Firefox” redirects here. For other uses, see Firefox (disambiguation).
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox 2 running on Ubuntu, displaying the English Wikipedia main page
Maintainer: Mozilla Corporation / Mozilla Foundation
Stable release: 2.0.0.6 (July 30, 2007) [+/-]
Preview release: 3.0a7 (August 3, 2007) [+/-]
OS: Cross-platform
Available language(s): Multilingual,[1] EULA in English only[2]
Use: Web browser
License: Mozilla EULA for binary redistribution
Website: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
Firefox (category)
Mozilla
Foundation • Corporation
Community / Customization
Features • Extensions (category)
Spread Firefox • Adoption • Firemonger
Forks and Related Projects
Flock • GNU IceWeasel
Portable Edition • Netscape 9
Swiftfox • Swiftweasel
XeroBank
Origins and Lineage
Mozilla Application Suite
Netscape Communicator
Netscape Communications Corp.
The Book of Mozilla
This box: view • talk • edit
Mozilla Firefox is a graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation, and a large community of external contributors. Firefox, officially abbreviated as Fx or fx[3] and popularly abbreviated FF,[4] started as a fork of the Navigator browser component of the Mozilla Application Suite. Firefox has replaced the Mozilla Suite as the flagship product of the Mozilla project, under the direction of the Mozilla Foundation.
Mozilla Firefox is a cross-platform browser, providing support for various versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. However, the source code has been unofficially ported to other operating systems, including FreeBSD,[5] OS/2, Solaris, RISC OS,[6] SkyOS, BeOS and more recently, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.[7]
Firefox's source code is available under the terms of the Mozilla tri-license (MPL/GPL/LGPL) as free and open source software. The current stable release of Firefox is version 2.0.0.6, released on July 30, 2007.[8]
According to Market Share by Net Applications, 14.55% of the world's Web browsers used Firefox in June 2007, with 13.92% using version 1.5 or higher.[9]
History
Main article: History of Mozilla Firefox
Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross began working on the Firefox project as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project. They believed the commercial requirements of Netscape's sponsorship and developer-driven feature creep compromised the utility of the Mozilla browser.[10] To combat what they saw as the Mozilla Suite's software bloat, they created a pared-down browser, with which they intended to replace the Mozilla Suite. On April 3, 2003, the Mozilla Organization announced that they planned to change their focus from the Mozilla Suite to Firefox and Thunderbird.[11]
The Firefox project has undergone several name changes. Originally titled Phoenix, it was renamed because of trademark issues with Phoenix Technologies. The replacement name, Firebird, provoked an intense response from the Firebird free database software project.[12][13][14] In response, the Mozilla Foundation stated that the browser should always bear the name Mozilla Firebird to avoid confusion with the database software. Continuing pressure from the database server's development community forced another change; on February 9, 2004, Mozilla Firebird became Mozilla Firefox (Firefox for short).[15]
The Firefox project went through many versions before 1.0 was released on November 9, 2004. In addition to stability and security fixes, the Mozilla Foundation released its first major update to Firefox version 1.5 on November 29, 2005. On October 24, 2006, Mozilla released Firefox 2. This version includes updates to the tabbed browsing environment, the extensions manager, the GUI, and the find, search and software update engines; a new session restore feature; inline spell checking; and an anti-phishing feature which was implemented by Google as an extension[16][17] and later merged into the program itself.[18]
[edit]Features
Main article: Features of Mozilla Firefox
Features included with Firefox are tabbed browsing, spell checker, incremental find (via the Find toolbar), Live bookmarking, an integrated download manager, and a search system that includes Google. The user can customize Firefox with downloadable extensions, themes, and advanced preferences not present in the Options dialog that are accessible via the about:config page.[19] The developers of Firefox aimed to produce a browser that "just surfs the web"[20] and delivers the "best possible browsing experience to the widest possible set of people."[21] Firefox provides an environment for web developers in which they can use built-in tools or extensions. These include the built-in JavaScript Console and the DOM Inspector. One of the most popular features of Firefox is its support for add-ons. These include Themes for the browser, but also extensions like Source Editor, Grease Monkey, and IE Tab which make special tasks easier, and improve browsing experience.
