mozilla firefox



firefox

firefox

"Firefox" redirects here. For other uses, see Firefox (disambiguation).
Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox running under Windows XP displaying the Wikipedia main page
Maintainer: Mozilla Foundation / Mozilla Corporation
Stable release: 1.5.0.7  (September 14, 2006) +/-]
Preview release: 2.0 RC 2  (October 6, 2006) +/-]
OS: Cross-platform
Use: Web browser
License: MPL, MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license
Website: www.mozilla.com/firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a free, open source, cross-platform, graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation and hundreds of volunteers.[1] Beginning as a fork of the browser component (Navigator) of the Mozilla Application Suite, Firefox has since become the Mozilla Foundation's main development focus (along with the Thunderbird mail and news client), replacing the Mozilla Suite as the foundation's official main software release.

Before the November 9, 2004 1.0 release, Firefox had already gained acclaim from numerous media outlets, including Forbes[2] and the Wall Street Journal.[3] With over 25 million downloads in the 99 days after the initial 1.0 release, Firefox became one of the most downloaded free and open source applications, especially among home users.[4] On October 19, 2005, Firefox had its 100 millionth download, less than 1 year (just 344 days) after the release of version 1.0 (see Download count below). Firefox 1.5 was released on November 29, 2005, with more than 2 million downloads within the first 36 hours.[5] Firefox hit 200 million downloads in August 2006 according to the spreadfirefox website[6].

Firefox includes an integrated pop-up blocker, tabbed browsing, live bookmarks, support for open standards, a skinnable interface and an extension mechanism for adding functionality. Firefox has attracted attention as an alternative to other browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Apple Safari, which are included as standard browsers with versions of Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, respectively.

As of July 2006, estimates suggest that Firefox's usage share is around 12% of overall browser usage (see market adoption below), with its highest usage in Germany (about 39% as of July 2006).[7]

Contents

  • 1 History
  • 2 Future development
    • 2.1 Version 2.0
    • 2.2 Version 3.0
  • 3 Features
  • 4 Criticisms
    • 4.1 Missing features
    • 4.2 Compatibility
    • 4.3 Corporate deployment
    • 4.4 Political criticisms
    • 4.5 Performance
    • 4.6 Webpage rendition
  • 5 Market adoption
    • 5.1 Usage share
    • 5.2 Download count
    • 5.3 Spread Firefox campaigns
      • 5.3.1 World Firefox Day 2006
    • 5.4 Industry adoption
    • 5.5 Institutional adoption
  • 6 Portable versions
  • 7 Response from competition
  • 8 Footnotes
  • 9 References
  • 10 Books
  • 11 See also
  • 12 External links

History

For more details on this topic, see History of Mozilla Firefox.

The Mozilla Firefox web browser
About
  • Main article
  • History
  • Features
  • Criticisms
Community and Customization
  • Spread Firefox
  • Extensions (Main category)
Custom Distributions
  • Portable Edition
  • Flock
  • Torpark
  • Madfox
  • Swiftfox
  • IceWeasel
This box: view • talk • edit

Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross began working on the Firefox project as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project. They believed that the commercial requirements of Netscape's sponsorship and developer-driven feature creep compromised the utility of the Mozilla browser. 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 Foundation announced that they planned to change their focus from the Mozilla Suite to Firefox and Thunderbird.[8]

The Firefox project has gone through many name changes through its history. Originally titled Phoenix, it had to be renamed because of trademark issues Phoenix Technologies. The replacement name, Firebird, provoked mixed reactions, particularly since the free database software Firebird uses the same name. In late April 2003, the Mozilla Foundation stated that the browser should always bear the name Mozilla Firebird in order to avoid confusion with the database software. However, continuing pressure from the FLOSS community forced another change, and on February 9, 2004, Mozilla Firebird became Mozilla Firefox (or Firefox for short).

The Firefox project went through many versions before 1.0 was released on November 9, 2004. Aside from stability and security fixes, the Mozilla Foundation has as of October 2006 released one major update to Firefox - 1.5 on November 29, 2005.

Future development

This article or section contains information about beta software currently in development.
The content may change dramatically as the software development progresses.

