Firefox OS on Android Devices

https://people.mozilla.org/~fdesre/b2gdroid/

by ndesaulniers • 11 years ago

232 69 11 years ago

people.mozilla.org

It's a little slow on my Nexus 6, but really surprisingly usable.

The fact that this is even possible is pretty great. I've been getting more and more frustrated with Android lately, but being able to do things like this is still a really great feature.

Very neat way to get a feel for Firefox OS without the need for new hardware.

piyush_soni2• 11 years ago

Probably even slower on my Nexus 5, took some time to show up, and crashed as soon as I clicked on the top search bar. Agreed it's a great thing that we can do it, but I guess I'll have to wait for Firefox OS to become really polished.

sdalfakj• 11 years ago

I wouldn't hope too much. Firefox the browser crashes when I browse imgur on my Galaxy Nexus, so god knows what Firefox the OS will do.

drzaiusapelord• 11 years ago

let you use Gaia (the user interface of FirefoxOS) on your Android device, as an alternative homescreen.

So.. this is just a launcher? Not anything to do with actually running an OS, just pretty icons and such? Shame. I was really looking forward to some kind of dual-boot or co-exist setup. I guess FFOS is in the same place a lot of small and hobbyist projects are at - without the marketshare of android, you simple do not have drivers available for your platform and considering the closed nature of most SoC's, its impossible to write you own.

Its kinda sad that smartphones didnt evolve like PCs. Drivers and specs have become proprietary trade secrets and that hurts us all.

That said, a FFOS Android distro would be pretty nice, especially if it broke away from the Google world of google play services, play store, etc. Imagine CM but without all the suckitude. I could see that having a chance and the driver problem would be solved.

cpeterso3• 11 years ago

without the marketshare of android, you simple do not have drivers available for your platform

Firefox OS uses Android's kernel and userspace so it has just as many drivers as Android.

mkesper• 11 years ago

...as AOSP. That at least doesn't include special drivers (e.g. cameras, FM radio).

bsimpson• 11 years ago

I haven't played with it, but if I had to take a guess, it should be functionally equivalent to FFOS (for apps, anyway). The closest parallel may be the iOS Simulator - it gives you access to the iOS APIs on your Mac. This _should_ allow you to run FFOS apps on your Android device.

Since the userspace of FFOS all runs on web tech, if this has enough of the runtime to power the homescreen, it should be able to power the apps too.

nolanl• 11 years ago

You can dual-boot FXOS and Android using MultiROM. I wrote some instructions for Nexus 5 here: https://github.com/nolanlawson/nexus-5-triple-play#readme

fabrice_d• 11 years ago

Author of the project here. This is still very unpolished.

So... my goal with doing that is to lower the barrier to entry and get more people to try the Firefox OS user experience. Currently it needs some dedication (either getting a supported device, or flashing your existing one), and that's obviously preventing us to get mindshare, both from users and developers.

Having simply to install an android app is vastly simpler for many people that are just curious at first. Some things will always be a bit different in the android version compared to a full flash, but I expect that to be relatively minor. I'm trying to get as much meaningful OS integration, like opening links from android apps in our browser frames, bridging our Web Activities and Android Intents, etc.

Feedback welcome at https://etherpad.mozilla.org/b2gdroid !

castell• 11 years ago

Please make it an official Mozilla (sub) project and keep us updated with reoccurring news. Great work, it works really smooth on a highend smartphone, comparable to Android UI and iOS.

sliverstorm• 11 years ago

What value would FFOS really provide on a phone that was sold with Android? Is replicating the guts all that important, if Mozilla's innovations are elsewhere?

tofupup• 11 years ago

why ... as a current firefox os user ... can't wait to get back to andriod.

darklajid• 11 years ago

As a user of a ~$800 Android flagship phone I can't wait for the day that I can leave this to rot to use my Flame (or install FxOS on this device, but .. yeah. Exynos, the worst of the worst thing you can buy today. Don't do it. Never do it).

No use derailing the thread, this project is cool!

ionised• 11 years ago

Same. I'm really looking for an excuse to leave Android entirely and iOS isn't desirable for me either.

Firefox OS sounds ideal if it pans out well.

MacsHeadroom2• 11 years ago

As a current owner of the current top of the line iOS, Android, and FirefoxOS devices. I would LOVE to ditch Android and iOS for FirefoxOS on high-end android hardware.

Android shares more and more information with every app on your phone, with each update (ex. every app get your Google email address and all wifi networks, even with "no special permissions"). iOS is closed source and walled off. FirefoxOS is a refreshing change. For the first time there is a usable mobile OS that puts users in control of everything.

jharohit• 11 years ago

tried using on my LG G3. it's "runs" for now. But very slow and laggy at the moment,low res, etc.

chenzhekl• 11 years ago

The experience is really bad. slow and laggy on my Snapdragon 801.

bentcorner• 11 years ago

If anyone is interested in trying out Firefox OS, Multiboot is a great way to try it out (if your device is supported by multiboot). Truth be told, I don't know if running Firefox OS through multiboot has any caveats, but it worked for me when I tried it.

capnhooke• 11 years ago

One thing I really liked about this was the vertical scrolling of the home screen. I think it would be cool if Android did this with their home screens. That seems to be how we naturally read on our devices (webpages, news apps, email etc), so why should we have to horizontal swipe to change screens?

