Firefox

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox 12 on Windows 7
Developer(s)	Mozilla Corporation Mozilla Foundation
Initial release	November 9, 2004; 7 years ago (2004-11-09)
Stable release	12.0  (April 24, 2012; 17 days ago (2012-04-24))[1] [+/−]
Preview release	13.0 Beta 2  (May 3, 2012; 8 days ago (2012-05-03))[2] [+/−]
Written in	C/C++, JavaScript,[3] CSS,[4][5] XUL, XBL
Operating system	Microsoft Windows Mac OS X Linux
Engine	Gecko
Size	15 MB – Windows[6] 31 MB – Mac OS X[6] 17 MB – Linux[6] 75 MB – source code[6]
Available in	86 locales (78 languages)[7]
Development status	Active
Type	Web browser
License	MPL, GNU GPL or GNU LGPL[8]
Website	www.mozilla.org/firefox

(category)
Contents
Firefox 5 and higher Firefox 4 Firefox 3 · 3.5 · 3.6 Firefox 2 Firefox 1.5 Firefox Portable History of Firefox Features of Firefox Gecko Add-ons Extensions Firefox market adoption
Origins and lineage
Netscape Navigator Mozilla Foundation Mozilla Suite
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Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source^[9] web browser developed for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux coordinated by Mozilla Corporation and Mozilla Foundation. As of May 2012^[update], Firefox has approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers, making it the third most widely used web browser.^[10][11][12] The browser has had particular success in Indonesia, Germany and Poland, where it is the most popular browser with 67%,^[13] 50%^[14] and 44%^[15] of the market share respectively.

Firefox uses the Gecko layout engine to render web pages, which implements current and anticipated web standards.^[16]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early versions 1.2 Version 2 1.3 Version 3 1.4 Version 3.5 1.5 Version 3.6 1.5.1 Out-of-process plug-ins 1.6 Version 4 1.7 Rapid release 1.7.1 Version 5 1.7.2 Version 6 1.7.3 Version 7 1.7.4 Version 8 1.7.5 Version 9 1.7.6 Version 10 1.7.7 Version 11 1.7.8 Version 12 1.8 Future releases 1.8.1 Version 13 1.8.2 Version 14 1.8.3 Version 15 2 Release history 3 Features 3.1 Standards 3.2 Security 3.3 Telemetry 3.4 Localizations 4 Other versions 4.1 Portable versions 4.2 Firefox for Mobile 4.3 Extended Support Release 4.4 Unofficial ports 5 System requirements 5.1 64-bit builds 5.2 Older operating systems 6 Licensing 6.1 Trademark and logo 6.2 Branding 7 Promotion 8 Market adoption 9 Reception 9.1 Performance 9.2 Relationship with Google 9.3 Response from Microsoft 9.4 .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 9.5 Vulnerability statistics 9.6 Expert and media coverage 9.7 Awards 10 See also 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links

History

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.^[17] 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.^[18]

Early versions

The Firefox project has undergone several name changes. Originally titled Phoenix, it was renamed because of trademark problems with Phoenix Technologies. The replacement name, Firebird, provoked an intense response from the Firebird free database software project.^[19][20][21] 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,^[22] often referred to as simply Firefox. Mozilla prefers that Firefox be abbreviated as Fx or fx, though it is often abbreviated as FF.^[23] 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

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,^[24][25] and later merged into the program itself.^[26] 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.^[27] 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.^[28]

Version 3

Firefox 3 was released on June 17, 2008,^[29] 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.^[30] 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'^[31]) which had been released several months earlier on 19 November 2007,^[32] and was followed by several more beta releases in spring 2008 culminating in the June release.^[33] Firefox 3 had more than 8 million unique downloads the day it was released, setting a Guinness World Record.^[34]

Version 3.5

Version 3.5, codenamed Shiretoko,^[35] 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.^[36] 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,^[37] 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.^[38] 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.^[39] 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.^[40] 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.^[41] Firefox 3.5 also features an updated logo.^[42]

Version 3.6

Version 3.6 is the release codenamed Namoroka.^[43] Development for this version started on December 1, 2008,^[44] and version 3.6 was released on January 21, 2010.^[45] 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,^[46] full screen playback of Theora video, support for the WOFF open webfont format,^[47] a more secure plugin system, and many performance improvements.^[45]

Out-of-process plug-ins

One minor update to Firefox 3.6, version 3.6.4 (code-named Lorentz) features "Crash Protection"^[48] (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.^[49]

Starting with Lorentz, Mozilla plans to release non-intrusive changes as minor updates that previously included only stability and security fixes.^[50]

Version 4

Released on March 22, 2011,^[51][52] Firefox 4 was codenamed "Tumucumaque" after Tumucumaque National Park.

