An innovative and highly praised open source Web browser for Windows, Mac and Linux from the Mozilla project. Including a search box for Google and other major sites, the Firefox user interface was designed to be easily customizable by adding "extensions," such as a stock tracker, autofill and hundreds of others.
Quite an Impact
Introduced in 2004, Firefox received rave reviews and caused much notoriety. Within a few months, millions downloaded it, and by mid-2005, Firefox captured more than 10% of the Web browser market, a huge gain in such a short time. By 2009, it reached 20%. Many view it as a safer alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser, which is constantly being attacked.
Whether Firefox is safer because it was designed better than IE or simply because very few hackers have a quarrel with open source software, is an ongoing debate.
A Ghost from the Past
Firefox stems from the Netscape browser, which was soundly trumped by IE in the browser wars of the late 1990s, when Microsoft developed IE and gave it away for free. Netscape continued to evolve into a very large and somewhat bloated application, which was turned into the open source Mozilla project (see Mozilla).
Phoenix to Firebird to Firefox
In the early 2000s, the Gecko rendering engine was excised out of Mozilla and combined with the XUL user interface language to create a leaner, faster Mozilla browser. Renamed Phoenix, then Firebird, it finally gave birth as Firefox. For more information, visit www.mozilla.com. See Greasemonkey.
Firefox
Firefox provides many useful features; for example, it organizes Web viewing history by day (left window pane) and allows the user to keep pages visible as tabs (top red arrow), the latter known as "tabbed browsing." The bottom arrow points to a stock ticker, one of a myriad of extensions that can be added.
Quite an Impact
Introduced in 2004, Firefox received rave reviews and caused much notoriety. Within a few months, millions downloaded it, and by mid-2005, Firefox captured more than 10% of the Web browser market, a huge gain in such a short time. By 2009, it reached 20%. Many view it as a safer alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser, which is constantly being attacked.
Whether Firefox is safer because it was designed better than IE or simply because very few hackers have a quarrel with open source software, is an ongoing debate.
A Ghost from the Past
Firefox stems from the Netscape browser, which was soundly trumped by IE in the browser wars of the late 1990s, when Microsoft developed IE and gave it away for free. Netscape continued to evolve into a very large and somewhat bloated application, which was turned into the open source Mozilla project (see Mozilla).
Phoenix to Firebird to Firefox
In the early 2000s, the Gecko rendering engine was excised out of Mozilla and combined with the XUL user interface language to create a leaner, faster Mozilla browser. Renamed Phoenix, then Firebird, it finally gave birth as Firefox. For more information, visit www.mozilla.com. See Greasemonkey.
Firefox
Firefox provides many useful features; for example, it organizes Web viewing history by day (left window pane) and allows the user to keep pages visible as tabs (top red arrow), the latter known as "tabbed browsing." The bottom arrow points to a stock ticker, one of a myriad of extensions that can be added.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- February 2013 - The date when Firefox could pass Internet Explorer
- Mark this date in your diaries and on your calendars: February 2013. It's my best guess date based on the data I have for when Firefox's global market share will surpass that of Internet Explorer. by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
- Blog posts 2009-11-06
- Thunderbird 3: Near-final version due next week
- Thunderbird 3, an update to the email software Mozilla hopes will give it some of the advantages its Firefox browser has enjoyed, is due to arrive in near-final form next week. Thunderbird 3, an update to the email software Mozilla hopes will give it some of the advantages its...
- News items 2009-11-06
- Firefox, Chrome get quick fixes
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- News items 2009-11-06
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- Software downloads 2009-11-06
- Browser rivals to register official complaints about Microsoft's ballot screen proposal
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- Discussion threads 2009-11-05
- Mozilla Firefox 3.5.5 (Mac)
- Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured Web browser. Firefox includes pop-up blocking, tab-browsing, integrated Google search, simplified privacy controls, a streamlined browser window that shows you more of the page than any other browser and a number of additional features that work with you to help you get the most...
