Firefox
- Firefox redirects here. For other uses, see Firefox (disambiguation).
 Mozilla Firefox 1.0 features a "latest headlines" Live Bookmarks feed out of the box. | |||||
| Developer(s) | Mozilla Foundation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stable release | 1.0
/ November 9, 2004 | ||||
| Preview release |
| ||||
| Repository | |||||
| Engine |
| ||||
| Operating system | Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X | ||||
| Type | Web browser | ||||
| License | MPL, MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license | ||||
| Website | www.getfirefox.com | ||||
Mozilla Firefox (originally known as Phoenix and briefly as Mozilla Firebird) is a free cross-platform web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and hundreds of volunteers. Before its 1.0 release on November 9, 2004, Firefox had already garnered a great deal of acclaim from numerous media outlets, including Forbes [1] and the Wall Street Journal [2]. With over 5 million downloads in the first 12 days of its release and over 22 million in 12 weeks, Firefox 1.0 is one of the most-used free and open source applications, especially among home users. [3] [4]
With Firefox, the Mozilla Foundation aims to develop a small, fast, simple, and highly extensible web browser (separate from the larger Mozilla Suite). Firefox has become the main focus of Mozilla development along with the Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client, and it has replaced the Mozilla Suite as the official browser release of the Mozilla Foundation.
Among Firefox's popular features are the integrated pop-up blocker, tabbed browsing, and an extension mechanism for adding functionality. Although these features have already been available for some time in other browsers such as the Mozilla Suite and Opera, Firefox is the first of these browsers to have achieved large-scale adoption. Mozilla officials hope that 10 percent of browser users will use Firefox by the end of 2005, a goal that analysts at WebSideStory and elsewhere believe is attainable. [5] [6] [7] This would reduce Microsoft Internet Explorer's dominant usage share and will, many believe, reignite the browser wars.
Firefox has attracted attention as an alternative to Internet Explorer, which has come under fire for its alleged poor program design and insecurity—detractors cite Internet Explorer's incomplete support for Web standards, use of the potentially dangerous ActiveX component, vulnerability to spyware and malware installation, and a lacking feature set. [8] [9]
History and development
Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross began developing the Firefox project as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project. They perceived the Mozilla browser project as being overly compromised by the commercial requirements of Netscape's sponsorship, as well as developer-driven feature creep. The pared-down Phoenix browser (as it was then called) was created to combat the perceived software bloat of the Mozilla Suite (codenamed and internally referred to as SeaMonkey), which integrated features such as IRC, mail and news, and WYSIWYG HTML editing in one suite of software. The current lead developer of Firefox is Ben Goodger.
Mozilla Firefox retains the cross-platform nature of the original Mozilla browser, using the XUL user interface language. Use of XUL makes it possible to extend the browser's capabilities through the use of themes (skins) and extensions. However, the development and installation processes of these add-ons raised security concerns, and with the release of Firefox 0.9, the Mozilla Foundation opened a Mozilla Update website containing "approved" themes and extensions. Use of XUL also sets Firefox apart from other projects based on Mozilla's Gecko layout engine, such as Galeon, Epiphany, K-Meleon, Camino, and most other browsers, which use interfaces native to their respective platforms (Galeon and Epiphany use GTK; K-Meleon, Windows' MFC; and Camino employs the windowing faculties of Mac OS X). Many of these projects were started before Firefox, and probably served as inspiration.
The first sign of a Firefox-like project was Raptor, a small application sample (presumably to demonstrate how to embed Gecko in another application) shipped with early milestone builds of Mozilla. Featuring only "back", "forward", "stop" buttons and a URL field (no cache, no stored history, etc.), it was minimalistic and thus a lot lighter than Mozilla itself. Eventually, Raptor stopped shipping with Mozilla's binary builds.
Firefox was intended to replace the Mozilla Suite for end users. Although the Mozilla Foundation had intended to make the Mozilla Suite obsolete and to replace it with Firefox, the Foundation continues to maintain the suite because it is used by many corporate users, and is bundled with other software. In an attempt to combat software bloat, the developers of the Mozilla Suite have stripped out several features and much of the interface. Further, many Mozilla Suite features (such as the IRC client) are now available as optional Firefox extensions.
The official discussion forum for Mozilla Firefox is hosted by MozillaZine, a weblog for Mozilla-related topics. MozillaZine is run by a group of individuals otherwise unaffiliated with the Mozilla Foundation.
On February 5, 2004 the business and IT consulting company AMS categorized Mozilla Firefox (then Firebird) as a "Tier 1" (meaning "Best of Breed") open source product (Keating, 2004). This meant that AMS considered Firebird to be virtually risk-free and technically strong.
Naming
The project which became Firefox started as an experimental branch of the Mozilla Suite called m/b (or mozilla/browser). When sufficiently developed, binaries for public testing appeared in September 2002 under the name Phoenix.
The Phoenix name was retained until April 14, 2003 when it was changed due to trademark issues with the BIOS manufacturer, Phoenix Technologies (who produce a BIOS-based browser). The new name, Firebird, was met with mixed reactions particularly as some free database software carried the same name. In late April, following an apparent name change to Firebird browser for a few hours, the Mozilla Foundation issued an official statement which stated that the browser should always be referred to as Mozilla Firebird (as opposed to just Firebird) in order to avoid confusion with the Firebird database server. However, continuing pressure from the FLOSS community forced another change, and on February 9, 2004 (following consideration of a name change to Mozilla Browser) Mozilla Firebird was renamed Mozilla Firefox (or Firefox for short).
