Firefox

For other uses, see Firefox (disambiguation).

"Phoenix (web browser)" redirects here. For the Phoenix browser based on tkWWW, see tkWWW.

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox 12 on Windows 7 along with version displayed.
Developer(s)	Mozilla Corporation Mozilla Foundation
Initial release	November 9, 2004 (2004-11-09)
Stable release	Standard 132.0.1  / November 4, 2024 (November 4, 2024) Extended support release 1 128.4.0esr  / October 29, 2024 (October 29, 2024) Extended support release 2 115.17.0esr / October 29, 2024 (2024-10-29)
Preview release	Beta & developer edition 133.0b4  / November 4, 2024 (November 4, 2024) Nightly 134.0a1  / October 28, 2024 (October 28, 2024)
Repository	hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/
Written in	C/C++, JavaScript, CSS, XUL, XBL
Engine	Gecko
Operating system	Cross-platform
Size	15 MB – Windows 31 MB – Mac OS X 17 MB – Linux 75 MB – source code
Available in	86 locales (78 languages)
Type	Web browser
License	MPL, GNU GPL or GNU LGPL
Website	www.mozilla.org/firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. As of March 2012, Firefox has approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers, making it the third most widely used browser, according to different estimates. The browser has had particular success in Indonesia, Germany and Poland, where it is the most popular browser with 67%, 50% and 44% of the market share respectively.

To display web pages, Firefox uses the Gecko layout engine, which implements most current web standards in addition to several features that are intended to anticipate likely additions to the standards.

Firefox runs on various operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and unofficially, FreeBSD as well as several other platforms. Its current stable release is version 12.0, released on April 24, 2012.

History

Main article: History of Firefox

The Firefox project began as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project by Dave Hyatt, Joe Hewitt and Blake Ross. They believed 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 stand-alone 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.

Early versions

File:Firefox 1 0 8.png

German build of Firefox 1.0.8

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. In response, the Mozilla Foundation stated that the browser should always bear the name Mozilla Firebird to avoid confusion with the database software. After further pressure from the database server's development community, on February 9, 2004, Mozilla Firebird became Mozilla Firefox, often referred to as simply Firefox. Mozilla prefers that Firefox be abbreviated as Fx or fx, though it is often abbreviated as FF. The Firefox project went through many versions before 1.0 was released on November 9, 2004. After a series of stability and security fixes, the Mozilla Foundation released its first major update, Firefox version 1.5, on November 29, 2005. Firefox 1.5.0.12 was the last version officially supported under Windows 95 and Mac OS X 10.3.

Version 2

Main article: Firefox 2

On October 24, 2006, Mozilla released Firefox 2. This version includes updates to the tabbed browsing environment; the extensions manager; the GUI (Graphical User Interface); 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, and later merged into the program itself. In December 2007, Firefox Live Chat was launched. It allows users to ask volunteers questions through a system powered by Jive Software, with guaranteed hours of operation and the possibility of help after hours. Firefox 2.0.0.20 is the final version which can run under an unmodified installation of Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, and Windows ME.

Version 3

Main article: Firefox 3

Firefox 3 was released on June 17, 2008, by the Mozilla Corporation. Firefox 3 uses version 1.9 of the Mozilla Gecko layout engine for displaying web pages. This version fixes many bugs, improves standard compliance, and implements new web APIs. Other new features include a redesigned download manager, a new "Places" system for storing bookmarks and history, and separate themes for different operating systems. Tabbed browsing was more popularised in this version. The latest version under 3.0 is Firefox 3.0.19.

Development stretches back to the first Firefox 3 beta (under the codename 'Gran Paradiso') which had been released several months earlier on 19 November 2007, and was followed by several more beta releases in spring 2008 culminating in the June release. Firefox 3 had more than 8 million unique downloads the day it was released, setting a Guinness World Record.

Version 3.5

Main article: Firefox 3.5

Firefox 3.5 on Ubuntu

Version 3.5, codenamed Shiretoko, adds a variety of new features to Firefox. Initially numbered Firefox 3.1, Mozilla developers decided to change the numbering of the release to 3.5, in order to reflect a significantly greater scope of changes than originally planned. The final release was on June 30, 2009. The changes included much faster performance thanks to an upgrade to SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine called TraceMonkey and rendering improvements, and support for the <video> and <audio> tags as defined in the HTML 5 specification, with a goal to offer video playback without being encumbered by patent issues associated with many video technologies. Cross-site XMLHttpRequests (XHR), which can allow for more powerful web applications and an easier way to implement mashups, are also implemented in 3.5. A new global JSON object contains native functions to efficiently and safely serialize and deserialize JSON objects, as specified by the ECMAScript 3.1 draft. Full CSS 3 selector support has been added. Firefox 3.5 uses the Gecko 1.9.1 engine, which includes a few features that were not included in the 3.0 release. Multi-touch trackpad support was also added to the release, including gesture support like pinching for zooming and swiping for back and forward. Firefox 3.5 also features an updated logo.

Version 3.6

Main article: Firefox 3.6

Version 3.6 (latest version 3.6.28) is the release codenamed Namoroka. Development for this version started on December 1, 2008, and version 3.6.0 was released on January 21, 2010. This release uses the Gecko 1.9.2 rendering engine.

New features for Firefox 3.6 include built-in support for Personas (toolbar skins), notification of out-of-date plugins, full screen playback of Theora video, support for the WOFF open webfont format, a more secure plugin system, and many performance improvements.

Out-of-process plug-ins

A crashed Adobe Flash plugin

One minor update to Firefox 3.6, version 3.6.4 (code-named Lorentz) features "Crash Protection" (also called out-of-process plug-ins, or OOPP), which isolates execution of plug-ins into a separate process, preventing a plug-in crash from bringing down the whole browser.

In the initial release only three plug-ins were isolated by default: Adobe Flash Player, Apple Quicktime, and Microsoft Silverlight, and the feature was available only in the Windows and Linux builds. Mac OS X 10.6 support was added in Firefox 4. Firefox 3.6.6 increased the amount of time a plug-in is allowed to be unresponsive to the point before the plug-in would quit.

Starting with Lorentz, Mozilla plans to release non-intrusive changes as minor updates that previously included only stability and security fixes.

Version 4

Main article: Firefox 4

Firefox 4.0 displaying Wikipedia on Windows 7.

Released on March 22, 2011, Firefox 4 was codenamed "Tumucumaque" after Tumucumaque National Park.

Version 4 brought a new user interface and is said to be faster. Early mockups of the new interface on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux were first made available in July 2009. Other new features included improved notifications, tab groups, application tabs, a redesigned add-on manager, integration with Firefox Sync, and support for multitouch displays.

On October 13, 2006, Brendan Eich, Mozilla's Chief Technology Officer, wrote about the plans for "Mozilla 2", referring to the most comprehensive iteration (since its creation) of the overall platform on which Firefox and other Mozilla products run. Most of the objectives were gradually incorporated into Firefox through versions 3.0, 3.5, and 3.6. The largest changes, however, were planned for Firefox 4.

Firefox 4 was based on the Gecko 2.0 engine, which added or improved support for HTML5, CSS3, WebM, and WebGL. It also included a new JavaScript engine (JägerMonkey) and better XPCOM APIs.

Rapid release

See also: History of Firefox (Rapid release development cycle)

In April 2011, the development process was split into several "channels", each working on a build in a different stage of development. The most recent available build is called "Nightly Builds" and offers the latest, untested features and updates. The "Aurora" build is up to six weeks behind "Nightly" and offers functionality that has undergone basic testing. The "Beta" channel is another six weeks away. It provides improved stability over the nightly builds and is the first development milestone that has the "Firefox" logo. "Release" is the current official version of Firefox. New releases are planned to occur at six week intervals. The stated aim of this faster-paced process is to get new features to users faster. This accelerated release cycle was met with criticism by users, as it often broke addon compatibility, as well as those who believe Firefox was simply trying to increase its version number to compare with other browsers such as Google Chrome.

Version 5

Firefox 5 was released on June 21, 2011, three months after the major release of Firefox 4. Firefox 5 is the first release in Mozilla's new rapid release plan, matching Google Chrome's rapid release schedule and rapid version number increments. Version 5 improved the speed of the browser significantly when it was asked to perform web related tasks, such as loading pages with lots of combo-boxes and loading pages utilizing MathML. Mozilla also integrated the HTML5 video WebM standard into the browser, allowing playback of WebM video.

Version 6

File:Firefox Scratchpad.png

The ScratchPad introduced in Firefox 6.

Mozilla released its Mozilla Firefox 6.0 on August 16, 2011. The update brought: permissions manager, new address bar highlighting (the domain name is black while the rest of the URL is gray), streamlining the look of the site identity block, quicker startup time, a ScratchPad JavaScript compiler, and many other new features.

Version 7

Firefox 7, released September 27, 2011, uses as much as 50% less memory than Firefox 4 as a result of the MemShrink project to reduce Firefox memory usage. Mozilla Firefox 7.0.1 was released a few days later, fixing a rare but serious issue with add-ons not being detected by the browser. The "http://" protocol indicator no longer appears in the URL.

Version 8

Firefox 8 was released on November 8, 2011. Firefox 8 verified that users really wanted any previously installed add-ons. Upon installation, a dialog box prompted users to enable or disable the add-ons. Add-ons installed by third-party programs were disabled by default, but user-installed add-ons were enabled by default. Mozilla judged that third-party-installed add-ons were problematic, taking away user control, lagging behind on compatibility and security updates, slowing down Firefox start-up and page loading time, and cluttering the interface with unused toolbars.

Version 9

Firefox 9 was released on December 20, 2011; version 9.0.1 was released a day later. Firefox 9 includes various new features such as Type Inference, which boosts JavaScript performance by up to 30%, improved theme integration for Mac OS X Lion, added two finger swipe navigation for Mac OS X Lion, added support for querying Do Not Track status via JavaScript, added support for font-stretch, improved support for text-overflow, improved standards support for HTML5, MathML, and CSS, and fixed several security issues. It also features a large list of bug fixes.

Version 10

Firefox 10 using the CSS Style Inspector

Firefox 10 was released on January 31, 2012. It is the first official extended support release. Firefox 10 hides the forward arrow button until there is a website to go forward to, or it is manually activated. Firefox 10 adds a Full Screen API and improved WebGL performance.

Firefox 10 assumed all add-ons are compatible with version 10, as long as they are written for at least Firefox 4. The add-on developer is able to alert Mozilla that the add-on is incompatible, overriding compatibility with version 10 or later. This new rule also does not apply to themes.

Firefox 10 added the CSS Style Inspector to the Page Inspector, which allow users to check out a site's structure and edit the CSS without leaving the browser.

Firefox 10 added support for CSS 3D Transforms and for anti-aliasing in the WebGL standard for hardware-accelerated 3D graphics. These updates mean that complex site and Web app animations will render more smoothly in Firefox, and that developers can animate 2D objects into 3D without plug-ins.

