Boot to Gecko, the web without Windows
Based on Linux and other open source tools, this system is a Mozilla alternative to Chrome OS or Android, or Tizen. In fact it is based on the Gecko rendering engine that has all the interface elements needed to run an application online or locally.
Mozilla intends it more toward mobile devices, tablets and smartphones. The question that arises is: Does it help to make these devices a compact alternative to conventional desktop computers, for the ordinary user (not the gamer)?
The idea at the base of B2G is the same as that which inspired the creation of Google's ChromeOS: go from local applications, specific to a system, and we need to install on the computer, to web applications, independent of the system because operating in the browser and based on Web standards.
Although B2G provides an alternative to Chrome OS, it is not necessarily a competitor to Google, which finances the Mozilla Foundation, at least until 2014: while the search engine is installed by default on the system, it is rather a complement to Google.
B2G is a kind of operating system, a pair made of Linux with a set of APIs to form an interface between hardware, peripherals and applications. Linux is used to start the system which then relies entirely on the browser. According to the FAQ, it shares 95% of its code with Firefox.
B2G is like Android, but it's a different project and Android applications will not be supported, unless someone does a Dalvik port as was done for the Blackberry.
Unlike Webian (again according to the FAQ) which is an desktop designed for the Web, B2G Web applications will provide the same functions as local applications (especially full access to the file system).
Gecko is the essential part of the system, as the name implies: it plays a role similar to that of WinRT for Metro and provides the API to display the interface of the applications.
Which, according to the proposed concepts screens, is that of a mobile system.
From the tablet to the computer
B2G has apparently many competitors. To cite only systems based on Linux, there are Tizen, webOS, ChromeOS and Android, and more. Each of them has a highly developed framework, while B2G is still being defined. Android has hundreds of thousands of applications. To be convincing, therefore, B2G must offer something more.
But the goal is not to be a competitor, it is rather to inspire other browser vendors to mainstream functions of B2G and thus allow web applications to be a substitute for local applications.
He wants to play a similar role Chrome played vis-à-vis the browsers in inspiring and encouraging them to become platforms for Web applications. B2G just wants to go even further.
To answer the original question, B2G allows it tablets to replace desktops, yes, it's clearly its goal, to do that it offers to Web applications file functions, Bluetooth communication with devices and so ones.
Video: Demonstration of Boot2Gecko on a Samsung Galaxy S2
More
- Boot to Gecko, the official website.
- xPUD is a similar project which actually is a Linux distribution with a browser and which look like Chrome OS too, that is intented to netbooks.