According to the roadmap, future Firefox development will include version 2.0 and version 3.0. Development for version 2.0 will occur on the Gecko 1.8 branch from which version 1.5 was released, with the release starting the Gecko 1.8.1 branch, while development on version 3.0, which will be based on Gecko 1.9, occurs simultaneously on the Mozilla trunk. Mozilla is developing versions 2.0 and 3.0 simultaneously in order to ship front-end innovation in version 2.0 built on a more stable back-end, while completing major architectural and user interface changes for version 3.0.[9]

Goals for Firefox include changes to the tabbed browsing environment, enhancements to the extensions manager, enhancements to the GUI,[10] improvements to the find, search and software update engines; a greater level of accessibility, session and download restore, and new improved Anti-phishing features.[11] Newer versions of Firefox will use Cairo as the rendering layer instead of GDI+. [12] Mozilla Firefox 1.5 and future releases of Camino will also include the Java Embedding plugin,[13] which allow Mac OS X users to run Java applets with the latest 1.4 and 5.0 versions of Java (the default Java software shipped by Apple is not compatible with any browser, except its own Safari).

Version 2.0

Mozilla Firefox 2.0 Release Candidate 2 under Mac OS X Tiger
The redesigned "Add-ons" window in Firefox 2.0 under Ubuntu Linux

The code name for Mozilla Firefox 2.0 was Bon Echo, but for the official Beta 1 release it was branded with the Firefox 2 name. It still retains the Bon Echo name for the unofficial builds. "Bon Echo", like other Firefox development names, is the name of a public park, Bon Echo Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada.[14] The first alpha version (2.0a1) was released on March 21, 2006, the second alpha version (2.0a2) was released on May 12, 2006,[15] and the third alpha version (2.0a3) was released on May 27, 2006.[16] The first beta version (2.0b1) was released on July 12, 2006,[17] and the second beta (2.0b2) shipped on August 31, 2006.[18] The first release candidate was released on September 26, 2006. The second release candidate was released on October 6, 2006. A third release candidate is planned for October 17, 2006[19], and may become the final release if there are no major bugs found.

The alpha and beta releases are aimed primarily at the developer and testing community as there are still some bugs present. Some of the new features that the Mozilla Firefox 2 browser will bring are:

  • New Windows installer using the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS)
  • New anti-phishing features
  • There are now several hidden options for how the tabs are displayed, and the close behavior is slightly different
  • A history of recently closed tabs and the ability to reopen closed tabs
  • Automatic restoration of the user's browsing session if there is a crash
  • New default theme with new icons and a new tab bar design.[20]
  • Inline spell checking in text boxes and the ability to search in these areas.
  • Search suggestions now appear in the search box auto-complete for Google and Yahoo!
  • New search service that supports Sherlock and OpenSearch engines
  • Combining the extensions and themes managers into an "Add-ons" manager, updating it to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions.
  • New search plugin manager for removing and re-ordering search engines
  • Improved support for previewing and subscribing to Web feeds (RSS and Atom)
  • New microsummaries feature for bookmarks
  • Support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) text using svg:textPath
  • Client-side session and persistent storage

As of version 2.0 beta 2, the "Preferences" dialog has been redesigned for usability. Settings have been rearranged between tabs. In the Linux version, the traditional OK/Cancel button pair has been replaced with a single close button, GNOME-style, while in the Windows version, the old buttons have been preserved; this behavior can be customized in either version via the hidden browser.preferences.instantApply option.

Version 3.0

Mozilla Firefox (codename Minefield), version 3.0a1 (Alpha) running on Windows XP

The development name for Mozilla Firefox 3.0 is Gran Paradiso.[21] The precursory releases are currently codenamed "Minefield", as this is the name of the trunk releases. "Gran Paradiso", like other Firefox development names, is an actual place. "Gran Paradiso" is the name of a national park in Italy. When Firefox 3.0 branches, it will adopt the "Gran Paradiso" codename. The release timeframe for Firefox 3.0 is first quarter 2007.[22]

The largest change for Firefox 3 will be the implementation of Gecko 1.9, an updated layout engine. It will also include several new features and some that were bumped from Firefox 2, such as the overhauled Places system for storing bookmarks and history in an SQL backend.[23] Due to Microsoft's decision to end support for Windows 98 and Windows Me on July 11, 2006, and because Cairo does not support Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows NT 4.0, Firefox 3.0 will not run on those operating systems.[24][25] Unlike previous versions, Firefox 3 on Mac OS X will be written in Cocoa.