Version 11

Firefox 11 in 3D Page Inspector mode (displaying Firefox Wikipedia page)

Firefox 11 on Ubuntu 12.04. The menus have been integrated into the Global Menu system in Unity.

Firefox 11 was released on March 13, 2012. Firefox 11 introduced many new features, including Google Chrome migration, SPDY integrated services, Page Inspector Tilt (3D View), Add-on Sync, redesigned HTML5 video controls, and the Style Editor (CSS). The update also fixed many bugs, and improved developer tools.

Version 12

HTML5 Video Controls in Firefox 12

Firefox 12 introduced few new features, but it made many changes and laid the ground work for future releases. Firefox 12 removed the UAC prompt in Windows, added line numbers in the "Page Source" and centered search results. There were also many other developer enhancements, bug fixes, and other minor changes. Firefox 12 is the final release to support Windows 2000 and Windows XP RTM & SP1.

Future releases

Test builds can be downloaded from the Firefox development channels: "Beta", "Aurora", and "Nightly Builds".

Currently (April 2012), a Firefox 13 alpha release is in the "Aurora" channel, and a Firefox 14 (32-bit) pre-alpha release is in the "Nightly Builds" channel.

Features planned for future versions include silent updating so that version increments will not bother the user, although the user will be able to disable that function. A different looking user-interface called "Australis" is also planned.

Version 13

"New Tab Page" in Firefox 13 (available in Firefox 12) on Windows 7

Inline URL Complete in Firefox 13 (predicts the URL) on Windows 7

Firefox 13 "Home Tab" page

Firefox 13 adds many features, such as the "New Tab Page"/"Home tab", a feature similar to "Speed Dial" introduced in Opera 9.2, also found in Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and Microsoft Internet Explorer. It is planned that the "Home tab" will include more features than its competitors - including a Google search, Web Chat, recently shared websites, as well as links for quick access to Bookmarks, Add-ons, History, Downloads, and the App Marketplace.

In addition to the "New Tab Page"/"Home tab", Firefox 13 will also have user profile cleaner/reset, "Tabs on Demand", and "inline URL complete".

The User Profile Cleaner/Reset feature will provide a way for users to automatically fix Firefox by creating a new profile and migrating their data (bookmarks, history, passwords, etc.).

"Tabs on Demand" will automatically load the tab URLs that were open in the previous session, but the pages will remain unloaded until the tab is clicked on.

Another feature introduced in Firefox 13 is "URL complete", which will automatically insert the remaining characters/letters into the URL form box to reduce the amount of characters physically typed.

Version 14

Panel-based Download Manager in Firefox 14

Firefox 14 is planned to bring a large number of new features and improvements.

Firefox 14 introduces a new Panel-based Download Manager, replacing the old window-based download manager.

On April 2 Mozilla announced prototype testing with the Windows 8 "Metro". Mozilla hopes to bring Windows 8 support in Firefox 14. Firefox on Metro, like all other Metro apps, will be fullscreen, focused on touch interactions, and connected to the rest of the Metro environment. Firefox will have to support three "snap" states—fullscreen, ~1/6th screen and ~5/6th screen depending on how the user "docks" two fullscreen apps. Version 14 has a planned release date of July 7, 2012 - this means Firefox 14 "Metro" will very likely be ready for when Windows 8 goes on sale.

Version 14 also will bring start-up time improvements for Windows. This will allow users to jump into Firefox more quickly after starting up their Windows OS..

Mozilla will reduce the amount of freezing that occurs, in addition to reducing the amount of time to return to normal browsing after experiencing a "not-responding" error. Mozilla will do this with "Cycle Collector Performance Improvements". A new hang detector (similar to how Mozilla currently collects crash data) will allow Mozilla to collect, analyze, and identify browser hangs. In future releases, Mozilla will use this information to improve the responsiveness of Firefox.

In addition to tackling freezing and "not-responding" errors that occur because of Firefox, Mozilla will be implementing "Opt-in activation for plugins". The goal is to reduce potential issues that could arise through the unwanted use of third party applications (Malware, freezing, etc.). This feature will ask users before playing Flash or Java that is on a webpage. Currently there are add-ons that do this for Firefox already (ex. NoScript, Flashblock). Mozilla believes this will reduce page loading times, as well as tackle heavy Flash and Java CPU usage.

"Silent updates" will automatically update Firefox to the latest version without notifying the user, a feature pioneered in the web browser Google Chrome,which has been successful with moving users to the latest software version without providing the user with an update notification.

Version 14 will implement "Silent Update not now prompt". This feature will not update a user to the latest version of Firefox for 10 days if the user is found to have an add-on that is not yet compatible with the newest version of Firefox. On the 10th day, the user will receive a notification asking if he/she would like to update to Firefox at the expense of losing an add-on. If the user tells Firefox to "Remind me later", the user will have an additional 10 days before being automatically updated to the most recent version of Firefox (Firefox ignores any incompatible add-ons on this day).

Version 14 is in an early stage of development, and some of the features or improvements may be delayed until a later release.

Version 15

Firefox 15 is scheduled for an August 28th, 2012 release.

Mozilla has provided a list of features that it hopes to implement into Firefox 15. Currently this list only contains a few items, and is likely to change once Firefox 15 is in the nightly channel on April 24~, 2012.

Mozilla hopes to improve start-up speed when a user wants to open up tabs that they had open the last time they used Firefox. Mozilla has called this feature "Speedy Session Restore". In addition to speeding up a user's "Session Restore", Mozilla also hopes to improve regular start-up times. The goal is to reduce the amount of time it takes for the browser to become useable.