Version 4 brought a new user interface and is said to be faster.^[53] Early mockups of the new interface on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux were first made available in July 2009.^[54][55][56] Other new features included improved notifications, tab groups, application tabs, a redesigned add-on manager, integration with Firefox Sync, and support for multitouch displays.^{[57][58][59][60][61]}

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.^[62] 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.^[63][64] It also included a new JavaScript engine (JägerMonkey) and better XPCOM APIs.^[65]

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.^[66] The stated aim of this faster-paced process is to get new features to users faster.^[67] This accelerated release cycle was met with criticism by users, as it often broke addon compatibility,^[68] as well as those who believe Firefox was simply trying to increase its version number to compare with other browsers such as Google Chrome.^[69]

Version 5

Firefox 5 was released on June 21, 2011,^[70] 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.^[71] 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.^[72]

Version 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^[73]), streamlining the look of the site identity block, quicker startup time, a ScratchPad JavaScript compiler, and many other new features.^[74]

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.^[75][76][77] 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.^[78] The "http://" protocol indicator no longer appears in the URL.^[73]

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.^[79]

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 probelms. It also features a large list of bug fixes.^[80]

Version 10

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.^[81] Firefox 10 adds a Full Screen API and improved WebGL performance.^[82]

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.^[83]

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.^[84]

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.^[82]

Version 11

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).^[85] The update also fixed many bugs, and improved developer tools.^[86]

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).^[87] Many bugs were fixed, as well many other minor under-the-hood changes.^[88][89] Firefox 12 is the final release to support Windows 2000 and Windows XP RTM & SP1.^[90][91]

Future releases

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

Currently (April, 2012) Firefox 13 beta release is in the "Beta" channel, Firefox 14 alpha release is in the "Aurora" channel and a Firefox 15 pre-alpha release 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.^[92] A different looking user-interface called "Australis" is also planned.^[93]

Version 13

Firefox 13 is scheduled for release on June 5th, 2012.^[66] Firefox 13 adds and updates several features, such as an updated new tab^[94]and home tab page.^[95] 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. The updated home tab features a Google search box and links to the user's bookmarks, add-ons, history, downloads, and the add-on marketplace.^[96]

In addition to the updated new tab and home tab page, Mozilla will add a user profile cleaner/reset, reduce hang times, and implement tabs on demand.^[97] The user profile cleaner/reset will provide a way for users to fix Firefox errors and glitches that may occur.^[98] Mozilla's tabs on demand will restore tabs that were open in the previous session, but will keep the tabs unloaded until you request to view the page.^[99]

Version 14

Firefox 14 is planned to be released on July 17, 2012.^[66]

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.^[100]

A new hang detector (similar to how Mozilla currently collects other data) will allow 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.^[101]

In addition to tackling freezing and not-responding errors that occur because of Firefox, Mozilla will implement 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.).^[102]

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.^[103]

Version 15

Firefox 15 is scheduled for an August 28, 2012 release.^[66] 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.^[104]

Mozilla will replace the window-based download manager with a panel-based download manager in version 15.^[105]

Silent updates will automatically update Firefox to the latest version without notifying the user,^[106] a feature that the web browser Google Chrome has also implemented.^[107][108]

Mozilla plans to improve start-up speed when a user wants to restore a previous session.^[109] In addition to improving the session restore speed, Mozilla will improve regular start-up time for Windows OS.^[110]