_davidd_• 11 years ago

It does this now in Android M

ChronosKey• 11 years ago

That's for the app drawer only isn't it?

hbosch• 11 years ago

One quibble: this interaction is for the All Apps drawer/card, not the home screen(s) a.k.a. "widget panels".

minusSeven• 11 years ago

I believe it is customizable by applying different themes.

the_mitsuhiko• 11 years ago

so why should we have to horizontal swipe to change screens?

Because you change screens and you don't scroll. As the swipe motion is over more than 80% of the screen that would not work from top to bottom, only scrolling feels natural.

Bjartr• 11 years ago

You can definitely get vertically scrolling launchers on Android.

piyush_soni2• 11 years ago

And Android M has a vertical app drawer by default.

gcb02• 11 years ago

install fdroid, and then install ver1 of adw. launcher

you can also install v2 from the app store but one looks better.

you can have vertical scroll with or without snapping

gcb02• 11 years ago

forgot to add: ironically, my fireOS phone scrolls sideways just like android... sigh

amolgupta• 11 years ago

Did not work on Nexus 5 with M-Preview build.

pjmlp• 11 years ago

From the technical point of view, it is a cool project.

From the business point of view, I don't see any value over the existing options.

oblio• 11 years ago

From a business point of view Firefox didn't make much sense either.

After all, we had Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera as perfectly viable browsers.

arm• 11 years ago

Firefox existed before Safari.

Aissen• 11 years ago

I'm pretty sure Firefox predates Safari:

https://www.google.com/search?q=firefox+launch+date

https://www.google.com/search?q=safari+launch+date

rplnt• 11 years ago

Opera was still paid at that time.

M8• 11 years ago

And still doesn't. Who could expect Google to start funding Mozilla?

SamReidHughes2• 11 years ago

Firefox made sense from a business point of view (in the sense of making something people want, never mind its search bar money) because it had a lot of features that IE lacked, such as tabbed browsing, not being the primary target for hacking, and its cross-platform support. Those are reasons people actually used Firefox.

Firefox OS doesn't make sense the same way, because they aren't making anything that people want. As far as I can tell, it's a way for Mozillans to testify their faith in JavaScript.

josefresco• 11 years ago

History lesson from an old guy: Firefox was born out of a stagnating IE (MS was pissed about the whole DOJ saga) and a bloated Netscape. Opera was a fun/weird side project (it used to fit on a floppy!) but Firefox was literally born in the dark ages of browser development to serve a clear need(s): lean, fast, modern.

Once could argue this same "need" exists for smartphone OS's. However, not so easy to swap those out, in contrast to Firefox which was an easy switch for most.

TryToCatch2• 11 years ago

at 2015 firefox aka mozilla is a waste of time and a good way to waste productivity and firefox os is one of the great example. they made open source a business and they use it .. bad ass

annoying_tech• 11 years ago

You could explain this a little bit more?

TryToCatch2• 11 years ago

in less: "Firefox is like: share about us, talk about us, contribute us, do anything for us because we are the real guy of open-web, social, secure, fast, faster, fastest, open-source …." copied from this post https://medium.com/@rakibtg/excuse-me-mozilla-do-not-impose-...

teekert• 11 years ago

Nice way to get a feel but it is very laggy on my MotoG gen 1. I'd love to switch but... Whatsapp... Yeah, I hate it but it is THE thing among my friends. Same thing goes for Ubuntu Phone. Definitely a shame multibooting is not easier then it is now.

MacsHeadroom2• 11 years ago

I'd love to switch but... Whatsapp...

Good news, there's a FirefoxOS app for that. http://www.connecta2.im/

746F7475• 11 years ago

So is Firefox OS just Android fork? Because if not then this isn't as much "Firefox OS on Android" as it is "Firefox OS like home screen for Android"

Yoric3• 11 years ago

No, Firefox OS is built on top of the same Linux kernel as Android, and can use the same drivers as Android, but that's pretty much the only common stuff.

mdwrigh22• 11 years ago

Last time I looked, Gonk used a significant amount of Android code as well that wasn't drivers[1]. That being said, they are fairly significantly different at a few levels.

[1] https://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/widget/gonk/l... is pretty much all taken from Android.

wodenokoto• 11 years ago

The way that I understand it is, that since Firefox OS literally runs on Firefox, you really only need to install Firefox in order to run the OS.

So in this case you are running Firefox OS on Firefox on Android. That is obviously not ideal, but fine for testing.

alexnewman• 11 years ago

I love firefox on my phone. This is unusable on my 1 + 1

trendroid2• 11 years ago

I enjoyed the experience but now I want to get rid of it. How do I uninstall it?

throwaway41597• 11 years ago

Look for the original Android settings app on the launch screen and do the regular uninstall from the application list.

trendroid2• 11 years ago

I was looking for b2gdroid when I wrote my question. Forgot that the app is called 'Fennec fabric' for some god knows what reason.

Firefox OS on Android Devices

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