Version tables

Released versions

See also: History of Firefox

Color	Meaning
Red	Former release; no longer supported
Yellow	Former release; still supported
Green	Current supported release
Purple	Future test release

Browser name	Gecko version	Version	Codename	Release date
Phoenix	1.2	0.1	Pescadero	September 23, 2002
		0.2	Santa Cruz	October 1, 2002
		0.3	Lucia	October 14, 2002
	1.3	0.4	Oceano	October 19, 2002
		0.5	Naples	December 7, 2002
Firebird	1.5	0.6	Glendale	May 17, 2003
		0.7	Indio	October 15, 2003
Firefox	1.6	0.8	Royal Oak	February 9, 2004
	1.7	0.9	One Tree Hill	June 15, 2004
Firefox 1		1.0	Phoenix	November 9, 2004
		1.0.8		April 13, 2006
Firefox 1.5	1.8	1.5	Deer Park	November 29, 2005
		1.5.0.12		May 30, 2007
Firefox 2	1.8.1	2.0	Bon Echo	October 24, 2006
		2.0.0.20		December 18, 2008
Firefox 3	1.9	3.0	Gran Paradiso	June 17, 2008
		3.0.19		March 30, 2010
Firefox 3.5	1.9.1	3.5	Shiretoko	June 30, 2009
		3.5.19		April 28, 2011
Firefox 3.6	1.9.2	3.6	Namoroka	January 21, 2010
		3.6.28		March 13, 2012
Firefox 4	2.0	4.0	Tumucumaque	March 22, 2011
		4.0.1	Macaw	April 28, 2011
Browser name	Gecko version	Version	Codename	Release date

Rapid release updates

See also: History of Firefox (rapid release development cycle)

Browser name	Gecko version	Version	Release date
Firefox 5	5.0	5.0	June 21, 2011
		5.0.1	July 11, 2011
Firefox 6	6.0	6.0	August 16, 2011
		6.0.2	September 6, 2011
Firefox 7	7.0	7.0	September 27, 2011
		7.0.1	September 29, 2011
Firefox 8	8.0	8.0	November 8, 2011
		8.0.1	November 21, 2011
Firefox 9	9.0	9.0	December 20, 2011
		9.0.1	December 21, 2011
Firefox 10 1st ESR	10.0	10.0	January 31, 2012
		10.0.4	April 24, 2012
Firefox 11	11.0	11.0	March 13, 2012
Firefox 12	12.0	12.0	April 24, 2012
Browser name	Gecko version	Version	Release date

Future releases table

See also: Firefox § Future releases

Browser name	Gecko version	Version	Last Updated	Planned Release Date
Firefox 12 Beta	12.0	12.0b6	April 19, 2012	April 24, 2012
Firefox 13 Aurora	13.0	13.0a2	Updated daily	June 5, 2012
Firefox 15 Nightly	15.0	15.0a1	Updated daily	August 28, 2012

Features

Main article: Features of Firefox

Features include tabbed browsing, spell checking, incremental find, live bookmarking, smart bookmarks, a download manager, private browsing, location-aware browsing (also known as "geolocation") based on a Google service and an integrated search system that uses Google by default in most localizations. Functions can be added through extensions, created by third-party developers, of which there is a wide selection, a feature that has attracted many of Firefox's users.

Additionally, Firefox provides an environment for web developers in which they can use built-in tools, such as the Error Console or the DOM Inspector, or extensions, such as Firebug.

Standards

The results of the Acid3 test (as of September 2011) on Firefox 7.0

Firefox implements many web standards, including HTML4 (partial HTML5), XML, XHTML, MathML, SVG 1.1 (partial), CSS (with extensions), ECMAScript (JavaScript), DOM, XSLT, XPath, and APNG (Animated PNG) images with alpha transparency. Firefox also implements standards proposals created by the WHATWG such as client-side storage, and canvas element.

Firefox has passed the Acid2 standards-compliance test since version 3.0. Mozilla had originally stated that they did not intend for Firefox to pass the Acid3 test fully because they believed that the SVG fonts part of the test had become outdated and irrelevant, due to WOFF being agreed upon as a standard by all major browser makers. Because the SVG font tests were removed from the Acid3 test in September 2011, Firefox 4 and greater scored 100/100.

Firefox also implements a proprietary protocol from Google called "safebrowsing" (used to exchange data related with "phishing and malware protection").

Security

See also: Browser security

Firefox uses a sandbox security model, and limits scripts from accessing data from other web sites based on the same origin policy. It uses SSL/TLS to protect communications with web servers using strong cryptography when using the HTTPS protocol. It also provides support for web applications to use smartcards for authentication purposes.

The Mozilla Foundation offers a "bug bounty" (up to 3000 USD cash reward and a Mozilla T-shirt) to researchers who discover severe security holes in Firefox. Official guidelines for handling security vulnerabilities discourage early disclosure of vulnerabilities so as not to give potential attackers an advantage in creating exploits.

Because Firefox generally has fewer 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. The Washington Post reports that exploit code for known, critical unpatched security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer was available for 284 days in 2006. In comparison, exploit code for known, critical security vulnerabilities in Firefox was available for 9 days before Mozilla issued a patch to remedy the problem.

A 2006 Symantec study showed that, although 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. Symantec later clarified their statement, saying that Firefox still had fewer security vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer, as counted by security researchers. As of February 11, 2011, Firefox 3.6 had no (known) unpatched security vulnerabilities according to Secunia. Internet Explorer 8 had five unpatched security vulnerabilities, the worst being rated "Less Critical" by Secunia.

