Fennec Pre-Alpha Released

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://blog.mozilla.com/blassey/2009/02/10/fennec-milestone-release-for-windows-mobile/' target='_blank'>http://blog.mozilla.com/blassey/200...windows-mobile/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"This release is pre-alpha, and intended to get the product into the hands of early adopters in order to get feed back and bug reports. In order to focus our efforts on getting this release out, we have targeted only one device, the HTC Touch Pro. This has a number of user interface implications, including graphics designed for a 300 dpi screen, control layout intended for a vga screen and reliance on a hardware keyboard for text input."</em></p><p><a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile" target="_blank">Fennec</a> has reached a milestone release - a milestone of not-quite-ready-for-primetime-ness! But if you're psyched to try out this Mozilla project on your Windows Mobile device, feel free to enjoy it's pre-alpha goodness. Although be preparred for a bit of an experience with it - I'm already hearing reports that WinMo enthusiasts are giving up after taking a quick look this morning! Why even try it then? Well to summon the spirit of Brad, W?BIC!</p>

[paschott]

Downloaded, installed, killed the app. At this pre-alpha stage, it's just too slow to be effective on an actual WM device. I also never saw any graphics until I figured out how to get to the options/config screen. Lots of potential, but not worth trying to use as a browser at this point (at least for me).

-Peter

[Joel Crane]

I gave it a shot on my x51v running Windows Mobile 6.1, and it would not start. I still wanted to check it out, so I grabbed the Win32 version.

Using my mouse pointer in the place of a finger on a touchscreen, the UI worked very well. It's simple, big, and intuitive. It behaves exactly like a browser on a touchscreen should. I know this is a very unfair comparison because of the obvious hardware differences, but it was quick and responsive.

I'm hoping that we see an entertaining mobile browser war between Skyfire, Opera Mobile and Fennec!