Mozilla’s mobile browser, Fennec, is currently in the alpha testing stages. This Browser will no doubt be one of the leading mobile browsers out there. One question that has been running through everyone’s mind is, will it eventually come to Android?
Fennec is said to be showing competitive JavaScript performance with Android and mobile Safari JavaScript, which also means in speed. There are also rumors that Fennec will eventually have voice control. Finally the question we have all been asking for a while now, will Fennec ever be on the Android platform?
Mozilla’s Jay Sullivan said it will not be on Android, at least not until Google accepts programs that are not written in Java for Android. Android does not support applications that run directly on the operating system itself without the need to be written in Java. Sullivan says that Android is “interesting for us. We’ll have to see which direction Google goes with that.” We are a bit upset that there will be no Mobile version of Firefox on Android, at least in the foreseeable future. We want to know how you guys feel about it. Is Fennec that important to you?
[Via ABCNews]
Not that it's really that they've done anything wrong, either... It's just their MO to want things to be their way - even if it is "open source".
With open source even Mozilla can make an app for the android platform... and charge maybe something or even nothing at all... and google can't stop them...
the problem here really is Frennac doesn't want to make a app that uses java... like everyone else... they prefer to make it the way they want to on Android vs to make the app the way Android needs them to make it...
Why does it matter if it's in Java or not? Maybe if they have a proprietary software design and don't feel like developing the software to directly work on Android... well ya I can understand... but that's just being annoying...
If Mozilla knows there will be a lot of Android based phones out in the market.. they are better off making an app for Android like everyone else to get in on new platform available... rather than haggling and discrediting Google's intentions...
The fact is that the android platform market is so small and not allot of developers want to take the time and develop an application and not expose it as much as they can.
Android just needs to put it its time and soon enough we will see all the developers want to make applications for android.
The author of Smartgear on the WM also says that you must adhere to the Java layer or the program will not work in the current OS. That is why we will not see MAME, Smartgear or any other emu on the G1 anytiime soon.
Unless the OS is broken, and no company is going to do that.
Oh, another issue is that you have to press menu to do anything! Why no icons at the bottom? Once again this is a system wide annoyance for me.
P.S. The Android browser is ANYTHING but fast. I'll keep clinging tightly to my Opera Mini.
P.S. The Android browser is ANYTHING but fast. I'll keep clinging tightly to my Opera Mini.
As far as the laggy/buggy fennec browser is concerned, it really sucks on my n810. Bug city, but it's far faster than the default Maemo browser. It'll be nice once it irons out all the bugs.
P.S. The Android browser is ANYTHING but fast. I'll keep clinging tightly to my Opera Mini.
For some reason this thread appeared on my "recently updated threads list" and I posted without ever reading the date. Must have been a glitch with the forum.
Right now at Mozilla we're still in the early stages with looking at Fennec for Android. Since there's a new Native Development Kit that's available we've been looking into what it might take to bring up Fennec on Android. That work is going on right now.
Right now I don't think we're even close to being in a position where we can say either way that we're going to support Android. It's too early. But I can say that it's high on our list for probable support given it's strategic value.
The out of the box Android browser renders pages OK but it's not very inspiring in terms of its functionality or how it helps users. Simply put - it's an only OK web browser. There's a huge opportunity there to improve over it and if we do decide to go that path it will probably be a full Fennec release - add-ons, working weave integration, awsomebar, tile system, full Gecko support, etc.
So stay tuned. When we start down that path we'll probably be transparent about it. (We're an open source project - it's not easy for us to keep secrets!)