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History of Mozilla Firefox
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The Mozilla Firefox project was created by Dave Hyatt
Dave Hyatt
Dave Hyatt is an American software developer currently employed by Apple Inc. , where he is part of the development team responsible for the Safari web browser and WebKit framework. Hyatt was part of the original team that shipped the beta releases and 1.0 release of Safari...

 and Blake Ross
Blake Ross
Blake Aaron Ross is an American software developer who is known for his work on the Mozilla web browser; in particular, he started the Mozilla Firefox project with Dave Hyatt, as well as the Spread Firefox project with Asa Dotzler while working as a contractor at the Mozilla Foundation...

 as an experimental branch of the Mozilla
Mozilla
Mozilla is a term used in a number of ways in relation to the Mozilla.org project and the Mozilla Foundation, their defunct commercial predecessor Netscape Communications Corporation, and their related application software....

 project. Firefox 1.0 was released on November 9, 2004. Firefox 1.5 was released on November 29, 2005. Version 2.0
Mozilla Firefox 2
Mozilla Firefox 2 was a version of Firefox, a web browser released on October 24, 2006 by the Mozilla Corporation.Firefox 2 uses version 1.8 of the Gecko layout engine for displaying web pages...

 was released on October 24, 2006. Firefox 3.0
Mozilla Firefox 3
Mozilla Firefox 3.0 is a version of the Firefox web browser released on June 17, 2008 by the Mozilla Corporation.Firefox 3.0 uses version 1.9 of the Gecko layout engine for displaying web pages. This version fixes many bugs, improves standard compliance, and implements many new web APIs compared to...

 was released on June 17, 2008, with Version 3.5
Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Mozilla Firefox 3.5 is a version of the Firefox web browser released in June 2009, adding a variety of new features to Firefox. Version 3.5 was touted as being twice as fast as 3.0...

 and Version 3.6
Mozilla Firefox 3.6
Mozilla Firefox 3.6 is a version of the Firefox web browser released in January 2010. The release's main improvement over Firefox 3.5 is improved performance . It uses the Gecko 1.9.2 engine , which improves compliance with web standards...

 released on June 30, 2009 and January 21, 2010 respectively. Version 4.0 was released on March 22, 2011, Version 5.0 was released on June 21, 2011, Version 6.0 was released on August 16, 2011, Version 7.0 was released on September 27, 2011 and Version 8.0, the current release, was released on November 8, 2011.

Early versions

Hyatt, Ross, Hewitt and Chanial's browser was created to combat the perceived software bloat
Software bloat
Software bloat is a process whereby successive versions of a computer program include an increasing proportion of unnecessary features that are not used by end users, or generally use more system resources than necessary, while offering little or no benefit to its users.-Causes:Software developers...

 of the Mozilla Suite
Mozilla Application Suite
The Mozilla Application Suite is a cross-platform integrated Internet suite. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL. It is based on the source code of Netscape Communicator...

 (codenamed, internally referred to, and continued by the community as SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey is a free and open source cross-platform Internet suite. It is the continuation of the former Mozilla Application Suite, based on the same source code...

), which integrated features such as IRC
Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...

, mail and news, and WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product...

 HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

 editing into one software suite.

Firefox retains the cross-platform
Cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...

 nature of the original Mozilla browser, using the XUL
XUL
In computer programming, XUL , the XML User Interface Language, is an XML user interface markup language developed by the Mozilla project. XUL operates in Mozilla cross-platform applications such as Firefox...

 user interface markup language
User interface markup language
A user interface markup language is a markup language that renders and describes graphical user interfaces and controls. Many of these markup languages are dialects of XML and are dependent upon a pre-existing scripting language engine, usually a JavaScript engine, for rendering of controls and...

. The use of XUL makes it possible to extend the browser's capabilities through the use of extensions and theme
Skin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....

s. The development and installation processes of these add-ons raised security concerns, and with the release of Firefox 0.9, the Mozilla Foundation opened a Mozilla Update website containing "approved" themes and extensions. The use of XUL sets Firefox apart from other browsers, including other projects based on Mozilla's Gecko
Gecko (layout engine)
Gecko is a free and open source layout engine used in many applications developed by Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation , as well as in many other open source software projects....

 layout engine
Web browser engine
A web browser engine, , is a software component that takes marked up content and formatting information and displays the formatted content on the screen. It "paints" on the content area of a window, which is displayed on a monitor or a printer...

 and most other browsers, which use interfaces native to their respective platforms (Galeon
Galeon
Galeon is a web browser for GNOME based on Mozilla’s Gecko layout engine. Galeon’s self-declared mission was to deliver the web and only the web. Galeon was discontinued in September 2008....

 and Epiphany
Epiphany (web browser)
Epiphany is an open source web browser for the GNOME desktop environment. The browser is a descendant of Galeon, and was created after developer disagreements about Galeon's growing complexity...

 use GTK+
GTK+
GTK+ is a cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU LGPL, allowing both free and proprietary software to use it. It is one of the most popular toolkits for the X Window System, along with Qt.The name GTK+ originates from GTK;...