The name, "Firefox", 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 as a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in December 2003. [10] However, the trademark process led to a further delay of several months in the release of Firefox 0.8 when the foundation realised that, in the UK, Firefox had already been registered as a trademark for browsers by the Charlton Group [11]; this was eventually resolved when the foundation was given a license to use Charlton's European trademark.
The repeated renaming of the program prompted the development of the tongue-in-cheek extension "Firesomething" [12], which allowed users to change the name of the browser. One feature randomly renamed the browser on startup, giving it such satirical soubriquets as "Firegiraffe" or "Moonbadger".
Branding and visual identity
One of the most visible enhancements is the new visual identity of Firefox and Thunderbird. Open source applications, typically designed by programmers rather than graphic designers or usability gurus, frequently suffer from poor icon and GUI design, and few have a strong visual identity. Firebird and Phoenix were considered to have had reasonable visual designs, but were not up to the same standard as many professionally released software packages.
In October 2003, professional interface designer Steven Garrity wrote a webpage review of everything he considered to be wrong with Mozilla's visual identity. [13] The page received a great deal of attention and was even slashdotted. Most of the criticisms leveled at the article were along the lines of "where is the patch?", an open source way of saying "If you don't like it, fix it yourself."
Shortly afterwards, Garrity was invited by the Mozilla Foundation to head up the new visual identity team. The release of Firefox 0.8 in February 2004 saw the introduction of the new branding efforts, including new icons designed by Jon Hicks, who had previously worked on Camino. [14]
The animal shown in the logo is a stylised fox, although "firefox" was thought to be a common name for the red panda. The panda, according to Hicks, "didn't really conjure up the right imagery", besides not being widely known. [15]
Release history
| Key: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Old Version | Current Version | Future Version |
| Browser Name | Version | Codename | Release date | Significant changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenix | 0.1 | Pescadero | September 23, 2002 | First release. Customizable toolbar; quicksearch. |
| 0.2 | Santa Cruz | October 1, 2002 | Sidebar; Extension management. | |
| 0.3 | Lucia | October 14, 2002 | Image blocking; Pop-up blocking whitelist; Tabbed browsing | |
| 0.4 | Oceano | October 19, 2002 | Themes; Pop-up blocking improvements; Toolbar customization | |
| 0.5 | Naples | December 7, 2002 | Multiple homepages; Sidebar and accessibility improvements; History | |
| Firebird | 0.6 | Glendale | May 17, 2003 | New Default Theme (Qute); Bookmark and privacy improvements; Smooth scrolling; Automatic image resizing |
| 0.6.1 | July 28, 2003 | Bugfix release | ||
| 0.7 | Indio | October 15, 2003 | Automatic scrolling; Password manager; Preferences panel improvements | |
| 0.7.1 | Three Kings | October 26, 2003 | Bugfix release (Mac OS X only) | |
| Firefox | 0.8 | Royal Oak | February 9, 2004 | Windows installer; Offline working; Bookmarks and download manager improvements; Rebranded with new (current) logo |
| 0.9 | One Tree Hill | June 15, 2004 | New Default Theme (Winstripe); Comprehensive data migration; New extension/theme manager; Reduced download size; New help system; Linux installer; Mail Icon (Windows only) | |
| 0.9.1 | June 28, 2004 | Bugfix release; updated default theme | ||
| 0.9.2 | July 8, 2004 | Vulnerability patch (Windows only) | ||
| 0.9.3 | August 4, 2004 | Vulnerability patch (All platforms) | ||
| 0.10 (1.0 PR) |
Greenlane | September 14, 2004 | ("Preview Release") Bugs with higher complexity/risk, localization impact. Added RSS/Atom feed support, find toolbar, plugin finder. | |
| 0.10.1 | October 1, 2004 | Vulnerability patch (All platforms) | ||
| 1.0 RC-1 | Mission Bay | October 27, 2004 | First release candidate | |
| 1.0 RC-2 | Whangamata | November 3, 2004 | Second release candidate | |
| 1.0 | Phoenix | November 9, 2004 | Official Version 1.0 release | |
| Upcoming releases | ||||
| 1.1 Developer Preview | ??? | March 2005 | Non-Feature Complete Preview ("Alpha" in Old-Lingo) | |
| 1.1 Preview Release | ??? | April 2005 | Feature Complete ("Beta" in Old-Lingo) | |
| 1.1 | Deer Park | June 2005 |
Source: [16] | |
| 1.5 | "The Ocho" [17] | ??? 2005 | First major half of Firefox 2.0 development
| |
| Firefox 2 | 2.0 | ??? | ??? 2005 | Second major half of 2.0 development. |
Three Kings, Royal Oak, One Tree Hill, Mission Bay and Greenlane are all suburbs in Auckland, New Zealand; Whangamata is a small seaside town in the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand. The codenames were chosen from these suburb names by Ben Goodger, who grew up in Auckland. The other codenames included in the Firefox roadmap are derived from an actual roadmap of a journey through California to Phoenix, Arizona. [18]
According to Ben Goodger, "Deer Park is not Deer Park, Victoria, but just a symbolic name. I was riding LIRR a few weeks ago and saw the name go by and I thought it sounded nice". Therefore, this is likely a reference to Deer Park, New York, a CDP on Long Island.
Future development
According to the roadmap, future Firefox development will be split over three milestones: version 1.1, version 1.5 and version 2.0. Development for these releases will take place on the Mozilla trunk, with a release coming off a branch [19].
