Back in the 2010’s Mozilla released a Linux smartphone distribution called Firefox OS. Its basically the same concept of Google’s Chromebooks but for phones. With a minimal Linux based OS that based around its browser and all apps will be web based. I have a old Sony Xperia Z3 Compact that I replaced Android with B2G 2.6 (The open-source base, similar to Chromium OS for Chromebooks) A back in 2021 and trying to give it another shot. This build of the OS dates back to February 2016 so It is now 9 years old of the time of posting. Unlike what most phone have, being a android launcher that try’s to have most of the features. This is a true version of the OS that runs bare metal. I did post this on the Internet Archive back in 2021 to help others use this. There is a github posted by someone else that also contains other Xperia devices around the same time.
It booting up with the Spaceship loading screen & Lock screen:
Getting WiFi to work can be a challenge. Since it does not support modern WPA3 or newer WiFi speeds like 802.11ax. But I did successfully get it to connect.
The marketplace (the Firefox OS app store) has long been down and I am unaware of any third party archives existing.
It No longer loads most websites. But some do still work partly like Global News:
Most photos online are in newer file formats that did not exists at all or where very new when Firefox OS 2.6 came out (like .webp) and will not display in the web browser.
Local apps like calculator, gallery and calendar do still work:
