
Firefox OS on Android Devices - ndesaulniers
https://people.mozilla.org/~fdesre/b2gdroid/
======
davidbanham
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_soni
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
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.

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drzaiusapelord
> 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.

~~~
fabrice_d
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](https://etherpad.mozilla.org/b2gdroid)
!

~~~
castell
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.

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capnhooke
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?

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_davidd_
It does this now in Android M

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

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on_and_off
yep, only for the app drawer and I don't think that this new drawer design is
final (or at least I hope so).

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bentcorner
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.

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

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

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teekert
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.

~~~
MacsHeadroom
>I'd love to switch but... Whatsapp...

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

See also: [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/whatsapp-
alternatives-f...](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/whatsapp-alternatives-
firefox-os)

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746F7475
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"

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Yoric
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.

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mdwrigh2
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...](https://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-
central/source/widget/gonk/libui/) is pretty much all taken from Android.

~~~
zz1
Gonk being the Linux level of Firefox OS, the parent comment is right.

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kllrnohj
No, because Linux is a kernel and Gonk is more than a kernel.

Parent is both technically incorrect as well as semantically incorrect.
FirefoxOS uses a large amount of Google-written Android code.

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

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throwaway41597
Look for the original Android settings app on the launch screen and do the
regular uninstall from the application list.

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

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

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

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

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darklajid
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
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.

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pjmlp
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.

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oblio
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.

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SamReidHughes
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.

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Yoric
Well, Firefox OS is about two things.

For users, it is about building a platform in which users are not locked to a
proprietary silo, and are not spied upon by default.

For carriers and hardware vendors, it is about building a platform that is not
100% controlled by Google. Recall that Google can decide to revoke Android
license from any vendor on arbitrary grounds, and if you lose your Android
license, you pretty much lose everything (no AGPS, no Google Maps, no Google
Play, etc.)

Oh, and yes, it's also a third thing: it's designed to be a cool platform for
[web]developers.

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anon1385
>For users, it is about building a platform in which users are not locked to a
proprietary silo

How are they not locked into the 'silo' of FirefoxOS and the FirefoxOS APIs?
If the answer is that the apps are 100% web standards compliant then users
already have web browsers that can run those apps without needing to use
FirefoxOS, so what is the point of FirefoxOS for users?

>Recall that Google can decide to revoke Android license from any vendor on
arbitrary grounds, and if you lose your Android license, you pretty much lose
everything (no AGPS, no Google Maps, no Google Play, etc.)

While this is shitty, it still just leaves you pretty much in the same place
as FirefoxOS (being able to access (some of) those services through a web
browser rather than a native app). If a hardware vendor is worried about
losing the licence to use the native google maps app, why would they move to
FirefoxOS - a platform without a native google maps app?

The entire project seems more about politics and religion than an actual
business case. Which is fair enough, but isn't a recipe for commercial success
or market penetration.

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Touche
> How are they not locked into the 'silo' of FirefoxOS and the FirefoxOS APIs?
> If the answer is that the apps are 100% web standards compliant then users
> already have web browsers that can run those apps without needing to use
> FirefoxOS, so what is the point of FirefoxOS for users?

Because the other platforms don't support all of the standards developed by
FirefoxOS, and will have no incentive to implement them without competition.
Basic economics.

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TryToCatch
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

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annoying_tech
You could explain this a little bit more?

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TryToCatch
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-...](https://medium.com/@rakibtg/excuse-me-mozilla-do-not-impose-
it-e268fa94705)

