The "browser" in Firefox OS is just another window. Since the whole OS is a browser, they don't have separate code for the browser app.
If you want another browser, you just have to write it up in HTML + JS, like every other app on the device.
If you want another browser, you just have to write it up in HTML + JS, like every other app on the device.
Except the browser.
Mozilla could build Firefox for iOS using the technologies available to other third party apps on iOS. They (rightly) don't think that is good enough because it means they can't build a browser that is competitive performance wise with the built in browser.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-14013_3-57573440/mozilla-says-no-p...
The sticking point for Mozilla is not being able to carry over its sophisticated rendering and javascript engines to iOS. Essentially, the organization doesn't feel like it can build the browser it wants to for Apple's platform, Sullivan told CNET.
Also, the reason you can't get good performance on a 3rd-party iOS browser is that Apple artificially restricts JIT to first-party apps.
Actually, Firefox on FirefoxOS is written in HTML + JS. Here's the source: https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia/tree/master/apps/browser
Sure, the HTML + JS runtime on FirefoxOS is Gecko, but that's an implementation detail. The browser itself, as users will experience it, is Just Another Webapp.
Except that it's NOT, because the core of the whole thing -- HTML + JS -- is native.
Apple does the same thing on iOS -- you can use UIWebView to render HTML/CSS, and to execute JS. Yet that wasn't good enough for Mozilla -- why?
Yeah, and Firefox doesn't allow native code execution at all either, so, also slow. Mozilla doesn't have the moral high-ground here, in that they're also creating two tiers of developer: Mozilla, and everyone else.
Now what?
I don't want to live in that two-tier world of web vendors and everyone else.
One issue is that Apple gives themselves a much faster version WebKit, but doesn't let anyone else use it. If you want to be a browser on iOS, you have to use an intentionally crippled engine.
Another is that Apple's iron grip on iOS is in direct opposition to the Mozilla Manifesto. Mozilla simply can't be a party to that platform without compromising its values.
That second issue is at the heart of FirefoxOS.
That's not true, Mozilla could build Firefox for iOS the way they want to, they just can't release it on the App Store. It's an imposed limitation, not a technical one.
As others have said, if you can compile WebKit with Emscripten you can build a WebKit-based browser for Firefox OS that gets 2x performance vs. native.
Besides, the OS is literally a browser. The only way to avoid having a default browser is to remove the little Firefox-branded app that opens a new gecko window. That doesn't seem to promote competition at all.
Not quite. They are encouraging apps that are based on HTML and Javascript, but as far as I can tell Firefox OS includes plenty of APIs that are not available on other platforms, and there are no plans to bring them to other platforms [1].
Yes this isn't necessarily the fault of Mozilla, they can't force Google/Apple/Microsoft/Opera/Nokia etc to add features to their browsers [2], but that of course is one of the problems of using the 'open' web as a platform for everything. Either you remain standards compliant with very limited features dictated by the glacial/gridlocked standards process, or you extend the standards even without the support of the other big players, resulting in apps that only work on one OS (although are perhaps easier to port, depending on exactly what is missing).
[1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebAPI I see plenty of grey "not currently planned for this platform" items in this list
[2] other than to release their own browser on those platforms, which brings us full circle… the most important thing is open platforms where anybody can write and distribute native software targeting them
On the very page you are commenting on as "grey" they explicitly mention that each API will be submitted to the W3C for standardization once they reach a point where it is suitable (ie it has an implementation demonstrating it).
Every single article I have seen about Firefox OS that includes comments from a dev has seen the dev explicitly call out that all the APIs they are creating will be submitted for standardization to allow the apps to run on any browser that supports these open standards.
Please, please either stop misrepresenting the intent of the Firefox OS team, or if you are honestly in error, do more research before attempting to speak authoritatively.
So basically, with Firefox OS, you're limited to using the Mozilla browser. Sounds like Firefox is trying to lock you into their standards, exactly what they're accusing Apple of doing with the webkit engine in iOS.
Android and Ubuntu Mobile look to be the only solutions that give me the flexibility I want in a phone OS.
Yes, the purpose of the project is to promote open standards for phone-oriented web apps.
"exactly what they're accusing Apple of doing with the webkit engine in iOS."
iOS is not an open system and does not promote open standards. The point of the FirefoxOS project is to make interoperable standards that will hopefully be supported by every future web browser.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/...