Wait, did you read ‘Firefox OS’!! Well, yes it is Firefox
OS. If you had not heard about of it till now, don’t worry, because if you’re a
much of a technology person then there is good chance that you must have not
heard about it.
Let me start by telling you that ‘No, Firefox OS is not for
laptops or desktops. It is Mozilla’s attempt on creating a Smartphone OS.’
Firefox
OS for Tablets and Smartphone
Mozilla’s Firefox OS is the Operating System - like Android,
iOS, Windows - for the smartphones and tablets. It will not be available for
the desktops or laptops, atleast not anytime soon.
Vision/Idea
behind Firefox OS’s creation
Unlike other browsers manufacturers – Google(Chrome), Microsoft(Internet Explorer), Apple(Safari) – who are profit corporations, Mozilla is a non-profit organization. Mozilla has always been dedicated in making the web better. Firefox OS is Mozilla’s attempt to replace the native web applications with the browser-based applications which are build on open standards. In case on laptops/ desktops users spend most of their time on browser – whether it is for checking emails, socializing thorough social networks or watching videos. In case of Smartphone/Tablets the users spend most of their time on the native apps. All these apps are written specifically for each platform and usually distributed through app stores – like Google Play Store for Android.
Unlike other browsers manufacturers – Google(Chrome), Microsoft(Internet Explorer), Apple(Safari) – who are profit corporations, Mozilla is a non-profit organization. Mozilla has always been dedicated in making the web better. Firefox OS is Mozilla’s attempt to replace the native web applications with the browser-based applications which are build on open standards. In case on laptops/ desktops users spend most of their time on browser – whether it is for checking emails, socializing thorough social networks or watching videos. In case of Smartphone/Tablets the users spend most of their time on the native apps. All these apps are written specifically for each platform and usually distributed through app stores – like Google Play Store for Android.
All the mobile OS manufacturers have their own ecosystems
with their own apps which run own their specific OS. Mozilla is trying to break
this trend of proprietary ecosystems for apps and create mobile OS based on
open web standards.
Firefox
OS – How is it different from other mobile operating systems
Unlike other mobile OS - which run traditional native apps –
all the apps of Firefox OS are written in HTML and JavaScript. Even though many
of these apps run locally, they are still written using only web technologies.
For an example, the dialer used to dial the numbers is entirely written in HTML
and JavaScript. It will only be running
locally but is still written in web technology.
What’s more? As it is build on open standards, you can ‘view
source’ of the dialer just as you would for any web page on a web browser.
Firefox Marketplace
is the official app store for Firefox OS apps. It is also possible for mobile
carriers to set up their own Firefox OS app stores.
Everyone loves portability so Mozilla is making its apps
portable. In that sense, probably one day you will be able to install Firefox
for Android and access the Firefox Marketplace to use Firefox OS apps on
Android. Just as everything on Chrome OS - Google’s browser-centric OS for
laptops - ultimately runs in Chrome, everything on Firefox OS ultimately runs
in Firefox.
From
where can you buy Firefox OS
The first Firefox OS Smartphone - ZTE Open, is available in
Spain, Latin America, and India since July 2013. Its price is roughly about $80
without contract – which is very low compared to other high-end phones like the
iPhone 5s which costs $649 without contract.
Performance
of Firefox OS
Given that
Firefox OS is only available on low-end devices, it is obvious that it will not
offer an amazing experience – atleast at this point of time when it is still
not mature enough. As any other low-end, cheap Android phones are slow and
lagging in real performance, so will be the ZTE Open according to reviewers. We
don’t need to hold our breaths for Firefox OS as it will take some time until
the Firefox OS matures and be available on variety of devices.
Try
Firefox OS for free
You can try your hand on Firefox OS for free by installing the Firefox OS simulator add-on for
Firefox on your computer. This simulator isn’t perfect, but it will give you a feel of how Firefox OS works on a mobile phone,
allowing developers to develop and test apps for Firefox OS.
A bit history
Firefox OS was previously known as “Boot to Gecko” or “B2G”
because Firefox OS is a minimal Linux-based system that boots to a platform
based on Gecko, Firefox’s rendering engine.
Final
words
What we are left to see is: In the market of long time
android lovers, iOS fans, newly growing section of windows users, Ubuntu OS
supporters and a few others, will Firefox OS – with all its open web standards
– be successful in appeal users, will it revolutionize the smartphone world
and take it a step ahead?