The Boot to Gecko project (B2G) being developed by the Mozilla Foundation is now ready to challenge Apple and Google’s dominance of mobile devices.
Mozilla Foundation is a not-for-profit entity that is the producer of the popular Firefox browser. Mozilla Foundation also has a tax-paying subsidiary called Mozilla Corporation.
B2G Firefox OS
B2G is a Linux based open source operating system (OS) for mobile devices. It is slated to be released this summer under the name Firefox OS. This is the culmination of the project announced by Dr. Andreas Gal on July 25, 2011 to make open Web technologies a foundation for future applications for mobile devices and desktop PCs alike.
When a B2G device is turned on, execution starts in the primary boot loader and then the process of loading the main operating system kernel happens in the traditional way, and finally the execution is handed off to the Linux kernel. Gecko refers to the application run time of B2G and consists of open standards for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Similarities And Differences From AOL
If you remember the fall of once mighty AOL, it is worth following the B2G project. It was the development of an open Internet that started AOL down the path of extinction. In the long-term, the B2G project has a similar potential against Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, but there are major obstacles and differences.
At its peak, AOL had over 30 million members. At the end of 2012, AOL had 2.8 million subscribers. In its heyday, AOL was a walled garden similar to the Apple of today. As the Internet evolved, consumers could log on directly through their cable provider or phone provider. Consumers also had a number of choices when it came to browsers. Consumers rebelled against the restrictive walled garden of AOL and left it in droves.
The Apple of today is far from an exact parallel of the AOL of yesterday, but there are similarities. Apple is very restrictive, just like AOL. The opportunities to customize are limited, not much different from AOL It was not long ago that the general belief was that Apple users would not leave Apple. There was a similar belief about AOL in 1990s. The belief about AOL proved wrong…Read more at Forbes
