The more different operating systems on the market, the better for you and me, since diversity guarantees competition, as well as the evolution of platforms. Experience personal computers suggests that it is possible to have one strong player and those who have been catching up with him for many years - the superiority of Windows was achieved in the first years of the development of personal computers. Currently, Android is the market leader (more than 84 percent), followed by iOS (12 percent), and everyone else falls into the remaining 4 percent. But this does not mean that there is no place in the market and new companies cannot repeat the success of Android, even if it is more difficult to do today. Both operators and device manufacturers want an alternative to Android, so they are happy to experiment. One of the high-profile projects that is widely heard is the attempt of Mozilla, known for its FireFox browser, to release its own operating system. They even created a Flame test device for developers, so they could try out their applications and how the system works. It cannot be said that Mozilla was able to interest a wide market, but a number of companies decided to try their luck and released their devices. Among manufacturers of devices running FireFox OS, ZTE became a pioneer, and then devices from Alcatel (TCL Mobile) appeared. It cannot be called something outstanding, but the development is carried out by a very small number of people, and investments in the project are minimal. Let's take a look at what FireFox OS can do in version 1.3 (they promise version 1.4 by the end of the year), and 2.0 at the beginning of next year - however, you can try it now on devices for developers. The platform description was made on a device such as Alcatel Fire E.
Interface, control, multitasking, hardware requirements
Mozilla decided to use the Gecko engine on which it is built to develop its own platform for smartphones. Mozilla browser. The project was originally called Boot to Gecko, and development began back in 2011. The project was supported by the Mozilla Foundation, and the Spanish operator Telefonica showed interest. In 2012, Alcatel joined the project, although none of the devices became publicly available, they lived in the form of prototypes, one of which I saw in early 2013 at CES in Las Vegas. By the summer of 2013, ZTE joined the project.
For all participants in the project, the initial task was to create a system that would, on the one hand, be productive and, on the other, use inexpensive hardware. In 2011, budget Android smartphones did not cost less than one hundred euros, had outdated screens and low performance. No one took into account that the cost of devices would be reduced by leaps and bounds - a dual-core processor from Qualcomm, 512 MB, was chosen as the reference platform random access memory and that was it. It was assumed that this would be enough for the devices to perform better than Android counterparts in the same price segments. It so happened that Android smartphones began to become cheaper before our eyes, as a result, in 2014 they all have 512 MB of RAM, dual-core processors are considered the norm, and in many inexpensive models they also have 4 cores. Formally, what should have been an advantage has disappeared - but the main thing is that the choice of Gecko with JavaScript as the engine for executing programs resulted in low performance on the selected hardware (I don’t know why HTML5 works so slowly). But unlike many experiments, the FireFox OS platform turned out to be viable, albeit slowly, but still developing.
When you turn it on for the first time, you will find that the ideology of FireFox OS is almost completely inherited from Android 2.x or even earlier versions. Let's start with the fact that the screen can be unlocked using movement (the same Slide to Unlock, around which there were patent disputes between Apple and Google). Move the lever to the left - you open the camera, to the right - you simply open the main menu.
In standby mode, notifications are shown on the screen, but you cannot access them. By unlocking your phone, you will lose these reminders. But you can see them again by pulling the curtain from top to bottom - the same messages will be inside. Unfortunately, they are not summed up; for example, after taking five dozen screenshots, you will see a corresponding notification for each in the list - by clicking on it, you can open the picture. Comfortable? No. You can only clear the entire list, but you cannot swipe away specific notifications.
Another point related to the curtain is that it opens in the same way as in Windows Phone. You can pull the screen down anywhere, but close it by pulling the bar at the bottom, where the control element is indicated. A terribly inconvenient implementation that I don’t like. Icons for quick access to functions are also hidden in the curtain - they cannot be changed in any way, they are predetermined forever.
The interface looks, at first glance, familiar - 4 icons at the bottom of the desktop, a search bar at the top, as well as “folders” with applications. Don't be fooled by the familiar organization of space; folders are what FireFox calls "smart collections." If you open such a “folder”, you will see “application” icons. Let's hold my finger on the desktop and select new smart selections, for example, travel. A “folder” with the appropriate name will appear, it will contain links to various resources - in most cases these are not programs, but simply mobile versions of sites. That is, the ideology of the system is somewhat reminiscent of searching for information; it is provided upon request.
The search bar at the top of the desktop also searches not only the local content of the phone, but also the network. This doesn’t surprise us anymore, everyone has similar behavior modern systems, they search both on the device and on the network. But here the search line has the phrase “I’m thinking about,” which you can continue.
The only control element off the screen is the central key, with its help you can return to main screen. No back button, no additional Menu key. When you hold down the key, you will see the running windows of the system, and you can close those that you do not need.
