Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Mozilla has launched its Firefox OS. Naturally, the mobile community seems very curious to see just what this new OS will bring to the table, and developers are already building apps and testing it out as they have access to development devices like the Keon and Peak. But they're not the only ones who can use it. There's a simple way to get your own hands-on demo of the new mobile OS before it makes it to your Android mobile. We demonstrate you how to use the OS from within the Firefox browser itself.
Firefox OS is a Linux-based operating system for smartphones and tablets. It is designed to allow HTML5 applications to integrate directly with the device's hardware using Javascript, and it has been tested on Android-compatible smartphones and Raspberry Pi. You can get a feel of it by using a simulator on your desktop PC. The operating system is based on three major software layers within - Gonk (the Linux kernel), Gecko (the application runtime) and Gaia (the user interface). The desktop build is code-named Boot2Gecko(B2G). It is available on all major PC platforms Windows, Mac and Linux.
All you need to get the operating system running on your desktop PC is the Firefox browser extension and of course the browser itself. The procedure is similar to all operating system platforms. Let's get started.
STEP 1: Download and install Mozilla Firefox if you don't have it on your PC. The present version is 23 for Windows and you can download it by visiting http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
STEP 2: Next, you will need the simulator extension. Visit http://goo.gl/PlvNG and download the appropriate file for your operating system. The file is around 67 MB in size and will be downloaded with extension '.XPI'.
STEP 3: Download the file and save it to your desktop. Start Firefox and click on "Tools" and then on "Add-ons". In the tab that will now open up, click on the settings icon on the top right, beneath the search bar. Next, click on "Install Add-on from File". Browse to the desktop, select the .xpi file you just downloaded and click on "Open". In the next dialogue box, click on the "install" button; the Extension will be added in a few seconds. You can install add-ons using the drag-n-drop method too. Simply open Firefox, drag the .xpi file into browser window and Firefox will automatically install it. Restart Firefox if asked to.
STEP 4: That's it! Your system is now ready to stimulate Firefox OS within Firefox. Click on "Tools", then on "Web Developer" and finally on "Firefox OS Simulator". A new tab will open; there will be a simulator button on the left column and you'll see a highlight that it is currently stopped. Click on the icon to start it and a new window will pop up with the smartphone operating system running inside the simulator.
Have fun checking out the new OS and see what is new. you can play around with the user interface, see what the settings are like and even install new apps from the Marketplace.
Download Firefox Browser: Here
Download Firefox OS: Here
ALSO SEE: UPGRADE WINDOWS 7 TO WINDOWS 8
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