back to article Imminent launch for mobile Firefox

The first mobile version of Firefox is days away from delivery, Mozilla project chiefs have told the BBC. Fennec will initially be ported to the Nokia's N900 phone, followed by releases for other handsets over an unspecified timescale. The open-source based mobile browser, which has been in development for the last 18 months, …

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  1. Jimmy Floyd

    Ah, "Fennec"

    I was about to ask why they didn't call it 'FlamePup' or something like that, but apparently the Fennec fox is the smallest of the species (or so says Wikipedia). So now you know.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Woo hoo!

    At last a potential competitor for Opera for Windows Mobile 6.5.... and a hopefully worthy replacement for the Internet Explorer too.

    One suggestion to developers - not sure if its a WinMo thing or Opera/IE - but when I close the screen can it kill the process?

    I just hope that the browser supports non-touchscreen phones as the last Opera release seems to only work for touch screen phones.

    1. B Weeks

      @Peter Flynn

      it's a WinMo thing, and there are already ways around it depending on the version of WinMo and your handset/operator. For example, I have an option on my HTC Touch HD to change the default behaviour of the close button to actually close the applcation (added by HTC's TouchFlo UI I believe).

      Google away!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    More like...

    "Apple is very restrictive." is an understatement, "Tight as a gnat's chuff" more like.

  4. Citizen Kaned

    hmm

    i hope its better than opera mobile. even the new one just suddenly hangs for no reason. and links suddenly stop working. this is on a 3g connection on a diamond2.

    1. Plasma
      FAIL

      The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

      I have the same trouble with Opera, on the TYTN II running an updated 6.5.3 ROM. It's just not reliable enough for day-to-day use.

    2. B Weeks

      @citizen kaned

      Isn't 'the new one' still a beta??

      Yes, it does hang, and I've found (on my touch HD on Orange) that the first time I go to any website I get a gateway error. Refreshing the link works and loads the page (without fail if I have signal) so it's defo a weird browser thing.

      All a bit odd, but lets remember that 'Beta 2' bit - it's not final code yet.

  5. Cameron Colley

    Ported to the N900 phone?

    Can't it just be ported by getting the latest source and running: make && install

    Or is the N900 not actually capable of running native Linux applications without a lot of pissing around after all?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      but the screen is smaller...

      hmm reasonable point , but me thinks mobile hardware will always need software optimised for it , because it's well smaller.

    2. shaolin cookie

      N900

      Just a compile of Linux Firefox would probably run on N900 but it would be slow and the UI would seem clumsy on a smallish touchscreen device.

      Hope the final version will be optified (installed under /opt), had to get rid of beta5 due to low disk space on /. It was slower than the version that comes with the phone too, guess that one is tweaked by Nokia?

  6. Jacqui Smith's DVD Collection!
    Thumb Up

    Hah!

    Good to see that iPhone will not be developed for yet, it would be a shame for an open source project this big to support such a tightly controlled and closed platform.

    I'm looking forward to the Android version. :D

  7. alistair millington
    Thumb Up

    I use skyfire on my WinMo

    It works fine for me.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Great

    another browser to have to code for - just what i need!

  9. Wile E. Veteran
    Thumb Up

    Blackberry?

    Any plans for a Blackberry version any time soon?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Minimo?

    Whatever happened to Mozilla Minimo?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yo

      Basically, Minimo was going down the wrong path. Mozilla figured it would be easier to just start over.

  11. Mark Simon

    Another Reason

    I love my iPhone, but it’s feeling very cramped. If Apple don’t open up sometime soon, the others will look more and more attactive.

  12. John Hughes
    Happy

    Safari raised expectations?

    "The modified version of Safari on Apple's iPhone has raised users' expectations of what to expect from web browsing on the move."

    What? By not having flash?

    ... come to think of it, maybe that is raising expectations... :-)

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