Today's announcment that Verizon and Mozilla are joining the Linux Mobile Foundation (LiMo) is great news for the advancement of mobile Linux.

Having a major carrier like Verizon announce that they "will encourage its handset partners to use the OS even if it is not a part of LiMo" and that they will "make a big financial commitment by hiring people" signals great confidence in open platforms as the way forward.

My two most frustrating experiences with smart phone technology to date have been the clunky, closed operating systems that they (mostly) run and their terrible web browsers.

Finally getting Firefox on smart phones would be a great boost to their functionality and usefullness.

Several big carriers (T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Nextel) are already members of the other big mobile Linux effort - the Open Handset Alliance, or Google Android.

Mozilla has always had a great working relationship with Google.

Perhaps it's time for Google to join the LiMo Foundation...