Unlike iOS/Android, the thoughtfulness of individual applications and the interface in them leaves much to be desired. Often there is no return key to the previous menu, that is, you definitely need to take some action and press OK. These can be considered childhood diseases, but they are noticeable and conspicuous. For example, if you enter the list of messages, there will simply be no Back button; you can exit only by pressing the central key. This is inconvenient in many cases.
In the browser, pinch to zoom, of course, there is scrolling and simple actions that are typical for touch phones. The browser also supports formatting text to fit the width of the screen using a double tap.
Typing on the keyboard does not cause any difficulties, but the QWERTY keyboard does not have any additional settings. There is word prediction, if you select a word and want to change the ending, press the Erase key, then the entire selected word is erased (not exactly - it is erased up to the last letter you entered). This is terribly inconvenient. It is also inconvenient that when entering on the keyboard, the system does not recognize the fields in which the input is being made - it does not offer convenient little things, does not change the case of letters, does not offer numbers, and the like. It feels like the keyboard comes from the distant past.
let's consider standard applications to give you an impression of the system.
Contacts, Messages, Calendar, Email and more
The dialer looks very familiar - even the color scheme is the same as in Android. When dialing a number, it quick search and a prompt appears. From here you can go to the Contacts tab. Records are stored in vCard format, which does not create any difficulties - the number of fields is quite sufficient, Additional information can be written as a comment. Of the minuses, I note that import of contacts from Gmail, Facebook, but not any other network services is implemented. You can also import contacts from a memory card or receive them via Bluetooth. When working with the same Gmail, contacts go only to the phone; you cannot send them back. Therefore, it is assumed that your data will not be updated in the cloud. Another point that confused me is that in FireFox OS there is no hint of “clouds”, all data is stored locally, and at most is exported to a memory card. It is clear that this is a matter for subsequent versions, but given that we have all been using synchronization with the cloud for a long time, this looks like a serious omission.
There is a search bar in your contacts list, but once you scroll down the list, it disappears! This is an obvious flaw, since there is no way to call up a search, you can only scroll to the beginning of the list. There is a quick search bar by letter, and scrolling only goes to English language, for example, contacts in Russian are somewhere between Z and the # sign. In the settings you can specify sorting by Last Name, but in the list the names will still come first, but the last name will be highlighted in bold– I don’t understand the logic of this decision.
In Messages everything is quite simple - the list is sorted by names and numbers, you can create your own messages.
The mail setup is more interestingly organized - so, in it you can create your own Accounts. But unlike the vast majority of systems and devices based on them, certificate verification is not supported here (there is no SSL item - accept all certificates - in the settings). For many, this can become a serious problem, for example, in our corporate mail the root certificate is invalid, and this is not an error, but a completely deliberate action. Mail works on all systems; in FireFox OS it is only possible to log in through the web interface.
Mail client may try to configure your mail in automatic mode. For example, for Gmail everything happens instantly; no settings other than your name and password are needed. In the settings, you can select the interval for checking mail (manually or every 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes or every hour).
From additional features There is a local search - it can be carried out both by the body of the letter and by fields. It supports displaying HTML in the body of letters, which is not bad - but images are often displayed incorrectly - you simply don’t expect this from Mozilla, after all, they ate a lot of salt working with the browser and could have used their work here - but this did not happen.
In the calendar you can add your cloud accounts, for example, Google, Yahoo!, CalDav - but not anything else, there is no mechanism for importing entries from other services. Unlike contacts, the calendar can synchronize its entries with the same Google. Regular entries that can be set by day of the week, select calendar display, and the like. Very damp, ascetic and non-functional.
The Gallery displays all screenshots and photographs in one stream, divided by month. There are no albums or anything like that provided. You can choose separate files, you can’t select everything at once.
The Clock application contains alarms, a timer and a stopwatch - everything is quite simple and clear.
The music player supports MP3, the only unusual one is OGG. No equalizers, no additional settings - just playing music and repeating it when you choose. There are playlists. Sorting by albums, artists, songs.
Video is about the same level - you can view videos in supported formats, but there are no additional settings, it looks like the stone age.
Files – regular file manager, shows both the device memory and the memory card. Files can be copied and moved, and group operations are supported. Files can also be sent by mail or via Bluetooth.
Here Maps is used for cartography; in fact, it is a browser version with all the ensuing consequences (you need an Internet connection, but you can save map pieces in memory).
The settings menu is extremely ascetic, only the most necessary. These screenshots do not need any explanation.
The camera interface is very simple and clear - there are no settings.
I left the browser for dessert, as I believed that this would be the strongest point of the device. Judge for yourself, because Mozilla and FireFox are browsers, and not something else. What a disappointment awaited me in this aspect. The browser does not have any add-ons; it is very different from both the desktop and mobile versions available on other platforms. No synchronization of passwords and bookmarks. Just displaying text and pages, their formatting - there’s not even a banal search on the page. In a word, it all looks extremely crude.
