Mozilla announces B2G (Boot to Gecko) the First Open source Web based OS
Remember the browser wars of the 90s. I was excited then because the results would have been a OS free environment. Yes that’s correct. No operating system, just a browser. All apps would be browser based i.e. Google. Google was the first to offer web based apps. Google offers Cloud storage up to 90 Terabytes of storage. Microsoft now has web based Office and free storage called SKYDRIVE, but don’t’ expect free to last for long currently the first 25 gig is free. It is rumored that after that $10 a year for an extra 20 gig, $25 a year for extra 50 gig a year gig and $50 a year for an extra 100 Gig. . Google is now charging by the gig.
At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain, Mozilla (the father creator of all browsers.) has announced a new smart platform called “Boot to Gecko”. Started ub July 2011, They expected to use parts of android. Ultimately they didn’t have to. They admit that new OSes haven’t been very successful to Android, IOS Microsoft and Apple. but this is not an OS. It’s the Web, that’s right the web. Think about it. Developers don’t won’t or will not rewrite their apps for every platform out there. With a web based app, it doesn’t matter what platform you are on. It runs off of the web. Developers will no longer need the app stores. They can sell the web based apps directly to the user and keep the profits. I like that.
From a developer point of view this is heaven. Currently every time there is a revision, they have to burn a million Cd’s or DVD. Now, in order to get the updates to you all they have to do is update their web site. The next time you go to the web site you get the latest and greatest revision. Pirated copies also go away. On the downside they can license by the day, week, month or year. They can merely cut you off if you don’t pay. That’s something I brought up in the 90s but nobody listened to me.
The Web as an OS. Wow what an Idea. With HTML5 there have been additions to the specs to allow this to happen. It has even been added as a superset of the PDF spec. Even a way to access the phones radio to make calls.
Now for the cons. Web apps cannot tap into the phones processor directly, thus slowing down apps, Video can be captured but playback is processor intensive so it’s choppy. Games, well all of the calculations needed would be a problem. That’s not to say this cannot be worked out.
Mozilla feels Android is not a truly open platform. They have standards that are becoming increasingly strict. Look at the Kindle Fire, a version of Android just jor Amazon ( and Amazon apps).
“B2G or Boot to Gecko” is the first truly open Web platform. Click on the link to see the open specs.
Pictures of the New User Interface (UI) to follow (when released).
I can’t wait…... Click on this link to learn directly from Mozilla