[edit]Standards support
Firefox market share
by version
July, 2007[22]
Firefox Betas 0.02 %
Firefox 1.0 0.53 %
Firefox 1.5 1.43 %
Firefox 2 12.38 %
Total 14.36 %
Mozilla Firefox supports many software standards, including HTML, XML, XHTML, CSS, ECMAScript (JavaScript), DOM, MathML, DTD, XSLT, XPath, and PNG images with alpha transparency.[23] In addition Firefox supports the SVG standard, however what exists in the current stable version should only be treated as a "technology preview", as it is not a full implementation.[24] Firefox also supports standards proposals created by the WHATWG such as the offline storage[25][26] and canvas element.[27] Although Firefox 2 does not pass the Acid2 standards-compliance test, development builds of Firefox 3 do.[28]
[edit]Security
Firefox uses SSL/TLS to protect communications with web servers using strong cryptography when using the HTTPS protocol.[29] It uses a sandbox security model[30] and the developers use a "bug bounty" scheme, for finding fixes for some security[31] and feature additions. Official guidelines for handling security vulnerabilities discourage early disclosure of vulnerabilities so as not to give potential attackers an advantage in creating exploits.[32]
Because Firefox has fewer and less severe publicly known unpatched security vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer (see Comparison of web browsers), improved security is often cited as a reason to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox.[33][34][35][36] The Washington Post reports that exploit code for critical unpatched security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer was available for 284 days in 2006. In comparison, exploit code for critical security vulnerabilities in Firefox was available for 9 days before Mozilla shipped a patch to remedy the problem.[37]
A 2006 Symantec study showed that Firefox had surpassed other browsers in the number of vendor-confirmed vulnerabilities that year through September; these vulnerabilities were patched far more quickly than those found in other browsers.[38] Symantec later clarified their statement, saying that Firefox still had fewer security vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer, as counted by security researchers.[39] As of August 22, 2007, Firefox 2 has six security vulnerabilities unpatched, the most severe of which was rated "less critical" by Secunia.[40] Internet Explorer has ten security vulnerabilities unpatched, the most severe of which was rated "highly critical" by Secunia.[41]
[edit]Licensing
Firefox is free and open source software, and is tri-licensed under the Mozilla Public License (MPL), GNU General Public License (GPL), and the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). These licenses permit anyone to view, modify and/or redistribute the source code, and several publicly released applications have been built on it; for example, Netscape, Flock and Songbird make use of code from Firefox.
The official end-user builds of Firefox distributed from mozilla.com are licensed under the Mozilla EULA.[2] Several elements do not fall under the scope of the tri-license and have their use restricted by the EULA, including the trademarked Firefox name and artwork, and the proprietary Talkback crash reporter. Because of this and the clickwrap agreement included in the Windows version, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) consider these builds proprietary software.[42]
In the past, Firefox was licensed solely under the MPL,[43] which the FSF criticizes for being weak copyleft; the license permits, in limited ways, proprietary derivative works. Additionally, code under the MPL cannot legally be linked with code under the GPL or the LGPL.[44][45] To address these concerns, Mozilla re-licensed Firefox under the tri-license scheme of MPL, GPL, and LGPL. Since the re-licensing, developers have been free to choose the license under which they will receive the code, to suit their intended use: GPL or LGPL linking and derivative works when one of those licenses is chosen, or MPL use (including the possibility of proprietary derivative works) if they choose the MPL.[43]
[edit]Trademark and logo issues
The generic globe logo used when Firefox is compiled without the official branding
The name "Mozilla Firefox" is a registered trademark; along with the official Firefox logo, it may only be used under certain terms and conditions. Anyone may redistribute the official binaries in unmodified form and use the Firefox name and branding for such distribution, but restrictions are placed on distributions which modify the underlying source code.[46]
To allow distributions of the code without using the official branding, the Firefox source code contains a "branding switch". This switch allows the code to be compiled without the official logo and name, for example to produce a derivative work unencumbered by restrictions on the Firefox trademark (this is also often used for betas and alphas of future Firefox versions). In the unbranded compilation the trademarked logo and name are replaced with a freely distributable generic globe logo and the name of the release series from which the modified version was derived. The name "Deer Park" is used for derivatives of Firefox 1.5, "Bon Echo" for derivatives of Firefox 2.0, and "Gran Paradiso" is used for derivatives of Firefox 3.0.[citation needed]
Outside of certain exceptions made for "community editions", distributing modified versions of Firefox under the "Firefox" name requires explicit approval from Mozilla for the changes made to the underlying code, and requires the use of all of the official branding. For example, it is not permissible to use the name "Firefox" without also using the official logo. When the Debian project decided to stop using the official Firefox logo in 2006 (because of restrictions on its use incompatible with the project's guidelines), they were told by a representative of the Mozilla Foundation that this was not acceptable, and were asked to either comply with the published trademark guidelines or cease using the "Firefox" name in their distribution.[47] Ultimately, Debian switched to branding their modified version of Firefox "Iceweasel".
[edit]Advertising
The rapid adoption of Firefox, 100 million downloads in its first year of availability,[48] followed a series of aggressive marketing campaigns starting in 2004 with a series of events Blake Ross and Asa Dotzler called "marketing weeks".[49]
On September 12, 2004,[50] a marketing portal dubbed "Spread Firefox" (SFX) debuted along with the Firefox Preview Release, creating a centralized space for the discussion of various marketing techniques. The portal enhanced the "Get Firefox" button program, giving users "referrer points" as an incentive. The site lists the top 250 referrers. From time to time, the SFX team or SFX members launch marketing events organized at the Spread Firefox website.