Features

Main article: Features of Mozilla Firefox
Firefox 1.5 on Mac OS X with the KDE theme

The developers of Firefox aim to produce a browser that "just works" for most casual users. User created Extensions and plugins can be installed to integrate with Firefox giving a wide range of choice for the end-user. The main features included with Firefox are tabbed browsing, incremental find, live bookmarking, a customizable download manager and a built-in Search toolbar. The user can customise their version of Firefox with downloadable extensions, a variety of different themes and skins, and many hidden preferences that are easily accessible to the advanced user.

Mozilla Firefox claims support for many software standards, including but not restricted to: HTML, XML, XHTML, CSS, ECMAScript (JavaScript), DOM, MathML, DTD, XSL, SVG, XPath and PNG images with variable transparency. Firefox release builds do not yet pass the Acid2 standards-compliance test. However, there are developmental versions of Firefox that currently pass the Acid2 test, and Firefox 3 is expected to pass Acid2.[26]

Mozilla Firefox is a multi-platform browser, providing support for various versions of Microsoft Windows, including 98, 98SE, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, and Server 2003. It also runs on Mac OS X, and the Linux-based operating systems using the X Window System. Although not officially released for certain operating systems, the freely available source code works for many other operating systems, including but not restricted to: FreeBSD [27], OS/2, Solaris, SkyOS, BeOS and more recently, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition [28].

Firefox also provides an environment in which web developers can use built in tools (from extensions). These include a Javascript Console, a DOM Inspector, Venkman JavaScript debugger, and an integrated development toolkit called Web Developer [29].

The fact that Firefox has fewer and less severe security vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer [30] is often cited as a reason to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox for improved security. [31] [32] [33] [34]

Firefox uses SSL/TLS to protect communications with web servers using strong cryptography. It also supports smartcards for secure login to web servers. It uses a sandbox security model and the developers use a "bug bounty" scheme, for finding fixes for some security and feature additions.

Criticisms

Main article: Criticisms of Mozilla Firefox

Criticisms of Firefox are made by users of other Web software, but are also made and contested by the Mozilla community and its own developers. Criticisms include complaints about speed, the features included by default, and how it renders web pages.

Missing features

Features that the Firefox developers believed would be used by a small number of its users have not been included in Firefox and left to be implemented as extensions.[35] PC World notes the difficulty a casual user would have in finding and installing extensions.[36] Furthermore, as most extensions are not supported by Mozilla, there is a possibility of vulnerable[37] or malicious[38] third party code.

Compatibility

Firefox complies with Internet standards more strictly than Internet Explorer[39]. While Firefox, like other browsers, has a quirks mode for compatibility with legacy IE versions, this mode isn't completely compatible.[40] Because of the differing rendering, PC World notes that a minority of pages do not work in Firefox.[36]

c|Net notes that Firefox does not support ActiveX controls by default, which can also cause webpages to be missing features or to not work at all in Firefox.[41] Mozilla made the decision to not support ActiveX due to potential security vulnerabilities, its proprietary nature and its lack of cross-platform compatibility.[42][43] There are methods of using ActiveX in Firefox such as via third party plugins but they do not work in all versions of Firefox or on all platforms.[44]

Corporate deployment

eWEEK states that Firefox is missing features such as deployment and customization tools that are useful for corporate deployment.[45] Mozilla responded to this criticism by releasing a client customization kit[46] and is planning to provide official Microsoft Installer (MSI) packages.[47]

Political criticisms

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) considers the official Firefox binaries released by Mozilla to not be free software because they include the proprietary crash reporter Talkback, have trademark restrictions, and force the user to accept a clickwrap agreement (the latter only applies to the Windows version).[48] Google and Mozilla developers are working on Airbag, an open-source replacement for Talkback, that will allow official Firefox builds to be entirely free of proprietary software.[49]