Since the FireFox OS platform is not a priority for developers, it does not have a huge number of applications that many people use every day. Most IM apps are not available and are unlikely to be available on this platform. The same Whatsapp does not plan to write a client, but there is something third-party that I would not trust for security reasons. For example, the Twitter client is actually a mobile version, which is very slow and works extremely strangely.
But Facebook is exclusively a mobile version social network, any comments are unnecessary here.
FireFox OS has its own application store, which has quite a lot simple games- Apparently, they were somehow ported from browsers - but you shouldn’t look for anything complicated in the store. When installing the application, an icon appears on the desktop.
Let me finish the story here, since the main capabilities of both the system and applications are described.
Impression
The system is slow, sometimes very slow. By any standards, and if we take into account aesthetes who cannot stand slowdowns of a few thousandths of a second, then FireFox OS will infuriate them. This system lacks speed, even compared to very low-end Android devices that have comparable hardware performance. Therefore, we can attribute this to system optimization (rather, unoptimization - let me remind you that I have a commercial phone in my hands, and not a prototype with a beta version of the OS).
It is clear that for such a young system, version 1.3 is approximately the same as Android 1.5, which few people remember or saw, although perhaps a comparison with the first version is more appropriate. It’s very simple, there are a lot of flaws and poorly thought out interfaces, interaction with the system is not always clear. A raw product that could be called a beta version rather than a commercial product. However, this is a real product that can be purchased not at all for some small money (the cost of the same Fire E, the review of which will appear the other day, is 5,000 rubles).
The Mozilla Foundation can be commended for its efforts to develop its smartphone platform, but the efforts they are making today are clearly insufficient. Moreover, most likely, we will not see anything interesting and significant in version 2.0. The system clearly lacks those who can correctly design the interaction between its components and think through the ideology of the interface. And in the absence of such planning, it is not so important how quickly individual bricks are assembled - the result will still be discouraging. And, as usual, it all comes down to people.
- Translation
Over the past year and a half, I have been devoting more and more time to working on a new Mozilla project - Firefox OS. During this time, I literally fell in love with him and his idea, experiencing something I had never experienced before.
Screenshot of Firefox OS
I'll be honest, Firefox OS is the start of something incredible. This is a revolution waiting to be awakened. Breath of fresh air. Climax latest technologies. It's magical and it will change everything.
What is Firefox OS?
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, here's a short description.Firefox OS is a new mobile operating system developed by Mozilla as part of the Boot to Gecko (B2G) project. The OS uses the Linux kernel and is loaded into Gecko, a web engine that allows users to run applications built on HTML, JS and any other Open Web API applications.
-Mozilla Developer Network
In short, the Firefox OS project combines all web technologies to create a full-fledged mobile operating system. Stop for a second and think - this is a mobile OS built in JavaScript!
For this purpose, Gecko (Firefox engine) was modified, which provides a set of new JavaScript APIs necessary to create functionality similar to that existing in modern mobile OSs. WebTelephony for phone calls, WebSMS for sending text messages and Vibration API for, hmm... to vibrate.
Firefox OS is much more than a venture to use the latest web technologies in a way that has never been done before. It is also a combination of many other Mozilla projects as a single vision - the Web as a platform. The Open Web Apps initiative and Persona are one such project, our online identity and authorization solution (officially known as “BrowserID”). It's amazing to watch how a large number of projects from Mozilla are merging into one.
I won't go into the finer details anymore, you can find more information on the MDN pages about Firefox OS. I highly recommend reading it.
Why Firefox OS?
You're probably thinking, "Sounds great, but why JavaScript?" This is a really good question. There are many reasons why the best solution became the development of a mobile OS in JavaScript.The two main reasons are that Firefox OS fills a gap and creates an alternative to the current proprietary nature and limitations of the mobile platform market.
Filling a gap in the mobile platform market
It's no secret that smartphones are often ridiculously expensive, even in countries where income levels are quite high. But if you think that such prices exist only in rich countries, then you are deeply mistaken. A 16GB iPhone 4S costs around £615 in Brazil, which is £100 more than the same phone in England!Such prices in Brazil are due to high import taxes. Apparently, Apple is already working on fixing this problem with plans to build local production lines in the country. Despite this, this case makes it clear that good smartphone many can't afford it. Not to mention, in some countries you might want to avoid brandishing a smartphone that costs the same as a small car.
So what should you do if you want to get a good smartphone without spending a huge amount on it? You can buy cheap smartphone on Android, but these, as a rule, work poorly and constantly slow down.
Luckily we now have Firefox OS...
The goal of Firefox OS is not to compete with high-end devices, but to offer entry-level and mid-range smartphones at the price of a regular mobile phone.
-Bonnie Cha
Firefox OS is great for this. This OS can offer you a full-fledged smartphone-based device with low performance, which is comparable to Android on a mid-range device. And it's not a joke.