The "World Firefox Day" campaign started on July 15, 2006[51] - the anniversary of the founding of the Mozilla Foundation - and ran until September 15, 2006. Participants registered themselves and a friend on the website for nomination to have their names displayed on the Firefox Friends Wall, a digital wall that will be displayed at the headquarters of the Mozilla Foundation.
[edit]Market adoption
Main article: Market adoption of Mozilla Firefox
See also: Usage share of web browsers
Usage share of Mozilla Firefox over time
Mozilla Firefox's marketshare has grown for each growth period since inception, mostly at the expense of Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer has seen a steady decline of its usage share since Firefox's release. According to Dutch web analytics firm OneStat, by July 2006, Firefox was the second-most widely used browser, with 12.93% of global usage share.[52] By March 2007, according to data made available by U.S. firm NetApplications, Firefox's market share had grown to 15.1% globally.[53]
Downloads have continued at an increasing rate since Firefox 1.0 was released in November 2004, and as of February 12, 2007 Firefox has been downloaded over 300 million times. This number does not include downloads using software updates or from third-party websites.[54] They do not represent a user count, as one download may be installed on many machines, or one person may download the software multiple times. According to Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker, Firefox had 75 to 100 million users as of May 2007.[55]
[edit]Critical reception
Forbes.com called Firefox the best browser in a 2004 commentary piece.[56] PC World named Firefox the "product of the year" in 2005 on their "100 Best Products of 2005" list.[57] After the release of Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7 in 2006, PC World reviewed both and declared that Firefox was the better browser.[58] Which? Magazine named Firefox its Best Buy web browser.[59]
Internet Week ran an article in which many readers reported high memory usage in Firefox 1.5.[60] Mozilla developers said the higher memory use of Firefox 1.5 is at least partially an effect of the new fast backwards-and-forwards (FastBack) feature.[61] Other known causes of memory problems are malfunctioning extensions, such as Google Toolbar and some old versions of Adblock,[62] or plug-ins, such as older versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader.[63] When PC Magazine compared memory usage of Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer, they found that Firefox used approximately as much memory as the other browsers.[64] Tests performed by PC World and Zimbra indicate that Firefox 2 uses less memory than Internet Explorer 7.[58][65]
Like other browers, Firefox too has had a number of vulnerabilities that have affected its security, although according to CERT, not as many as Internet Explorer.
Softpedia notes that Firefox takes longer to start up than other browsers,[66] which was confirmed by browser speed tests. IE 6 also launches slightly faster than Firefox on Microsoft Windows since many of its components are built into Windows and are loaded during system startup. As a workaround for the issue, a preloader application was created that loads components of Firefox on startup, similar to Internet Explorer.[67] A feature of Windows Vista called SuperFetch does a similar task of preloading Firefox if its usage is high enough.
[edit]Relationship with Google
The Mozilla Corporation's relationship with Google[68][69] has been noted in the media, especially with regards to use of Firefox to provide revenues and data for Google. The release of the anti-phishing protection in Firefox 2 especially raised controversy.[70] Enabled by default, anti-phishing protection is based on a list that is updated about twice per hour and downloaded to the user's computer[71] from Google's server. The user cannot change the data provider within the GUI,[72] and is not informed who the default data provider is. The browser also sends Google's cookie with each request for update.[73] The "advanced" security feature of builds by the Mozilla Foundation activate an anti-phishing feature to provide live protection and, according to the Mozilla Wiki,[74] send each visited URL to Google.[75] The user must explicitly opt-in for this service, however. There are Internet privacy concerns surrounding how Google may use the data, even though Firefox's privacy policy states that Google may not use personal information for any purposes other than the anti-phishing protection feature.[71]
In 2005, the Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation had a combined revenue of US$52.9 million. Approximately 95 percent of this revenue[76] was related to their search engine relationships.[77]
[edit]Response from competition
Despite Firefox's gains on Internet Explorer, Microsoft's head of Australian operations, Steve Vamos, stated in late 2004 that he did not see Firefox as a threat and that there was not significant demand for the feature set of Firefox among Microsoft's users.[78]
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has used Firefox, but he has commented "so much software gets downloaded all the time, but do people actually use it?"[79] A Microsoft SEC filing on June 30, 2005 acknowledged that "competitors such as Mozilla offer software that competes with the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of our Windows operating system products."[80]
Despite the cold reception from Microsoft's top management, the Internet Explorer development team does have a healthy relationship with Mozilla. They meet regularly to discuss web standards such as validation certificates.[81] In 2005 Mozilla agreed to allow Microsoft to use its RSS logo in the interest of common graphical representation of the RSS feature.[82]
In August 2006, Microsoft offered to help Mozilla integrate Firefox with the then-forthcoming Windows Vista,[83] which Mozilla accepted.[84]
In October 2006, as congratulations for a successful ship of Firefox 2, the Internet Explorer 7 development team sent a cake to Mozilla.[85][86]
[edit]Future developments
This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future software.
