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Mozilla Firefox (formerly known as Phoenix and later Mozilla Firebird) is a web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation.

File:Firefox091.png
Mozilla Firefox 0.9.1 (Windows XP)

With Firefox, the Mozilla Foundation aims to develop a small, fast, simple, and highly-extensible browser-only application separate from the Mozilla suite. Firefox has become the main focus of Mozilla development and will become the official browser release of the Mozilla Foundation and part of the Mozilla suite when deemed ready.

The Firefox project started as an experimental branch of the Mozilla browser project when a group of developers perceived that project as overly compromised by the commercial requirements of Netscape's sponsorship on one hand and by developer-driven feature creep on the other.

Ben Goodger currently heads the Firefox project.

Development

Mozilla Firefox retains the cross-platform nature of the original Mozilla browser, using the XUL user interface language. Use of XUL makes it possible to extend the browser's capabilities through the use of themes (skins) and extensions. However, the development and installation processes of these add-ons raised security concerns and with the release of Firefox 0.9, the Mozilla Foundation opened a Mozilla Update website containing "approved" themes and extensions.

Use of XUL sets Firefox apart from other projects based on Mozilla's Gecko layout engine, such as Galeon, Epiphany, K-Meleon, and Camino, and most other browsers, which use interfaces native to their respective platforms. The Mozilla Foundation takes pride in Gecko's support for standards.

Future releases of Mozilla are envisaged as consisting of Mozilla Firefox coupled with Mozilla Thunderbird, a standalone mail client built on similar principles to Firefox; to replace the current all-in-one application suite known simply as Mozilla (previously codenamed SeaMonkey).

All official Mozilla Foundation work will center on the standalone browser and mail client, but the Foundation anticipates that volunteers and corporate users will continue to maintain the SeaMonkey application suite. Mozilla Firefox stripped out several features and much of the interface from the SeaMonkey suite, labeling them as application bloat.

On 5 February 2004 the business and IT consulting company AMS categorized Mozilla Firefox (then Firebird) as a "Tier 1" (meaning "Best of Breed") open source product (Keating, 2004). This means that AMS considered Firebird virtually risk-free and technically strong.

History of the name

The project which became Firefox started as an experimental branch of Mozilla called "mozilla/browser." The developers originally intended to create the best possible browser for Microsoft Windows and Linux, leaving the Apple Macintosh to Camino. When sufficiently developed, binaries for public testing appeared in 2002 under the name "Phoenix."

The new browser retained the name "Phoenix" until April 14, 2003, when a name change took place because of trademark issues with Phoenix Technologies, a BIOS manufacturer. The new name — initially just "Firebird" without "Mozilla" prepended — met with mixed reaction. Users and developers of the Firebird database server claimed that a Firebird web browser caused confusion. In late April 2003, the Mozilla Organization published a document stating that the browser should be referred to as "Mozilla Firebird" and not just "Firebird."

On 9 February 2004, the Mozilla Organization renamed Mozilla Firebird as "Mozilla Firefox" due to strong pressure from the Open Source community to resolve the name conflict with Firebird database server. They chose the name "Firefox" for its similarity to "Firebird" but also for its uniqueness in the computing industry. (As an aside, the name "Firefox" can refer to the Red Panda, a red, raccoon-like animal.) On the same day, the Mozilla Foundation released Mozilla Firefox 0.8, including a new download manager and an installer program for Microsoft Windows. In December 2003, the Mozilla Foundation began the process of registering Firefox as a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Due to some people's dissatisfaction with the new name, and also to parody the process of multiple renamings, an extension appeared called Firesomething. This generates a random name for the browser each time it runs, picking one element from each of three customisable lists: a vendor, a type and an animal name — creating results such as Mozilla Moonhorse or Mozilla Webbadger.

Release history

Version Codename Release date Most important changes
Phoenix 0.1 Pescadero September 23, 2002 First release. Customizable toolbar, Quicksearch.
Phoenix 0.2 Santa Cruz October 1, 2002 Sidebar, Extension Management.
Phoenix 0.3 Lucia October 14, 2002 Image blocking, Pop-up Blocking Whitelist, Tabbed Browsing Improvements
Phoenix 0.4 Oceano October 19, 2002 Themes, Improvements to Pop-up Blocking, Toolbar Customization and Tabbled Browsing
Phoenix 0.5 Naples December 7, 2002 Multiple Homepages, Improvements to Sidebar, History and Accessibility
Firebird 0.6 Glendale May 17, 2003 New Default Theme, Improvements to Bookmarks and Privacy Options, Smooth Scrolling, Auto Image Resizing.
Firebird 0.6.1 Glendale July 28, 2003 Some bug-fixes.
Firebird 0.7 Indio October 15, 2003 Autoscroll, Password Manager, Improvements to Preferences Panel.
Firebird 0.7.1 Three Kings October 26, 2003 MacOS X bug-fixes.
Firefox 0.8 Royal Oak February 9, 2004 Windows Installer, Offline Working, Improvements to Bookmarks and Download Manager.
Firefox 0.9 One Tree Hill June 15, 2004 New Default Theme (Winstripe), Comprehensive Data Migration, New Extension/Theme Manager, Smaller Download, New Help System , Linux Installer, Mail Icon (Windows only)
Firefox 0.9.1 One Tree Hill June 28, 2004 Bugfixes, updated Winstripe theme
Next expected release dates
Firefox 1.0 beta Greenlane Early July, 2004 Security UI Review, Privacy Options UI Review, Bundled Extension Review, Critical bugs fixed, GNOME Integration.
Firefox 1.0 Phoenix September, 2004 Critical Bugs fixed.

FYI: 'Three Kings' , 'Royal Oak' , 'One Tree Hill' and 'Greenlane' are names of suburbs in Auckland City, New Zealand.

See also

Help and community

Development

History

References

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