; K-Meleon
K-Meleon
K-Meleon is a web browser for the Microsoft Windows platform. Based on the same Gecko layout engine as Mozilla Firefox, K-Meleon uses native Windows application programming interface to create the user interface, instead of using Mozilla's cross-platform XML User Interface Language layer, and as...

 uses MFC
Microsoft Foundation Class Library
The Microsoft Foundation Class Library is a library that wraps portions of the Windows API in C++ classes, including functionality that enables them to use a default application framework...

; and Camino
Camino
Camino is a free, open source, GUI-based Web browser based on Mozilla's Gecko layout engine and specifically designed for the Mac OS X operating system...

 uses Cocoa
Cocoa (API)
Cocoa is Apple's native object-oriented application programming interface for the Mac OS X operating system and—along with the Cocoa Touch extension for gesture recognition and animation—for applications for the iOS operating system, used on Apple devices such as the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and...

). Many of these projects were started before Firefox, and probably served as inspiration.

Although the Mozilla Foundation had intended to make the Mozilla Suite obsolete and replace it with Firefox, the Foundation continued to maintain the suite until April 12, 2006 because it had many corporate users and was bundled with other software. The Mozilla community (as opposed to the Foundation) continues to release new versions of the suite, using the product name SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey is a free and open source cross-platform Internet suite. It is the continuation of the former Mozilla Application Suite, based on the same source code...

 to avoid confusion with the original Mozilla Suite.

On February 5, 2004, business and IT consulting company AMS
American Management Systems
American Management Systems was a high technology and management consulting firm, founded in 1970 by a group of five former Defense Department officials who had worked under Robert McNamara in the Kennedy and Johnson administration...

 categorized Mozilla Firefox (then known as Firebird) as a "Tier 1" ("Best of Breed") open source product, considering it technically strong and virtually risk-free.

Naming

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

The Phoenix name was kept until April 14, 2003, when it was changed because of a trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

 dispute with the BIOS
BIOS
In IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....

 manufacturer, Phoenix Technologies
Phoenix Technologies
Phoenix Technologies Ltd designs, develops and supports core system software for personal computers and other computing devices. Phoenix's products — commonly referred to as BIOS or firmware — support and enable the compatibility, connectivity, security and management of the various components and...

 (which produces a BIOS-based browser called Phoenix FirstWare Connect). The new name, Firebird, met with mixed reactions, particularly as the Firebird database server
Firebird (database server)
Firebird is an open source SQL relational database management system that runs on Linux, Windows, and a variety of Unix. The database forked from Borland's open source edition of InterBase in 2000, but since Firebird 1.5 the code has been largely rewritten ....

 already carried the name. In response, the Mozilla Foundation stated that the browser should always bear the name Mozilla Firebird to avoid confusion with the database software. Continuing pressure from the Firebird community forced another change, and on February 9, 2004 the project was renamed Mozilla Firefox (or Firefox for short).

The name "Firefox" (a reference to the red panda
Red Panda
The red panda , is a small arboreal mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It is the only species of the genus Ailurus. Slightly larger than a domestic cat, it has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs...

) 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
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia,...

 in December 2003. This trademark process led to a delay of several months in the release of Firefox 0.8 when the foundation discovered that Firefox had already been registered as a trademark in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 for Charlton Company software. The situation was resolved when the foundation was given a license to use Charlton's European trademark.

Branding and visual identity

Early Firebird and Phoenix releases of Firefox were considered to have had reasonable visual designs, but were not up to the same standards as many professionally released software packages. In October 2003, professional interface designer Steven Garrity wrote an article covering everything he considered to be wrong with Mozilla's visual identity. The page received a great deal of attention; the majority of criticism leveled at the article fell along the lines of "where's the patch?"
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 icon designs by silverorange, a group of web developers with a long-standing relationship with Mozilla, with final renderings by Jon Hicks
Jon Hicks (designer)
Jon Hicks is an English designer who owns his own design studio, Hicksdesign. Hicks is best known for designing the Firefox logo, and has worked on numerous other design projects.-Early life:...

, who had previously worked on Camino
Camino
Camino is a free, open source, GUI-based Web browser based on Mozilla's Gecko layout engine and specifically designed for the Mac OS X operating system...

. The logo was later revised and updated, fixing several flaws found when it was enlarged.

The animal shown in the logo is a stylized fox, although "firefox" is considered to be a common name for the red panda
Red Panda
The red panda , is a small arboreal mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It is the only species of the genus Ailurus. Slightly larger than a domestic cat, it has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs...

. The panda, according to Hicks, "didn't really conjure up the right imagery" and wasn't widely known. The logo was chosen to make an impression while not shouting out with overdone artwork. It had to stand out in the user's mind, be easy for others to remember, and stand out without causing too much distraction when seen among other icons.