In the past, Firefox was licensed solely under the Mozilla Public License (MPL). [50] The FSF criticizes the MPL for being weak copyleft; the license permits, in limited ways, proprietary, derivative works. Code under the MPL also cannot be legally linked with code under the GNU General Public License (GPL) or the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).[51][52] To address these concerns, Mozilla tri-licensed Firefox under the MPL, GPL, and LGPL, which permits developers to use whichever license they wish in creating derivative works. The effect of the tri-licensing is that developers can legally link Firefox code with GPL or LGPL code, but still allows them to create proprietary, derivative works (though not both at once). [50]

In September 2006, a controversy relating to the proprietary licensing of portions of Firefox led to the creation of the free software alternative Iceweasel. Iceweasel is officially sponsored by GNU's Gnuzilla project. Iceweasel removes the proprietary plugins and artwork to make the software package acceptable to exclusively free software distributions.

Performance

Internet Week ran an article in which many readers reported anecdotes of high memory usage in Firefox 1.5.[53] Mozilla developers claim the higher memory use of Firefox 1.5 is sometimes at least partially an effect of the new fast backwards and forwards (FastBack) feature.[54] Other known causes of memory problems are misbehaving extensions, such as Google Toolbar and Adblock.[55] However, when PC Magazine compared memory usage of Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer, they found that Firefox seemed to use only about as much memory as the other browsers.[56]

Softpedia notes that Firefox takes longer to start up than other browsers[57] and browser speed tests confirm this to be the case.[58] Some note that Firefox takes longer to launch than other browsers such as Internet Explorer or Opera on Windows. Other Gecko-based browsers such as K-Meleon, which use platform-native user interface implementations, generally run faster than Firefox. IE also launches slightly faster than Firefox on Microsoft Windows since many of its components are built into Windows and are loaded at startup.[59] On Microsoft Windows, this can be addressed by using the open-source FFPreloader Utility.[60]

Webpage rendition

Users switching from Internet Explorer sometimes find that certain websites do not render as expected in Firefox. This, however, is rarely a Firefox-specific problem and is usually caused by the respective websites using code that does not adhere to W3C standards — such as code specific to Internet Explorer, utilizing ActiveX controls or VBScript scripts, which are both proprietary Microsoft technologies and are not W3C standards.

There is a Firefox extension called "IE Tab" that allows the Internet Explorer rendering engine to be embedded into Firefox on the Windows platform. This aims to solve rendering issues for those pages that use Microsoft specific technologies, but it puts the user at risk from vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer.[61]

Market adoption

Usage share of Mozilla Firefox over time
A graph of Firefox 1.x cumulative downloads in millions

Usage share

Statistics reference: Usage share of web browsers

Web-surfers have adopted Firefox rapidly, despite the dominance of Internet Explorer in the browser market. Internet Explorer has seen a steady decline of its usage share since Firefox's release. According to several sources (as listed in statistics reference), by July 2006, Firefox had around 12% of global usage share.

Europe, according to a study released by the firm XiTi on 2006-06-16, generally had higher percentages of Firefox use, with an average of 20%.[62]

Download count

Cumulative downloads have increased in a near-linear fashion since the time Firefox 1.0 was released in November 2004 until July 2006. In other words, the download rate has remained fairly stable. None of the Mozilla Foundation's previous product releases experienced that kind of growth.[63]

Downloads of Firefox 1.x since November 9, 2004
Date Number of days Downloads (millions)
November 10, 2004 1 1[64]
February 16, 2005 99 25[65]
April 29, 2005 171 50[66]
July 26, 2005 259 75[67]
October 19, 2005 344 100[68]
March 3, 2006 479 150[69]
July 31, 2006 629 200[70]

These download counts do not include downloads using software updates and downloads from third-party websites. The download counter is available as an RSS feed,[71] so that the Firefox download can be added on websites to keep track of the number of downloads in near-realtime.

It should be noted that a download count is not a user count, as a single download can be installed over many machines, or one person can download the software multiple times. Assuming that Firefox users browse about as many pages as the average Internet user, Firefox users make up about 120 million of the Internet's one billion users.[72]

Spread Firefox campaigns

Main article: Spread Firefox

The rapid adoption of Firefox apparently accelerated in part because of a series of aggressive marketing campaigns since 2004. For example, Blake Ross and Asa Dotzler organized a series of events dubbed "marketing week".

On September 14, 2004, 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.

World Firefox Day 2006

The World Firefox Day campaign started on July 15, 2006, which is the anniversary of the founding of the Mozilla Foundation, and ran until September 15, 2006. It involves people registering 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. An e-mail is sent to the nominated friend which provides a hyperlink to download Mozilla Firefox. If the friend accepts to download the program the nomination is accepted. The names will also appear in the source code of the next version of Mozilla Firefox, Firefox 2.0. The offer has ended since September 16, 2006. Currently, the World Firefox Day website contains a placeholder page with instructions how to view the names from Firefox 2.0.

The submitted names will be viewable from Firefox 2.0 by:

  1. Click the "About Mozilla Firefox" menu item from the Help menu. The "About" dialog appears.
  2. Click the "Credits" button.
  3. Click the "Friends" link that appears.
  4. The "World Firefox Day" website (http://www.worldfirefoxday.com/) will open.

Industry adoption

Since the pre-1.0 stages, several well-known websites and web applications, including Gmail, have supported (and in some cases, required) the use of Firefox. Since March 30, 2005, the Google search engine has utilized the link prefetching feature of Firefox for faster searching. Link prefetching involves a standards-compliant optimization technique that utilizes the browser's idle time to download or prefetch documents that the user might visit in the near future. Google, Inc. also recommends Firefox as the browser for its Blogger.com weblog service.[73] On May 18, 2005, eBay announced support for Firefox for its eBay Picture Manager.[74]

Search engine companies including Google, Yahoo! and A9.com now also offer Firefox extensions for accessing their services, in addition to their original Internet Explorer add-ons. Google has released four Extensions for Firefox,[75] further affirming the company's interest in Firefox.

Several commercialized versions of the Firefox browser have developed outside the not-for-profit Mozilla Foundation. The current version of Netscape, known as Netscape Browser or Netscape 8, combines the functionalities of Firefox and Internet Explorer. Flock plans to build enhancements for Firefox.[76] Firefox is used by the 3B browser, which browses the web as a 3D city of web sites or a 3D store.

According to a CNET article published on May 12, 2005,[77] about 30,000 of IBM's staff (about 10% of the total) already use Firefox. IBM encourages its employees to use Firefox as the company's standard web browser; support is provided by the company's help desk staff.

In December 2005, it was announced that Dell UK would start shipping the Firefox browser pre-installed on their PCs. [78]

Institutional adoption

During the FOSDEM 2005 conference, Tristan Nitot, president of Mozilla Europe, noted that Firefox has had more success in the consumer market than with institutions.[79] He also theorized that pressure from Microsoft caused institutions who had adopted Firefox to remain silent about it.

   
 I know companies that are deploying Firefox or Thunderbird, but they aren't talking about it as they don't want to see an increase in their [Microsoft] Office licence price.
   

Some observers, such as Serdar Yegulalp of TechTarget[80] and Jim Rapooza of eWEEK[81] note that Firefox does not provide tools that make institutional deployment easier, such as a client customization kit (which Mozilla has since released[82]), Microsoft Installer (MSI) packages. Furthermore, they note that Firefox does not support some technologies that may be required in an institional environment, such as ActiveX and Active Directory.

Portable versions

The logo and splash screen for the unofficial portable version of Firefox

Mozilla Firefox - Portable Edition[83] (also known as Firefox Portable) is a repackaged version of Firefox designed to run from a USB flash drive, iPod, external hard drive, or other portable media. The newest version can be run live from a CD. It arose out of a mozillaZine thread in June of 2004. John T. Haller released the first packaged version and has led its further development. It includes a specialized launcher that adjusts extensions and themes to work as it is moved between different computers. There is also a portable version of Firefox available for Macintosh computers called Portable Firefox OS X.[84]

Here is a full list of Firefox in portable app form:

  • Firefox Portable for Microsoft Windows and Wine on Linux/Unix[83]
  • Portable Firefox OS X for Mac OS X[84]
  • Cross-platform Portable Firefox for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows[85]
  • Firefox for U3 for U3 smart drives[86]
  • X-Firefox as part of WinPenPack (in Italian only)[87]

