We’ve already seen some consolidation in the browser space with Opera dropping its technology base and moving to Blink, Google’s fork of WebKit and the meat behind Chrome. Would Mozilla ever consider such a move for Firefox? Not right now, but the company is happy to use the best tools for the job, even if those tools come from Google.
Recently, Firefox senior VP Mark Mayo talked about Mozilla’s “Tofino”, a side project at Mozilla exploring new user interfaces and interactions. Interestingly, Mayo stated that its prototypes were made using Electron, a Chromium-based bootstrapper for creating desktop apps with web technologies:
For example, the prototype we’re feeling good about right now is built with Electron and React, not Gecko and XUL (our go-to technologies for building browsers).
Unfortunately for Mozilla, this was interpreted in some circles as the first steps towards dropping Firefox’s tech for Google’s, though if you read the post in full, this is clearly not the case.
Even so, Mayo felt the need to be more explicit about this particular point, and wrote the following amendment:
I should have been clearer that Project Tofino is wholly focused on UX explorations and not the technology platform. We are working with the Platform team on technology platform futures too, and we’re excited about the Gecko and Servo-based futures being discussed!
Honestly, it just sounds like developers using the best tools for the job. Of course Mozilla isn’t going to dump years of technology without careful consideration. That said, it’s not the best look for Mozilla that it can’t prototype effectively with the tools in its own shed, though hopefully Project Tofino will help with that, too.
[Medium, via gHacks]
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