Jump to content

History of Firefox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Wrldwzrd89 (talk | contribs) at 11:06, 29 August 2012 (→‎Version 18: Conflict has been confirmed). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Mozilla Firefox project was created by Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross as an experimental branch of the Mozilla browser. Firefox 1.0 was released on November 9, 2004. Firefox 1.5 was released on November 29, 2005. Version 2.0 was released on October 24, 2006. Firefox 3.0 was released on June 17, 2008, with Version 3.5 and Version 3.6 released on June 30, 2009 and January 21, 2010 respectively. Version 4.0 was released on March 22, 2011. With Version 5.0 onwards the rapid release cycle was realised which envisions a new major version release every six weeks on Tuesday. The latest version, Firefox 15.0 was released on August 28, 2012.

History

Naming

The project which became Firefox started as an experimental branch of the Mozilla Suite called m/b (or mozilla/browser). After it had been sufficiently developed, binaries for public testing appeared in September 2002 under the name Phoenix.

The Phoenix name was kept until April 14, 2003, when it was changed because of a trademark dispute with the BIOS manufacturer, Phoenix Technologies (which produces a BIOS-based browser called Phoenix FirstWare Connect). The new name, Firebird, met with mixed reactions, particularly as the Firebird database server already carried the name. In response, the Mozilla Foundation stated that the browser should always bear the name Mozilla Firebird to avoid confusion with the database software. Continuing pressure from the Firebird community forced another change,[1] and on February 9, 2004 the project was renamed Mozilla Firefox (or Firefox for short).[2]

The name "Firefox" (a reference to the red panda)[3] was chosen for its similarity to "Firebird", but also for its uniqueness in the computing industry. To ensure that no further name changes would be necessary, the Mozilla Foundation began the process of registering Firefox[4] as a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in December 2003. This trademark process led to a delay of several months in the release of Firefox 0.8 when the foundation discovered that Firefox had already been registered as a trademark in the UK[5] for Charlton Company software.[6] The situation was resolved when the foundation was given a license to use Charlton's European trademark.

Early versions

Phoenix 0.1, the first official release

Hyatt, Ross, Hewitt and Chanial's[7] browser was created to combat the software bloat of the Mozilla Suite (codenamed, internally referred to, and continued by the community as SeaMonkey), which integrated features such as IRC, mail and news, and WYSIWYG HTML editing into one software suite.

Firefox retains the cross-platform nature of the original Mozilla browser, using the XUL user interface markup language. The use of XUL makes it possible to extend the browser's capabilities through the use of extensions and themes. 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. The use of XUL sets Firefox apart from other browsers, including other projects based on Mozilla's Gecko layout engine and most other browsers, which use interfaces native to their respective platforms (Galeon and Epiphany use GTK+; K-Meleon uses MFC; and Camino uses Cocoa). Many of these projects were started before Firefox, and probably served as inspiration.

On February 5, 2004, business and IT consulting company AMS categorized Mozilla Firefox (then known as Firebird) as a "Tier 1" ("Best of Breed") open source product, considering it technically strong and virtually risk-free.[8]

Version 1.0

Firefox 1.0, the first release targeted for general public

Firefox 1.0 was released on November 9, 2004[9]. The launch of version 1.0 was accompanied by "a respectable amount of pre-launch fervor"[10] including a fan-organized campaign to run a full-page ad in The New York Times.

Although the Mozilla Foundation had intended to make the Mozilla Suite obsolete and replace it with Firefox, the Foundation continued to maintain the suite until April 12, 2006[11] because it had many corporate users and was bundled with other software. The Mozilla community (as opposed to the Foundation) continues to release new versions of the suite, using the product name SeaMonkey to avoid confusion with the original Mozilla Suite.

Version 1.5

"Deer Park", the codename of the Firefox 1.1 and 1.5 Alphas, did not include Firefox branding.

On June 23, 2005, the Mozilla Foundation announced that Firefox 1.1 (which became Firefox 1.5) and other new Mozilla products would no longer support Mac OS X v10.1, in order to improve the quality of Firefox releases on Mac OS X v10.2 and above. Mac 10.1 users could still use Firefox versions from the 1.0.x branch (e.g. Firefox 1.0.7).