Response from competition

Despite Firefox's apparent gains on Internet Explorer, Microsoft's head of Australian operations, Steve Vamos, stated that he did not see Firefox as a threat and that there was not significant demand for the featureset of Firefox amongst Microsoft's users. Vamos stated that he himself never used it personally.[88] 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?"[89]

However, according to a Microsoft SEC Filing on June 30, 2005, it acknowledged that browsers such as Mozilla are competitive threats to Internet Explorer: "Competitors such as Mozilla offer software that competes with the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of our Windows operating system products."[90]

In August 2006, Microsoft made an offer to Mozilla to help integrate Firefox with the forthcoming Windows Vista,[91] which Mozilla accepted.[92].

Footnotes

  1. ^ Mozilla contributors list, Mozilla.org
  2. ^ Forbes, September 29, 2004.
  3. ^ Wall Street Journal, September 16, 2004. Walter Mossberg wrote: "I suggest dumping Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser, which has a history of security breaches. I recommend instead Mozilla Firefox, which is free at www.mozilla.org. It's not only more secure but also more modern and advanced, with tabbed browsing, which allows multiple pages to be open on one screen, and a better pop-up ad blocker than the belated one Microsoft recently added to IE."
  4. ^ Stross, New York Times. December 19, 2004. The article states that "With Firefox, open-source software moves from back-office obscurity to your home, and to your parents', too. (Your children in college are already using it.)"
  5. ^ Asa Dotzler - Firefox and more: more than two million
  6. ^ spreadfirefox
  7. ^ Global usage share Mozilla Firefox has increased. OneStat.com.
  8. ^ mozilla development roadmap. Retrieved on 2006-10-08.
  9. ^ 1.8 alpha 6 around the corner (December 26, 2004). Source: Asa Dotzler's weblog.
  10. ^ Firefox 2 Visual Update.. A page showing the various bits of visual update.
  11. ^ Mozilla Wiki.. A table that lists and links the intended features for Firefox 2.
  12. ^ Mozilla Cairo Vector Graphics.. A page describing the future usage of Cairo.
  13. ^ Mozilla to include Java Embedding plugin. MozillaZine.
  14. ^ Firefox2 - MozillaWiki. Retrieved on 2006-09-17.
  15. ^ Bon Echo Alpha 2 Milestone
  16. ^ Bon Echo Alpha 3 Milestone Released
  17. ^ Firefox 2 Beta 1 Milestone Released
  18. ^ Mozilla Firefox 2 Beta 2 Release Notes
  19. ^ [1]
  20. ^ Default Theme Update
  21. ^ Google Groups: mozilla.dev.planning. Retrieved on 2006-09-17.
  22. ^ Mozilla Release Roadmap.
  23. ^ http://wiki.mozilla.org/Places
  24. ^ Firefox 3.0 will not support Windows 98 or ME
  25. ^ Gecko 1.9 Roadmap - MozillaWiki. Retrieved on 2006-09-17.
  26. ^ Firefox Passes Acid2. TechSpot Weblog.
  27. ^ FreshPorts entry on Firefox. freshports.org.
  28. ^ Mozilla X86 website
  29. ^ Web Developer Site
  30. ^ Comparison of web browsers#Vulnerabilities Vulnerabilities. Comparison of web browser.
  31. ^ Time to Dump Internet Explorer. SecurityFocus.
  32. ^ CNET editors' reviewfor Mozilla Firefox. C|Net Reviews.
  33. ^ Are the Browser Wars Back?. Slate.
  34. ^ Switching from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox. mozilla.com.
  35. ^ Reasons to switch to the Mozilla Firefox browser [2]
  36. ^ a b First Look at Mozilla.org's Firefox. PC World. Retrieved on 2006-09-22.
  37. ^ Register Article on Greasemonkey Possible Malicious Attack[3]
