If I was running the Fennec project, I’d be thinking carefully about accelerating development for more than just the Maemo platform too! Its not that Maemo is a dying OS (although at this point you could say that Maemo is already dead with the ‘old’ N810 being the only Maemo device on the market and very little news about any new devices based on Maemo 5) it’s that Fennec needs to position itself where the customers are in order to get brand recognition. Windows Mobile, due to the terrible built-in browser offering, is a great place to start. They need to do it fast though because Opera Mobile and Skyfire are fast becoming de-facto choices.
Mozilla released Alpha 1 of the Windows Mobile browser in May and last week set free the Alpha 2 version. People have already started testing and giving feedback. Clearly, Alpha 2 is a long way away from a full release (late 2009 timeframe would seem a reasonable estimate for full release, much later then the original plan) but it will be interesting to see if the development accelerates to meet the new range of powerful smartphones that are coming out. LG01, Omnia Pro, Touch Pro 2, Acer M900. They all reach into the same ‘mobile microblogging’ arena as the Nokia Tablet. [More info on the Omnia Pro a it later today]
For some information on how Fennec is performing on WIndows Mobile, check out Mobility Site. For information on the Maemo version, check out this thread on the Maemo.org forums. I won’t be trying it on my N810. I’m holding out for new Nokia Tablet hardware. (Please!)
June 29th, 2009 at 10:17 am
New article: Fennec. Beta 2 for Maemo. Alpha 2 for Windows Mobile http://cli.gs/Mht9r
June 29th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Chippy – I think you should try it on your n810 – it’s the first Fennec, that is actually usable on Nokia Tablet… I’m positively surprised, however Tear (WebKit-based browser for maemo) is still much faster.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:11 am
Fennec is VERY underwhelming. Opera 9.7 will easily rule windows mobile browsing.