Release history

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

Version	Release date	Gecko version	Release notes
0.1	2002-09-23	1.2	Release Notes First release[111]
0.2	2002-10-01		Release Notes Web form auto-complete Sidebar is back - Downloads Sidebar - Bookmarks Sidebar - History Sidebar Extension management Toolbar customization Search bar Improved preference defaults Speed improvements Ctrl+Mousewheel to resize fonts Bug fixes[112]
0.3	2002-10-14		Release Notes Image Blocking Pop-up Blocking Whitelist Bookmarks Changes Global Go Menu and Other Menu Changes Tabbed Browsing Improvements Size and Speed Improvements Bug fixes[113]
0.4	2002-10-19	1.3	Release Notes Improvements to pop-up blocking Improvements to toolbar customization Improvements to tabbed browsing and shortcut keys Type ahead find returns Address bar gets smarter Themes Bug fixes[114]
0.5	2002-12-07		Release Notes Multiple homepages Intellimouse 5-button support Sidebar remembers its state across sessions Download fixes History improvements Accessibility improvements Size and memory reduction Performance improvements Stability improvements Better Windows appearance Many more new themes Many bug fixes[115]
0.6	2003-05-17	1.5	Release Notes New default theme Redesigned Preferences window Improved Privacy Options Improved Bookmarks Talkback enabled to tell Mozilla why the browser crashed Automatic Image Resizing Smooth Scrolling Access to more preferences through about:config Custom profile save location Mac OS X compatibility Lots of bug fixes[116]
0.7	2003-10-15		Release Notes Advanced preferences panel Download/helper apps preferences panel Cookie whitelisting New password manager Web panels (like Mozilla's sidebar panels) Alternate stylesheet support (through a status bar button) Send Page, Send Link, and Send Image menu items Autoscroll Lots of bug fixes and other small improvements[117]
0.8	2004-02-09	1.6	Release Notes Windows Installer Download Manager New Add Bookmark Dialog Work Offline Better Handling of File Types New XPInstall Frontend New default theme for Mac OS X Lots of bug fixes and improvements [118]
0.9	2004-05-15	1.7	Release Notes New Default Theme Comprehensive Data Migration from Internet Explorer Extension/Theme Manager Smaller Download Online help system Lots of bug fixes and improvements[119]
1.0	2004-11-09		Release Notes Better Tabbed Browsing Controls Horde of bug fixes[120]
1.0.8	2006-04-13		Release Notes Security fixes Bug fixes Stability fixes[121]
1.5	2005-11-29	1.8	Release Notes Dropped support for Mac OS X v10.1, minimum is now Mac OS X v10.2 Private data clear data Back and forward now fast Improved web standards * Improved HTML * Improved CSS * Improved HTTP * Improved Javascript/DOM * SVG compatibility Huge amount of bug fixes[122]
1.5.0.12	2007-05-30		Release Notes Bug fixes Stability fixes Security fixes[123]
2.0	2006-10-24	1.8.1	Release Notes Visual Refresh of main theme Built-in phishing protection Enhanced search capabilities Improved tabbed browsing Resuming your browsing session (session restore) Previewing and subscribing to Web feeds Inline spell checking Live Web Titles Improved Add-ons manager JavaScript 1.7 Extended search plugin format (predictive search) Improved security with extension system Client-side session and persistent storage SVG text support New Windows installer[124]
2.0.0.20	2008-12-18		Release Notes Bug fixes Security fixes Stability fixes[125]
3.0	2008-05-17	1.9	Release Notes One-click site info Malware Protection New Web Forgery Protection page New SSL error pages Add-ons and Plugin version check Secure add-on updates Anti-virus integration with download manager Vista Parental Controls Effective top-level domain (eTLD) service better restricts cookies and other restricted content to a single domain. Better protection against cross-site JSON data leaks. Easier password management – save passwords after successful login Simplified add-on installation from 3rd party’s New Download Manager Resumable downloading after closing the browser Full page zoom Podcasts and Videocasts can be associated with your media playback tools Tab scrolling and quickmenu Save what you were doing - Firefox 3 will prompt users to save tabs on exit. Optimized Open in Tabs behavior Location and Search bar size can now be customized with a simple resizer item. Text selection improvements (select multiple selections of text) Find toolbar: the Find toolbar now opens with the current selection. Plugin management with the add-on manager Improved integration with Windows Improved integration with the Mac Integration with Linux GTK theme Bookmark star button Bookmark tags Smart Location Bar Library of bookmarks, history, etc. Smart Bookmark Folders Web-based protocol handlers for mail:to Download & Install Add-ons from the Add-on manager Easy to use Download Actions New graphics and font handling in Gecko 1.9 provide rendering improvements in: CSS SVG Display of fonts with ligatures and complex scripts Color management of images with capabilities Offline support for web applications Improved speed Reduced memory usage Increased reliability 25000 total code changes Security fixes Stability fixes[126]
3.0.19	2010-03-30		Release Notes Fixed several security problems. Fixed several stability issues.[127]
3.5	2009-05-30	1.9.1	Release Notes Available in more than 70 languages Support for the HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio Improved tools for controlling your private data, including a Private Browsing Mode Better web application performance using the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine The ability to share your location with websites using Location Aware Browsing Support for native JSON, and web worker threads Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering Support for new web technologies such as: downloadable fonts, CSS media queries, new transformations and properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 local storage and offline application storage, <canvas> text, ICC profiles, and SVG transforms.[128]
3.5.19	2011-04-28		Release Notes Fixed several security issues Fixed several stability issues[129]
3.6	2010-01-21	1.9.2	Release Notes Available in more than 70 languages - get your local version. Support for a new type of theme called Personas, which allow users to change Firefox's appearance with a single click. Protection from out-of-date plugins to keep users safer as they browse. Open, native video can now be displayed full screen and supports poster frames. Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness, and startup time. The ability for web developers to indicate that scripts should run asynchronously to speed up page load times. Continued support for downloadable web fonts using the new WOFF font format. Support for new CSS attributes such as gradients, background sizing, and pointer events. Support for new DOM and HTML5 specifications including the Drag & Drop API and the File API, which allow for more interactive web pages. Changes to how third-party software can integrate with Firefox in order to prevent crashes.[130]
3.6.28	2012-03-13		Release Notes Added Out-of-process plugins Fixed several security issues Fixed several stability issues[131][132]
