• Derivatives: the opportunity for developers to create and distribute derivatives of the source code in the form of spin-off projects, handsets or applications.
• Community: a community structure that does not discriminate between developers

After grading all mobile platforms against these categories, Android scored the least “open” of all the platforms at 23% open. QT and Symbian followed at 58%. That’s quite the jump, isn’t it? The most open of all the platforms actually happened to be iOS. (Gotcha! It wasn’t). The most open was actually Eclipse at 84%. Check out the chart below to see how the results play out.

This comes as no surprise, since Android has not exactly been the perfect example of open source. Android is “open” because the source code can be used and modified by manufacturers and developers. But the platform is, for the most part, still controlled by Google. Devices have to be approved in order to be supported. Most decisions are still made by Google. Transparency is not as prominent, and the roadmap of platform development is often hidden. These are just some of the factors that contributed to Android’s low score.

Android is an anomaly among open source platforms. Such projects are usually much more successful when the governance is more “open.” The fact is, outside developers can often do a much better job at improving the OS. Just like true communism, open source projects are meant to be improved and optimized by us, the users (theoretically). While Android is the least open source, it has proven to be the most successful of all the other open source platforms. There might be multiple reasons for this phenomenon.

Android is lead by an amazingly powerful company. This may have been what gave them an initial boost. Google is a company with power, resources and the ability to hire the best programmers and developers. Android has also received much support from all major manufacturers, as well as the community. (We can’t forget about our community developers!). This leads to one of the fullest, most intuitive and flexible mobile operating systems we’ve ever seen.

But Android’s success is partly based on its lack of “openness.” This is a matter Andy Rubin clarified a few months ago when he mentioned “Android is open sourced but not a community-driven project.” Rather, it’s a balance between open and closed governance. Android stays partly closed, so that the OS can stay within the safe arms of Google’s support while allowing for improvement by developers. Do you think Google should adopt more open governance ideas? Would that be potentially dangerous for the platform? We all dream of a perfect open source world, but much like communism, it isn’t completely possible. To check the full study report, simply go to Vision Mobile’s research site and download the .pdf file from the “Open Governance Index” section.

The mobile version of Firefox includes a lot of the bells and whistles we know from the desktop version, like tabbed browsing, add-ons, themes, and bookmark syncing. Well- [...]]]> Today must be the day for major app launches, or something. Mozilla just officially dropped Firefox for Android in the Market, available for download now.

The mobile version of Firefox includes a lot of the bells and whistles we know from the desktop version, like tabbed browsing, add-ons, themes, and bookmark syncing. Well- bookmark syncing might not be a fair title. They call it Firefox Sync, which provides seamless and secure access to personal data across desktop and mobile devices, including browsing history, bookmarks, open tabs, form data and passwords.

They’re also boasting a speed boost, saying, “Firefox is up to three times faster than the stock browser on Android.” Which, at this point, is something I’ve yet to experience for myself. I’ve tried Firefox a few times through the develop process and found it pretty clunky. And while the version I tried today seemed a bit snappier, overall it still felt a bit cumbersome. As I downloaded it I thought I should test this browser out all day. But after literally a few minutes I was running back to my trusty Dolphin HD [or insert your preferred browser here, I'm not here to argue the details].

Firefox Mozilla PLAY QR POWERED BY APPAWARE

If you want some more Firefoxiness, you can find the market link and QR code above, or check out the handful of screens and video below.

Quick update: I’ve also noticed our site doesn’t load the mobile version when using Firefox, which I assume means they’ve not included “Android” in their user agent string. I’ll look into it later today and try to push a fix to make sure Firefox users and getting served the correct version of the site.

Mozilla does have some benchmark tests to back up their speedy claims, with several tests showing that Firefox is 2-3 times [...]]]> Mozilla has released an updated version of their Firefox 4 Beta browser application on the Android market. With this update, Mozilla is touting faster start-up, page load times and improved zooming ability and responsiveness.