For example, I'm currently testing JavaScript games on a £50 phone. You shouldn't expect much from a device at this price, but in fact these games not only run faster than the same Android phone running in a browser (Firefox or Chrome), but they are also just as fast, if not faster, than running them on Android devices the price of which is 4-5 times more.
Why is there such a performance increase compared to the results of working in the Android browser on identical devices? The secret is the fast exchange of data between Gecko and the hardware, which allows JavaScript to work very quickly.
The strong performance of JavaScript on low-end devices is one of the reasons I believe Firefox OS is the start of something huge.
I should note that Mozilla won't necessarily run the OS on £50 phones, which is the device we use for development and testing.
Alternative and open platform
The second reason "Why Firefox OS?" is an attempt not only to create an alternative and open mobile platform, but also to resist and try to influence major market players.Since founding Mozilla in 1998 as a software developer and later as a company and organization, our mission has been to create open technologies that can compete with dominant enterprise products.
-Steve Lohr
Mozilla is trying to replicate its success with Firefox, which took the browser market by storm and showed users that there was an alternative, that they could control how they used the web.
Now it is the mobile web that is under threat. And the threat comes not from Microsoft, but from Apple and Google, manufacturers of the leading mobile platforms. Their apps, closed platforms, proprietary app stores and very capricious rules for developers. Apple and Google are only making things worse for web technology.
-Thomas Claburn
One of the main areas that needs development is application portability...
All the hype around mobile applications, in a sense, is a step back: they chain users to a specific OS and devices that support it. The web has evolved and has come to the point that it can be perceived the same on any hardware.
Mozilla, creator of the web Firefox browser, is determined to do the same for mobile devices.
-Don Clark
Firefox OS strives to leverage the ubiquity of web technology to let you use the same apps on your smartphone, PC, tablet, and any other browser-enabled device. Wouldn't you love to be able to pick up where you left off on your smartphone when playing Angry Birds on your desktop? I would really like that!
A developer's dream
Another reason why we need Firefox OS is because this moment There is no OS that can be easily edited (you can change Android a little, but it's not that easy).Firefox OS is built entirely on HTML, JavaScript and CSS. With basic web development skills, you can completely change the entire OS. Editing one CSS strings might affect the way icons are laid out or their shape, or you might change the JS that handles phone calls.
This platform is unique to developers and I'm very interested to know what they do with it and where it leads.
Lucky moment
Having worked at Mozilla for a year and a half now, I realized how lucky I was to be here at the birth of Firefox OS. If I remember correctly, the project was announced (as Boot to Gecko) in the first few weeks of my work at the company.Everything was delicious, but over time it became even more delicious. Firefox OS is my number one priority at the moment and to be honest, I love it. It's a great honor to be part of such a project.
I've wondered many times: this amazing feeling - is it similar to what you experience working in Mozilla while launching Firefox? Excitement, passion, nervousness and an inability to explain how amazing it all is and why anyone should care.
Honestly, I don't think many people fully understand what running Firefox OS actually means for everyone. Same as Firefox, I guess.
I'm currently happy to be working at Mozilla during such an exciting time in the company's life.
Admired
The people who realized the importance of this project are the developers. They held demo devices from Mozilla employees at our events. And few things can be as exciting as being able to watch these people as they explore the device and experience various emotions...- It all starts with slight confusion - “Did you give me Android? It's very similar to Android."
- Then comes the sudden realization that this is not Android and that the system is built on JS.
- After a short pause, something like “Holy crap!” follows.
- A little more and a person is completely immersed in the system, studying all its corners.
- The last stage is the reluctance to part with the device when I ask for it back and the final “This is very good, I’m surprised!”
You might think that I'm just praising the project to make everyone think it's super exciting. But in fact, many people reacted this way. It was funny to watch this.
From what I've seen of people's reactions to Firefox OS, it's going to change a lot. Everyone is so delighted that, it seems to me, there is no need to explain anything to anyone.
Problems
It would be unfair to praise Firefox OS all the time without mentioning some of the problems we need to solve.Exist general issues, such as creating an open ecosystem of applications or device fragmentation, which is happening with Android. It's important, but ultimately not interesting to me at all.
My biggest concern with HTML5 games on mobile is the experience and performance that developers often complain about. This issue is not specific to Firefox OS (Android and iOS are just as bad at this), but right now I'm entirely focused on it and the performance issue.
Most previously created mobile HTML5 games run very slowly (0-20FPS), or a little faster (20-30FPS). Often these games have unstable FPS, which significantly worsens the gaming experience.
Interestingly, many problems are not necessarily related to the device or JavaScript. There are some heavy games, such as Biolab Disaster. This the game is on excellent even on the same £50 phone (40-60FPS).