The content may change as the software release approaches and more information becomes available.
According to the Firefox roadmap, future development will include version 3.0. Development on version 3.0, which will be based on Gecko 1.9, occurs simultaneously on the Mozilla trunk. Newer versions of Firefox will use the cairo graphics library as the rendering layer instead of the platform's native rendering engine.[87]
[edit]Version 3.0
The logo of Minefield development trunk builds
Minefield version 3.0a8pre running on Mac OS X.
The development name for Mozilla Firefox 3 is Gran Paradiso.[88] The precursory releases were codenamed "Minefield", as this was the name of the trunk builds. "Gran Paradiso" (trans. "Great Paradise"), like other Firefox development names, is an actual place; in this case the highest mountain group in the Graian Alps. With the release of version 3 alpha 1 on December 8, 2006, it adopted the "Gran Paradiso" codename.[89] A post on the Mozilla Wiki "Release Roadmap" from President of Products Christopher Beard suggests a release in November 2007.[90] A brokendown release plan can be seen here.
The largest change for Firefox 3 is the implementation of Gecko 1.9, an updated layout engine which uses cairo as a graphics backend, allowing for improved graphics performance and better consistency of look and feel on various operating systems. Because of cairo's lack of support for Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me, and because Microsoft decided to end support for Windows 98 and Windows Me on July 11, 2006, Firefox 3 will not run on those operating systems. Similarly, the Mac version of Firefox 3 will only run on Mac OS X 10.4 or higher,[91] but, unlike previous versions, will have a native Cocoa widget interface.[92]
The Gecko 1.9 layout engine will also make Firefox 3 the first official release of a Mozilla browser to pass the Acid2 test, a standards-compliance test for web-page rendering.
Firefox 3 will also include special native support for microformats,[93] as well as various features that were bumped from Firefox 2, such as the overhauled Places system for storing bookmarks and history in an SQLite backend.[94]
New Firefox 3 Download Manager on Windows XP.
There is also advanced ongoing work focused on further implementation of features from Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group or WHATWG specification.[95] In particular, support for the controversial[96][97] "ping"[98] attribute in
and HTML elements is implemented and enabled by default.[99] The only purpose of this additional attribute is tracking clicking on links.[98][99] LWN.net notes that "ping" has advantages over current click-tracking techniques because it can more reliably get the user to their intended destination and the user has the option of turning the "ping" feature off.[100] The development team has asked users to submit feature requests that they wish to be included in Firefox 3.[101]
As far as frontend changes go, Firefox will boast a brand-new redesigned download manager with built-in search. Also, a new plug-in manager is included in the add-ons menu.[102]
[edit]Version 4.0
On October 13, 2006, Brendan Eich, Mozilla's Chief Technology Officer, wrote about the plans for Mozilla 2.0, the platform on which Firefox 4.0 is likely to be based. These changes include improving and removing XPCOM APIs, switching to standard C++ features, just-in-time compilation with JavaScript 2 (known as the Tamarin project), and tool-time and runtime security checks.[103][104]
[edit]Discontinued versions
The following are the end of life dates for various versions of Firefox.
Firefox 1.0 reached its end of life in an announcement on April 12, 2006[105] with the release of version 1.0.8.
Firefox 1.5 was scheduled to reach its end of life on April 24, 2007, but on that day, an announcement was made pushing the date back a couple of weeks to mid-May 2007 in order to allow for a 1.5.0.12 release.[106]
[edit]Awards
Webware 100 winner, June 2007
PC World 100 Best Products of 2007, May 2007
PC Magazine Editors' Choice, October 2006
CNET Editors' Choice, October 2006
PC World's 100 Best Products of 2006, July 2006
PC Magazine Technical Excellence Award, Software and Development Tools category, January 2006
PC Magazine Best of the Year Award, December 27, 2005
PC Pro Real World Award, December 8, 2005
CNET Editors' Choice, November 2005
UK Usability Professionals' Association Award Best Software Application 2005, November 2005
Macworld Editor's Choice with a 4.5 Mice Rating, November 2005
Softpedia User’s Choice Award, September 2005
TUX 2005 Readers' Choice Award, September 2005
PC World Product of the Year, June 2005
Forbes Best of the Web, May 2005
PC Magazine Editor’s Choice Award, May 2005
its free: http://firefox-mozilla-3.com/
i hope this helps!!