The world’s worst-named operating system is gaining traction and a new name, say the people who named it in the first place. Firefox OS – originally “Boot to Gecko” (or B2G, for the somehow worse acronym-ified version) is an OS built to allow HTML 5 to access more of your phone, like that of native applications.
If that doesn’t really make sense, put it this way: if you thought Android featured an “open” ecosystem, Firefox was like “Oh, I'll show you an open ecosystem.” Either way, you probably won’t get your hands on the operating system for a while.
But that doesn’t mean you’ll never have a Firefox OS phone – the first devices have already been agreed to be built by Alcatel and ZTE and will feature Snapdragon processors.
Currently, Firefox has a list of carriers backing the OS (Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica and Telenor are all on board). Noticeably absent from that list are American carriers - we imagine even Sprint might be a foreign division.
Due to eliminating what Firefox is calling “middleware layers” – which we won’t even pretend to understand - Firefox may be able to offer an enticing option for low-end smartphones.
“As billions of users are expected to come online for the first time in the coming years, it is important to deliver a compelling smartphone experience that anyone can use,” said Gary Kovacs, CEO of Mozilla.
What do you think? Does the world need another mobile operating system?
Nic is the Editor of IGN Tech. He loves technology almost as much as The Shawshank Redemption, Boyz II Men, and Minesweeper. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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