It's clear to me that sometimes the device and platform can be the reason for poor performance in games (not as often as some people think). We can learn a lot from games that run great on low-end devices. Study the techniques and techniques that the developers used and tell about them to those who are going to work with HTML5 games for the mobile platform.
I truly believe that heavy HTML5 games can run great on any device, even the weakest ones. Why am I so sure? Because people are already making such games today. There are two things I trust most in my life... my eyes.
Not just mobile phones
What I'm most excited about is not the fact that Firefox OS will be on the mobile device we release next year, but what's to come. I touched on this topic earlier when I talked about the "developer's dream" of how others can push the boundaries of the OS.And this is already happening today. We already have
If you use the Firefox browser instead of Chrome or Safari, then there's a good chance you've already heard about Firefox OS, Mozilla's new open source operating system for smartphones and tablets. This organization truly strives to make the web open and accessible to everyone.
Although this new mobile OS is an emerging technology, it is quickly gaining the attention of users, developers and critics. Today we want to tell you about what she can present to us.
Question 1: What is Firefox OS?
Answer: Firefox OS (codenamed Boot2Gecko or B2G) is a mobile OS based on Linux and Gecko technology from Mozilla. It is developed based on web standards like HTML5, CSS3 and javascript.
Mozilla has developed the Web API so that HTML5 applications can interact with device hardware (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, camera), which was previously only possible in native applications.
The Mozilla Foundation has always strived to make the web more accessible to everyone, and in addition to the Firefox OS, other tools include the Firefox browser, the app marketplace, and more. However, some critics report that this is simply a tactic by Mozilla to capture a larger portion of the mobile audience and surpass its main competitor, Chrome.
Question 2: How is Firefox OS different from the existing Mobile OS?
Answer: Firefox OS was developed entirely based on HTML5 and open web standards, and therefore has no rules or restrictions, unlike existing platforms.
Firefox OS is different: you can think of this project as more than a browser that runs on a lightweight Linux-based OS. Every application in Firefox OS, including the camera and calling module, is a web application, that is, a website as an application. It's simple!
The web is the platform for Firefox OS: applications are created using HTML Help 5 (as well as CSS3 and javascript), rather than native development languages. In comparison, Android applications are developed in Java; Windows Phone apps– in C++, C# or HTML5 and so on. Firefox OS is written entirely using open web standards, with the exception of the miniature operating system (codenamed Gonk) that forms the core of Firefox OS.
Question 3: What UI is equipped with Firefox OS?
Answer: The source of inspiration in the process of creating the interface for Firefox OS was Android platform. Hence, the OS has a lock screen, a home screen, and a notification bar. However, there are differences from Android. Home screen displays background image(as well as time and date), and does not currently have widget support.
Swiping right on the home screen will bring up a list of installed apps; There are no special icons here like in other mobile operating systems, with which you can open sections with applications. Swiping left will present you with a list of app categories, which in turn will show you installed and recommended apps in the selected category.
A long press on the home button will present you with a list open applications. Pressing the power button will present you with a menu to manage the device's power. Pressing the Power and Home buttons together will take a screenshot for you.
Firefox OS's user interface is better than the interface on the iPhone or Windows Phone, but it's not as good as Android. The applications share a single design principle, and this allows users to be provided with a consistent consistency that allows them to quickly navigate the functionality of different applications.
Question 4: How are apps for Firefox OS different from apps for other mobile operating systems?
Answer: Firefox OS, based on the Gecko engine, only runs websites disguised as applications. Such applications are known as web applications. They are created using HTML, the same technology that websites are based on. These applications are capable of running on many operating systems other than Firefox OS. Every operating system (including Android and Windows 8) that supports the Firefox browser will be able to run these web apps, which are distributed through the Firefox Marketplace.
Web applications for Firefox OS come in two forms: server-hosted applications and packaged applications. The first type of application is hosted on a Mozilla server and will be downloaded and downloaded every time you want to access it. In other words, they are like web pages instead of apps, and if the internet connection is interrupted, you won't be able to retrieve the data.
Batch applications will be downloaded once in compressed archive form, and will be downloaded from a local source each time you access these applications. In other words, they are more similar to applications that you see on other OSes. This is possible thanks to local storage and caching functions of the HTML5 language.
Question 5: How can I try out Firefox OS?
Answer: Although Firefox OS is still under development, it is still worth trying. However, it's unlikely that everyone will be able to just go out and shell out $200 for a phone just to try out a new mobile operating system. Don't worry as you have other options to play around with Firefox OS.
You can try out Firefox OS in the following ways:
The device screen or SIM card can be protected with a PIN code.
Before installing each application, the user will need to define access rights. Safe permissions (ie, web access, etc.) are granted automatically, but potentially risky permissions (ie, geolocation access, etc.) must be confirmed by the user and then presented to the application.