4.0	2011-03-22	2.0	Release Notes Firefox 4 is available in over 80 languages Uses JägerMonkey, a new, faster JavaScript engine that is up to six times faster than Firefox 3.6 Support for the Do Not Track ("DNT") header that allows users to opt-out of behavioural advertising Firefox Sync is included by default, allowing you to securely synchronize between multiple computers and mobile devices Certain graphics rendering operations are now hardware-accelerated using Direct3D 9 on Windows XP, Direct3D 10 on Windows Vista and 7, and OpenGL on Mac OS (OpenGL on Linux will be supported in the future) Direct2D Hardware Acceleration is now on by default for Windows 7 users WebGL is enabled on all platforms that have a capable graphics card with updated drivers Native support for the HD HTML5 WebM video format, hardware accelerated where available Firefox button has a new look for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users Tabs are now on top by default on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux You can search for and switch to already open tabs in the Smart Location Bar The stop and reload buttons have been merged into a single button on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux The Bookmarks Toolbar has been replaced with a Bookmarks Button by default (you can switch it back if you'd like) Crash protection for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins You can turn any tab into an "App Tab" by right-clicking on it and selecting "Make into App Tab" from the context menu The default homepage design has been refreshed Overhaul of the bookmarks and history code, enabling faster bookmarking and startup performance Per-compartment garbage collection is now enabled, reducing work done during complex animations Additional polish for the Firefox Add-ons Manager Improved web typography using OpenType with support for ligatures, kerning and font variants Web developers can animate content using CSS Transitions Responsiveness and scrolling improvements from the new retained layers layout system HTML5 Forms API makes web based forms easier to implement and validate Support for the new proposed Audio Data API Support for HSTS security protocol allowing sites to insist that they only be loaded over SSL A new feature called Panorama gives users a visual overview of all open tabs, allowing them to be sorted and grouped An experimental API is included to provide more efficient Javascript animations Firefox now supports the HTML5 video "buffered" property Changes to how XPCOM components are registered in order to help startup time and process separation New Addons Manager and extension management API (UI will be changed before final release) Significant API improvements are available for JS-ctypes, a foreign function interface for extensions CSS Transitions are partially supported Core Animation rendering model for plugins on Mac OS X. Plugins which also support this rendering model can now draw faster and more efficiently Web developers can update the URL field without reloading the page using HTML History APIs More responsive page rendering using lazy frame construction Link history lookup is done asynchronously to provide better responsiveness during pageload CSS :visited selectors have been changed to block websites from being able to check a user's browsing history New HTML5 parser Support for more HTML5 form controls Web authors can now get touch events from Firefox users on Windows 7 machines A new way of representing values in JavaScript that allows Firefox to execute heavy, numeric code (used for things like graphics and animations) more efficiently[133]
4.0.1	2011-04-28		Release Notes Fixed several security issues Fixed several stability issues[134]
5.0	2011-06-21	5.0	Release Notes Better standards support for HTML5, CSS3, MathML, XHR and SMIL Better visibility for the Do not track header preference[135] Stability and security improvements[136][137][138] Better tuned HTTP idle connection logic[135] Improved canvas, JavaScript, memory, and networking performance Improved spell checking for some locales Improved desktop environment integration for Linux users Better WebGL security (WebGL content can no longer load cross-domain textures).[139] Background tabs have setTimeout and setInterval clamped to 1000 ms to improve performance[140]
5.0.1	2011-07-11		Release Notes Fixed an issue in Mac OS X 10.7 that could cause Firefox to crash[141] Fixed an issue caused by Apple's "Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 5" where the Java plugin would not be loaded[142]
6.0	2011-08-16	6.0	Release Notes about:permissions, a permissions manager. The user can choose what information can be shared with sites, e.g. location. The address bar now highlights the domain of the website you are visiting. Streamlined the look of the site identity block Added support for the latest draft version of WebSockets with a prefixed API Added support for EventSource / server-sent events Added support for window.matchMedia Added Scratchpad, an interactive JavaScript prototyping environment Added a new Web Developer menu item and moved development-related items into it Improved usability of the Web Console Improved the discoverability of Firefox Sync Reduced browser startup time when using Panorama Fixed several stability issues Fixed several security issues[143]
6.0.2	2011-09-06		Release Notes Revoked the root certificate for DigiNotar due to fraudulent SSL certificate issuance[144] Removed trust exceptions for certificates issued by Staat der Nederlanden Resolved an issue with gov.uk websites[145]
7.0	2011-09-27	7.0	Release Notes Drastically improved memory handling for certain use cases Added a new rendering backend to speed up Canvas operations on Windows systems Bookmark and password changes now sync almost instantly when using Firefox Sync The 'http://' URL prefix is now hidden by default. Added support for text-overflow: ellipsis Added support for the Web Timing specification Enhanced support for MathML The WebSocket protocol has been updated from version 7 to version 8. Added an opt-in system for users to send performance data back to Mozilla to improve future versions of Firefox Fixed several stability issues Fixed several security issues[146]
7.0.1	2011-09-29		Release Notes Fixed a rare issue where some users could find one or more of their add-ons hidden after a Firefox update[147]
8.0	2011-11-08	8.0	Release Notes Add-ons installed by third-party programs are now disabled by default Added a one-time add-on selection dialog to manage previously installed add-ons Added Twitter to the search bar Added a preference to load tabs on demand, improving start-up time when windows are restored Improved performance and memory handling when using <audio> and <video> elements Added Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) support for cross-domain textures in WebGL Added support for HTML5 context menus Added support for insertAdjacentHTML() Improved CSS hyphen support for many languages Improved WebSocket support Fixed several stability issues[148]
8.0.1	2011-11-21		Release Notes Fixed Mac OS X crash that occurred in certain instances when a Java Applet is loaded with Java SE 6 version 1.6.0_29 installed. Fixed Windows startup crash caused by RoboForm versions older than 7.6.2.[149]
9.0	2011-12-20	9.0	Release Notes Added type inference, significantly improving JavaScript performance. 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 the font-stretch CSS property. Improved support for the text-overflow CSS property. Improved standards support for HTML5, MathML, and CSS. Fixed several stability issues.[150]
9.0.1	2011-12-21		Release Notes Fixed crash on Windows, Mac and Linux[151]
10.0	2012-01-31	10.0	Release Notes Most add-ons are now compatible with new versions of Firefox by default. Anti-Aliasing for WebGL is now implemented. CSS3 3D-Transforms are now supported. New element for bi-directional text isolation, along with supporting CSS properties. Full Screen APIs allow you to build a web application that runs full screen.[152]
10.0.4esr	2012-04-24		Release Notes Lots of security fixes[153] Fixed web workers running out of memory, affecting some add-ons used by organizations[154] Fixed Java applets sometimes caused text input to become unresponsive[155] Fixed an issue causing in Firefox ESR 10.0.3 that caused the "Whats New" page to open after an update Fixed extensions.checkCompatibility.* prefs not working in ESR releases[156]
11.0	2012-03-13	11.0	Release Notes Migration of settings from Google Chrome SPDY protocol support (disabled by default) Page Inspector Tilt (3D View) Sync Add-ons Redesigned HTML5 video controls Style Editor (CSS)[157]
12.0	2012-04-24	12.0	Release Notes Windows: Firefox is now easier to update with one less prompt (User Account Control) Page Source now has line numbers Line breaks are now supported in the title attribute Improvements to "Find in Page" to center search result URLs pasted into the download manager window are now automatically downloaded Support for the text-align-last CSS property has been added Experimental support for ECMAScript 6 Map and Set objects has been implemented Various security fixes Many bug fixes Some TinyMCE-based editors failed to load (739141) OS X: WebGL performance may be degraded on some hardware (713305)[158]
Version	Release date	Gecko version	Release notes