Likely goals for Firefox [20] include:
- New "Places" interface for Bookmark and History
- Tabbed Browsing improvements
- Specific options per-site
- Extension system enhancements
- Find Toolbar, Software Update, Search enhancements
- Accessibility compliance
- Download resuming, detection of signed exes
The next planned release is Firefox 1.1, which is targeted for March 2005. It is likely to implement a new Mac-like option interface with a "Sanitize" action to allow a person to clear their privacy related information without manually clicking the "Clear All" button. A user can clear all privacy related setting simply by exiting the browser or using a keyboard shortcut, depending on their settings. [21] [22]
Delicious delicacies
Early Firefox releases featured an options menu that described cookies in the following way: "Cookies are delicious delicacies."
The phrase was representative of the programmers' quirky sense of humor, and a general reflection of the open source movement's unconventional approach. The phrase became something of a cult legend, and was even featured in an O'Reilly computer book.
However, in a reflection of the growing acceptance and use of the Firefox browser in mainstream Internet use the text now reads, "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 for the less technically oriented computer users who were now using Firefox, representing Mozilla's desire to appeal to mainstream users.
The original text was inserted by Blake Ross, one of the lead developers of Firefox. It was replaced by Mike Connor.
After this happened, the following remarks were made by Blake Ross over IRC:
- <blake2> congratulations mconnor
- <blake2> you just destroyed a legend!
On August 22, 2004, version 0.1 of the Delicious Delicacies extension was released by Jesse Ruderman. This extension restores the old description of cookies. As of December 8, 2004, this extension is in version 0.4.2. [23]
Features
Like Opera and the Mozilla Suite, Mozilla Firefox has some features that distinguish it from other browsers like Internet Explorer. However, it lacks many of the features found in other browsers, in an effort to combat interface bloat and to allow the browser to be shipped as a small, pared-down core that can easily be customized to meet individual users' needs. Instead of providing all features in the standard distribution, Firefox relies on the extension system to allow users to modify the browser according to their requirements.
Tabbed browsing
Firefox supports tabbed browsing, which allows users to open multiple pages in the same window. This feature was carried over from the Mozilla Suite, which in turn had borrowed the feature from the popular MultiZilla [24] extension for SeaMonkey. Until version 1.0, Firefox did not support automatic single-window mode, in which all links that would normally open in a new window were instead opened in a new tab. [25] This feature was introduced in 1.0 after complaints from users migrating from other browsers such as Opera, or Internet Explorer shells such as Avant Browser or Maxthon. However, there were a number of problems with this policy, and as a result it has been stored in a hidden preference as an experimental feature. Before 1.0, most users who preferred single window mode used extensions such as Tabbrowser Preferences or Tabbrowser Extensions to solve their quandary. [26] [27]
Firefox also permits the "homepage" to be a list of URLs delimited with vertical bars (|), which are automatically opened in separate tabs, rather than a single page. This can be a mixed blessing, since clicking the home page opens another set of tabs, instead of resetting the current set (though the proper way to solve this isn't entirely clear), and since it is slightly more difficult to open a browser quickly for a single web page retrieval when this is necessary.
Pop-up blocking
Firefox also includes integrated customizable pop-up blocking. This blocks pop-ups from all web sites by default, but can be configured to allow individual sites to show pop-ups. It can also be turned off entirely to allow pop-ups from all sites. Firefox's pop-up blocking can be inconvenient at times, however — it prevents JavaScript-based links opening a new window while a page is loading unless a site is added to a "safe list" found in the options menu.
In many cases it is possible to view the pop-up's URL by clicking the dialogue that appears when one is blocked. This makes it easier to decide if the pop-up should be displayed.
Download manager
An integrated customizable download manager is also included. Downloads can be opened automatically depending on the file type, or saved directly to disk. By default, Firefox downloads all files to a user's desktop on Windows or to the user's home directory on Linux, but it can be configured to prompt for a specific download location. The download manager currently does not support cross-session resuming (stopping a download and resuming it after closing the browser). [28] Another issue with the download manager is that it fails to close if small files or files already in the cache are downloaded. [29]
When the download manager was first introduced around version 0.8, there was an uproar among users who preferred the old style of individual windows for downloads, akin to that used by Internet Explorer. [30] Initially there was a great demand for an extension to address the issue but this desire quickly diminished.
Live Bookmarks
Powered by RSS or Atom feeds, "Live Bookmarks", another feature of Firefox, allow users to dynamically monitor changes to their favorite news sources. When this feature was first introduced in version 1.0 PR, there were a few worries that Firefox was beginning to include non-essential features and that it was beginning to bloat the browser much like the Mozilla Suite. However, these worries have largely abated.
Live Bookmarks have surprised many users with their simplicity. [31] Instead of treating RSS-feeds as HTML pages like most news readers do, they are treated as bookmarks that are updated in real-time with a link to the appropriate source.
Add-ons
Themes
Firefox also supports a variety of themes/skins for changing its appearance. Themes are written in XUL (XML-based User-interface Language) and CSS. Many themes can be downloaded from the Mozilla Update web site.
The change of default theme from Qute to Winstripe in Firefox 0.9 was subject to mass debate. The Winstipe theme was created by heavily modifying Pinstipe, a theme designed with Mac OS X in mind. Prior to that, Firefox and its predecessors had used the Qute theme, designed by Arvid Axelsson. Due to licensing issues, the theme was prevented from being released under the Mozilla Public Licence. Axelsson was upset about being notified about the theme change only a few days before it took place, and posted the transcript of his dialogue with Ben Goodger, who had informed him of the change, on the MozillaZine forums, breaking the news before it was formally announced. [32] Although many people criticized the new theme when it was rolled out, eventually the tension subsided. Axelsson continues to produce Qute privately. The default theme for Mozilla Thunderbird is still made by Axelsson.