Permission Manager (or App Permissions) allows users to manually grant or deny permissions for applications. This is exactly what Android lacks.
Mozilla also plans to provide the ability to encrypt the device (using a password when booting the device - ).
Question 9: What could Firefox OS mean for the future of smartphones?
Answer: If Firefox OS is successful, it will change the way we use the Internet. We are used to opening websites, but Firefox OS will leave this in the past and give us web applications that will be much more convenient to use. Ubuntu for Phones will also support Firefox OS to achieve these changes.
This month, the first smartphones running Firefox OS - Keon and Peek - went on limited sale. Available copies were sold out instantly and went mainly to enthusiasts who tracked news on this topic and communicated on thematic forums. We were able to buy one of the devices - Keon. A review of the smartphone itself will be published the other day, but in the meantime we will tell you about operating system.
Rumors have been circulating for a long time that Mozilla, known for its Firefox browser, is working on a mobile operating system. The first information about the new OS was announced by Mozilla representatives back in 2011, then the project was known as Boot To Gecko (Gecko is the Firefox browser engine). In 2012, the official announcement took place, the first screenshots and prototypes of future devices appeared. At the same time, the OS name was changed to the more understandable Firefox OS. And finally, at the end of February 2013, visitors to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona were able to see ready-made devices running Firefox OS and listen to the speech of the head Mozilla Ms. Mitchell Baker - you could read about this in our report from MWC 2013.
Widespread sales of the first smartphones running Firefox OS will begin this year, but will affect only some countries (Russia is not among them). Mozilla relies on sales through operators and focuses its OS primarily on budget and mid-budget devices (the manufacturers of the devices shown at the Mozilla stand at Mobile World Congress were ZTE and Alcatel). However, the other day it appeared that such a giant as Sony is planning to release a smartphone based on Firefox OS. Moreover, this will be a top-class device.
However, there is no need to talk about widespread interest among smartphone manufacturers in Firefox OS yet. The market is just taking a closer look at the suspicious newcomer, who will have to fight not only with Android, but also with other new open operating systems: Ubuntu Phone OS, Tizen and Sailfish OS.
Firefox OS is a completely free OS, with open source code. The Linux kernel is used, and the interface is made in HTML5. The key idea underlying Firefox OS is the use of the Gecko web engine and focus on web standards. Only applications created in web programming languages, i.e. HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, are supported. No native apps! On the one hand, this makes the appearance of serious games with beautiful graphics and any applications that actively use hardware performance unlikely, but on the other hand, it ensures versatility and ease of porting applications.
However, all this was known before. AND this information interesting, rather, for developers than for ordinary users. For the latter, what is more important is not what the system is written in, but its interface and capabilities. So let's get started with practical acquaintance with Firefox OS!
Interface
The unlock screen looks simple, if not primitive. It displays the time, telecom operator and date, as well as an arrow at the bottom, pulling which will open the unlock and quick access buttons to the camera.
This dubious decision, since to unlock the screen you have to make three movements: pressing the Power key, an arrow gesture and touching the button with a lock (for Android and iOS devices, two movements are enough if Lock Screen is set, for BlackBerry - generally only one, although This is also a controversial decision). In addition, the lack of information content of the unlock screen is disappointing: if there are any notifications, they are displayed only on the top black bar (see the blue icon in the screenshot on the left).
The home screen also looks very primitive. And of course, it is quite reminiscent of Android. At the bottom there are four icons for the main applications: Phone, Messages (SMS), Contacts and Browser. You can replace these applications with others installed applications, expand or reduce the number of icons, in general - do as you please. This is done in exactly the same way as in Android/iOS.
But for some reason you can’t do this directly from the home screen; you must go to the applications screen. It is also impossible to move any icons to the main space of the home screen - only to the bottom row. There are no widgets - at least we couldn't find them. Coupled with the inability to place icons on the home screen, this makes its functionality very poor and purely decorative. And you can’t even create folders from applications.
What Firefox OS is sorely lacking is a back button. A Home button Menu is implemented only in hardware: it is located on the smartphone under the screen. A short touch to it brings us to home screen, and the long one opens thumbnails of running applications.
And this is not the only similarity between the interface and Android. If we pull the top border of the screen, we will see a list of notifications. Below this list are wifi icons, Bluetooth, Airplane Mode and Settings. In general, if it weren’t for the missing widgets and round icons, one might decide that this is not a new OS, but some kind of stripped-down Android (although, by the way, you won’t surprise anyone with round icons on Android). Moreover, this applies not only to the location of various elements, but also to the control logic. So, there is no abundance of new-fangled Swype gestures here (unlike BlackBerry 10 and Sailfish OS), but there are also no such familiar things (including for Android) as highlighting a word or fragment of text by long pressing or double tap.
Web Applications
Perhaps, the OS interface has only one original feature: if we go to the leftmost desktop, we will see a mysterious set of icons there, collected in a kind of folders. How is this different from applications located on the screens to the right?
