14 DAY TRIAL // Feeling that today's platforms impose too many boundaries for developers, Mozilla proposes a new approach with the building of an operating system for the open web, one that would enable the creation of apps equal or better than the native apps built for the iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone 7. The project, called Boot to Gecko (B2G), could leverage web technologies to enable the building of future applications both for mobile devices, as well as for desktop computers.
Apparently, the new project is aimed mainly at the device space and might sport various similarities with Google's Android operating system.
However, it would be aimed mainly at leveraging the capabilities of the open web, and should impose a new approach to openness through having the source released in real-time.
Native-grade applications that might result from here are aimed at running not only on Firefox, but also on the web, Mozilla explains on a wiki page.
Also there, they explain that things are only incipient, and that work will be needed in areas like:
- New web APIs: build prototype APIs for exposing device and OS capabilities to content (Telephony, SMS, Camera, USB, Bluetooth, NFC, etc.) - Privilege model: making sure that these new capabilities are safely exposed to pages and applications - Booting: prototype a low-level substrate for an Android-compatible device; - Applications: choose and port or build apps to prove out and prioritize the power of the system.
In the discussion thread started on mozilla.dev.platform, the people behind this idea further explain that the project is mainly aimed at the mobile space, including handhelds and tablets.
The team is aiming at reusing the lower layers of Android for their project, but only a very small portion of Google's platform will be used, such as the kernel and drivers, along with “libc and ancillary stuff.”
“It's nice to start from something that's known to boot and have access to all the devices we want to expose,” Mike Shaver explains.
All in all, the main idea would be to enable the transition to a web-based platform that would offer similar functionalities with what mobile devices have to offer today. Only that it would all be web-based, somehow the same as Google's Chrome OS is.