From: Testing For Dummies
Today we are going to focus on a great tool from Mozilla, Firefox mobile….on the desktop.
You may think it trivial, but unlike maps or YouTube, Google and other phone OS makers dont seem to update parts of the OS, such as the browser, with a lot of frequency. This leads to a somewhat consistent experience for users and devs, consistently good or consistently bad is unfortunately the issue.
Mozilla have created Firefox for desktop, which has significant market share, but on mobile it is not quite the case. A spotty support list and incomplete experience had plague Mozilla for a while, but recently they have hit back with a great new version, 10.
What is sometimes an issue though, is the fact that you have to use a phone, you may laugh at that statement, but there are many things you can do on a desktop outside of the browser, to help in testing. This is where Fennec proves very useful.
Fennec is essentially a desktop app that runs a mobile version of Firefox, with support for all mobile tools and addons. Network dependencies like caching, proxy and VPN are all possible by using a computer that is connected, in most cases, by a cable. By testing on such a computer, you now have the ability to test in a near real work situation. I know many will say, Safari with iOS user agent, but that has inconsistencies depending on the version you have.
All in all, Fennec is a great tool to use if you are wanting to test Firefox for mobile, but dont have a mobile.