Extensions
An often-touted feature of Firefox is its extensibility. Extensions allow the addition of new features such as mouse gestures, advertisement blocking, proxy server switcher, debugger tools, and others through the installation of XPInstall modules. Many former Mozilla features such as IRC chat (ChatZilla), calendar, etc. have become extensions. Although several private sites have sprung up offering extensions for download, the Mozilla Foundation offers a variety of extensions for download on the Mozilla Update site. Most extensions are no more than a few kilobytes in size, making them easily accessible to anyone regardless of connection speed.
The extension system can be viewed as a ground for experiment where new functionalities are being tested. From time to time an extension would be pulled back into the project and made part of the product. An example is MultiZilla [33], an extension which provided tabbed browsing at a time when Mozilla still did not have that feature. Note that Mozilla's implementation of tabbed browsing is not based on MultiZilla [34].
There has been some concern about the security of extensions, as it is possible for a user to download a malicious extension that may be used to gather information about the user, or, worse, compromise their computer's security. The developers responded by letting users whitelist the sites they trust to download extensions from, and by providing a preference to disable extension installation altogether. In addition, Firefox prevents users from clicking the button to install the extension for three seconds to ensure that users are not tricked into clicking it accidentally. Blogger Jesse Ruderman filed the bug report [35] that explained why the last measure is necessary, giving examples of how users could be manipulated into installing extensions without knowing it in versions without the three-second delay.
Firefox must be restarted before extensions are fully installed, uninstalled or disabled. This is one of the criticisms of Firefox themes and extensions although the Firefox development team plan for functionability to allow extensions and themes to be installed without restarting of Firefox in version 1.5.
All themes and extensions downloaded from the Mozilla Update site [36] may be upgraded through the browser interface itself. This same feature also allows users to download updates to Firefox directly without having to browse to the Mozilla Foundation's website.
Plugins
Firefox supports plugins based on Netscape Plugin Application Program Interface (NPAPI), i.e. Netscape-style plugins. As a side note, Opera and Internet Explorer 3.0 to 5.0 also supports NPAPI.
On June 30, 2004, the Mozilla Foundation, in partnership with Adobe, Apple, Macromedia, Opera and Sun Microsystems, announced a series of changes to web browser plugins [37]. The new API will allow web developers to offer richer web browsing experiences, helping to maintain innovation and standards on the Net [38]. The new plugin technologies are expected to be implemented in the future versions of the Mozilla applications.
Preferences and privacy
Firefox's toolbars and interface are customizable; users can move and manipulate the various buttons, fields, and menus on the toolbars, and also add new toolbars or delete existing ones.
Firefox can also save users' usernames and passwords, making it convenient for them to login to the sites they frequent. However, this password manager comes with a caveat — passwords and usernames are not filled in on a page until the page has finished loading. [39] In addition, Firefox also may save information a user enters on forms — this makes filling in forms which require information that does not change (or changes infrequently) - such as the user's name or address - more convenient. Both the password manager and the saving of form data may be disabled.
Firefox offers a one-click system for deleting trails of activity on the web. Cookies, history, saved passwords, cache, saved form information, and download manager history can all be cleared with one button or individually.
Additionally, Firefox stores many hidden preferences that are accessed by typing about:config in the address bar. This is used to enable features such as single-window mode and error-pages, or to speed up page rendering by various tweaks. Experimental features like HTTP pipelining are often hidden in the about:config menu.
Security
Secured by design
Firefox was designed with security in mind. Some of the key features include the use of sandbox security model, same origin policy [40] and external protocol whitelisting [41].
One key characteristic of Firefox security is based on the fact that it is open source software, and thus, its source code is visible to everyone. Proposed software changes are reviewed by at least one other person, and typically "super-reviewed" by yet another, and once placed in the software is visible for anyone else to consider or protest. [42] In addition, Mozilla (including Firefox) has a security "bug bounty" system: people who report a valid critical security bug receive a $500 (US) cash reward (for each report) and a Mozilla T-shirt. [43] The purpose of this "bug bounty" system is, according to the Mozilla Foundation, to "encourage more people to find and report security bugs in our products, so that we can make our products even more secure than they already are." [44] Note that these reporters can be anyone in the world, and that these potential reporters have access to the source code of Mozilla Firefox, internal design documentation, forum discussions, and other materials they can use to aid them in finding security flaws.
Vulnerabilities
As of January 20, 2005, the security firm Secunia reports 5 security flaws not yet fixed for Mozilla Firefox [45], as opposed to 20 security flaws not yet fixed for Microsoft Internet Explorer. [46] [47] While Internet Explorer users who have installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 are only affected by seven of these vulnerabilities, users of older versions of Windows are potentially affected by all of them as Service Pack 2 is only available for Windows XP. On January 11, 2005 a security spoofing flaw involving pop-up windows, which was hidden on Bugzilla for three months, was publicly disclosed. The severity of it is disputed, however, as not all users have been able to reproduce it. [48]
A line of reasoning used by some to explain Firefox's low number of security vulnerabilities is that since Firefox's market share is quite low, attackers may have less incentive to develop and release exploit code, and so vulnerabilities of the same kind may be less likely to be exploited.
