MicroB

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Discontinued mobile web browser

title: "MicroB" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["mozilla", "discontinued-mobile-web-browsers", "embedded-linux"] description: "Discontinued mobile web browser" topic_path: "technology/web" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroB" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Discontinued mobile web browser ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox Software"]

Field	Value
name	MicroB
logo	Microblogo.png
logo size	250px
screenshot	Microbos2008.png
screenshot size	250px
caption	MicroB on Maemo 4
developer	Nokia's maemo project
latest_release_version	1.0.4
latest_release_date
operating_system	Maemo
discontinued	yes
genre	Mobile browser
license	Proprietary EULA
Engine under MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license
website
::

MicroB was a mobile web browser developed by Nokia for use in smartphones and mobile devices that run the Maemo operating system. The browser is Mozilla-based and uses the Gecko layout engine.

It is shipped with Nokia's N800, N810 and N900 Internet Tablets, and is also available for the 770 via the 'Hacker Editions' of the operating system. In place of Mozilla's XUL-based user interface, MicroB uses the Maemo-native (GTK-based) Hildon API and widgets.

History

MicroB was initially released as a public beta for Internet Tablet OS 2007 on July 17, 2007 to allow third-party developers and community members to develop and port plugins, and help shape the development of the browser. It was updated several times before it replaced Opera as Internet Tablet OS's default browser with the release of Internet Tablet OS 2008 on November 18, 2007 with the N810.

Architecture

MicroB is Mozilla-based and uses the Gecko engine, but a number of features are omitted due to platform-specific limitations. In particular, SVG support is disabled due to unacceptable performance, and XUL is not included to reduce size and decrease memory consumption. As XUL is not included, most Firefox plugins require porting and repackaging before they can be used with MicroB. In place of XUL, MicroB uses GTK and the Hildon UI toolkit to provide a native interface.

Add-ons

Add-ons usually need to be ported. The Maemo Browser Extras project is responsible for a large number of the available add-ons.

Some MicroB Plugins

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/MicroB_plugins.png" caption="MicroB Plugins"] ::

Adblock Plus
Adobe Flash 9 (bundled with Maemo)
Flashblock
Gears (partial functionality)
Greasemonkey – All scripts that work on the desktop version of Firefox work fine in MicroB, extending the capabilities of the browser and even replacing the need for some extensions which are not available for MicroB.
MPlayer plugin
Windows Media Player Stream and RealPlayer stream supports via the built-in Media player
WML browser

Notes

References

Mozilla based browser for maemo whitepaper

References

[http://browser.garage.maemo.org/news/1/ Mozilla based browser engine available for testing] MicroB beta announcement
[http://browser.garage.maemo.org/news/9/ MicroB ships as the official browser for IT OS 2008]
[http://browser.garage.maemo.org/docs/browser_paper.html#s4.2 MicroB whitepaper - 4.3 Supported web standards]
[http://browser.garage.maemo.org/docs/browser_paper.html#s2.2 MicroB whitepaper - 2.2 Browser User Interface]
[http://browser-extras.garage.maemo.org/ Browser Extras]
[http://browser-extras.garage.maemo.org/news/5/ Adblock Plus Plugin]
[http://browser-extras.garage.maemo.org/news/7/ Flashblock Plugin]
(March 2015)
[http://browser-extras.garage.maemo.org/5 Greasemonkey Plugin]{{dead link. (March 2015)
link. (March 15, 2008)
(March 2015)

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::