In October 2009, Microsoft's security engineers acknowledged that Firefox was vulnerable since February of that year due to a .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Windows update that silently installed a buggy 'Windows Presentation Foundation' plug-in into Firefox. This vulnerability has since been patched by Microsoft.

All patched vulnerabilities of Mozilla products are publicly listed.

Telemetry

When Firefox is upgraded to version 7.0, an information bar will appear asking users whether they would like to send performance statistics (also known as “telemetry”) to Mozilla. According to Mozilla's privacy policy, these statistics are stored only in aggregate format, and the only personally-identifiable information transmitted is the user's IP address.

Localizations

Main article: Mozilla localizations

Firefox is a heavily localized web browser. The first official release in November 2004 was available in 24 different languages and for 28 locales, including British English/American English, European Spanish/Argentine Spanish and Chinese in Traditional Chinese characters/Simplified Chinese characters. Currently supported versions 10.0.4 and 12.0 are available for 85 locales (77 languages) and 86 locales (78 languages) respectively.

Other versions

Firefox for Mobile 10 on Android 4

Portable versions

See also: Portable application

There is a portable edition of Firefox for Windows, which can be used from a USB Flash drive. This particular distribution makes it possible to run Firefox (and many of its extensions) on corporate/government networks in lieu of the default browser. This can be especially helpful for any user who does not possess administrative rights on the system being used.

Firefox for Mobile

Main article: Firefox for Mobile

Firefox for Mobile, codenamed Fennec, is a web browser for smaller non-PC devices, mobile phones and PDAs. It was first released for the Nokia Maemo operating system (specifically the Nokia N900) on January 28, 2010. Version 4 for Android and Maemo was released on March 29, 2011. The browser's version number was bumped from version 2 to version 4 to synchronize with all future desktop releases of Firefox since the rendering engines used in both browsers are the same. Version 7 was the last release for Maemo on the N900. The user interface is completely redesigned and optimized for small screens, the controls are hidden away so that only the web content is shown on screen, and it uses touchscreen interaction methods. It includes the Awesomebar, tabbed browsing, Add-on support, password manager, location-aware browsing, and the ability to synchronize with the user's computer Firefox browser using Firefox Sync.

Extended Support Release

See also: History of Firefox (Rapid release development cycle) § Extended Support Release

Firefox ESR is a version of Firefox for organizations and other adopters who need extended support for mass deployments. Unlike the regular ("rapid") releases, the ESR will be updated with new features and performance enhancements annually, receiving regular security updates during the year.

Unofficial ports

Ports have been developed for other platforms, including RISC OS. The last version of Firefox released for RISC OS on the website RISCOS was version 2.0.

System requirements

Browsers compiled from Firefox source code may run on various operating systems; however, officially distributed binaries are meant for the following: Microsoft Windows (2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista or 7), Mac OS X 10.5, Mac OS X 10.6 and Linux (with the following libraries installed: GTK+ 2.10 or higher, GLib 2.12 or higher, Pango 1.14 or higher, X.Org 1.0 or higher (1.7 or higher is recommended), libstdc++ 4.3 or higher).

Current Minimum Requirements	Windows	Mac
Processor	Pentium 4 or newer with SSE2	Any Intel processor
Memory (RAM)	512 MB
Hard Drive (free space)	200 MB
Operating system	Windows 2000 or higher	Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) or higher

64-bit builds

64-bit nightly builds for Windows are available, but due to incompatibilities, including with popular plugins, official 64-bit releases are not provided.

Waterfox and Palemoon are unaffiliated projects that provide unofficial 64bit builds.

The official releases of Firefox for OS X are universal builds that include both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the browser in one package. A typical browsing session uses a combination of the 64-bit browser process and a 32-bit plugin process, because some popular plugins still are 32-bit.

For Linux, vendor-backed, performance optimized, stable 64-bit builds exist (such as for Novell-Suse Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Ubuntu), in addition to the nightly builds.

Older operating systems

Firefox 1.5.0.12 is the last version to work on Windows 95 and Firefox 2.0.0.20 is the last version to work on Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows NT 4.0. Although not officially supported, a utility called KernelEx can run Firefox 3.x versions on Windows 98 and Windows Me. These versions/lines are no longer supported by Mozilla.

Firefox 3.5.9 is the last version to work on HP-UX 11i, as packaged by Hewlett-Packard.

Firefox 3.6.28 is the last version to work on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), as well as PowerPC Macs running Mac OS X 10.5. Officially released versions numbered 4.0 and higher do not work (although some unofficial builds such as TenFourFox based upon the newer versions do work, requiring varying degrees of patches). Firefox 3.6.x reached end of life on April 24, 2012.

Firefox 12.0 is the last version to support Windows 2000, Windows XP RTM (no Service Pack installed) and Windows XP SP1. Windows XP SP2 and above is now the minimum requirement for Firefox 13.0 and above.

Licensing

Firefox source code is free software. Most of it is tri-licensed under the Mozilla Public License (MPL), the 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, Miro, Iceweasel, and Songbird make use of code from Firefox.

In the past, Firefox was licensed solely under the MPL, which the FSF (Free Software Foundation) criticizes for being weak copyleft; the license permits, in limited ways, proprietary derivative works. Additionally, code only licensed under the MPL cannot legally be linked with code under the GPL. To address these concerns, Mozilla re-licensed most of Firefox under the tri-license scheme of MPL, GPL, or LGPL. Since the re-licensing, developers have been free to choose the license under which they will receive most of 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.