As it turned out, these are icons of web pages that in this case disguised as applications. You open the desired category, tap on the icon, after which the mobile version of the site opens (if one is found), but without address bar. And this idea is to erase the border between regular applications and web applications (aka mobile versions of sites) - in itself seems interesting. Moreover, Mozilla is not the first and not the last to move in this direction, but in this case the implementation still let us down. Firstly, all these web applications are frankly slow. For example, I opened the game BlackJack from the Games folder and saw that the cards were falling onto the table with noticeable lags.
In general, we were unlucky with blackjack :) And not very lucky with the rest either. We tried to find Chess through the search, and it seemed like something even showed up in the list, but after tapping on the icon, this eloquent picture appeared (see screenshot on the left).
Needless to say, if there is no internet, web applications will not work. You won't even be able to see a list of them - only a list of the folders themselves (see the screenshot on the right above this paragraph). At the same time, the system will offer you some of the local applications that are thematically related to those you requested.
For the sake of experiment, we tried to enter ixbt in the search and this is what we saw (see left screenshot).
A website was found, and (and under all this a photograph of the motherboard was placed - apparently, the search is simultaneously carried out using images, after which one of them is selected as the background), but for some reason the system did not detect it (by tapping on the site it opened full-size version of the site, which was practically unreadable on a screen with a resolution of 320x480).
In general, we note the idea of web applications as promising and interesting, but so far it looks only like simplifying access to mobile versions websites, nothing more. By the way, you can add the icon of your favorite mobile version of the site (web application) to Favorites, and then it will be displayed among local applications.
Local applications
Local applications at the moment still remain more relevant and important. Therefore, special attention is given to them. So, what comes pre-installed on a device running Firefox OS? As a matter of fact, the entire set is limited to 16 applications.
These are the already listed Phone, Messages, Contacts, Browser, as well as Camera, Gallery, FM radio, Settings, App Store, Here Maps, Calendar, Clock, Usage, Mail client, Music and Video. The set, frankly speaking, couldn’t be poorer. At the same time, there are also a lot of complaints about the applications themselves. Messages only supports creating SMS (MMS does not), Contacts does not allow you to add Google account(you can import contacts either from a SIM card or from Facebook), there is no talk at all about transferring contacts from another device.
Here Maps (formerly Nokia Maps) work only online, and are terribly buggy. WITH Google Maps, of course, no comparison. We were never able to manually configure the email client on our workbox (this is the first time this has happened on smartphones!), and the automatic setup did not work even for iCloud mail (me.com). Thank you, at least I managed to connect Gmail! There were no serious complaints except for the Phone and the Clock. Well, the browser did not disappoint (although it did not please).
As for FM radio, it works when you connect a headset, the wire of which is used as an antenna. However, alas, there is no RDS support, that is, the names of radio stations are not displayed - only frequencies. Adding your favorite radio stations to Favorites is available.
In general, the situation with pre-installed applications upsets us: firstly, there are few of them (where is at least the File Manager?), and secondly, those that exist are very poor. This is the level of Series 40, which today can be found on Nokia Asha devices. Of course, the smartphone itself, on which we tested Firefox OS, belongs to the ultra-budget segment. But we are not sure that the pre-installed Firefox OS applications will look significantly better on more advanced devices. By the way, as a minus it is also worth noting the impossibility of deleting pre-installed applications.
Languages, keyboard and settings
At the moment, the OS interface exists only in English, French, Portuguese (in the version for Brazil), Chinese and Arabic. In the future, most likely, new languages will be added - for those countries in which it is planned to sell smartphones on Firefox OS.
However, the Russian language for the keyboard is already available. Switching between layouts is done as standard by tapping on the globe. The keyboard itself looks as simple and unsophisticated as possible.
Unfortunately, there is no option to change the keyboard orientation when the smartphone is held horizontally, which is bad, since the virtual keys are too small, even for people with thin fingers it is difficult to hit them.
By default, only the English layout is available, and to add Russian, you need to go to the Keyboard menu item in Settings.
As for the settings in Firefox OS, at first glance everything here is the same as in Android, but many features are hidden too far.
In particular, to get to the developer mode, you need to click on Device Information, then on More Information, and only there we will find the Developer button.
But even after a fair amount of wandering through the settings, we could not fix such an oddity as the prohibition on saving photos (including screenshots) to the internal storage (saving them only to a microSD card is allowed).
Marketplace Store
Like any modern mobile OS, Firefox OS has its own application store. It's called without any pretense: Marketplace. The store's interface is very simple: at the top there are icons of 9 selected applications (it is not very clear, however, who selected them - the creators of the store or the users), below is a list of available categories. And don’t be fooled by the number of categories: some of them are completely empty (for example, Maps & Navigation), while in others the applications very often overlap, and there are relatively few of them.
