Mozilla on Monday announced a new project called Boot to Gecko (B2G) to develop a Web-based open-source operating system that will eventually work on phones and tablets.

The Boot to Gecko (B2G) project will focus on building a "complete, standalone operating system for the open Web."

Mozilla with its mostly known Firefox browser will release the source code, Boot to Gecko in "real time."

"We will take all successful additions to an appropriate standards group, and we will track changes that come out of that process. We aren't trying to have these native-grade apps just run on Firefox, we're trying to have them run on the web," Andreas Gal, a Mozilla researcher said in a statement.

Mike Shaver, Mozilla's vice president of technical strategy, said that the Boot to Gecko apps won't use the Android SDK but instead they will use current-and-future Web APIs.

Shaver identifies four areas that required work:

First is New Web APIs, which means building "prototype APIs for exposing device and OS capabilities to content." This way the operating system would support mobile features such as telephony, SMS, cameras, USB, Bluetooth, and near-field chips.

Second is Privilege model, which makes sure that new features are "safely exposed to pages and applications," he said.

Third is booting which will include some low-level Android code for an Android-compatible device.

Fourth and the final area is of applications where it builds apps to prove out and prioritize the power of the system.

Shaver also said that the company is opting at Tegra 2 devices because Tegra 2 offers hardware acceleration of open audio and video formats.

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