On the whole, Firefox security vulnerabilities have been patched relatively quickly. Most occurred during the beta phase of the project. One notable exception is the XUL spoofing vulnerability that was found in 1999, marked confidential in the Mozilla bugtracker until July 21, 2004, and fixed finally before the first official release of the product for end-users (the 1.0 release). [49]
A list of known (while not exhaustive) security vulnerabilities can also be found in Mozilla Foundation's security advisories [50].
Media coverage
The count of pro-Firefox security reports and press articles took a notable upswing after the Download.ject attack on Internet Explorer on June 23, 2004. This was bolstered by numerous media reports on the subject around the same time that representative Art Manion of the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) suggested that using a web browser other than Internet Explorer would mitigate security risks. On June 6, 2004, before the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2, CERT Vulnerability Note (VU#713878) stated as one of seven solutions that switching to an alternate browser would avoid this vulnerability, and possibly others.
Some security experts, including Bruce Schneier and David A. Wheeler, recommend that users stop using Internet Explorer for normal browsing, and switch to a different browser instead, specifically recommending Firefox. [51] [52] Several technology columnists have suggested the same, including highly regarded Wall Street Journal columnist Walter S. Mossberg [53] [54], Washington Post columnist Rob Pegoraro [55], USA Today's Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz [56], Forbes' Arik Hesseldahl [57], eWEEK.com Senior Editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols [58] [59], and Desktop Pipeline's Scot Finnie. [60] Microsoft's Craig Mundie admitted that Microsoft's products were "less secure than they could have been" because they were "designing with features in mind rather than security" -- even though most people didn't use those new features. [61]
On December 8, 2004, Pennsylvania State University Information Technology Services suggested that students avoid using Internet Explorer and recommended a number of alternative browsers including Firefox. [62]
Comparisons
Firefox's security is usually contrasted with that of Internet Explorer, since Internet Explorer is Firefox's primary competition.
The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) did state that Internet Explorer's design makes it very difficult to secure. In contrast, almost none of their concerns apply to Firefox. The US-CERT noted that "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." [63] Firefox and Internet Explorer both employ graphical user interfaces (GUIs), and in both cases there is the risk that a user may be fooled by misunderstanding the interface or the displayed information in a way that puts them at risk (this is a general risk of GUI-based web browsers). However, in all other ways Firefox is different than Internet Explorer:
- Firefox does not use a domain/zone security model or local machine zone trust for accessing web pages (these are common ways to fool Internet Explorer into granting excess privileges).
- Firefox does not support many of Microsoft's proprietary DHTML features, which create those risks for vulnerabilities
- Firefox is not part of Microsoft's HTML Help system
- Firefox does not ignore the MIME type of a file unless it's a binary file sent with a text/plain MIME type
- Firefox does not support ActiveX (though plugins for ActiveX exist in some form; once an ActiveX component is run, it runs with the full privileges of the user, instead of having limited privileges like a Java or JavaScript applet). Signed remote script that uses XPCOM (short for cross platform COM) is in some ways simiar to ActiveX. However, XPCOM cannot be used silently in this way because every use of XPCOM components need to be confirmed by the user (with a timeout dialog) [64][65]. Therefore, usually XPCOM is only used within the browser chrome.
- Firefox is not deeply integrated into the operating system. Thus, any defects in Firefox are less likely to have catastrophic effects, major new versions of Firefox can be installed without installing a new operating system, and Firefox can be uninstalled later without difficulty. However, since Firefox is cross-platform, any defects in the browser may affect all platforms. In addition, defects in the browser may potentially allow a hacker access to all the system resources made accessible by vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer.
Standards
The Mozilla Foundation takes pride in Firefox's compliance with W3C web standards. Firefox has extensive support for most basic web standards including HTML, CSS, JavaScript and MathML.
It also supports PNG images and variable transparency, something Internet Explorer does not do fully. Indeed, Firefox's support of PNG images has caused much debate around Internet Explorer's standards compliancy, as it is a standard that some web developers want to use instead of the old GIF format, which does not have the same capabilities.
Developers are constantly improving Firefox's support for existing standards. Most of CSS2 and some of the not-yet-completed CSS3 standard have already been implemented in Firefox.
Work is being done on implementing newer standards like SVG, APNG and XForms natively into Firefox, as well as building on existing standards by proposing new recommendations like XUL and XBL that are already being used to build Firefox's user interface.
Cross-platform support
Mozilla Firefox runs on a wide variety of platforms. The primary distribution site supports the following platforms: [66]
- Various versions of Microsoft Windows, including Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003
- Mac OS X
- Linux-based operating systems using x86s.
Mozilla Firefox can be installed on Windows 95, though this requires a few additional steps [67].
Since the source code is available, it can also be compiled and run on a variety of other architectures and platforms. Thus, Firefox is also available for many other systems. This includes Solaris (x86 and SPARC), OS/2, AIX, [68] and FreeBSD. [69]
Other features
Firefox also has a non-modal incremental find feature known as "find as you type". When a user types a word while on a web page, Firefox will automatically search for it in the page and highlight the first instance found.
There is also a built-in Mycroft web search function with extensible search engine listing; by default, Firefox includes plugins for Google and Yahoo!, and also includes plugins for looking up a word on dictionary.com and browsing through Amazon.com listings. Other popular Mycroft search engines include Wikipedia, eBay, and IMDb. Mycroft is named after Mycroft Holmes, the fictional older and smarter brother of Sherlock Holmes. The Macintosh OS's built-in search system is named after Sherlock Holmes.