Updated options window introduced in Firefox 1.5

Firefox 1.5 was released on November 30, 2005. While Firefox 1.5 was originally slated to arrive later, the Mozilla Foundation abandoned the 1.1 release plan after the first two 1.1 alpha builds, merging it with the feature set of 1.5, which ended up being released later than the original 1.1 date. The new version resynchronized the code base of the release builds (as opposed to nightly builds) with the core "trunk", which contained additional features not available in 1.0, as it branched from the trunk around the 0.9 release. As such, there was a backlog of bug fixes between 0.9 and the release of 1.0, which were made available in 1.5. Version 1.5 implemented a new Mac-like options interface, the subject of much criticism from Windows and Linux users, with a "Sanitize" action to allow someone to clear their privacy-related information without manually clicking the "Clear All" button. In Firefox 1.5, a user could clear all privacy-related settings simply by exiting the browser or using a keyboard shortcut, depending on their settings. Moreover, the software update system was improved (with binary patches now possible). There were also improvements in the extension management system, with a number of new developer features.

In addition, Firefox 1.5 had preliminary SVG 1.1 support.[12]

Alpha builds of Firefox 1.5 (1.1a1 and 1.1a2) did not carry Firefox branding; they were labeled "Deer Park" (which was Firefox 1.5's internal codename) and contained a different program icon. This was done to dissuade end-users from downloading preview versions, which are intended for developers only.

Firefox 1.5.0.12 was the final version supported on Windows 95.

Version 2

Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.12 running on Ubuntu

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,[13][14] and later merged into the program itself.[15] 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.[16] 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.[17]


Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.x was the final version supported on Windows NT 4.0, 98 and Me. Mozilla Corporation announced it would not develop new versions of Firefox 2 after the 2.0.0.20 release, but continued Firefox 2 development as long as other programs, such as Thunderbird mail client, depended on it. The final internal release was 2.0.0.22, released in late April 2009.

Version 3

Mozilla Firefox 3.0 on Ubuntu

Firefox 3 was released on June 17, 2008,[18] 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.[19] 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 final version under 3.0 is Firefox 3.0.19.

Development stretches back to the first Firefox 3 beta (under the codename 'Gran Paradiso'[20]) which had been released several months earlier on 19 November 2007,[21] and was followed by several more beta releases in spring 2008 culminating in the June release.[22] Firefox 3 had more than 8 million unique downloads the day it was released, setting a Guinness World Record.[23]

Version 3.5

Firefox 3.5 on Ubuntu

Version 3.5, codenamed Shiretoko,[24] 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.[25] 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,[26] 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 problems associated with many video technologies.[27] 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.[28] 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.[29] 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.[30] Firefox 3.5 also features an updated logo.[31]

Version 3.6

Version 3.6, released on January 21, 2010, uses the Gecko 1.9.2 engine and includes several interface improvements, such as "personas". This release was referred to as 3.2 before 3.1 was changed to 3.5. The codename for this version was Namoroka.

One minor update to Firefox 3.6, version 3.6.4 (code-named Lorentz) is the first minor update to make non-intrusive changes other than minor stability and security fixes.[32] It adds Out of Process Plugins (OOPP), which runs plugins in a separate process, allowing Firefox to recover from plugin crashes.

Firefox 3.6.6 lengthens the amount of time a plug-in is allowed to be unresponsive before the plug-in quits.[33]

Support for Firefox 3.6 ended on 24 April 2012.[34]

Version 4.0

Firefox 4.0 displaying Wikipedia on Windows 7

Firefox 3.7 (Gecko 1.9.3) Alpha 1 was released on February 10, 2010.[35][36] Alpha 2 was released on March 1, 2010, Alpha 3 on March 17, Alpha 4 on April 12, and Alpha 5 on June 16. The version number was changed to 4.0 (and Gecko's was changed to 2.0) starting with Beta 1, released on July 6, 2010. Beta 2 was released on July 27, Beta 3 on August 11, Beta 4 on August 24, Beta 5 on September 7, Beta 6 (a chemspill release) on September 14. After major delays, Beta 7 was finally released on November 10. Beta 7 was followed by Beta 8, released on December 21. Beta 9 was released on January 14, 2011, Beta 10 on January 25, Beta 11 on February 8, and Beta 12 on February 12. Firefox then moved into the RC stage.[37] The Final Version of Firefox 4 was released on March 22, 2011.[38]

