In The organisation whose Firefox browser many of us are currently using, Mozilla, is currently working on a "complete, stand-alone operating system for the Web." The system is being called by the name of Boot to Gecko, or B2G, and it is being designed solely for mobile devices.
The crucial question is why is Mozilla so eager to jump into the mobile OS space, which already has so many large players? According to sources, the foundation wants to make sure that developers can build Web apps, in particular HTML5 apps, that are equal to native apps.
But the thing is that Googles Chrome OS has also been started with a similar lofty goal of turning Web apps into desktop apps. Chrome too has a similar open-source pedigree. However, Chrome is subject to business conflicts with Google's other operating system, Android, which is a huge commercial success, but is not as open as Chrome.
The beauty of the project, B2G, being envisaged by Mozilla is that it takes Chromes open source ideas to the mobile space. For instance, B2G will have ways for developers to get at phone functions like placing calls and taking pictures. The kernel is based on Android, at a very low level.
However, just creating the OS might not be enough, in order to succeed in the mobile environment, B2G will have to get some big commercial entity to adopt it. Perhaps we could see a long rumoured Facebook phone coming into existence. Perhaps there could be collaborations with the likes of Amazon.
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