Of course, there are some useful applications. So, for example, in Productivity we found Calculator and Notes (by the way, it’s amazing how it was possible to release an OS without these applications!), and in Photo&Video (for some reason) - QR Scanner and EPUBReader.
But many vital things are not yet in the store. For example, there is no Dropbox application, no file managers, no alternative keyboards, no VKontakte... In addition, we did not find a single paid application. Is it because Mozilla doesn’t yet provide hosting options? paid applications, or serious independent developers don’t yet see the point in writing them for Firefox OS.
In any case, applications are a profitable business. And Firefox OS will probably provide some of the required minimum. But, by the way, when there are more applications, a problem will arise with the Marketplace interface: at the moment it is home page much less informative than the main pages Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Preliminary conclusions
Based on the fact that smartphones with Firefox OS have not yet appeared on wide sale, and there is still time before the large-scale launch, during which a lot can change, we are making only preliminary conclusions and will not blame the new OS, for example, for the lack of applications in stores . But some things are already quite clear and are unlikely to fundamentally change.
First, the OS logic. In the article we used the offensive phrase “stripped-down Android,” but this is truly the most accurate and succinct definition of Firefox OS. Both in terms of interface capabilities and beauty appearance Mozilla's brainchild is far from Google's product. But all the shortcomings could be forgiven if Firefox OS had some interesting finds, ideas, and solutions. For example, there were plenty of such finds in BlackBerry 10 (despite the general imperfection of the system), as well as in Sailfish OS and Ubuntu Phone OS (judging by what we saw at Mobile World Congress). Here the only fresh idea is web applications. More precisely, quick access to mobile versions of sites and the ability to work with them as applications.
This is also not the biggest discovery, since you can create an icon for your favorite website on both Android and iOS. But in Firefox OS, all this is implemented more intuitively, as if we are being pushed to use the web instead of local applications. In our opinion, we need to work in this direction. However, so far web applications cannot replace local applications. Not only because of the need for an Internet connection, but even because of insufficient performance.
Performance is another weak point of Firefox OS. Now working in the OS is uncomfortable, you constantly feel slowdowns, there is no trace of smoothness at all. But in this OS there are no widgets or any other dynamic elements! True, this can be attributed to the low performance of the smartphone itself, so we’ll see what happens on more powerful devices.
In general, at the moment we do not have a single argument that could motivate regular user to purchase a device with Firefox OS instead of Android. Yes, the concept itself (let’s call it “total web”) is promising, and programmers should definitely take a closer look at Firefox OS, as well as enthusiasts and all IT industry specialists, but for ordinary smartphone buyers the attractiveness of this OS is still at zero level. Let's hope it's only for now.
And although there are no mobile devices with this OS yet, it is already possible to get to know it better with the help of special builds designed to run this system on a PC. Let's take a closer look at these assemblies.
We have already repeatedly talked about the fact that Mozilla is working on a new open operating system for mobile devices, Firefox OS (previously called Boot to Gecko, B2G). The project development stage has reached the point where practical interest is already being shown in it. For example, TCL and ZTE announced their readiness to make smartphones with this new operating system.
The OS consists of three layers. The system level is called Gonk, which includes the Linux kernel, hardware drivers and other system components. On top of Gonk is the Gecko browser engine with a special API for mobile devices. And the highest level component of the system is the Gaia UI user interface, based on HTML and JavaScript web technologies.
But, in my opinion, it is best to see Firefox OS for yourself and form your own opinion about this OS. Moreover, the developers have prepared special experimental builds for introducing and testing the Gaia shell on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
The easiest way to get acquainted with the interface of the new mobile system available for Windows OS. To do this, on the Mozillawiki Gaia/Hacking page you need to find a direct link to the installer b2g-gaia-desktop.exe. This installer weighs about 40 megabytes. After installation, the program will create an icon on the desktop and, if you have Internet access, check for new versions of the program. After which you can immediately launch the Gaia interface.
Low-level system components are not included here and, for example, the camera and many applications will not work. This minimal build is intended to familiarize you with the user interface.
You can also install a complete assembly of all Gaia components, which includes a special SDK for creating and testing Firefox OS applications. Let's look at this process at Linux example. To do this, run the following commands:
Git clone git://github.com/Mozilla-b2g/gaia make -C gaia profile
As a result, a Gaia directory will appear in your home folder, where first the Gaia components will be downloaded, and then the SDK for developers. In total, about 600 megabytes of data will be downloaded. After unpacking the archives, the Gaia catalog was about one and a half gigabytes in size.
Next, download the latest b2g build for Linux from the Mozilla FTP server, unpack and run the b2g executable file, passing it the profile of the previously installed Gaia environment as a parameter.
Path_to/b2g -profile gaia/profile
Mikhail ASTAPCHIK