Version 4 brought a new user interface and is said to be faster.[39] Early mockups of the new interface on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux were first made available in July 2009.[40][41][42] Other new features included improved notifications, tab groups, application tabs, a redesigned add-on manager, integration with Firefox Sync, and support for multitouch displays.[43][44][45][46][47]

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.[48] 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.[49][50] It also included a new JavaScript engine (JägerMonkey) and better XPCOM APIs.[51]

Rapid release

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.[52] The stated aim of this faster-paced process is to get new features to users faster.[53] This accelerated release cycle was met with criticism by users, as it often broke addon compatibility,[54] as well as those who believe Firefox was simply trying to increase its version number to compare with other browsers such as Google Chrome.[55]

Version 5

Firefox 5 was released on June 21, 2011,[56] 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.[57] 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.[58]

Version 6

File:Firefox Scratchpad.png
ScratchPad

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[59]), streamlining the look of the site identity block, quicker startup time, a ScratchPad JavaScript compiler, and many other new features.[60]

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.[61][62][63] 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.[64] The "http://" protocol indicator no longer appears in the URL.[59]

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.[65]

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 problems. It also features a large list of bug fixes.[66]

Version 10

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.[67] Firefox 10 adds a Full Screen API and improved WebGL performance.[68]

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.[69]

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.[70]

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.[68]

Version 11

3D Page Inspector
Firefox for Ubuntu

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).[71] The update also fixed many bugs, and improved developer tools.[72]

Version 12

Firefox 12 was released on April 24, 2012. 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 find in page results. There were 89 improvements to Web Console, Scratchpad, Style Editor, Page Inspector, Style Inspector, HTML view and Page Inspector 3D view (Tilt).[73] Many bugs were fixed, as well as many other minor under-the-hood changes.[74][75] Firefox 12 is the final release to support Windows 2000 and Windows XP RTM & SP1.[76][77]

Version 13

File:Firefox 13 Tab Page.png
New Tab page
Home tab page

Firefox 13 was released on June 5th, 2012.[52] Firefox 13 adds and updates several features, such as an updated new tab[78] and home tab page.[79] The updated new tab page is a feature similar to the Speed Dial already present in Opera, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and Windows Internet Explorer. The new tab page will display nine of the user's most visited websites, along with a cached image.

In addition to the updated new tab and home tab page, Mozilla has added a user profile cleaner/reset, reduced hang times, and implemented tabs on demand.[80] The user profile cleaner/reset provides a way for users to fix Firefox errors and glitches that may occur.[81] Mozilla's tabs on demand restores tabs that were open in the previous session, but will keep the tabs unloaded until the user requests to view the page.[82]

Starting with this version, Windows support was exclusively for Windows XP SP2/SP3, Windows Vista, & Windows 7.

Version 14

Firefox 14.0 for Android was released on June 26, 2012, just outside the regular release schedule of the web browser.[83][52] In order to sync up the version numbers of the desktop and mobile version of Firefox, Mozilla decided to release Firefox 14.0.1 for mobile and desktop on July 17, 2012, instead of Firefox 14.0 for the desktop and Firefox 14.0.1 for mobile clients.[83] Mozilla plans to implement support for Windows 8 in Firefox 14. Firefox for Metro, like all other Metro apps, will be fullscreen, focused on touch interactions, and connected to the rest of the Metro environment. Firefox will support three "snap" states — fullscreen, ~1/6th screen and ~5/6th screen. The "snap" state Firefox uses depends on how the user "docks" the other application.[84]

A new hang detector (similar to how Mozilla currently collects other data) allows Mozilla to collect, analyze, and identify the cause of the browser freezing/hanging. Mozilla will use this information to improve the responsiveness of Firefox for future releases.[85]

In addition to tackling freezing and not-responding errors that occur because of Firefox, Mozilla implemented opt-in activation for plugins such as Flash and Java. Mozilla wants to reduce potential problems that could arise through the unwanted use of third-party applications (malware, freezing, etc.).[86]

URL complete will suggest the website that Firefox believes the user plans on visiting. It does this by inserting the remaining characters into the URL form box.[87]

Firefox 14 has an optional GStreamer back-end for HTML5 video tag playback. This allows playback of H.264 if the codec is installed as a GStreamer plugin. GStreamer support is not enabled in the official builds, but can be enabled at compile time.