It should be noted that most of the aforementioned features are not unique to Firefox. Opera, for example, also supports many of these features, but lacks similar extensibility; also, it is supported by advertisements — users must pay a fee to remove the advertisements. See also comparison of web browsers.
Criticisms
Many argue that frequently requested, yet minor, features have not been implemented. For example, the ability to resize the search bar has been a frequently requested feature but has been frequently turned down. Some of these requests have only been solved when someone creates an extension for it (for example, an extension to add a resize thumb to the search bar is available at [70]). However, it is commonly argued that the marginal performance degradation when installing an extension is not worth the marginal benefits of having that feature available. Therefore, they argue, that feature should have been included into Firefox by default to avoid the performance hit.[71]
Another complaint is that Firefox is sometimes slow to load pages when using the back and forward buttons. This is a result of issues with the coding in the Mozilla Suite, which was transferred over to Firefox (then Phoenix) when it was branched.[72]
A third complaint that some have is that a small, but often frequently used, feature that allows pressing "Ctrl+Enter" in the address bar to open a page in a new tab is missing from Firefox. "Ctrl+Enter" has been replaced with auto completion in the URL bar as Internet Explorer does. "Alt+Enter" now provides the new tab functionality.
Some HTTP server administrators complain that the Firefox 1.0 release, in its attempt to mimic Internet Explorer's behavior of requesting favicon files, improperly requests an icon file with every page view [73], despite the server's response that the file does not exist. The ramifications of this are that server administrators must either accept the unnecessary HTTP traffic increases and corresponding server log file bloat, or must work around the issue by putting a favicon.ico file under the root directory, or properly referencing an favicon image file with the HTML <link> element.
Additionally, there are many criticisms leveled by users of other browsers, elucidated below.
Criticisms from Internet Explorer users
When Firefox has problems loading a page, for example when it cannot connect to the server, by default it displays an error dialog box instead of an error page as used in Internet Explorer. Note that this Firefox behavior can be configured to be the same as Internet Explorer's, if desired, in about:config. [74]
A selection of users switching to Firefox has noted that it can take longer to launch than Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer's close ties to Windows code gives it the advantage of starting quickly once the program icon is clicked, because Internet Explorer's code is loaded in memory before the user even selects its user interface. Firefox can have a longer start time (although this is typically if the user has installed many extensions), but can be given the same advantage IE has by using the "/prefetch:1" switch. It should be noted that other users have reported that Firefox loads and renders web pages faster.
Another issue found by users coming from Internet Explorer is that the right-click context menu for images, the "View image" option, sounding similar to the "Show image" in Internet Explorer's context menu, loads the image in the current tab or window instead of reloading the image in the page as Internet Explorer would. [75] There is an extension known as "Show image", which duplicates the Internet Explorer behavior. [76]
One of the main unaddressed problems of Firefox is the position of the text cursor or caret when entering text into a box, much like the ones found on Internet forums (particularly phpBB boards). The text cursor is too wide and positioned slightly to the left of where it should be, completely obscuring letters like "i" and "j" and making it difficult to read what the user is typing. Although there are plans to include a fix for this in the next official release of Firefox, a few users have taken the already-existing fix and compiled new versions of Firefox. One example of a user-compiled Firefox which fixes this problem is the build by Amano. [77] However, these user-compiled versions do not guarantee the same stability as official releases.
Some users of Internet Explorer resort to Internet Explorer shells such as Avant Browser to work around specific issues with Firefox.
ActiveX
To some, Firefox's strong ties to standards are causing much worry in the Mozilla community, as the developers' decision not to implement non-standard web technologies developed by Microsoft, such as ActiveX and many Internet Explorer specific JavaScript features, has led to some users returning to Internet Explorer. This is largely due to the fact that some sites design for Internet Explorer-specific functionality by using these non-standard technologies. That said, it is possible to add support for ActiveX by the use of a plugin for Windows users. [78]
Some users find it a hassle to open Internet Explorer when they find a site which does not work correctly in Firefox, and decide to use Internet Explorer by default instead of switching between the two. As a result, an extension was developed that adds a button to the right-click context menu which allows a user to view a page, or any link on a page, in Internet Explorer. [79] Additionally, the new version of the Netscape Browser, based on Firefox, includes a feature to automatically use Internet Explorer for certain sites, but without opening a new window.
However, others view the lack of ActiveX as a blessing in disguise, as there have been numerous security holes discovered in it in the past. In addition, there are relatively few public websites that use ActiveX; the most well-known site to use ActiveX is probably the Windows Update site. ActiveX is not portable to the wide variety of browser platforms in any case; systems based on Mac, Linux, or BSD, as well as non-x86 systems, typically cannot run ActiveX controls anyway. ActiveX is, however, quite common in corporate intranets and for web applications, which may hinder the adoption of Firefox on the corporate desktop.
Digital signatures and authenticity of downloads
Peter Torr, a program manager at Microsoft (who makes Firefox's primary competitor), wrote an essay "How can I trust Firefox?" [80], which immediately began a firestorm of discussion on his own blogging forum (including postings from notables like Peter da Silva [81]), a discussion on Slashdot [82], and a follow-up summary from Torr [83].
Torr pointed out that the many mirrors hosting Firefox downloads were often based on university (or even high school) campuses, and offered no guarantee that the browser files had not been tampered with. He also notes several flaws in the Firefox user interface.