Trademark and logo

See also: Mozilla Corporation software rebranded by the Debian project

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. The name "Firefox" derives from a nickname of the red panda.

Mozilla has placed the Firefox logo files under open-source licenses, but its trademark guidelines do not allow displaying altered or similar logos in contexts where trademark law applies.

There has been some controversy over the Mozilla Foundation's intentions in stopping certain open source distributions from using the "Firefox" trademark. Mozilla Foundation Chairperson Mitchell Baker explained in an interview in 2007 that distributions could freely use the Firefox trademark if they did not modify source-code, and that the Mozilla Foundation's only concern was with users getting a consistent experience when they used "Firefox".

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 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.

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 Mozilla's copyright restrictions at the time were incompatible with Debian's guidelines), they were told by a representative of the Mozilla Foundation that this was not acceptable, and were asked either to comply with the published trademark guidelines or cease using the "Firefox" name in their distribution. Ultimately, Debian switched to branding their modified version of Firefox "Iceweasel", along with other Mozilla software.

Firefox branding

The Firefox logo has been revised several times since its inception:

• 
  The Phoenix and Firebird logo, before being renamed "Firefox".
• The original logo used for Firefox. Mid 2004
  The original logo used for Firefox.
  Mid 2004
• The second logo used for Firefox (1.0 - 3.0) Late 2004 - 2009
  The second logo used for Firefox (1.0 - 3.0)
  Late 2004 - 2009
• 
  The current logo used for Firefox (3.5 - Current)
  2009~

Other logos are also used for specific versions of the software or its derivatives:

• 
  The current "aurora" logo (prerelease alpha)
• 
  The current "nightly" logo (experimental)
• 
  Free Firefox logo (used by some GNU/Linux distributions)
• 
  Minefield logo (former name for "nightly" Firefox)

Advertising

The rapid adoption of Firefox, 100 million downloads in its first year of availability, followed a series of aggressive marketing campaigns starting in 2004 with a series of events Blake Ross and Asa Dotzler called "marketing weeks".

On September 12, 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. A two-page ad in the December 16th edition of the New York Times, placed by Mozilla Foundation in coordination with Spread Firefox, featured the names of the thousands of people worldwide who contributed to the Mozilla Foundation's fundraising campaign to support the launch of the Firefox 1.0 web browser. SFX 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. As a part of the Spread Firefox campaign, there was an attempt to break the world download record with the release of Firefox 3.

The "World Firefox Day" campaign started on July 15, 2006, the third 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.

On February 21, 2008 in honor of reaching 500 million downloads, the Firefox community celebrated by visiting FreeRice to earn 500 million grains of rice.

Some of Firefox's contributors made a crop circle of the Firefox logo in an oat field near Amity, Oregon, near the intersection of Lafayette Highway and Walnut Hill Road.

Market adoption

Market share overview According to StatCounter data October 2024

Browser % of Fx % of total Firefox 1 — — Firefox 2 — — Firefox 3 — — Firefox 4 — — Firefox 5–9 — — Firefox 10–16 0.38% 0.01% Firefox 17–23 — — Firefox 24–30 — — Firefox 31–37 — — Firefox 38–44 — — Firefox 45–51 — — Firefox 52–59 2.26% 0.06% Firefox 60–67 — — Firefox 68–77 — — Firefox 78–90 0.38% 0.01% Firefox 91–101 — — Firefox 102–114 — — Firefox 115 and 115 ESR 11.32% 0.30% Firefox 116 — — Firefox 117 — — Firefox 118 2.64% 0.07% Firefox 119 — — Firefox 120 — — Firefox 121 — — Firefox 122 — — Firefox 123 — — Firefox 124 — — Firefox 125 0.76% 0.02% Firefox 126 0.76% 0.02% Firefox 127 0.76% 0.02% Firefox 128 and 128 ESR 2.26% 0.06% Firefox 129 1.13% 0.03% Firefox 130 9.06% 0.24% Firefox 131 58.87% 1.56% Firefox 132 2.26% 0.06% Firefox 133 — — All variants 100% 2.65%

See also: Usage share of web browsers

Downloads have continued at an increasing rate since Firefox 1.0 was released in November 2004, and as of July 31, 2009 Firefox has been downloaded over one billion times. This number does not include downloads using software updates or those from third-party websites. They do not represent a user count, as one download may be installed on many machines, one person may download the software multiple times, or the software may be obtained from a third party. According to Mozilla, Firefox had more than 400 million users as of November 2010.

In July 2010, all IBM employees (about 400,000) were asked to use Firefox as their default browser.

As of March 2012, Firefox was the third most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers. According to StatCounter, Firefox usage peaked in September 2010, and lost market share for 2 years and 6 months following its peak. Its streak of usage share losses ended when it made minor gains in January 2012. It would repeat its gains in February 2012, and March 2012.

Firefox was the second-most used browser until December 2011, when Google Chrome passed it in usage share.

Like Chrome and Safari, Firefox receives a small weekend "bump", which boosts its marketshare by about one percent, though the effect has diminished due to it becoming more standard.

Reception

Usage share of web browsers (March 2012 - StatCounter)

Usage share of web browsers according to StatCounter.