  38. ^ Malicious toolbars and extensions try to hijack browsers. ars technica. Retrieved on 2006-09-22.
  39. ^ Web Browser Standard Support[4]
  40. ^ Mozilla's Bugzilla list of quirks mode bugs [5]
  41. ^ c|Net Reviews - Mozilla Firefox [6]
  42. ^ Mozilla.org Security Announcement [7]
  43. ^ Netscape Gecko Plugin Overview[8]
  44. ^ Plug-in For Hosting ActiveX Controls [9]
  45. ^ eWEEK Labs Review: Firefox 1.0. eWEEK. Retrieved on 2006-09-22.
  46. ^ Firefox 1.5 CCK (Client Customization Kit) Wizard. Retrieved on 2006-09-22.
  47. ^ Mozilla Bug 231062 - Provide Firefox MSI package. Retrieved on 2006-09-22.
  48. ^ Free Software Directory: Firefox [10]
  49. ^ Deploying the Airbag. BSBlog (Mozilla developer Benjamin Smedberg's weblog).
  50. ^ a b Mozilla Foundation MPL Relicensing FAQ [11]
  51. ^ Richard Stallman. On the Netscape Public License. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/netscape-npl.html
  52. ^ GNU comments on MPL [12]
  53. ^ Firefox 1.5: Not Ready For Prime Time? InternetWeek.
  54. ^ Bug 319262 - Significant memory leak. Mozilla.org Bugzilla.
  55. ^ Problematic Extensions. MozillaZine Knowledge Base.
  56. ^ Which New Browser Is Best: Firefox 2, Internet Explorer 7, or Opera 9?. PC Magazine.
  57. ^ Mozilla Firefox Review. Softpedia. Retrieved on 2006-09-22.
  58. ^ HowtoCreate.co.uk Browser Speed Comparisons [13]
  59. ^ http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html
  60. ^ http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffpreloader/
  61. ^ http://ietab.mozdev.org
  62. ^ http://www.xitimonitor.com/etudes/docs/XiTiMonitor-FirefoxSurvey-190606.pdf
  63. ^ Firefox and more: the graphs (part 1). Asa Dotzler's weblog.
  64. ^ 1,000,000+ downloads on day 1
  65. ^ firefox 25,000,000
  66. ^ celebrating 50 million firefox downloads
  67. ^ Firefox Exceeds 75 million Downloads
  68. ^ firefox hits one hundred million downloads
  69. ^ 150 million and counting!
  70. ^ Firefox 200 Million Downloads - what it means
  71. ^ http://feeds.spreadfirefox.com/downloads/firefox.xml
  72. ^ Internet Usage Statistics. Internet World Stats.
  73. ^ Where can I upgrade my browser? Blogger Help.
  74. ^ eBay Picture Manager Enhancements. eBay.
  75. ^ http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/extensions/index.html
  76. ^ Round Two looks to launch enhanced Firefox. MozillaNews.
  77. ^ http://news.com.com/IBM+backs+Firefox+in-house/2100-7344_3-5704750.html
  78. ^ Firefox shipping on Dell UK. blakeross.com.
  79. ^ Firefox sneaks into the enterprise. ZDNet UK.
  80. ^ Serdar Yegulalp. How to switch an enterprise from IE to Firefox. TechTarget. Retrieved on 2006-10-08.
  81. ^ Jim Rapooza. Mozilla Firefox 1.0. eWEEK. Retrieved on 2006-10-08.
  82. ^ Firefox 1.5 CCK (Client Customization Kit) Wizard. Retrieved on 2006-09-22.
  83. ^ a b http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable
  84. ^ a b http://www.freesmug.org/portableapps/firefox
  85. ^ http://www.theplaceforitall.com/portablefirefox/
  86. ^ http://software.u3.com/Product_Details.aspx?ProductId=89
  87. ^ WinPenPack - X-Software collection. Retrieved on 2006-09-17.
  88. ^ Microsoft: Firefox does not threaten IE's market share. ZDNet.
  89. ^ The assault on software giant Microsoft. BBC News.
  90. ^ Firefox a threat. MozillaZine.
  91. ^ http://news.com.com/Microsoft+reaches+out+to+Firefox+developers/2100-7344_3-6108221.html?tag=nl
  92. ^ http://news.com.com/Microsoft+offers+helping+hand+to+Firefox/2100-1032_3-6109455.html

