Mozilla, the masters behind our favorite web browser, Firefox, has just announced that they are working on a new operating system for mobile phones and tablets, aptly named “Boot to Gecko”.
Yes, ANOTHER mobile operating system!
Wasn’t the tech blogosphere already up in arms over Android’s fragmentation? Let’s not forget the whole Nokia fiasco with Symbian and ditching it for Windows 7 because they couldn’t build an ecosystem fast enough for MeeGo to survive. And remember Lenovo’s Skylight OS?
According to Mozilla, the new operating system will borrow code from the lower levels of Android for hardware enablement purposes. It will build the application stack and user interface around Gecko, Firefox’s HTML rendering engine.
The purpose is to build an operating system that doesn’t use single-vendor application development stacks, rather harness the open Web’s robustness ‘a la Google Chrome.
It looks like Mozilla is looking to pick a fight with Google’s Chrome OS while using Chrome’s big brother, Android, to pin him down.
But the question still remains: Will manufacturers flock to Mozilla and snatch up their Google Chrome and Android love child, or will it go the way of MeeGo and Skylight?
What do you think?