- Software downloads 2009-11-05
- Mozilla Firefox 3.5.5 (Windows)
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- Software downloads 2009-11-05
- Flock 2.5.5 (Windows)
- Flock is an award-winning browser, built on Mozilla's Firefox technology and designed for the way we use the web today. With Flock, you can easily connect with friends, share with them, and receive updates effortlessly. The Flock browser is safe, free, and fun.
- Software downloads 2009-11-05
- Firefox 3.5 (Gallery: Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala)
- Re: Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic KoalaSome nice and welcomed touches but not enough on their own to get people to switch. - Especially me!I left the Ubuntu Family when upgrading to the next version failed on ALL levels! The biggest disaster was changing the repositories to point at the new version....
- Discussion threads 2009-11-04
- Real Clear Cookies 3.1.0.8 (Windows)
- Real Clear Cookies, a powerful cookies cleaner, allows you to clear all browser cookies from Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, or wipe cookies from a single website or domain name, all with the click of a button. Real Clear Cookies is much helpful if a website or forum has banned...
- Software downloads 2009-11-04
- Flock 2.5.5 (Mac)
- F Flock is an award-winning browser, built on Mozilla's Firefox technology and designed for the way we use the web today. With Flock, you can easily connect with friends, share with them, and receive updates effortlessly. The Flock browser is safe, free, and fun.Version 2.5.2 provides a faster, safer, and...
- Software downloads 2009-11-04
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- Real Clear History, a powerful computer evidence & web history cleaning tool, could clean all history of your computer use and web browsing easily and thoroughly. Many programs and web browsers record data including which programs you run, which videos you watch, and which websites you visit, etc. Use a...
- Software downloads 2009-11-04
- Google Wave: Has potential, but let loose too soon
- Open sourceKeep in mind that the code to developers is completely open source. If someone wants to make their own wave software or use the real time HTML 5 support for something else.Besides this is just a preview of the basics. Open to only 100,000 people, you can't expect much....
- Discussion threads 2009-11-03
- Chrome 4.0 gets beta release
- Just an observation -Google now joins those other browsers that seem to "borrow" some would say nick features of Opera, yet Opera remains, with a small seemingly never growing following. The addition of speed will end soon, as gains like this always meet their limits. When all of the...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-03
- News to know: Ruiz, Moffat resign; Microsoft; Psystar; Smartphones
- Here are today's notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily. For continuous updates see BNET's around-the-Web tech coverage.: Sam Diaz: Ruiz resigns as GlobalFoundries chairman; no mention of insider trading scandal Moffat no longer with IBM as...
- Blog posts 2009-11-03
- Bookdog 5.3.8 (Mac)
- Bookdog is the complete bookmarks manager for your Mac. Bookdog manages the bookmarks you have in Camino del.icio.us Firefox 1.5-2 Firefox 3 Google Bookmarks OmniWeb Opera Netscape Safari Shiira 2.0 or later Managing bookmarks includes: Sorting to your specifications Keeping them sorted, by its built-in...
- Software downloads 2009-11-03
- 1Password 3.0.0.BETA-83 (Mac)
- 1Password is a Password Manager that uniquely brings you both Security and Convenience. It is the only program that provides Anti-Phishing protection and goes beyond password management by adding Web Form Filling and Automatic Strong Password Generation. All your confidential information, including passwords, identities, and credit cards, is kept in...
- Software downloads 2009-11-03
- Now Watching 1.9 (Windows)
- Now Watching uses MSN Messenger's "Show what I am listening to" to show what you are watching on Youtube and other video websites. Supported video websites are: Youtube / Google Video / MySpace TV. It supports Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and FireFox.
- Software downloads 2009-11-03
- 5 quick Microsoft Entourage keyboard shortcuts
- Mac users: If you're used to managing your schedule and contacts with Outlook, switching to Microsoft Entourage isn't familiar. Your mail and calendar software should be quick and simple to use. Here are some quick tips that should save you some time and frustration: ...
- Blog posts 2009-11-02
- Google defines its focus in Apps in 2010
- Chrostopher: the need for detailed formatting as we know it is going away.Actually, the detailed formatting is moving to making it look like you want on computer screens, NOT on paper, which is quite different.All of those baroque features for printing on 8.5x11 paper are looking more stupid every day.Interesting...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-02
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