Mozilla is apparently working on a new project to build an operating system for mobile devices that utilizes applications primarily on the web. The project, called Boot to Gecko (B2G), is Mozilla’s attempt to build a “complete, standalone operating system for the open web.”
“Mozilla believes that the web can displace proprietary, single-vendor stacks for application development. To make open web technologies a better basis for future applications on mobile and desktop alike, we need to keep pushing the envelope of the web to include — and in places exceed — the capabilities of the competing stacks in question,” Mozilla stated in a wiki for B2G.
Currently, developers must re-write their applications to run on various mobile platforms. Mozilla’s idea is not to have apps run only in Firefox, but on the web. “We aren’t trying to have these native-grade apps just run on Firefox, we’re trying to have them run on the web,” Mozilla stated.
Mozilla will be using bits and pieces of Android’s kernel and drivers to make this happen. “We intend to use as little of Android as possible,” said Mike Shaver, one of the lead developers of the project.
“This project is in its infancy; some pieces of it are only captured in our heads today, others aren’t fully explored,” Mozilla stated.
Mozilla plans on working in the “open” buy releasing the source code in real-time. More on this as it develops.