Mozilla does have some benchmark tests to back up their speedy claims, with several tests showing that Firefox is 2-3 times faster than the stock Android browser. That being said, I have yet to see any pages actually load faster in Firefox than in the stock browser, no matter whether I was running over 3G or Wi-Fi. In all cases, the load times were either about the same or the stock browser was slightly faster. I’m sure that under ideal circumstances, the Firefox application is indeed a bit faster than the stock browser, though I’m skeptical of the 2-3 times faster Mozilla is claiming.

Some users, however, are reporting faster load speeds with the new beta, so I think we can safely assume the experience will be varied depending on your connection and other factors.

Regardless of browsing and load speeds, where Firefox really differentiates itself is in the nearly 100 Firefox add-ons that you can install to customize your mobile browsing experience. These add-ons make your PC browsing experience better, and Mozilla is betting it will do the same for your Android browsing experience as well.

Another solid differentiator is the inclusion of Firefox sync, which syncs your bookmarks, history, tabs, and saved passwords across your Android and PC/Mac computers for continuity of your browsing experience across platforms.

Those positives aside, the Firefox Beta still does not support Adobe Flash, which is likely to be a dealbreaker for many. We can only hope they include Flash support in the next/final release. (Thanks, Cheapskate88!)

Finally, the updated Firefox application is slimmed down from previous releases, but still comes in at a whopping 20 MBs of space. Fortunately, Firefox allows you to move the application to your SD card (on Android 2.2+), making space basically a non-issue. Users still on Android 2.1 may want to ensure they have the space available on their device before attempting to install Firefox.

If you use Firefox on your regular computer, or you’re simply looking for something to replace the stock browser, you may want to head over to the market and try out the free Firefox 4 Beta.

If you’re still on the fence, you can read tons more about the update and check out their promo video on Firefox’s site.

Keep in mind this is an Alpha [...]]]> Mozilla’s mobile version of Firefox is now available in Alpha release for those of you with devices running Android 2.0 and above. Codenamed Fennec, it is the first mobile browser to offer add-ons and is built on the same technology that powers the desktop version of Firefox.

Keep in mind this is an Alpha release so you will likely experience a few bugs. An updated Beta release is planned for the coming weeks. If you decide to test it out, make sure you stop by the support forum to provide your feedback.

I have honestly been quite pleased with the default Android Browser since the additions of Flash Player 10.1 and Chrome to Phone, but it’s always nice to have more alternatives. Let us know what you think of the Fennec Alpha and how it compares with your favorite Android web browser.

Hightlights of Fennec Alpha include:

• Firefox Sync synchronizes your Firefox history, bookmarks, passwords and tabs
• between your desktop and mobile
• Add-ons are available to customize the functionality and look of your Firefox
• Personalized Start page lets you pick up where you left off on your desktop
• Awesome Screen gets to know you and takes you to your favorite websites with minimal typing
• Pinch-to-zoom (Android), double-tab, or use the volume rocker (Nokia N900) to zoom in and out
• Tabbed browsing in thumbnail view lets you easily see and select the site you want
• Location-Aware Browsing gives you content and info relevant to your location
• Save to PDF, Find In Page, Forget Password, Send Page and Add Search Engine located in the Site Menu all help you manage your preferences and options for each site you’re on
• Context Menu lets you Open in New Tab and Share by long tapping and holding a link or image

Download the Fennec alpha from: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/m/alpha

Until now, the only engineers working on Fennec were platform developers whose job was to get the back-end code running. The [...]]]> Have you tried the pre-alpha build of Fennec for Android? Mozilla continues to ramp up development on the mobile version of Firefox and now they are adapting the user interface to Android.

Until now, the only engineers working on Fennec were platform developers whose job was to get the back-end code running. The current builds were designed around the look and feel of the Maemo OS, but now UI engineers are beginning to shape the browser to take full advantage of Android.

A new Mozilla employee, Matt Brubeck, has provided a quick progress report on the latest developments around Fennec. The list of issues is long, but Mozilla is listening to feedback and working feverishly to start providing nightly builds. The main areas of improvement include zoom and multi-touch, menu and back buttons, application size, hardware compatibility, and much more.

If you would like to participate in this open source project, join the official Fennec Android group and share your feedback. For the latest updates on new builds follow @MozMobile on Twitter and join the Firefox for mobile Facebook group.