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Yes, you can run any browser you want on Linux.

WRONG. You can run any browser you want on Darwin. iOS uses the Darwin kernel, but you CANNOT run any browser engine under iOS.

Their point was that, deeper down, FFOS is running on Linux.

I have no idea why you brought Darwin into the conversation.

(S)he expressed it badly, but I think the point was fairly clear: just because the Linux kernel is open doesn't mean FirefoxOS allows you to run arbitrary native software, in the same way that Darwin[1] being open doesn't mean iOS allows you to run arbitrary native software.

[1] I'm not sure that the iOS version of Darwin actually is totally open source, but for the sake of argument I'm going to assume that enough of the code is available that you could cobble together a phone that runs Darwin and then run whatever software you wanted on it

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