The first beta version of Firefox 14 was not beta 1, but beta 6[88] and was released on June 5th, 2012.

Version 15

Firefox 15 was released on August 28, 2012.[52] Mozilla has provided this list of features that it hopes to implement, but these features are likely to be pushed back to a later release version.[89]

This version includes a "Responsive Design View" developer tool[90], adds support for the Opus audio format [91] and adds preliminary native PDF support (turned off by default).[92]

Silent updates will automatically update Firefox to the latest version without notifying the user,[93] a feature that the web browsers Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 8 and above have already implemented.[94][95]

Mozilla will improve regular start-up time for Windows users.[96]

Future releases

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

As of August 2012, Firefox 16 beta is in the "Beta" channel, Firefox 17 alpha is in the "Aurora" channel, and Firefox 18 pre-alpha is in the "Nightly" 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.[97] A different looking user-interface called "Australis" is also planned.[98]

Version 16

Firefox 16 is scheduled to be released on October 9, 2012.

Current plans for Firefox 16 call for fixing of bugs still outstanding involving support of new features in Mac OS X Lion, improvements to start-up speed when a user wants to restore a previous session.[99], and support for viewing PDF files inline without a plugin.

Version 17

Firefox 17 is scheduled to be released on November 20, 2012. Firefox 17 ESR is also scheduled to be released on November 20, 2012.

Very few features are targeted for Firefox 17 at this time - there are only two: Improved display of location bar results[100] and improvements to the silent update mechanism for users with incompatible add-ons[101].

Version 18

Firefox 18 is scheduled to be released on January 1, 2013, but this will be changed due to a conflict with New Year's Day[102].

Only one feature is targeted for Firefox 18: A panel-based download manager[103].

Extended Support Release

In January 2012, the Mozilla Foundation announced the availability of an Extended Support Release version of Firefox.[104] Firefox ESR is intended for groups who deploy and maintain the desktop environment in large organizations such as universities and other schools, county or city governments and businesses.

ESR include silent, automatic updating, continuity of support through 9 cycles (54 weeks), with the final 2 cycles overlapping the next version.

Example: ESR jumps from 10.0 to 17.0, then to 24.0 etc.

Every six weeks when a new mainstream Firefox release is made under the rapid release cycle, a regular security update would also be released for the then-current ESR version. For example, ESR 10.0.1 would be expected to be released at the same time as Firefox 11. Then ESR 10.0.2, 10.0.3 etc. would also be released. At Firefox 16, ESR would reach version 10.0.6. At Firefox 17 and Firefox 18, there would be two ESR versions supported. Respectively, ESR 10.0.7 and ESR 17.0.0; ESR 10.0.8, ESR 17.0.1. Finally, when Firefox reaches 19.0, ESR 10.0 would go end-of-life alongside the release of ESR 17.0.2. The cycle repeats again.

Note: Users can only manually get ESR 17.0.x from ESR 10.0.x through Firefox Updater.[105][106]

However, severe flaws discovered in a shipping version of Firefox may disrupt the regular release schedule. For example, two unplanned releases of Firefox 10.0.1 and 10.0.2 were made within 17 days of the initial release of Firefox 10. Firefox ESR 10.0.1 and 10.0.2 were also released at the same times to address the same flaws. Therefore, assuming no further critical flaws are discovered in the interim, the next regular scheduled security and stability update for Firefox ESR 10.0.x, coinciding with Firefox 11, will actually be Firefox ESR 10.0.3, and all future versions of Firefox ESR 10.0.x will be similarly offset relative to the version progression presented above.

"Delicious delicacies"

A screenshot showing the "cookies are delicious delicacies" line

Early Firefox releases featured a preferences panel that described cookies thus: "Cookies are delicious delicacies".

The phrase was representative of the programmers' quirky sense of humor and was a reflection of the free software movement's unconventional approach. The phrase became something of a cult legend and was even featured in an O'Reilly computer book.

The original text was inserted by Blake Ross, one of the lead developers of Firefox, because, he said, "describing something so complicated in such a small space was quite frankly the last thing I wanted to worry about after rewriting the cookie manager".

