Fennec for Android arrives, a pre-alpha release

Written on April 28th, 2010 at 14:05 pm by shredder12

So, finally Fennec developers are ready to bring a pre-alpha release on Android. One of the developers, Vladimir, announced in a blog post that they are proud to bring a Fennec build usable by general Android users. This is the first time Firefox for Mobile, aka Fennec, will land on Android phones for general public and the developers are looking forward for a huge response and feedback.

Since, this is pre-alpha release, its going to be a little buggy. This build has been tested on only two Android phones by the developers - Google Nexus, Motorolla Droid, the two hottest Android devices. There are still a few important things that a user should be aware of prior to using it on his Android.

  • The application is designed to work on Android 2.0 or above, and likely an openGL ES 2.0 capable device.
  • Memory management is still an issue, the code is not optimized for low memory devices - Droid, where you may have some problems loading large pages.
  • It shouldn't hogg your processor but due to unknown bugs the device may freeze, requiring a restart.
  • Weblinks from other applicaitons won't open in Fennec, this feature will probably be enabled in the next release.
  • And, it is supposed to be installed in the internal memory, not on an external card.

For weave fans, there is an experimental build of WeaveSync that is compatible with this Fennec for Android. Go to the Mozilla labs weave page and download the experimental release.

Well, my job of informing all you Android users is done. You can find help for Installation, troubleshooting, feedback on the original post.

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