It was noted the original essay claimed that there is no obvious way to disable plug-ins (like Flash). This may be acheived by selecting Tools -> Options -> Downloads -> Plugins and clicking on the arrows displayed. Other points illustrated differences in security approach:
- Microsoft's Torr was disturbed that Firefox does not widely use digital signatures, since digital signatures are the basis of Internet Explorer's security approach. Peter da Silva and others countered that Internet Explorer's extreme dependence on digital signatures is a flaw; after all, anyone can simply pay some money to be able to sign code. For example, many spyware programs (such as Gator) are digitally signed [84] [85] Digital signatures are not intended to show that code is benign or vulnerability-free; they're only supposed to prove the origin of the software. But even this is weak; in 2001 two Microsoft digital certificates were issued by Verisign to people who fraudulently claimed to represent Microsoft, and these certificates could have been easily used by malicious attackers to forge material "signed" by Microsoft. [86] Also, people can create companies and get certificates with arbitrary, misleading names, causing users to give unwarranted trust to signed programs. Instead of depending on digital signatures (especially since users rarely check who signed something), the Firefox project uses hash values and DNS to demonstrate traceability of the Firefox software itself to a trusted site.
- Once installed, Firefox uses mobile code technologies that constantly limit code privileges while running, as opposed to Internet Explorer's ActiveX which is given uncontrolled access once it starts to run. Firefox proponents argue that Java and JavaScript are much more secure, because their privileges are constantly limited while running.
- Internet Explorer's security is dependent on "security zones"; Firefox proponents note that many attacks successfully confuse Internet Explorer's security zone implementation, and claim that Firefox's security is better in part because it does not depend on security zones.
Criticisms from Opera users
Opera's interface is customizable, allowing toolbars, buttons, fields, etc. to be placed anywhere on the screen (or not at all). Menus, keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures etc. may also be user-defined. Many of the possible configurations are not available in Firefox by default, but are supported by extensions.
Some advanced Opera users found the search engines less customizable than Opera. While Firefox users can install their own search engines, they cannot customize the order, search URL, short keyword (such as being able to type "g {query}" to get to Google) or engine title. However, similar functionality can be achieved by using bookmarks, where their query URLs, keywords and titles are all customizable [87]. However, it should be noted that adding search engines in Opera is not as easy as that in Firefox, as Opera offers no user interface for doing so. Users need to edit a file named "search.ini", which resides in the user profile, manually (or with some third-party software [88]). The difficulty is comparable with manual editing using the about:config interface in Firefox.
Opera users may be perturbed at the fact that Firefox does not have cross-session browsing — where the tabs that were open when the browser was closed remain when it is reopened by default. Most users who prefer cross-session browsing with Firefox either resort to the Tabbrowser Extensions extension or the Session Saver extension to produce equivalent results. [89]
Some may also miss the possibility to undo the accidental closing of a tab by pressing CTRL+ALT+Z. Opera also offers a list of all closed tabs in a session, for quick restoration. Again, similar functionality is available for Firefox via extensions. [90] [91]
Firefox's Gecko rendering engine is also in some ways less superior than Opera's Presto rendering engine, especially in the areas of page forwarding/backwarding [92], smooth image resizing [93] and page zooming [94].
Opera is often seen as most attractive for some features, all available without the installation of extensions. Firefox's philosophy is different, offering only core features by default to avoid possible bloat. Despite the Firefox team's efforts to offer as few things as possible, the executable size is still larger than that of Opera.
Criticisms from Mozilla Suite users
Some users of the Mozilla Suite point to Firefox's appeal to novice users as being a weakness rather than a strength of the browser. Many advanced configuration options available in the suite are hidden in Firefox, and can only be accessed by hand-editing configuration files or through the about:config interface.
In addition, many argue that it is superfluous to use Firefox combined with the stand-alone Mozilla Thunderbird email client, as the suite offers the same features in a unified package with less memory consumption.
Many people have no problem using both the Suite and Firefox, using the former to keep track of new features and changes to the Gecko engine, and the latter as their default web browser.
Criticisms from Safari users
One of the most significant critisim's from Safari users is the lack of a close button on each individual tab. In Safari, there is a close button on each tab, however, in Mozilla, there is but one button, that can only close the active tab, and this button is on the far right of the screen: directly opposite the tabs in the window, which are left justified.
Another notable criticism is the lack of use of OS-standard input areas and textareas. This means that Firefox does not offer OS-standard features such as built-in spell check as you type and speech services.
Market adoption
The adoption of Firefox has been rapid, given the previously accepted dominance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the browser market. According to Mozilla's marketing site, Mozilla Firefox 1.0, launched on November 9, 2004 and available for free from the Firefox homepage, was downloaded over a million times within 24 hours after its 1.0 release. Within 11 days, it had achieved over 5 million downloads. As of December 12, 2004 (roughly one month after the launch of version 1.0), the number of downloads of Firefox 1.0 hit 10 million [95]. And in 12 weeks, the download count hit 22 million [96]. The cumulative downloads increased in an almost linear fashion, over a sustained period of time (12 weeks at the time of this edit). In other words, the download rate remained fairly stable. That kind of growth was not found in any prior Mozilla product releases.