However, in reflection of the growing acceptance and use of the Firefox browser in the Internet mainstream, the text was later changed. It was labeled a bug,[107] and was "fixed" by Mike Connor to read, "Cookies are pieces of information stored by web pages on your computer. They are used to remember login information and other data." The revision was regarded as more likely to be helpful to less technically oriented computer users who were now using Firefox—representing Mozilla's desire to appeal to mainstream users.

The text became a popular in-joke and on August 2004, the Delicious Delicacies extension, no longer maintained or updated, was released by Jesse Ruderman. The extension restored the old description of cookies, available in several languages.

As of Firefox 2.0, cookies are no longer described in the preferences window.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Festa, Paul (February 10, 2004). "New Mozilla name rises from ashes". CNet News. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
  2. ^ "NEW ROUND OF RELEASES EXTENDS MOZILLA PROJECT’S STANDARDS BASED OPEN SOURCE OFFERINGS". archive.mozilla.org. Mozilla Foundation. June 13, 2005. Retrieved April 3, 2011. {{cite web}}: C1 control character in |title= at position 46 (help)
  3. ^ "Brand Name Frequently Asked Questions". Retrieved July 28, 2011.
  4. ^ U.S. Trademark 78,344,043
  5. ^ UK Trademark 2,007,607
  6. ^ Class 09: Computer software for use in managed communications and connectivity. Class 42: Computer consultancy services; licensing and rental of computer software; design and development of computer software; maintenance, installation and up-dating of computer software; advisory services relating to computer programs and software
  7. ^ www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/releases/0.1.html
  8. ^ Keating, Wick (2004-02-05). "Open source: Swimming with the tide. In Consultants' Briefing". CIO Magazine.
  9. ^ "Mozilla Firefox 1.0 Release Notes". Mozilla. 2004-11-09. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  10. ^ "Firefox browser takes on Microsoft". BBC News. 2004-11-09. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  11. ^ "Mozilla Developer News » Blog Archive » Sunset Announcement for Fx/Tb 1.0.x and Mozilla Suite 1.7.x". Mozilla Developer Network. 2006-04-12. Retrieved 2009-08-06.
  12. ^ as shown in Mozilla's Bugzilla database
  13. ^ "Google Safe Browsing for Firefox". Google. Retrieved 2007-02-05.
  14. ^ Mozilla wiki contributors. "Phishing Protection Design Documentation — Background". Mozilla wiki. Retrieved 2007-01-24. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  15. ^ "Mozilla Firefox 2 Release Notes". Mozilla Corporation. Retrieved 2006-12-19.
  16. ^ "Firefox Support Blog » Blog Archive » Firefox Live Chat launching today". The Mozilla Blog. 2007-12-28. Retrieved 2009-12-19.
  17. ^ "Firefox 2.0.0.20 Release Notes". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-30.
  18. ^ "Firefox 3 available today at 17:00 UTC (10am PDT)". Mozilla Developer Center. 2008-06-17. Retrieved 2008-02-17.
  19. ^ "Firefox 3 for developers". Mozilla Developer Center. 2007-07-17. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
  20. ^ Vukicevic, Vladimir (June 2, 2006). "Gecko 1.9/Firefox 3 ("Gran Paradiso") Planning Meeting, Wednesday Jun 7, 11:00 am". Google Groups: mozilla.dev.planning. Retrieved 2006-09-17.
  21. ^ Mike Beltzner. "Firefox 3 Beta 1 now available for download". Mozilla Developer News.
  22. ^ Mike Beltzner. "Firefox 3 Beta 2 now available for download". Mozilla Developer News. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
  23. ^ Montalbano, Elizabeth (2008-06-18). "Mozilla Logs 8 Million-plus Firefox 3 Downloads in a Day". PCWorld. Retrieved 2009-04-30. See also: Montalbano, Elizabeth (2008-05-28). "Mozilla Shooting for Record Books With Firefox 3 Release". PCWorld. Retrieved 2009-04-30.
  24. ^ "Firefox 3.1 "Shiretoko"". 2008-06-12. Retrieved 2008-06-12.
  25. ^ Mike Shaver (March 6, 2009). "Shiretoko (Firefox 3.1) being renamed to Firefox 3.5". Newsgroupmozilla.dev.planning. mailman.34.1236360325.4415.dev-planning@lists.mozilla.org. {{cite newsgroup}}: Unknown parameter |server= ignored (help)
  26. ^ Scott M. Fulton, III (2009-07-01). "The final score: Firefox 3.5 performs at 251% the speed of 3.0". Betanews. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
