Firefox for Mobile (Fennec) escapes in a rough Android port

It's slow, jerky, and may not even work on your Android device after installing the 41MB package. But it's FireFox for Mobile (aka, Fennec) on Android, brother, and isn't that worth the hassle? Based on our experience with it on the N900, the only gold platform at the moment, it most definitely is. MartinSchirr of Android Forums is credited with the port and it's your best option until the cats at Mozilla issues a formal Android release (currently in Pre-Alpha) later this year as expected. Check the video after the break if you want to experience it right now, mess free.

[Thanks, Will]

[ChrisSsk Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:04AM]

It seems people don't get that this is not an official Mozilla release, its a port, so its silly to compare it with anything

Even the Mozilla official releases for WinMo were alphas, they are the sort of thing that normally is only used by testing teams. The only reason these are out in public is because Mozilla is an open project.

[garythelegend Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:41AM]

This article needs more Miley Cyrus.

[JackBauer Posted Mar 31st 2010 9:00AM]

@garythelegend congratulations for being able to remember the exact spell of the girl's name.i always write "mylei circus"...

[JackBauer Posted Mar 31st 2010 9:00AM]

@garythelegend congratulations for being able to remember the exact spell of the girl's name. i always write "mylei circus"...

[MGS88 Posted Mar 31st 2010 6:36AM]

Teach them FF who is you as fast as you can

Love Mozilla

[pdspatrick Posted Mar 31st 2010 7:33AM]

@TheGM Look at his name: W7PS

[Troll feeder Posted Mar 31st 2010 8:30AM]

I like opera for android, it just doesn't have all the shortcuts and ease of use the stock browser has.
Maybe I'm just getting old.

[sashomasho Posted Mar 31st 2010 9:04AM]

so nice to see Firefox running on android... i hope it will be ready just before Adobe release flash for android, then I can install flashblock and pretend that nothing bad happened..

[willowtwf Posted Mar 31st 2010 10:24AM]

fennec + xmarks + ad block plus = win

[TareG Posted Mar 31st 2010 10:28AM]

The N900 currently offers the best possible mobile browsing experience on the planet. If Android will be getting the exact same experience, I'll stop asking for Chrome on Android... for a while.

Bring Chrome to Android already....

[christexaport Posted Mar 31st 2010 1:34PM]

@TareG
Fennec, aka Firefox Mobile, is available for the N900, but the default browser runs leaps and bounds around Fennec. It uses the same Mozilla Gecko rendering engine, supports full Flash, and Add-Ons.

If you think this is the browser that has N900 users in such bliss, think again. Most of us only download it to see if its caught up with the default browser. It only supports Flash for YouTube, while the N900's browser shows 99% of all Flash content, including music streams.

For everyone comparing Opera Mini to Fennec doesn't realize Fennec will support full hardware accelerated Flash when Flash 10 is released, and is a full desktop browser, supporting audio and video streams in its roadmap. Any Symbian user will tell you, Mini is for saving data at the expense of Flash, most video streams, and all audio streams. Mini is a junior browser more suited for feature phones or those on data plans metered by the mb.

[joshwindeel Posted Mar 31st 2010 1:02PM]

What battery meter is he using? That icon in the top bar looks pretty sweet

[Johnny Rockets Posted Mar 31st 2010 2:27PM]

What's the big deal about this? What features will be exclusive to this browser?

I'll probably stick with the Desire browser, which is miles ahead of any other browser, unless there are some features that are actually worth it on fennec?