References

  • Goodger, Ben (2004). Mozilla Firefox Development Charter. Retrieved on 2004-09-22.
  • Hesseldahl, Arik. "Better Browser Now the Best", Forbes, 2004-09-29.
  • Markham, Gervase. "Firefox Language Coverage", Hacking for Christ, 2004-11-30.
  • Mossberg, Walt. "How to Protect Yourself From Vandals, Viruses If You Use Windows", Wall Street Journal, 2004-09-16.
  • Schmidt, Jürgen. "Chrome-plated holes. Mozilla's security concept is not invincible", c't magazine, 2005-07-13. 14/2005, page 202.
  • Stross, Randall. "The Fox Is in Microsoft's Henhouse (and Salivating)", New York Times, 2004-12-19.
  • Weber, Tim. "The assault on software giant Microsoft", BBC News, 2005-05-09.
  • World Firefox Day
  • World Firefox Day Launches

Books

  • Granneman, Scott (2005). Don't Click on the Blue E!: Switching to Firefox. O'Reilly. ISBN 0-596-00939-9.
  • Hofmann, Chris, Marcia Knous, & John Hedtke (2005). Firefox and Thunderbird Garage. Prentice Hall PTR. ISBN 0-13-187004-1.
  • McFarlane, Nigel (2005). Firefox Hacks. O'Reilly. ISBN 0-596-00928-3.
  • Reyes, Mel (2005). Hacking Firefox : More Than 150 Hacks, Mods, and Customizations. Wiley. ISBN 0-7645-9650-0.
  • Ross, Blake (2006). Firefox for Dummies. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-74899-4.
  • Yeow, Cheah Chu (2005). Firefox Secrets: A Need-To-Know Guide. O'Reilly. ISBN 0-9752402-4-2.

See also

 Free software Portal
  • Mozilla (from which the Firefox project descends)
  • Mozilla Corporation
  • Mozilla Foundation
  • Mozilla Thunderbird (e-mail application)
  • Mozilla Update
  • Comparison of web browsers
  • Criticisms of Mozilla Firefox
  • Flock
  • Foxkeh (Japanese mascot created by Mozilla Japan)
  • IE Tab
  • List of Firefox extensions
  • List of web browsers
  • Netscape Navigator
  • Swiftfox

External links

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  • Mozilla Firefox homepage – For end-users.
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  • Firefox older versions - All of the old versions from version 0.8 to the latest one
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Search Term: "Mozilla_Firefox"
firefox news and firefox articles

Here's our top rated firefox links for the day:

Microsoft Live Search & Firefox Snooping on Search Queries 

Search Engine Journal - Nov 17 5:01 AM
Bill Slawski of SEO by the SEA looks at Microsoft Live Search and the Firefox Browser and how these companies are harnessing their web browsing and desktop applications to monitor search queries and then ’suggest’ them to the same user from their own search boxes. You can see query suggestions in action at Microsoft’s Windows Live [...]
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Sunflower Network Announces Instant Computer Help Available as Free Mozilla Firefox Toolbar 
[Press Release] PR Web - Nov 17 12:18 AM
Sunflower Network announces the availability of the Instant Computer Help toolbar for Mozilla Firefox. This new extension provides rapid access to computer experts, from within the Firefox browser. Finally, frustrated computer users can instantly get help with their computers -- at a price of their own choosing. Sunflower Network connects people with computer experts, through text chat, voice,
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Firefox: The Better Phisher Fighter 
TechNewsWorld.com - Nov 16 5:10 AM
Mozilla claims that the anti-phishing measures in its Firefox Web browser are superior to those of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, based on a report released Wednesday by software testing company SmartWare. While IE owns around 80 percent of the browser market, it also draws the majority of Internet attacks, including those known as "phishing."
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Microsoft plans CardSpace plug-in for Firefox 
Linux World Australia - Nov 16 1:23 PM
Microsoft will write a software plug-in that allows the Firefox open-source Web browser to work with Microsoft's Cardspace identity management technology.
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Mozilla Claims Firefox Better At Finding Phishers 
TechWeb via Yahoo! News - Nov 15 8:30 AM
A Mozilla-sponsored study says the company's Firefox browser is 18% to 23% better at spotting fraudulent phishing sites than Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7.
Save

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