13.0b2	2012-05-03	13.0	Release Notes When opening a tab, users are now presented with their most visited pages The Awesome Bar now auto-completes typed URLs SPDY protocol now enabled by default for faster browsing on supported sites Restored background tabs are not loaded by default for faster startup Smooth scrolling is now enabled by default The default home page now has quicker access to bookmarks, history, settings, and more 72 total improvements to Page Inspector, HTML panel, Style Inspector, Scratchpad and Style Editor Support for the CSS3 background-position property extended syntax has been added The :invalid pseudo-class can now be applied to the element The CSS turn <angle> unit is now supported[159]
14.0a2	Everyday	14.0	Release Notes Google searches now utilize HTTPS Full screen support for Mac OS X Lion implemented Plugins can now be configured to only load on click (about:config) The Awesome Bar now auto-completes typed URLs Improved site identity manager, to prevent spoofing of an SSL connection with favicons Pointer Lock API implemented New API to prevent your display from sleeping New text-transform and font-variant CSS improvements for Turkic languages and Greek[160]
15.0a1	Everyday	15.0	Release Notes Nightly is subject to change In-content preferences Speedy session restore Debugger Windows start-up performance improvements Silent update: Background updates Accessibility improvements for Mac Firefox social integration Panel-based download manager Opt-in activation for plugins (Part 2) Incremental garbage collection Responsive view[161]

