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Comment by mmaunder | Hacker News Reader

This runs a Linux kernel with some components in common with Android like libusb, so really linux is the operating system and there is a browser running on top of it.

Lots more info: https://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G

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Yes, the title is misleading. It should have read "an entire phone user interface implemented in a browser" which would have been more descriptive.

I love that the mozilla guys have done the legwork of figuring out what APIs were missing in order to do that. That is a nice piece of work.

It's more than a user interface though. It's a platform for Web applications that let those apps reach all the way down to the full capabilities of the hardware.

Perhaps we share a definition disconnect. Is X11 a platform for a user interface or is it a OS?

I lean to the former definition but I'll be the first to agree that I come from an earlier time. When 'windows' came out it really was a user interface on top of MS/PC-DOS (and it still is IMO) however now several generations of folks have been brought up saying that Windows was the OS.

I don't think recent versions of windows can realistically be thought of as a UI on top of MS/PC-DOS anymore.

Can any version that was built on NT?

Linux isn't an operating system, it's a kernel, the OS is Boot-to-Gecko, in the same way that Android is an OS with a Linux kernel.

You're right, in fact the Linux Kernel was used to minimize changes OEMs would have to make to support B2G. Also, Mozilla has been working with Qualcomm to make sure that B2G is optimized for their chips. It should be very interesting to see the potential market shift once B2G is released.

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