Mozilla, Gecko Archive

"Still, Firefox OS could have a big impact on the Web even if it never gains significant market share. By pushing the Web forward, Mozilla is helping to ensure that mobile websites will continue to be relevant even as developers create hundreds of thousands of proprietary apps. Firefox could lose the battle for the smartphone OS market but still win the war for open standards."

"Jay Sullivan, Mozilla's VP of Product, has revealed that the not-for-profit organization is not going to build an iOS version of its Firefox web browser as long as Apple doesn't mend its unfriendly ways towards third party browsers." So that would most likely be never.

"'But how is it going to beat Android or iOS?' That's the reaction many people have when I tell them that I am working on Firefox OS, the new mobile operating system from Mozilla. It is a logical reaction. After all, we live in times where every major software company and its mother is releasing a mobile platform, struggling to lure developers into their new proprietary environment, APIs, libraries, etc. And indeed, many of these companies barely make it or don’t make it at all. But Firefox OS will not be directly battling against other mobile platforms. Its main objective is to change the way the world develops mobile apps, and even in the unlikely event that Firefox OS itself disappears in the process, if web-apps become mainstream, it will have succeeded."

"This week we are announcing our new Firefox OS developer preview phones because we believe that developers will help bring the power of the web to mobile. These developer phones are being developed by Geeksphone in partnership with Telefonica and Geeksphone." Loving the orange.

"Just under a month ago I wrote a personal post about my thoughts on Firefox OS and why I think there is something 'magical' about what it stands for and the possibilities it brings to the table. This post is a follow-up that aims to cover much of the same ground but with extra detail and more of a technical focus."

"Much like various versions of Firefox, the overall concept here is premium and of quality, but not because its expensive. Good quality design should be accessible to masses much like our products. Our strong focus is on high quality and distinctive design in the marketplace." Fantastic overview - quite detailed - about the UI design behind Firefox OS, from Patryk Adamczyk.

"Over the past year and a half I've been spending more and more of my time working with Mozilla's latest project, Firefox OS. During that time I've fallen in love with the project and what it stands for, in ways that I've never experienced with a technology platform before." I'm not convinced just yet. I hope it succeeds, but I just doubt it actually will.

"The smartphones going into the world's next two billion pairs of hands may not belong to either Google or Apple, but to Mozilla. The Mozilla Foundation, which oversees open source software projects like the Firefox Web browser, expects to release a mobile operating system for smartphones early next year. Its target market is Latin America, then the rest of the developing world, where smartphones from Apple and Google are still too expensive for most people." Let's hope so, because at the rate things are currently going, we'll end up with like 90% Android, 9% iOS, and 1% other stuff. Who wants that?

"Mozilla is creating a new kind of mobile operating system that is aligned with standards-based Web technologies. The platform, called Firefox OS, consists of the Gecko HTML rendering engine, a thin hardware enablement layer built on the Linux kernel, and a user interface layer called Gaia that is implemented entirely in HTML and JavaScript. The project was first announced in 2011 with the codename Boot2Gecko. It has matured considerably since then and is expected to arrive on handsets next year. Developers who want to get a head start will be pleased to learn that Mozilla has started producing daily builds of a B2G test environment that runs on conventional desktop computers."

Mozilla has announced it's ceasing development on Thunderbird; one more version will be released, and it'll be security updates from then on. "Most Thunderbird users seem happy with the basic email feature set. In parallel, we have seen the rising popularity of Web-based forms of communications representing email alternatives to a desktop solution. Given this, focusing on stability for Thunderbird and driving innovation through other offerings seems a natural choice." Makes sense - I mean, there's only so much you can do with something that needs to send and receive mail, and I can't imagine Thunderbird having a lot of users. Strange, almost Microsoftian obtuse announcement, by the way.

Still holding on to Windows 2000, XP RTM or XP SP1? No more Firefox for you, my friend - Mozilla has just upped its minimum supported Windows version to Windows XP SP2. In addition, support for Firefox 3.6 will end April 24. Asa Dotzler presents Opera as an alternative for you crazy people still on Windows 2000, XP RTM or XP SP1.

"Mozilla discussed its mobile operating system and app store during last week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. At the same time, Telefonica, one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, chipset giant Qualcomm, and Deutsche Telekom announced they were cooperating in the effort. This is all part of Mozilla's 'Boot to Gecko' project, designed to develop an open-source mobile operating system based on Web standards."

Mozilla has announced plans to integrate its Firefox web browser with Metro for Windows 8 - including Gecko. "Windows 8 contains two application environments, 'Classic' and 'Metro'. Classic is very similar to the Windows 7 environment at this time, it requires a simple evolution of the current Firefox Windows product. Metro is an entirely new environment and requires a new Firefox front end and system integration points. The feature goal here is a new Gecko based browser built for and integrated with the Metro environment. Firefox on Metro, like all other Metro apps will be full screen, focused on touch interactions, and connected to the rest of the Metro environment through Windows 8 contracts." I haven't checked - does Microsoft allow different rendering engines?

Firefox 10 Arrives Today with Extended Support for Businesses. Though the software does bring an array of tweaks and enhancements for both users and developers, it's perhaps most notable for the fact that it marks the debut of the business-oriented Extended Support Release (ESR) program. One can check out what’s new and known issues for this version of Firefox by reading Mozilla's release notes. Perhaps the most important change from a user's perspective is that add-ons and themes are assumed to function, rather than not function as assumed by previous Firefox versions, meaning that the update process won't leave a user with familiar extensions disabled and needing updates.