Mozilla (News – Alert) is best known for producing the Firefox Web browser. On February 23, 1998, Netscape Communications Corporation created a project called Mozilla. This was used after the original code name of the Netscape Navigator (News – Alert) browser which according to Pascal Finette, director of Mozilla Labs, is a hybrid of "Mosaic Killer." Within the first year, new community members from around the world had already contributed new functionality, enhanced existing features and became engaged in the management and planning of the project itself.

After several years of development, Mozilla 1.0, the first major version, was released in 2002. The first version featured a lot of improvements to the browser, e-mail client and other applications that were included in the suite. The original version of Firefox was named Phoenix.

In 2003, the Mozilla Foundation became an independent not-for-profit organization. Now Mozilla has developed Firefox into an Operating System for smartphones. Earlier this week, Mozilla announced new details concerning Firefox OS. This announcement came at the Mobile World Congress (News – Alert) 2013 in Barcelona. Mozilla is excited at the fact that 18 operators have committed to Firefox OS.

The word from Mozilla is that the Firefox OS offers the performance, personalization and price you want in a smartphone. It is a beautiful, clean, intuitive, personalized and easy-to-use experience. Firefox OS includes all the things people need from a smartphone out of the box

The goal is that every Web developer can easily create and distribute HTML5 apps. Currently, a first round of apps has been confirmed. Not surprising are the inclusion of Facebook and Twitter (News – Alert). You cannot have apps if they do not include games. So far, Cut the Rope, Where’s My Water, Where’s My Perry and games from EA are being offered. Some of the other offerings are Box (News – Alert), SoundCloud and AccuWeather. While this is a very small selection to begin with, Mozilla believes that most mobile apps are built with Web technologies at the core and then wrapped in a proprietary technology to distribute the app on a specific platform. In this case the platform would be Firefox OS.

The other announcement that Mozilla made was that Firefox OS would be available on a total of 18 carriers. According to Mozilla, the variety of operators backing Firefox OS demonstrates significant industry support for the platform. The first round of Firefox OS devices will be available to consumers in Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela.

The new Firefox smartphones are scheduled to be available, in the countries mentioned, sometime later this year.