Mozilla Launches Experimental Browser-Based Simulator For Firefox OS
Mozilla’s Firefox OS (also known as Boot to Gecko), a mobile operating system that focuses on web technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript, is quickly moving through its development stages. While it’s already possible to install Firefox OS on many phones, the Firefox OS team today launched its Firefox OS Simulator. The simulator, which is still considered “experimental,” is basically a Firefox add-on that should run on Windows, Mac and Linux (though there are currently some known issues with Linux and Windows XP).
Unlike other simulators, Mozilla notes, the Firefox OS Simulator doesn’t create a virtual computer. Instead, the add-on essentially brings B2G Desktop – the desktop version of the operating system – to the browser. Mozilla previously launched a B2G mobile simulator in October, but at the time, the project was still considered a highly experimental prototype.
Mozilla hopes to release version 1.0 of the simulator very soon (today’s release is version 0.7). The main goal the team hopes to achieve by version 1.0 is to “make it easy to run B2G and install apps that you’re working on into it.”
If you’re interested in developing for Firefox OS, also take a look at some of the latest posts about the project on Mozilla’s developer blog.