Firefox OS has a grand ideal it is pursuing: to deliver an open sourced operating system powered by the web developer community. Mozilla is trying to promote and expand the scope of HTML5 and other open web technologies on mobile devices.

Generally speaking, ideals or principles are wonderful because they push work to aim for a higher goal. Practice doesn’t always live up to principles, though. And there are many constraints through the product development process that lead to compromises or trade-offs that undermine principle.

Firefox OS, unfortunately, has comprised too much.

Firefox OS feels like an experiment. You won’t find the polish of a refined product yet, and that’s okay. It hasn’t been released yet. But there’s something underwhelming about the experience.

Conceptually, everything is familiar. All of your notifications are available from a notification center, which is accessed by swiping down from the top of the display. You have apps, which are installed from a market place.

The apps lack consistency though. For the most part, the apps are merely bookmarks that link to a full web experience. Linking to a full web experience on mobile is bad experience. On rare occasions, an app will link to a responsive web app, which is ideal for mobile form factors.

Using the OS, I thought about the question of whether there should be a uniform or cohesive web experience. Design patterns help define consistency on the web, but applying patterns is left to the discretion of whoever is paying for the web app. Native apps, though, offer greater consistency than web apps and they’re easier to use and learn.

As for Firefox OS, the primary question being explored with this experiment is whether open web technologies can provide a computing experience at parity with native platforms. At this point it’s too early to tell. My gut tells me Javascript will eventually rule and the webtop will come to pass in 3 years. Yes. The webtop.