Features

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^[162] and an integrated search system that uses Google by default in most localizations. Functions can be added through extensions, created by third-party developers,^[163] 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

Firefox implements many web standards, including HTML4 (partial HTML5), XML, XHTML, MathML, SVG 1.1 (partial),^[164] CSS (with extensions),^[165] ECMAScript (JavaScript), DOM, XSLT, XPath, and APNG (Animated PNG) images with alpha transparency.^[166] Firefox also implements standards proposals created by the WHATWG such as client-side storage,^[167][168] and canvas element.^[169]

Firefox has passed the Acid2 standards-compliance test since version 3.0^[170]. 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.^[171] Because the SVG font tests were removed from the Acid3 test in September 2011, Firefox 4 and greater scored 100/100.^[172][173]

Firefox also implements^[174] a proprietary protocol^[175] from Google called "safebrowsing" (used to exchange data related with "phishing and malware protection").

Security

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Firefox uses a sandbox security model,^[176] and limits scripts from accessing data from other web sites based on the same origin policy.^[177] It uses SSL/TLS to protect communications with web servers using strong cryptography when using the HTTPS protocol.^[178] It also provides support for web applications to use smartcards for authentication purposes.^[179]

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.^[180] Official guidelines for handling security vulnerabilities discourage early disclosure of vulnerabilities so as not to give potential attackers an advantage in creating exploits.^[181]

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.^{[182][183][184][185]} 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.^[186]

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.^[187] Symantec later clarified their statement, saying that Firefox still had fewer security vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer, as counted by security researchers.^[188] As of February 11, 2011, Firefox 3.6 had no (known) unpatched security vulnerabilities according to Secunia.^[189] Internet Explorer 8 had five unpatched security vulnerabilities, the worst being rated "Less Critical" by Secunia.^[190]

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.^[191] This vulnerability has since been patched by Microsoft.^[192]

All patched vulnerabilities of Mozilla products are publicly listed.^[193]

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,^[194] these statistics are stored only in aggregate format, and the only personally-identifiable information transmitted is the user's IP address.

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.^[195] Currently supported versions 10.0.4 and 12.0 are available for 85 locales (77 languages)^[196] and 86 locales (78 languages)^[7] respectively.