  27. ^ Dan Warne (2007-05-07). "Firefox to go head-to-head with Flash and Silverlight". APC Magazine. ACP Magazines Ltd. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
  28. ^ "HTTP Access Control". 2009-06-29. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
  29. ^ "es3.1:json_support". ECMA.
  30. ^ Kim, Arnold (2008-12-10). "Latest Firefox 3.1 Beta Adds Multi-Touch Support". Mac Rumors. Retrieved 2009-01-17.
  31. ^ Alex Faaborg (2009-05-15). "Creative Brief for the New Firefox Icon". Retrieved 2009-05-30.
  32. ^ "Firefox 3.6 due this month; next comes 'Lorentz'". CNET News. 2009-01-13. Retrieved 2010-01-17.
  33. ^ "Mozilla Firefox 3.6.6 Release Notes". Mozilla. 2010-06-26.
  34. ^ "Firefox 3.6 Support To end On April 24, 2012". Ghacks.net. Retrieved 2012-04-03.
  35. ^ "Mozilla Wiki". Wiki.mozilla.org. 2010-02-02. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  36. ^ "Release Notes: Mozilla Developer Preview". Mozilla. Archived from the original on 2010-02-13. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
  37. ^ "Mozilla confirms Firefox 4 beta 12 is FINAL test build". The Register. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  38. ^ "Releases - MozillaWiki". Wiki.mozilla.org. 2012-01-31. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  39. ^ "Mozilla spills plan for, yes, Firefox 4". The Register. 2010-05-10. Retrieved 2010-05-10.
  40. ^ "Firefox 4.0 Windows Theme Mockups". Mozilla. 2010-06-02. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  41. ^ "Firefox 4.0 Mac Theme Mockups". Mozilla. 2010-06-16. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  42. ^ "Firefox 4.0 Linux Theme Mockups". Mozilla. 2010-07-21. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  43. ^ "What are Tab Groups?".
  44. ^ Aza Raskin. "Firefox Panorama: Tab Candy Evolved". Retrieved 2010-09-11.
  45. ^ Stephen Shankland (2010-05-11). "Firefox 4 release plan: The need for speed". cnet. Retrieved 2010-05-28.
  46. ^ "Sync in Firefox 4 Beta". Mozilla Labs. 2010-08-24. Retrieved 2010-09-11.[dead link]
  47. ^ Stephen Shankland (2010-05-28). "Mozilla prepares coders for Firefox 4 features". cnet. Retrieved 2010-05-28.
  48. ^ Eich, Brendan (2006-10-13). "Mozilla 2". Retrieved 2006-09-16.[dead link]
  49. ^ Henri Sivonen (2010-05-11). "Firefox 4 HTML 5 parser". Retrieved 2010-05-11.
  50. ^ Beltzner, Mike (2010-05-10). "Firefox 4: fast, powerful, and empowering". Retrieved 2010-05-10.
  51. ^ Christopher Blizzard (2010-03-08). "a quick note on JavaScript engine components". Retrieved 2010-03-19.
  52. ^ a b c d "Firefox Rapid Release Calendar". Mozilla.org. Retrieved 2012-05-10.
  53. ^ "Mozilla Firefox: Development Process". Mozilla. 2011-04-07. Retrieved 2011-04-16.
  54. ^ "firefox is updating way too often". http://support.mozilla.org. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  55. ^ "Mozilla goes version number crazy". ZDNet. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
  56. ^ "Mozilla Firefox Web Browser—Free Download". Mozilla.
  57. ^ "Firefox update policy: the enterprise is wrong, not Mozilla". Ars Technica. 27 June 2011.
  58. ^ "Firefox Release Tracking". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-04-21.
  59. ^ a b "Classic Compact Options :: Add-ons for Firefox". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  60. ^ "Mozilla Firefox 6 Release Notes". Mozilla. 2011-08-16. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  61. ^ Nicholas Nethercote (August 9, 2011). "Firefox 7 is lean and fast". Retrieved August 17, 2011.
  62. ^ "Performance/MemShrink". Mozilla. Retrieved August 11, 2011.
  63. ^ Mello, John P. (2011-08-19). "Firefox 7 Beta Puts Priority on Performance". PCWorld. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
  64. ^ "Mozilla Firefox 7.0.1 Release Notes". Mozilla. Retrieved 2011-10-03.
  65. ^ "Firefox 8 cracks down on add-ons - ZDNet Asia News". Zdnetasia.com. 2011-11-09. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
  66. ^ "Mozilla Firefox Release Notes". Mozilla.org. 2011-12-20. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
  67. ^ Paul, Ryan (2012-01-31). "Firefox 10 arrives with new dev tools and full-screen API". Arstechnica.com. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
