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Installation/Setup of Firefox OS Simulator on PC/Mac | Run/Install Firefox OS apps on PC (Windows/Mac OS/Linux) through Firefox Emulator

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As soon as Intex and Spice had launched their new feature phones in the Indian Market , I wanted to purchase them for getting my hands on the new Firefox OS but at the same time their limited hardware refrained me from doing so.. hence, I started looking for Firefox OS Emulator for PC , and found that configuring the Firefox OS simulator for testing and checking Firefox OS is really quite Simple! So, in this tutorial I will cover all you need to do for Installation / Setup Firefox OS Simulator on PC , And let me tell you all we require is a Firefox browser for PC – So this tutorial will work for PC as well as Mac , practically any OS – Mac OS, Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora etc) ,Windows XP /7/8/9 all.. 🙂

Prerequisites –
Mozilla Firefox 33 (Can work on Previous versions too 26 and later, but its really quite simple to configure and use in 33).

So , let’s get Started –

Step 1. Installing Mozilla Firefox 33 on your Default OS

This will be our ‘base’ for running the Firefox OS Emulator/Simulator , at the time of writing this article Firefox 33 is in beta, but i have tested it and everything works simply fine! also i will update the links as soon as the Final version becomes available. So first let’s Download and install Firefox Browser 33 from these links according to the OS installed –

Download Firefox 33.0 Beta for Windows
Download Firefox 33.0 Beta for Linux
Download Firefox 33.0 Beta for Mac

Step 2. Navigating to the App Manager

App Manager is the one-stop destination for Coding  as well as testing Firefox Apps , its been launched from the Firefox Version 33, to Access Manager Perform the Steps below –
Go to Menu -> Developer -> in the list which appears select App Manager as shown in the alongside image –

 

Step 3. Adding a Device (Firefox OS Add-on)

  • Now after going to the App Manager , you will be greeted with a screen , showing apps and devices in the left pane . Here , select devices in the left pane and in the bottom pane click on the “Start Simulator” button as shown below –  Here, in the bottom pane , Click on the “Add” button (you can check the below figure for the add button ,The Firefox OS 1.3 shown in image won’t be visible to you, its shown in my image because i already have the device installed 🙂 for making the tutorial)

After clicking on the Add button you will be redirected to a webpage , there click on the “Install Simulator” button as shown below –

 After clicking on install Simulator , you will be redirected to the Version select page of App-Manager helper, asking you to select the version of Firefox OS you want to install , here select the Firefox OS version you would like to emulate, in my case i selected v 1.3 as it was the latest Stable release shown in the image below –

After selecting the OS version it will ask you to allow installation of Add-On , please select “Allow or Install Now”  to allow the installation of Add-On ., Now wait for sometime till the add-on gets installed.

Step 4 . Going to the App Manager after add-on installed , and running the Emulated device

  • After the installation of Add-On again navigate to the App Manager as mentioned in Step 2.
  • Now , go to Device in the left pane , Select “Start Simulator”  in the bottom pane , now you will see your device name – Firefox OS version in bottom pane alongside the Start Label .
  • Here, Simply click on the Firefox OS x.x (in my case it was Firefox OS  1.3) alongside Start label , to start the device and voila! the Device Emulation will be started and your device will appear in a new Window!

Step 5 . Done! 🙂

That’s it you have installed your own Firefox Emulator to run and Install Firefox OS , you can browse through the UI by swiping while pressing the left-mouse click , just as in Android Menu. also the deviee automatically takes the Internet Connection of your Computer, So you can start Installing and Running Firefox OS Apps, right through the Firefox App Marketplace present in the Emulated Device itself 🙂

Here’s a Screenshot of my Emulated device in action , its in-built Music app,automatically detected Songs from my PC’s Music library and i was able to play them from the device itself – 🙂

 You may also like to install WhatsApp on the Firefox OS Simulator by reading this article

So, just play around and do tell us What you think about the OS, also if you have any problem in configuring/installing the Firefox OS Simulator feel free to comment 🙂

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