Forbes.com called Firefox the best browser in a 2004 commentary piece, and PC World named Firefox "Product of the Year" in 2005 on their "100 Best Products of 2005" list. After the release of Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7 in 2006, PC World reviewed both and declared that Firefox was the better browser. Which? Magazine named Firefox its "Best Buy" web browser. In 2008, CNET compared Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer in their "Battle of the Browsers" in terms of performance, security, and features, where Firefox was selected as a favorite. In February 2012, Tom's Hardware compared Safari 5.1.2, Google Chrome 17, Mozilla Firefox 10, Opera 11.61 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 on both Ubuntu 11.10 and Windows 7 OS (Internet Explorer & Safari excluded from Ubuntu because of OS availability) in a "Web Browser Grand Prix". They concluded, that based on performance, Chrome 17 was selected as their favorite on the Ubuntu OS - but they also concluded that on Windows OS, Firefox 10 was their favorite.

Performance

In December 2005, Internet Week ran an article in which many readers reported high memory usage in Firefox 1.5. Mozilla developers said that the higher memory use of Firefox 1.5 was at least partially due to the new fast backwards-and-forwards (FastBack) feature. Other known causes of memory problems were malfunctioning extensions such as Google Toolbar and some older versions of Adblock, or plug-ins, such as older versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader. When PC Magazine compared memory usage of Firefox 2, Opera 9, and Internet Explorer 7, they found that Firefox used approximately as much memory as the other two browsers.

Softpedia noted that Firefox 1.5 took longer to start up than other browsers, which was confirmed by further speed tests. IE 6 launched more swiftly than Firefox 1.5 on Windows XP since many of its components were built into the OS and loaded during system startup. As a workaround for the issue, a preloader application was created that loaded components of Firefox on startup, similar to Internet Explorer. A Windows Vista feature called SuperFetch performs a similar task of preloading Firefox if it is used often enough.

Tests performed by PC World and Zimbra in 2006 indicated that Firefox 2 used less memory than Internet Explorer 7. Firefox 3 used less memory than Internet Explorer 7, Opera 9.50 Beta, Safari 3.1 Beta, and Firefox 2 in tests performed by Mozilla, CyberNet, and The Browser World. In mid 2009, Betanews benchmarked Firefox 3.5 and declared that it performed "nearly ten times better on XP than Microsoft Internet Explorer 7".

In January 2010, Lifehacker compared the performance of Firefox 3.5, Firefox 3.6, Google Chrome 4 (stable and Dev versions), Safari 4, and Opera (10.1 stable and 10.5 pre-alpha versions). Lifehacker timed how long browsers took to start and reach a page (both right after boot-up and after running at least once already), timed how long browsers took to load nine tabs at once, tested JavaScript speeds using Mozilla's Dromaeo online suite (which implements Apple's SunSpider and Google's V8 tests) and measured memory usage using Windows 7's process manager. They concluded that Firefox 3.5 and 3.6 were the fifth and sixth fastest browsers respectively on startup, 3.5 was third and 3.6 was sixth fastest to load nine tabs at once, 3.5 was sixth and 3.6 was fifth fastest on the JavaScript tests. They also concluded that Firefox 3.6 was the most efficient with memory usage followed by Firefox 3.5.

In February 2012, Toms Hardware performed tested Chrome 17, Firefox 10, Internet Explorer 9, Opera 11.61, and Safari 5.1.2 on Windows 7. Toms Hardware summarized their tests into four categories: Performance, Efficiency, Reliability, and Conformance. In the performance category they tested HTML 5, Java, Javascript, DOM, CSS 3, Flash, Silverlight, and WebGL - they also tested start up time and page load time. The performance tests showed that Firefox was either "acceptable" or "strong" in most categories, winning three categories (HTML5, HTML5 Hardware acceleration, and Java) only finishing "weak" in CSS performance. In the efficiency tests, Toms Hardware tested memory usage and management. In this category, it determined that Firefox was only "acceptable" at performing light memory usage, while it was "strong" at performing heavy memory usage. In the reliability category, Firefox performed a "strong" amount of proper page loads. In the final category, conformance, it was determined that Firefox had "strong" conformance for Javascript and HTML5. In conclusion, Tom's Hardware determined that Firefox was the best browser for Windows 7 OS, but that it only narrowly beat out Google Chrome.

Relationship with Google

The Mozilla Corporation's relationship with Google has been noted in the popular press, especially with regard to their paid referral agreement. The release of the anti-phishing protection in Firefox 2 in particular raised considerable controversy: anti-phishing protection enabled by default is based on a list updated by twice-hourly downloads to the user's computer from Google's server. The user cannot change the data provider within the GUI, and is not informed who the default data provider is. The browser also sends Google's cookie with each update request. Some internet privacy advocacy groups have expressed concerns surrounding Google's possible uses of this data, especially that Firefox's privacy policy states that Google may share information (that is not personally identifying) gathered with "safebrowsing" service with third parties, including business partners. Following Google CEO Eric Schmidt's comments in December 2009 regarding privacy during a CNBC show, Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's director of community development suggested that users use the Bing search engine instead of Google search. Google also promoted Firefox through YouTube until the release of Google Chrome. In August 2009, Mozilla Security assisted Google by pointing out a security flaw in Google's Chrome browser. As of July 2011, Firefox's default search provider still is Google.

In 2005, the Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation had a combined revenue of US$52.9 million, with approximately 95% derived from search engine royalties. In 2006, the Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation had a combined revenue of US$66.9 million, with approximately 90% derived from search engine royalties. In 2007, the Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation had a combined revenue of US$81 million, with 88% of this sum (US$66 million) from Google. In 2008, both Mozilla organizations had a combined revenue of US$78.6 million, with 91% coming from Google. The Mozilla Foundation and Corporation are being audited by the IRS with the possibility of having its non-profit status called into question.

