Mozilla believes that the web can displace proprietary, single-vendor stacks for application development. To that end, some time ago, Mozilla started a project called Boot to Gecko (B2G) to pursue the goal of building a complete, standalone operating system for the open web. The B2G roadmap was recently updated and shows that they are on track to to demo a product some time in mid to late 2012.
This is a further step on a journey that has been happening for some time now, i.e the commoditization of the operating system. The operating system is no longer an important part of the total solution. For Linux distributions, the message is clear. It no longer really matters whether it is Ubuntu, Red Hat, CentOS, SUSE Linux, etc.
A new platform is emerging – the web-based operating system. According to Mozilla:
A truly Web-based OS for mobile phones and tablets would enable the ultimate in user choice and developer opportunity, both from a technology and an ecosystem point of view. Boot to Gecko is a project to build a OS that runs HTML5, JavaScript and CSS directly on device hardware without the need for an intermediate OS layer. The system will include a rich user experience, new APIs that expose the power of modern mobile phones through simple JavaScript interfaces; a privilege model to safely and consistently deliver these capabilities to websites and apps with the user in control. Boot to Gecko leverages BrowserID, the Open Web app ecosystem and an identity and apps model that puts users and developers in control.
Clearly the movers and shakers within the Linux ecosystem understand this. As a result, a lot more importance is being placed on the desktop environment running on top of a given Linux distribution than the distro itself. Hence Unity, GNOME Shell, Cinnamon and more.
It will be interesting to see where this all ends up. Who the winners and losers are.
