Jolla Releases Source Code For Sailfish Browser

Finnish smartphone manufacturer Jolla has released the source code for the Sailfish OS browser, making it the first internal application for the operating system to be open sourced.

The source code can be found in the GitHub version control system, meaning that from today, the Sailfish community can contribute improvements and make fixes to the browser, which is built on top of the Mozilla open source Gecko browser engine.

“We are very proud to announce this,” says Jolla’s co-founder Stefano Mosconi. “Our objective with the project is to make this the first step to get official support from Mozilla Corp. to a mobile browser based on Gecko and embedded in Qt.”

Sailfish browser

Jolla adds that it has been contributing to open source projects such as Mer and Nemo for a long time and that the philosophy of the company is to participate and contribute actively to open source communities.

The company was founded by a number of former Nokia alumni after the Lumia manufacturer abandoned the open source MeeGo platform in favour of Windows Phone. Its Sailfish OS is a continuation of the MeeGo project and boasts full compatibility with Android.

Its first smartphone, also called Jolla, went on sale in its native Finland late last year following a pre-order process that saw orders accepted from 136 different countries. A portal inviting early adopters to assist with the future development of the Sailfish OS platform has already been opened, with customers able to discuss and vote on which features they want to see included.

Sailfish OS is one of a number of open source mobile operating systems looking to make an impact on the smartphone market. Firefox OS, Tizen and Ubuntu Mobile are all at various stages of development, hoping to offer an alternative to the likes of Android, iOS and Windows Phone.

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