There has been a lot of criticism towards Mozilla and their new Firefox OS, mainly asking questions such as “why a new operating system?” and “what is Firefox OS?”. While it is true that Google Android and Apple iOS are the two dominant mobile operating systems these days, Firefox OS is still needed because it has a completely different concept in mind.
The Sony Xperia E has been released just recently (March 2013) with Android and it took very little time for Sony to announce that they will be joining the ranks of Firefox OS by releasing an experimental ROM for developers or simply the bravest of the Sony Xperia E users.
So we now have devices that can run Firefox OS and the guys over at Mozilla have introduced us to how apps for the mobile operating system are built. What do we need now? Well, how about a way to monetize the content of our apps? But for that we would need some sort of payments API!
At last! We are finally able to see (maybe even purchase) some FirefoxOS based handsets. Mozilla has announced their first two Firefox OS Developer Preview handsets. The devices, Keon and Peak, look amazing, in terms of performance as well as design. But do not take our word for it, lets take a closer look at the specs and design to have a better idea of what the phones come as.
Firefox OS has proven to be quite flexible. So far we have seen it run on the Raspberry Pi, we have also managed to compile our own build of FirefoxOS using Ubuntu Linux and even run the Firefox OS Simulator on the Mozilla Firefox browser. But what about running the new mobile operating system on the dominant desktop operating system – Windows?
Turns out that the Firefox OS not only works on mobile devices, but pretty much anything running an ARM CPU, including the Raspberry Pi! So, while we are waiting for the 2013 release of Firefox OS, lets take a look at how we can start tinkering with it on hardware other than a mobile phone.
It all seemed to be about CES2013 these past couple of days. The news sites were full of the latest gadget coverage, some of which looked like they were from those cool science fiction movies. It was no surprise to find Mozilla Firefox OS at the CES2013 event.
There are a few of guides floating around already out there on how to build your own Firefox OS. Some of them may seem outdated, some of them are difficult to follow and split into many parts. The Mozilla Developer Network website does provide good documentation on the whole process, but we still felt that there was a lack of a single-page guide on how to build Firefox OS.
As the release of Firefox OS is closing in, the first apps are emerging. The first app for the Firefox OS we have managed to get a glimpse of is SporTV. For those of you who are unaware, SporTV is a Brazilian cable television network and since the first Firefox OS devices have their sights set for Brazil, it really does not surprise us that one of the first apps was aimed at the market for Brazil.
There has been a bit of criticism towards Mozilla’s Firefox OS in terms of apps. People think that the Mobile Operating System will have a hard time building up a base of good quality apps. While the further road to having a great marketplace with loads of apps may be a bit bumpy, there is already a good start.