Firefox in Marketplace

[gapost]

Ok, someone put a Firefox app in the Marketplace. Who's going to try it? No reviews so far and it's $1.99 without a trial.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/f2d0ea49-4c74-4733-afad-efd00cfe2fe8

 

[palandri]

I wonder how long that will stay up?

 

[ninjaap]

I wonder how long that will stay up?

Is there supposed to be restriction on 3rd party browsers? From the OP's link, I found a link to UC Browser, which has been out since Nov, 2011. I'm confused.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/6cda5651-56b9-48b0-8771-91dbc188f873

 

[palandri]

I thought there was a browser restriction. Maybe not. I know I saw Opera loaded on a Windows Phone, but it was a developers phone.

 

[ninjaap]

I thought there was too.

 

[thed]

I don't think there's a restriction on browsers, but you'd have to build it entirely in silverlight. Firefox has said they won't build a browser for WP until MS opens up native code for third party apps.

The version of Opera is real, but it's only for fully unlocked phones that can run native code (not dev or even interop unlocked phones). It pretty much requires a custom ROM to allow this. I doubt that this "Firefox" is anything more than a wrapper around the IE engine.

tl;dr - Don't buy this, it's not real.

 

[happynoodleboy]

It says in the description for the app that it uses the phones native browser so it is just a wrapper.

Sent from my HTC Trophy using Board Express

 

[palandri]

It says in the description for the app that it uses the phones native browser so it is just a wrapper.

Sent from my HTC Trophy using Board Express

That makes sense.

 

[johnmcd348]

Yeah, I wouldn't bother with it. FF made it clear a long time ago that they would not support WP due to Windows heavy control over the OS.

 

[ninjaap]

Yeah, I wouldn't bother with it. FF made it clear a long time ago that they would not support WP due to Windows heavy control over the OS.

Yet, now they are complaining that they can't get their browser into W8 ARM devices. Hypocrites.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I'm actually hoping to see Opera for Windows Phone. I used to use Firefox on my desktop, but it's gotten really slow and crashes. I'm running Opera as my default desktop browser and would love to use Opera on my L900.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

 

[palandri]

I'm actually hoping to see Opera for Windows Phone. I used to use Firefox on my desktop, but it's gotten really slow and crashes. I'm running Opera as my default desktop browser and would love to use Opera on my L900.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

Were you running Firefox on SuSE when it got slow?

 

[selfcreation]

Dint MS block the WB BRowser API meaning only IE works on WP.....
and if so this is just a IE app with a Firefox UI = FAKE!`

not worth the 2$ better off gettign surf cube..... unless they changed that and im wrong?

 

[rbrunner]

Technically, it would work

You are right, a true port of Firefox for WP7 is nowhere in sight and probably won't happen, ever.

But as far as I know, purely on technical grounds nothing would stop you writing an alternative browser for WP7. Problem is, you would have to write it in C#, just like all the other WP7 apps, which is of course quite hard.

For a true IE alternative, I think best chance would be to build a server-client combo, just like Opera Mini and its server hosted by the Opera company: The server does the really hard jobs of rendering HTML and executing Javascript, and the client on the phone just displays the whole stuff.

It seems that there is indeed a browser for WP7 that works that way, UC Browser:
[WP7] UC Browser 1.4 CN for Windows Phone 7 released - Other Mobile Browsers - UC FORUM - Powered by Discuz!

 

[Laura Knotek]

Firefox 12 is equally slow in openSUSE 12.1 and in Windows 7.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

 

[Duvi]

I'd never download that unless it was made by Mozilla or an approved (by Mozilla) 3rd party.

Then again, even then, I wouldn't as I never use the 3rd party browsers. If the built-in browser can't do what I want, then it can wait. With all the apps and websites being mobile compatible, I don't really see a need for FireFox or any 3rd party browser in mobile browsing.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I guess I like alternate mobile browsers just out of habit, since I don't care for IE in desktop Windows. I tend to like cross-platform browsers, not ones limited to a single OS.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

 

[Duvi]

I guess I like alternate mobile browsers just out of habit, since I don't care for IE in desktop Windows. I tend to like cross-platform browsers, not ones limited to a single OS.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

On the PC, I won't use any thing, but Chrome. Just hard for me to get used to a phone browser because when ever I click a link in an app, it will open the built-in browser. Only OS I guess I would be able to use a 3rd party is Android, which I dislike the platform altogether.

 

[Laura Knotek]

On the PC, I won't use any thing, but Chrome. Just hard for me to get used to a phone browser because when ever I click a link in an app, it will open the built-in browser. Only OS I guess I would be able to use a 3rd party is Android, which I dislike the platform altogether.

If not Opera on the PC, I'll run Chrome. I used to like Firefox until version 10. Everything since 10 has gotten slower, buggier, and more prone to crashing. Firefox is equally bad for me in Linux and Windows. Opera and Chrome run great in Linux and Windows.

It's funny because I dislike Android too, even though I'm a huge fan of Linux.

 

[jabtano]

Firefox 12 is equally slow in openSUSE 12.1 and in Windows 7.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

I agree with on my Linux box Firefox been very slow, not as slow as on my Win7 rig though. On my Win7 Rig ...I can't believe that I'm actually saying this but I've been using IE, and liking it. I'm going to try out Opera on the Linux box today.