Other versions

Portable versions

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

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.^[197] Version 4 for Android and Maemo was released on March 29, 2011.^[198] 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.^[199] Version 7 was the last release for Maemo on the N900.^[200] 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.^[201]

Extended Support Release

Firefox ESR is a version of Firefox for organizations and other adopters who need extended support for mass deployments.^[202] Unlike the regular ("rapid") releases, the ESR will be updated with new features and performance enhancements annually, receiving regular security updates during the year.^[203]

Unofficial ports

Ports have been developed for other platforms, including RISC OS.^{[204][205][206]} The last version of Firefox released for RISC OS on the website RISCOS was version 2.0.^[207]

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).^{[citation needed]}

Current Minimum Requirements[208]	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

Operating system		Latest stable version	Support Status
Microsoft Windows	2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista / 2008 / 7 / 2008R2	12.0[209]	2004–present
	NT 4 / 98 / ME	2.0.0.20	2004–2008
	95	1.5.0.12	2004–2007
Mac OS X	10.0 - 10.1	1.0.8	2004–2006
	10.2 - 10.3	2.0.0.20	2004–2008
	10.4 - 10.5 (PPC)	3.6.28	2005–2012
		11.0	Unofficial
	10.5 (Intel) - 10.7	12.0[209]	2007–present
Linux kernel 2.2.14 and newer (with some libraries[209])		12.0[209]	2004–present
OS/2 and eComStation		6.0.2[210]	Unofficial
Sun Java Desktop System		1.0.4	Unofficial
Solaris (x86 & SPARC)	8 - 9	2.0.0.20	Unofficial
Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris (x86 & SPARC)		11.0[211]	Unofficial

64-bit builds

64-bit nightly builds for Windows are available,^[212] but due to incompatibilities, including with popular plugins, official 64-bit releases are not provided.^[213]

Waterfox^[214] and Palemoon^[215] 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.^[216] 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.^{[clarification needed]}

Firefox 3.5.9 is the last version to work on HP-UX 11i, as packaged by Hewlett-Packard.^[217]

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.^[218][219] 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.^[220]

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.^[221]

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).^[8] 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,^[222] 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.^[223][224] 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.^[222]

Trademark and logo

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.^[225] The name "Firefox" derives from a nickname of the red panda.^[226]

Mozilla has placed the Firefox logo files under open-source licenses,^[227][228] but its trademark guidelines do not allow displaying altered^[229] or similar logos^[230] 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.^[9] 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".^[231]

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.^[232] Ultimately, Debian switched to branding their modified version of Firefox "Iceweasel", along with other Mozilla software.

Branding

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

• 

  Phoenix and Firebird logo, before being renamed Firefox

• 

  Original logo used for Firefox (0.8 - 0.9)
  Mid 2004

• 

  Second rendition of the Firefox logo (1.0 - 3.0)
  Late 2004 - 2009

• 

  Third rendition of the Firefox logo (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)

Promotion

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The rapid adoption of Firefox, 100 million downloads in its first year of availability,^[233] followed a series of aggressive marketing campaigns starting in 2004 with a series of events Blake Ross and Asa Dotzler called "marketing weeks".^[234]

On September 12, 2004,^[235] 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.^[236] 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.^[237]

The "World Firefox Day" campaign started on July 15, 2006,^[238] the third anniversary of the founding of the Mozilla Foundation,^[239] and ran until September 15, 2006.^[240] 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.^[241]

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.^[242]

Market adoption

market share overview According to StatCounter data April 2012[243]
Browser	% of Fx	% of Total
Firefox 1	0.08%	0.02%
Firefox 1.5	0.04%	0.01%
Firefox 2	0.36%	0.09%
Firefox 3	1.41%	0.35%
Firefox 3.5	1.61%	0.40%
Firefox 3.6	10.49%	2.61%
Firefox 4	2.01%	0.50%
Firefox 5	1.69%	0.42%
Firefox 6	1.61%	0.40%
Firefox 7	1.53%	0.38%
Firefox 8	2.90%	0.72%
Firefox 9	4.06%	1.01%
Firefox 10	5.63%	1.40%
Firefox 11	59.83%	14.88%
Firefox 12	6.39%	1.59%
Firefox 13	0.24%	0.06%
Firefox 14	0.08%	0.02%
All variants[244]	100%	24.87%
This box: view talk edit

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.^[245] This number does not include downloads using software updates or those from third-party websites.^[246] 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^[update].^[247]

In July 2010, all IBM employees (about 400,000) were asked to use Firefox as their default browser.^[248]

