Fennec, the small-screen version of Firefox, is important for ultra mobile fans. Not just because its a small-screen, finger-optimised browser but because it has been chosen as one of the browser options (the other being Firefox 3) for Moblin 2, the latest version of the Intel-led core operating system for MIDs planned for first release in Spring 2009.
Fennec has support for add-ons but unfortunately, it doesn’t support the mainstream add-ons that are available for the Daddy of the pack, Firefox 3. Thank goodness people are starting to jump on board then because add-ons help a lot with individual tailoring, an important part of the ‘personal’ part of the UMPC equation. ReadWriteWeb reports that the URL Fixer add-on is now ready.
Exactly what the add-on does isn’t really as important as the signal it sends out to developers and adopters. Fennec is starting to gain traction and awareness amongst developers.
For more about the browser choices on Moblin check out this part of the Moblin website. While you’re there, don’t miss the clutter user interface demo video. Clutter is the new 3D-capable UI architecture that will replace Hildon. The demo looks fantastic. Oh, one more thing I noticed. It looks like they are working on open source hardware-driven video decoding based on libva APIs. In fact the whole Moblin project is looking far more organised than it was 6 months ago and there’s quite a few exciting things to check out on the site if you’re interested in Atom-based MIDs.
Remember though, Moblin 2 is for OEMs to brand and enhance. Its not an end-users distro.
November 8th, 2008 at 6:18 am
Even though moblin is for OEM I would imagine the linux drivers would make it into repositories fairly quickly. So even though I would not experience full moblin,
video decoding would be a huge step. It could really boost linux toleration from some especially if xp does not get its act together and get some good acceleration going.
I actually expect linux to develope into a more rebust system then xp. Unlike the past VIA cpus/ chipset I see there being considerable more interest and man power here. I guess it also helps that intel seems to be more open then VIA. Have not follow via recently but something about open source just does not seem to fly with Taiwan based companies. At least in the respect of openness and giving back. There are always the rumors of being more supportive of open source.
Side question. Any one know how VIA is handling open source these days. I would imagine that they may need all the help they can get and maybe begrudgingly going more open source friendly.
November 8th, 2008 at 10:05 am
I wonder if we’ll see Fennec on Ubuntu-UMPC too. Though, they might be continuing to head off on their own with Midbrowser, but I’d hate to see the duplicated effort. And Midbrowser has a few rough edges I’d like to see worked out.
Btw: I finally got Ubuntu-UMPC up and running on my Q1UP. Thanks for the demo you gave around that. I’m quite happy with it!
Though, I’m also looking forward to the Raeon Everun Digital Note that work just ordered for me… and this December there’s supposed to be a CTL 2go Tablet coming out (convertible tablet format netbook, with an Ubuntu option). Looks like the UMPC/Netbook market is finally giving me the options I like
November 8th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
this is written under Fennec 1.0alpha1
on windows xp tablet.
it seems quite good browser, very optimised for umpc with touchscreen ! great
testing still in progress
April 15th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
The style of writing is quite familiar to me. Did you write guest posts for other blogs?