Mozilla+Firefox

toc [|Mozilla Firefox] is a free, open source web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation. With the help of many volunteers, Firefox and [|Thunderbird] (an email client based on Firefox) became the main focus of the foundation, replacing the Mozilla Suite as their official main software. It was the first browser to include tabbed browsing, a pop-up blocker, and live bookmarks all together.

Even before its 1.0 release in late 2004, Firefox had gained a lot of attention from numerous media outlets. In only 3 months after this release, it had become one of the most downloaded free applications. Firefox was especially popular among home users. In less than a year it had more than 100 million downloads. Firefox 1.5, released in November 2005, received more than 2 million downloads in the first 36 hours.

Firefox can be downloaded from [|www.getfirefox.com].

History
The Firefox project started as an experimental branch of the Navigator component of the Mozilla project. Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross, the two heads behind this project, believed that the Mozilla project, sponsored by [|Netscape], focused too much on features, compromising the browser’s utility. The focus of their project was to create a simpler, scaled-down version of the Mozilla browser which would eventually replace it.

Because of the success of the Firefox project, the Mozilla Foundation decided to make its Mozilla suite obsolete, replacing it with Firefox. Its current 1.7.x series is still used by many corporate users and is still distributed with other software. The foundation will continue to support the 1.7.x series, but they will not make anymore releases past this version.

**Naming**
The experimental Firefox project was first called m/b, for mozilla/browser. As the project developed, the binaries that were released for public testing were named Phoenix. This was released in September 2002 and lasted until April 2003, when it was changed to Firebird. The change was made because of trademark issues with Phoenix Technologies, a BIOS manufacturer. However the name Firebird also didn’t work too well since it shared the name with a free database program. Mozilla tried to resolve this issue by naming it Mozilla Firebird to distinguish it from the database program. However, continuing pressure from open-source communities forced them to change the name again. In February 2004, the name was changed once again to Mozilla Firefox (or simply Firefox).

The name “Firefox” was chosen because it is similar to [|“Firebird”] and is also unique in the computing industry. In December 2003, Mozilla began registering “Firefox” as a trademark to avoid further naming issues. The name “Firefox” had already existed however in the United Kingdom, so instead Mozilla licensed the name from its owner.

Features
Firefox comes with a set of simple but useful features as outlined below. Extra features can be downloaded as extensions or plugins.

User Interface
Firefox has a much simpler and less cluttered interface than most other browsers. Only the few frequently used options are displayed as icons. The rest can be found in the menus.

Firefox features tabbed browsing. This allows users to have multiple pages open in one window (each page has its own “tab” within the window). This feature was first introduced in the Mozilla browser.

Firefox was one of the first browsers to come with an integrated and customizable pop-up blocker. It is also the most accessible web browser for users with physical impairments. Firefox 1.5 is the first browser to meet US federal government requirements on accessibility.

Firefox has a very useful find feature that will “find as you type”. Once the user starts typing, Firefox immediately start searching for the word and highlights the first instance found. As the user continues typing, Firefox automatically refines the search. If the instance cannot be found, the find box turns red.

Firefox also has a search toolbar built-in which can search a number of different search engines. The search box is located to the right of the address bar by default. Users can choose to search [|Google], Yahoo!, [|Amazon.com], [|Creative Commons], [|Dictionary.com], and [|eBay]. Other search engines can be added from the [|Firefox Add-ons] website

Users can also access their bookmarked pages or built-in bookmarks (eg. Google) by simply typing the name in the address bar and, optionally, following it by a search term. For example, typing “google ccit” in the address bar will search for “ccit” on Google. If you have a bookmark named “[|UTM]”, simply typing that name in the address bar will load that bookmark.



Customizability
Firefox is highly customizable. Users can download new features through extensions off the [|Firefox Add-ons] website. Custom themes/skins can also be downloaded from this site to change its appearance. Aside from downloads, the layout of the toolbars (buttons, fields, menus, etc.) can also be customized. One of the most attractive features of the browser was its ability to block pop-ups. The feature of pop-up blocker has now been added into many modern browsers but Mozilla Firefox remains the originator of having the integrated pop-up blocking device.

Cross-Platform Support
Firefox can be run on many different platforms. The three main platforms that are supported are:
 * Microsoft Windows 98 and up (except for Windows XP x64 Edition: a version exists but is not supported)
 * [|Mac OS X]
 * [|Linux]

Firefox builds for many other platforms also exist, but are not officially supported by Mozilla.

Security
Firefox is widely known for its security. Some claim that the reason behind Firefox’s effective security is that it is open-source. Because anyone can see the code, it must have tight security mechanisms as opposed to “security through obscurity” (the code is hidden).

Mozilla also offers a cash reward of US$500 and a Mozilla T-shirt for each report of a critical security bug, encouraging users to report any bugs or vulnerabilities they may find. Access to bug/vulnerability reports is restricted to the Mozilla security team until a fix has been distributed (if needed). This prevents any exploitation of the bug or vulnerability before it gets fixed.

Firefox’s security has been proven to be successful. Only 2 unpatched vulnerabilities were found in Firefox 1.x, the worst one marked “less critical”. In this same period, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer had 21 unpatched vulnerabilities, the worst being “highly critical”. These findings were reported by [|Secunia]. Another report by [|SecurityFocus] found no vulnerabilities with Firefox 1.5.0.1, compared to 65 unpatched vulnerabilities with Internet Explorer 6.

Also See
- Internet Explorer - [|Netscape Navigator]