As of May 2012^[update], Firefox was the third most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers.^[10][11][12] According to StatCounter, Firefox usage peaked in November 2009 and usage share would remain stagnant until October 2010 when it lost market share, a trend that would continue for over a year. Its first consistent gains in usage share since September 2010 occurred in February and March 2012 before making minor loses in April 2012.^[11]

Firefox was the second-most used browser until December 2011, when Google Chrome passed it in usage share.^[249]

Reception

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Forbes.com called Firefox the best browser in a 2004 commentary piece,^[250] and PC World named Firefox "Product of the Year" in 2005 on their "100 Best Products of 2005" list.^[251] After the release of Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7 in 2006, PC World reviewed both and declared that Firefox was the better browser.^[252] Which? Magazine named Firefox its "Best Buy" web browser.^[253] 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.^[254] 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.^[255]

Performance

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In December 2005, Internet Week ran an article in which many readers reported high memory usage in Firefox 1.5.^[256] 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.^[257] Other known causes of memory problems were malfunctioning extensions such as Google Toolbar and some older versions of Adblock,^[258] or plug-ins, such as older versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader.^[259] 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.^[260]

Softpedia noted that Firefox 1.5 took longer to start up than other browsers,^[261] which was confirmed by further speed tests.^[262] 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.^[263] 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.^[252][264] 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.^{[265][266][267]} In mid 2009, Betanews benchmarked Firefox 3.5 and declared that it performed "nearly ten times better on XP than Microsoft Internet Explorer 7".^[37]

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^[268].

In February 2012, Tom's Hardware performance tested Chrome 17, Firefox 10, Internet Explorer 9, Opera 11.61, and Safari 5.1.2 on Windows 7. Tom's 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^[269].

Relationship with Google

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The Mozilla Corporation's relationship with Google has been noted in the popular press,^[270][271] especially with regard to their paid referral agreement. The release of the anti-phishing protection in Firefox 2 in particular raised considerable controversy:^[272] 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.^[273] The user cannot change the data provider within the GUI,^[274] and is not informed who the default data provider is. The browser also sends Google's cookie with each update request.^[275] Some^[who?] 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.^[276] Following Google CEO Eric Schmidt's comments in December 2009 regarding privacy during a CNBC show,^[277] Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's director of community development suggested that users use the Bing search engine instead of Google search.^[278] 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.^[279] As of July 2011^[update], 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.^[280][281] 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.^[280][282] 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.^[283][284] In 2008, both Mozilla organizations had a combined revenue of US$78.6 million, with 91% coming from Google.^[285] The Mozilla Foundation and Corporation are being audited by the IRS with the possibility of having its non-profit status called into question.^{[283][285][286]}

Response from Microsoft

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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.^[287] Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has used Firefox, but has commented that "it's just another browser, and IE [Microsoft's Internet Explorer] is better".^[288]

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."^[289] 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.^[290]

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.^[291] 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.^[292]

In August 2006, Microsoft offered to help Mozilla integrate Firefox with the then-forthcoming Windows Vista,^[293] an offer Mozilla accepted.^[294]

In October 2006, as congratulations for a successful ship of Firefox 2, the Internet Explorer 7 development team sent a cake to Mozilla.^[295][296] 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.^[297] The IE development team sent another cake on June 17, 2008, upon the successful release of Firefox 3,^[298] again on March 22, 2011, for Firefox 4,^[299] and yet again for the Firefox 5 release.^[300]

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.^[301] 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.^[302]

Firefox was one of the twelve browsers offered to European Economic Area users of Microsoft Windows in 2010 – see BrowserChoice.eu.^[303]

.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).^[304] The update received media attention after users discovered that the add-on could not be uninstalled through the add-ons interface.^[305][306] 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.^[307] 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.^[305]

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.^[308] Two days later, the add-on was removed from the blocklist after confirmation from Microsoft that it is not a vector for vulnerabilities.^[309][310] 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.^[311]

Vulnerability statistics

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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,^[312] 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."^[313]

Expert and media coverage

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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.^[314]

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^[315] and David A. Wheeler,^[316] 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,^[182] Washington Post columnist Rob Pegoraro,^[317] USA Today’s Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz,^[318] Forbes's Arik Hesseldahl,^[319] eWeek.com Senior Editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols,^[320] and Desktop Pipeline’s Scot Finnie.^[321]

Awards

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Find more about Firefox on Wikipedia's sister projects:
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• Official website for end-users
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• Mozilla Foundation homepage
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