Response from Microsoft

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. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has used Firefox, but has commented that "it's just another browser, and IE [Microsoft's Internet Explorer] is better".

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." The release of Internet Explorer 7 was fast tracked, and included functionality that was previously available in Firefox and other browsers, such as tabbed browsing and RSS feeds.

Despite the cold reception from Microsoft's top management, the Internet Explorer development team maintains a relationship with Mozilla. They meet regularly to discuss web standards such as extended validation certificates. In 2005, Mozilla agreed to allow Microsoft to use its Web feed logo in the interest of common graphical representation of the Web feeds feature.

In August 2006, Microsoft offered to help Mozilla integrate Firefox with the then-forthcoming Windows Vista, an offer Mozilla accepted.

In October 2006, as congratulations for a successful ship of Firefox 2, the Internet Explorer 7 development team sent a cake to Mozilla. As a nod to the browser wars, some jokingly suggested that Mozilla send a cake back along with the recipe, in reference to the open-source software movement. The IE development team sent another cake on June 17, 2008, upon the successful release of Firefox 3, again on March 22, 2011, for Firefox 4, and yet again for the Firefox 5 release.

In November 2007, Jeff Jones (a "security strategy director" in Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group) criticized Firefox, claiming that Internet Explorer experienced fewer vulnerabilities and fewer higher severity vulnerabilities than Firefox in typical enterprise scenarios. Mozilla developer Mike Shaver discounted the study, citing Microsoft's bundling of security fixes and the study's focus on fixes, rather than vulnerabilities, as crucial flaws.

Firefox was one of the twelve browsers offered to European Economic Area users of Microsoft Windows in 2010 – see BrowserChoice.eu.

.NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1

In February 2009, Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for version 3.5 of the .NET Framework. This update also installed Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant add-on (enabling ClickOnce support). The update received media attention after users discovered that the add-on could not be uninstalled through the add-ons interface. Several hours after the website Annoyances.org posted an article regarding this update, Microsoft employee Brad Abrams posted in his blog Microsoft's explanation for why the add-on was installed, and also included detailed instructions on how to remove it. However, the only way to get rid of this extension was to modify manually the Windows Registry, which could cause Windows systems to fail to boot up if not done correctly.

On 16 October 2009, Mozilla blocked all versions of Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant from being used with Firefox and from the Mozilla Add-ons service. Two days later, the add-on was removed from the blocklist after confirmation from Microsoft that it is not a vector for vulnerabilities. Version 1.1 (released on June 10, 2009 to the Mozilla Add-ons service) and later of the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant allows the user to disable and uninstall in the normal fashion.

Vulnerability statistics

Firefox security vulnerabilities have been patched relatively quickly. Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report Vol. 10, based on data from the first half of 2006, reported that while Firefox had more public vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer during that time period (47 vs. 38), Firefox's vulnerabilities were fixed on average one day after the exploit code was made available, as compared to nine days for Internet Explorer.

InfoWorld has cited security experts saying that as Firefox becomes more popular, more vulnerabilities will be found, a claim that Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla Foundation, has denied: "There is this idea that market share alone will make you have more vulnerabilities. It is not relational at all."

Expert and media coverage

The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) stated in October 2004 that Internet Explorer's design makes it very difficult to secure. In contrast, almost none of their concerns apply to Firefox.

There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model, local file system (Local Machine Zone) trust, the Dynamic HTML (DHTML) document object model (in particular, proprietary DHTML features), the HTML Help system, MIME type determination, the graphical user interface (GUI), and ActiveX... IE is integrated into Windows to such an extent that vulnerabilities in IE frequently provide an attacker significant access to the operating system.

Some security experts, including Bruce Schneier and David A. Wheeler, recommended that users should stop using Internet Explorer 6 or earlier for normal browsing, and switch to a different browser instead; Wheeler specifically recommended Firefox.

Several technology columnists have suggested the same, including Wall Street Journal columnist Walter S. Mossberg, Washington Post columnist Rob Pegoraro, USA Today’s Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz, Forbes's Arik Hesseldahl, eWeek.com Senior Editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, and Desktop Pipeline’s Scot Finnie.

Awards

Firefox has been given a number of awards by various organizations. These awards include:

• Tom's Hardware Web Browser Grand Prix Champion 9 (Windows), February 2012
• Tom's Hardware Web Browser Grand Prix Champion 8 (Windows), January 2012
• Tom's Hardware Web Browser Grand Prix Champion 7, September 2011
• PC Magazine Editors' Choice, June 2008
• CNET Editors' Choice, June 2008
• PC World 100 Best Products of 2008, May 2008
• Webware 100 winner, April 2008
• 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 (Mozilla Foundation), 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

See also

• The Book of Mozilla
• List of web browsers
• Month of bugs
• Mozilla Prism
• Netscape Navigator
• Timeline of web browsers
• Web browser history
• XULRunner

Further reading

• Cheah, Chu Yeow (2005). Firefox Secrets: A Need-To-Know Guide. O'Reilly. ISBN 0-9752402-4-2.
• Feldt, Kenneth C. (2007). Programming Firefox. O'Reilly. ISBN 0-596-10243-7.
• Granneman, Scott (2005). Don't Click on the Blue e!: Switching to Firefox. O'Reilly. ISBN 0-596-00939-9.
• Hofmann, Chris (2005). Firefox and Thunderbird Garage. Prentice Hall PTR. ISBN 0-13-187004-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• 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.

External links

• Official website for end-users
• Firefox Nightly Builds
• Firefox ESR Builds
• Mozilla Foundation homepage
• Firefox Marketing/Advertising Site
• Template:Dmoz