  68. ^ a b zebra148 (2012-02-02). "Firefox 10 eases add-on updates but no Android yet". ZDNet. Retrieved 2012-03-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  69. ^ Scott, Justin. "Add-ons default to compatible". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-04-21.
  70. ^ Mozilla (2012-01-31). "Mozilla Firefox 10 Release Notes". Mozilla Corporation. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
  71. ^ "Mozilla Firefox 11 test plan". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  72. ^ "Firefox 11 Release Notes". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  73. ^ "Aurora 12 is out – improvements and updated Developer Tools". Mozilla.org. 2012-02-03. Retrieved 2012-05-10.
  74. ^ "Mozilla Firefox 12 test plan". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  75. ^ "Firefox 12 Release Notes". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  76. ^ "Firefox 3.6 official support to end Tuesday". Neowin. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
  77. ^ "End of Firefox Support for Windows 2000". MozillaZine Weblogs. January 27, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  78. ^ "New Tab Page". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  79. ^ "Home Tab". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  80. ^ "Test Plan Firefox 13". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  81. ^ "User profile reset/cleaner". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  82. ^ "Tabs on Demand". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  83. ^ a b Brinkmann, Martin (2012-07-17). "Firefox 14.0.1 available, Why there won't be a Firefox 14.0 release". ghacks.net. Retrieved 2012-07-17.
  84. ^ "Windows8 Metro Firefox". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
  85. ^ "Hang detector and reporter". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  86. ^ "Opt-in activation for plugins". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
  87. ^ "Inline URL autocomplete". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  88. ^ "Beta 6 to be first beta version of Firefox". Camp-Firefox (German). Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  89. ^ "Firefox 15 test plan". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-04-26.
  90. ^ "Debugger, Responsive Design View and more in Firefox Aurora 15". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-07-20.
  91. ^ "Firefox Beta 15 supports the new Opus audio format". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-07-20.
  92. ^ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/15.0/releasenotes/
  93. ^ "Silent Updater". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  94. ^ Thomas Duebendorfer1, Stefan Frei, Why Silent Updates Boost Security, April 2009
  95. ^ Peter Bright, State of the Browser: Chrome closes on Firefox, IE6 dying out, Ars Technica
  96. ^ "Start-up Performance Improvements". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-04-26.
  97. ^ Gregg Keizer. "Mozilla aims to add silent updating to Firefox 10". Computerworld.com. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
  98. ^ "Mozilla unveils new Firefox interface for Firefox 9 and beyond". ExtremeTech. 2011-07-01. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
  99. ^ "Speedy session restore". Mozilla. Retrieved 2012-04-21.
  100. ^ "Improved display of location bar results". Mozilla Wiki. Mozilla. Retrieved 7/31/2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  101. ^ "Silent update: improvements for users with incompatible add-ons". Mozilla Wiki. Mozilla. Retrieved 7/31/2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  102. ^ "Rapid Release Calendar". Mozilla Wiki. Mozilla. Retrieved 8/29/2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  103. ^ "Panel-based download manager". Mozilla Wiki. Mozilla. Retrieved 8/28/2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  104. ^ "Delivering a Mozilla Firefox Extended Support Release". January 10, 2012. Retrieved February 04, 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  105. ^ www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/faq
  106. ^ wiki.mozilla.org/Enterprise/Firefox/ExtendedSupport:Proposal#Proposal
  107. ^ "Bugzilla.Mozilla.org". Bugzilla.Mozilla.org. Retrieved 2012-02-07.

References