Mozilla Boot to Gecko project looks to build a better Web-based OS

Mozilla has introduced a new project, Boot to Gecko (B2G), that proposes to do what others before it have failed to: build a complete, standalone Web-based operating system that will let developers write an application once and have it run across multiple mobile operating systems.

HTML5, despite projections for major growth (MDP: Apple's HTML5 Favoritism Could Stamroll Flash) has "small gaps that needed filling," a group of developers explained on the MozillaWiki page, and so doesn't quite cut it. "We want to take a bigger step now," they explained, "and find the gaps that keep Web developers from being able to build apps that are — in every way — the equals of native apps built for the iPhone, Android, and WP7."

The group is using Android as a starting place, though it hopes to use as little of the OS as possible. And, they clarified, they don't just want the native-grade apps to run on Firefox — they want them to run across the whole of the Web.

The work will require a focus in four areas, the group details:

-- New web APIs: build prototype APIs for exposing device and OS capabilities to content (Telephony, SMS, Camera, USB, Bluetooth, NFC, etc.)

-- Privilege model: making sure that these new capabilities are safely exposed to pages and applications

-- Booting: prototype a low-level substrate for an Android-compatible device

-- Applications: choose and port or build apps to prove out and prioritize the power of the system.

The project is still in nascent stages. Introducing it before it's matured is part of a plan to good thinkers and good ideas to the project.

Mozilla's decision to publish the source code as it's developed, rather than waiting, Ars Technica reports, "could make the development process a lot more open and inclusive than the practices that Google uses for its Android operating system."

This is perhaps a bit ironic, given that Mozilla seems to be following advice from a head Googler — #16 employee Susan Wojcicki. In an article titled "The Eight Pillars of Innovation," in Google's new Think Quarterly publication, Wojcicki advises to "look for ideas everywhere," to "share everything," and to not be afraid of taking risks and making mistakes — "as long as you learn from your mistakes and correct them fast."

The Mozilla B2G group added to make open Web technologies a better basis for mobile and desktop apps, "we need to keep pushing the envelope of the web to include — and in places exceed — the capabilities of the competing stacks in question."