A Mozilla Desktop Environment?

Andreas writes "A discussion at the mozilla.dev.planning list has given the birth to the idea of a Mozilla Desktop Environment. This sure sounds like a possibility for Mozilla as it already has many of the applications needed; and the company is thoroughly familiar with XUL, which is a more-than-potent language upon which to build a desktop environment. By building a desktop environment Mozilla wouldn't have to worry about drivers (and such) and could choose from a variety of kernels, and still be in the center of attention. Mozilla has to expand some of the applications for this to work, though, like adding local file management with Firefox."

Comments

Oh no! Don't do it!

[HomelessInLaJolla]

Quote:

I'm only proposing that we make a desktop environment, the same thing that KDE and Gnome, are. I can understand the desire to make everything XUL from top to bottom but, unless they have completely fixed (not improved--fixed) all possible bugs in the browser, their efforts are better directed elsewhere. Unless they plan on replacing the X11 system then it would be better for the community (as a growing whole) for them to maintain a diverse and working relationship with the existing groups. Cross-pollinate--don't assimilate.

The only reason I mentioned a "Mozilla OS" is because we'd probably also want to release distributions for one of more specific kernels as a whole OS Most distros have Mozilla packages. Is this a proposition for another distro?

other applications built with the Mozilla platform available then. Currently there are plenty of kernels to put a Mozilla desktop environment on. That's really the point. Unless they plan on making a true MozillaOS, converting all the middle layers of the OS into a ROM chip, and putting MozOS in the boot sector then, again, the efforts of a project are best spent improving code, debugging, and interfacing with the other prominent community projects.

Maybe we need to remind ourselves of the trials, tribulations, and pitfalls of both cruft (old junk) and feature creep (glitz and glam just for the sake of glitz and glam are neat--but they don't make for a good project path until it's stabilized).

Don't bother clicking links...

[Anonymous Coward]

The link which masquerades as being informative is to the submitter's website. It is no more informative and filled with just as much random conjecture as the summary here. And you get the thrill of seeing ads.

The Google Groups link is a dozen or so messages from a handful of people. It's a thread of "I like XUL and I think this could be a neat idea but there's no special work being done on this."

This is an article about something being possible, a something which has been thought of a hundred times before.

Breaking news!!

Mezzo Desktop Environment & Symphony OS

[Gavin86]

I remember searching for such a Desktop Environment a year or two ago after experimenting with XUL, I ran across Symphony OS (http://www.symphonyos.com/) which uses the Mozilla platform for rendering and applications. It is called the "Mezzo Desktop Environment" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mezzo_%28desktop_env ironment%29), and is available in Debian package format.

I remember testing a live-cd of symphony about a year ago and it seemed pretty intriguing. I really liked the desktop interface.

But anyway, from what wikipedia says, the Mezzo Desktop Environment is an incomplete platform (whatever that means), and if it is correct there appears to be work unfinished. However, anyone interested in contributing might want to take a peek under the hood and see if that project can be helpful and exactly what is "incomplete" about it.