Peters: Announcing the Firefox OS Developer Preview Phone! [LWN.net]

On the hacks.mozilla.org blog, Stormy Peters announced developer preview phones for Firefox OS that should be available in early February. "Developer preview phones will help make the mobile web more accessible to more people. Developers are critical to the web and to Mozilla’s mission to make the web accessible to everyone. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide use Firefox to discover, experience and connect to the Web. A web based on open standards and open technologies." Specs on the two models are available in the post and comments, but details on ordering the phones are still in the works.

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one can only hope it's faster than Firefox for Android

Posted Jan 24, 2013 1:35 UTC (Thu) by HelloWorld (guest, #56129) [Link]

When I started using Firefox on my Android phone, it wasn't the fastest browser available, but it was tolerable. But it becamer slower and slower over the months, to the point where Android would offer me to kill it as it seemed to hang during startup. Unless they fix this kind of issue, nobody will want it. I switched to Opera Mobile since and I don't look back, even though I'd certainly prefer a free solution.

one can only hope it's faster than Firefox for Android

Posted Jan 24, 2013 2:55 UTC (Thu) by khc (subscriber, #45209) [Link]

I have the opposite experience, firefox on android seems to be getting faster since they released the original version (in fact, the original version was so bad that I immediately uninstalled it). I now use it as my primary browser. It's not always as fast as the built-in browser or chrome, but firefox sync is nice enough that I am willing to overlook that (I have friends who use chrome everywhere for this same reason).

one can only hope it's faster than Firefox for Android

Posted Jan 31, 2013 16:35 UTC (Thu) by KaiRo (subscriber, #1987) [Link]

For one thing, Firefox on Android and Firefox OS arenconpletely different beasts, you can't really compare them. And the article here is about developer devices for FirefoxOS. :)

For the other, you probably tested the first variant of Firefox for Android that was available (which admittedly had a number of problems), while our mobile team has since rewritten Firefox for Android completely (well, not the web engine, but all the UI and Android logic) and that current variant is a completely different beast and praised by most that have tried it as the best browser for Android at this time. Give that current variant a try!

And, if you're not opposed to the idea that all mobile applications can be powered by HTML and JavaScript, then you surely should give FirefoxOS a try as well, maybe with one of those developer devices, once they're publicly available!