An experimental release of the Capyloon operating system, built on the basis of web technologies and continuing the development of the Firefox OS platform and the B2G (Boot to Gecko) project, is presented. The project is being developed by Fabrice Desré, former leader of the Firefox OS team at Mozilla and chief architect of KaiOS Technologies, which develops KaiOS, a fork of Firefox OS. Among the main tasks of Capyloon is the provision of confidentiality and providing the user with the means to control the system and information. Capyloon is based on the gecko-b2g engine, forked from the KaiOS repository. The source texts of the project are distributed under the AGPLv3 license.
The first release is ready for use on PinePhone Pro, Librem 5 and Google Pixel 3a smartphones. Potentially, the platform can be used on the first PinePhone model, but the performance of this device may not be enough for comfortable work. The builds are available in packages for Debian, the Mobian environment (Debian's mobile variant), and in the form of an Android-based base system image. To install on Mobian and Debian, just install the proposed deb package and run the b2gos shell.
The environment can also be built for installation on mobile devices supported by the KaiOS platform, to run in an emulator, to be installed on top of Android-based firmware, and for use on desktop PCs and laptops shipped with Linux or macOS.
The environment is positioned as experimental, for example, some functions important for smartphones are not fully supported, such as access to telephony for making calls, sending SMS and exchanging data through a mobile operator, there is no ability to control sound channels, Bluetooth and GPS do not work. Partially implemented support for Wi-Fi.
Capyloon applications are built using the HTML5 stack and an extended Web API that allows web applications to access hardware, telephony, address book, and other system functions. Instead of providing access to a real file system, programs are confined within a virtual file system built using the IndexedDB API and isolated from the main system.
The user interface of the platform is also built on the basis of web technologies and is executed using the Gecko browser engine. There are own configurators for setting language, time, privacy, search engines and screen settings. Of the features specific to Capyloon, the use of the IPFS protocol for confidential data storage, support for the anonymous Tor network and the ability to connect plug-ins collected in the Web Assembly format are noted.
The package includes programs such as a web browser, a client for the Matrix instant messaging system, a terminal emulator, an address book, a phone call interface, a virtual keyboard, a file manager and a webcam application. Supports the creation of widgets and placement of shortcuts on the desktop.
Source: opennet.ru