back to article Mozilla unfurls first mobile Firefox

Mozilla has officially released the first mobile Firefox, a condensed version of the popular open-source browser that runs on Nokia's Maemo platform. Codenamed 'Fennec,' Firefox 1.0 for Maemo was previously available only as a beta. Mozilla calls this the first mobile web browser to accomodate add-ons - long a staple of the …

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  1. Wanda Lust
    Jobs Halo

    In the pan...

    'Mozilla removed support for an Adobe plug-in, saying it had "degraded the performance of the browser to the point where it didn't meet our standards."'

    So, if you're frugal with platform's CPU you don't want something hogging the cycles.

    Why doesn't Steve just tell us that's why the iP....s won't do it either?? Heck even my Atom N270 powered netbook stutters at flash.

    Well, it's obvious really: omnipotents don't see the need to explain.

    1. Nexox Enigma

      It's not cpu...

      The N900 already has a browser based on Mozilla code, and it supports flash just fine. It even runs adblock, jand it has for far longer than the N900 has been around. Granted adblock made my N810 so slow that I couldn't use it at all, but it would run. Now I just use a proxy that filters based on the adblock rulesets, and I've got the best of both worlds.

      Basically none of the other browsers I've tried on my N900 or N810 have been able to compare to MicroB, either on speed or touch interface usability, and Firefox is no exception/

    2. Bilgepipe
      Jobs Halo

      He did

      Steve DID say that - Flash is not on the iPhone because it's a buggy, poorly-written CPU hog. And now it's not on Mobile Firefox, either, and rightly so.

  2. Greg J Preece

    It is quite nice

    Got my grubby hands on an N900 in a Voda store and had a play - Fennec is rather spiffing, though, as you say, it didn't seem very happy with Flash.

  3. Slappy
    Stop

    Oh sweet

    was the first thing through my mind when i saw the headline, then I read the article.

    (I really must stop doing that, it leads to disappointment)

    Damnit, no good for my viewty them :(

  4. GeorgeTuk

    Adobe are losing friends fast

    I remember the days when PDF and Flash were everything, now with open source stuff they are acting all Microsoft and getting lazy about the admittedly sizeable market share.

    By no means perfect but Silverlight showed that rivals can make some headway.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Silverlight - it doesn't matter what it is

      I think Silverlight got in because people, the majority... that are a bit "not clever", would install it regardless of whatever it is (even if its a virus, which is the main way people get infected).

  5. Skrrp
    Linux

    Amateurs

    I've been running Fennec on Android for quite some time now.

    Ubuntu + LXDE on the G1 and under Gnome now on the Nexus.

  6. will 26
    Linux

    microB better than firefox?

    Ive had an n900 for about a month now and the first thing I did was install the firefox beta. After using that for a while I wasn't impressed with the overall speed and initially blamed the hardware. Then after trying the built in browser (microB) I realised the it was just FF that was slow...fair enough it was beta. I was delighted to see the update a few days ago and it is definitely faster but microB still has the edge and seem to handle flash remarkably well. Bring on chrome mobile!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      N900 Browsers

      Have to agree ... the embedded browser is working nicely. Dropped Firefox on, but it is slow to start and slow to respond, as well as being difficult to manage. microB has it's own little quirks, but it is much more responsive.

    2. Higgsboson
      Pint

      MicroB uses the same Gecko core

      I also have a N900 and the embedded microB browser (IMO) shows that Fennec still has a way to go. The usefulness of the native browser really puts the n900 into netbook-replacement territory in my book.

      Also, you can install Adblock Plus onto microB. The process is not trivial (don't use the application manager), but the n900 really flies once it doesn't have to render flash banners all over the place.

      1. Tom Chiverton 1

        MicroB adblock plus install is trivial

        There is a package for it. Just Works. See http://maemo.org/downloads/product/Maemo5/adblock-plus-1.0/

        And of course you get Flash support in the built in browser, which runs perfectly well.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fennec far too slow to be useful

    I was delighted to find to-day that I could install Fennec on my N810. Firefox has been my only desktop browser since its inception and seems to do everything well. What a shock it was to find Fennec so disappointing! It is a 6.5MB installation and takes forever to boot up, sometimes it does not even start at all. Then of course there is the lack of Flash support which is completely ridiculous. Whatever you think of Adobe's products, the fact is that Flash has become a standard tool on websites and any browser needs to support it. Another problem I found was zooming. It is useful to be able to start with a full-width page view, but tap-twice to zoom in and immediately it is in tight close-up with only a few words visible. There needs to be a way to select intermediate zoom levels.

    So the end result was that having looked forward to being able to have this on my tablet, instead, after a couple of frustrating hours I removed it. Let us hope that further development will turn a good idea into a useable application.

    1. Greg J Preece
      FAIL

      I know, it's ridiculous!

      It's almost like it's not a finished version or something!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    How long have Mozilla been working on Fennec

    a couple of years at least?

    I tried a build on my windows mobile about 6 months ago and it still failed to start. Doesn't sound like they've made any progress at all, when the only platform they've managed to complete it for is 2 Nokia handsets I think the should give up and focus on what they do best... the desktop.

  9. Alan_Peery

    That's the Nokia N900

    Not the "N990" as typo'd in the article.

    It's a wonderful device, with full multi-tasking, a high res screen, and much more(http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/). There's a good wiki of detailed information at http://wiki.maemo.org, and a very active community at http://talk.maemo.org. In the community there is a lot of impatience, as the software doesn't *currently* use the hardware to full advantage.

    Having said that, my N900 has displaced my Nokia E71 and the iPlayer use on my iPod Touch, leaving only the Kindle and Read it Later apps and DRM media on the iPhone as significant reasons why I need to keep the iPod/iPhone device...

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