According to a September 2004 report in Tom's Hardware Guide, analysts Websidestory reported that 5.2 percent of web users were using the Firefox or Netscape browsers as of late September 2004, a rise of 1.7 percent since June, and that Internet Explorer had lost 1.8 percent of usage share in the same period, down to 93.7 percent. [97] Firefox is now targeting a 10% usage share by the end of 2005. [98] This goal received a boost when a web browser usage survey released on November 24 2004 showed that Firefox usage was now at 4.58 percent, while Internet Explorer's usage was down to 88.9 percent. [99] [100] Website developers have taken up Firefox significantly. On February 1, 2005, the percentage of W3Schools.com users (a site focused on standard-based website development) using Firefox had grown to 19.3% (vs. 65.3% for Internet Explorer). [101]
Because Firefox is one of the most popular open source applications, it has been referred to as a gateway drug or a Trojan Horse for the adoption of open source software. [102]
Much of Firefox's rapid adoption results from the recent spate of reports of security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, as users look for a safer alternative. Although Firefox has had security vulnerabilities of its own, most of them were found and fixed during the beta phase of the project. On the whole they have been patched relatively quickly. As the distribution of the final version increases, it remains to be seen how robust the browser is in the security field; several security bugs have been discovered since the 1.0 release.
Despite Firefox's apparent gains on Internet Explorer, Microsoft head of Australian operations Steve Vamos has stated that Microsoft does not feel Firefox is a threat. He does not feel that Microsoft's users really want the added features of Firefox and says that he never used it personally.[103]
Despite Microsoft's stated views on Firefox, on 28 November 2004, the British MSN website, which is part of the Microsoft Corporation, began listing Mozilla Firefox in the downloads section as "The best browser around. Period.". However, it should be noted that the blurbs for software on that website are taken from computeractive.co.uk, a download site that isn't part of Microsoft. [104] The link has since been replaced.
Spread Firefox campaign
The rapid adoption was apparently accelerated by a series of aggressive community-marketing campaigns since 2004.
There was a series of events dubbed "marketing week", organized by Blake Ross and Asa Dotzler:
- July 7 2004 ("marketing week 1"), the community was encourage to vote on/review Firefox in CNET's Download.com, with the goal of one thousand reviews of Firefox in one week [105]. The goal was quickly achieved, with 1369 people given Firefox a 96% approval rating, and 1220 people rated it straight fives across the board.
- July 15 2004 ("marketing week 2"), the goal was to form a team (called "For the Record") of dedicated, committed and determined individuals that can be mobilized quickly to respond to three different types of press coverage: 1) factually inaccurate or sensationally misleading press; 2) relevant stories; and 3) thoughtful stories [106].
- July 23 2004 ("marketing week 3"), the mission was to get fifty donations of advertising space in print or high traffic web sites [107].
- August 2 2004 ("marketing week 4"), the goal was to directly contacted dozens of bloggers who raved about Firefox and encourage them to add "Get Firefox" buttons on their blogs. [108].
- August 20 2004 ("marketing week 5"), the task was to help the community to prepare for a future college evangelism campaign [109].
On September 14 2004, a community marketing portal dubbed "Spread Firefox" [110] was created along with the Firefox Preview Release. This website gives a centralized space for the discussion of various marketing techniques. The "Get Firefox" button program was enhanced, that users are given "referrer points" as an incentive. The top 250 referrers are listed on the site [111].
On September 26 2004, a climateprediction.net (distributed computing for climate modeling) team was created [112]. The aim was to spread the words of Firefox while making the Earth a better place. This was later followed and similar teams were created for SETI@home, Folding@home, LHC@home, grid.org, Pirates@Home, Einstein@Home and Predictor@home.
The Spread Firefox site, like other forums and blogs, is subject to trolling and spamming [113]. The "Spread Firefox" blog category is most often misused for blog posts that have nothing to do with spreading Firefox, as the posts that belong to this category are listed on the front page.
New York Times advertisement
On October 19 2004, a small announcement went up on the Spread Firefox homepage. It said the group was going to attempt to raise money to publish a full-page advertisement in the New York Times to announce the release of Firefox 1.0. The ad was to be a declaration of independence from Internet Explorer, and would include as signatures the names of all the contributors to the campaign. A goal was set to reach 2500 names. When the ten day fundraising period was over, it was announced that over 10,000 people had contributed, and raised a total of $250,000 USD, about five times as much as had been expected.
The advertisement was published on December 16 2004, and was two full pages [114] -- the original plan was for just one page [115]. At the same time, the Mozilla Foundation begun selling a print [116] and released a PDF version of the advertisement [117]. Downloads spiked 40% after the advertisement was published [118] and the advertisement itself became a news story in the same and other publications.
See also
- Netscape Navigator browser from which the Mozilla project descended
- Mozilla Calendar personal information manager
- Mozilla Sunbird calendar application
- The Book of Mozilla
- Firefox-ko, personification of Firefox.
- List of web browsers
- Comparison of web browsers
- List of open-source software packages
References
- Goodger, Ben. (2004). Mozilla Firefox Development Charter. Retrieved September 22, 2004.
- Keating, Wick. (2004). Open source: Swimming with the tide. In Consultants' Briefing. Retrieved January 8, 2004.
External links
- Firefox product page at Mozilla.org
- Mozilla Firefox forums — From MozillaZine.
- SpreadFirefox.com — Firefox official community marketing page.
- Firefox Help — Online Help for the Mozilla Firefox Web Browser.
- The Burning Edge — Developments in nightly builds of Mozilla Firefox.
- Portable Firefox — An USB drive-friendly version.
- Secunia advisories for Mozilla Firefox
- ^ "Index of /pub/firefox/releases/140.0b3/". 30 May 2025. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ "Firefox Nightly 141.0a1, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes". 26 May 2025. Retrieved 26 May 2025.