The Firefox icon is a trademark used to designate the official Mozilla build of the Firefox software and builds of official distribution partners. For this reason, Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...

 and other software distributors who distribute patched or modified versions of Firefox do not use the icon. The crash reporting service was initially closed source, but switched with version 3 from a program called Talkback to the open source BreakPad & Socorro.

"Delicious delicacies"

Early Firefox releases featured a preferences panel that described cookie
HTTP cookie
A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is used for an origin website to send state information to a user's browser and for the browser to return the state information to the origin site...

s thus: "Cookies are delicious delicacies".

The phrase was representative of the programmers' quirky sense of humor and was a reflection of the free software movement
Free software movement
The free software movement is a social and political movement with the goal of ensuring software users' four basic freedoms: the freedom to run their software, to study and change their software, and to redistribute copies with or without changes. The alternative terms "software libre", "open...

's unconventional approach. The phrase became something of a cult legend and was even featured in an O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media
O'Reilly Media is an American media company established by Tim O'Reilly that publishes books and Web sites and produces conferences on computer technology topics...

 computer book.

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

However, in reflection of the growing acceptance and use of the Firefox browser in the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 mainstream, the text was later changed. It was labeled a bug
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...

, and was "fixed" by Mike Connor to read, "Cookies are pieces of information stored by web pages on your computer. They are used to remember login information and other data." The revision was regarded as more likely to be helpful to less technically oriented computer users who were now using Firefox—representing Mozilla's desire to appeal to mainstream users.

The text became a popular in-joke
In-joke
An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...

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

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

Version 1.5

On June 23, 2005, the Mozilla Foundation announced that Firefox 1.1 (which became Firefox 1.5) and other new Mozilla products would no longer support Mac OS X v10.1
Mac OS X v10.1
Mac OS X version 10.1, code named "Puma", is the second major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system. It superseded Mac OS X v10.0 and preceded Mac OS X v10.2. Version 10.1 was released on 25 September 2001 as a 'free update' to version 10.0...

, in order to improve the quality of Firefox releases on Mac OS X v10.2
Mac OS X v10.2
Mac OS X version 10.2 "Jaguar" is the third major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system. It superseded Mac OS X v10.1 code name Puma and preceded Mac OS X Panther...

 and above. Mac 10.1 users could still use Firefox versions from the 1.0.x branch (e.g. Firefox 1.0.7).

Firefox 1.5 was released on November 30, 2005. While Firefox 1.5 was originally slated to arrive later, the Mozilla foundation abandoned the 1.1 release plan after the first two 1.1 alpha builds, merging it with the feature set of 1.5, which ended up being released later than the original 1.1 date. The new version resynchronized the code base of the release builds (as opposed to nightly builds) with the core "trunk", which contained additional features not available in 1.0, as it branched
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...

 from the trunk around the 0.9 release. As such, there was a backlog of bug fixes between 0.9 and the release of 1.0, which were made available in 1.5. Version 1.5 implemented a new Mac-like options interface, the subject of much criticism from Windows and Linux users, with a "Sanitize" action to allow someone to clear their privacy-related information without manually clicking the "Clear All" button. In Firefox 1.5, a user could clear all privacy-related settings simply by exiting the browser or using a keyboard shortcut, depending on their settings. Moreover, the software update system was improved (with binary patches now possible). There were also improvements in the extension management system, with a number of new developer features.

In addition, Firefox 1.5 had preliminary SVG
Scalable Vector Graphics
Scalable Vector Graphics is a family of specifications of an XML-based file format for describing two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and dynamic . The SVG specification is an open standard that has been under development by the World Wide Web Consortium since 1999.SVG images and their...

 1.1 support.

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

Firefox 1.5.0.12 was the final version supported on Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...

.

Version 2

On March 22, 2006, the first alpha version of Firefox 2 (Bon Echo Alpha 1) was released. It featured Gecko 1.8.1 for the first time.

Firefox 2 was released on October 24, 2006 and contained many new features not found in Firefox 1.5, including improved SVG and JavaScript 1.7 support, as well as UI changes.

Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.x was the final version supported on Windows NT 4.0, 98 and Me. Mozilla Corporation announced it would not develop new versions of Firefox 2 after the 2.0.0.20 release, but continued Firefox 2 development as long as other programs, such as Thunderbird mail client
Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. The project strategy is modeled after Mozilla Firefox, a project aimed at creating a web browser...

, depended on it. The final internal release was 2.0.0.22, released in late April 2009.

Firefox Live Chat

In December 2007, Mozilla launched Live Chat, a service allowing users to seek technical support from volunteers. Because Live chat is kept running by volunteers, it is only available when they are online. Support is only available in English officially, but the volunteers may also provide in other languages. Mozilla uses the open source software, Openfire and Spark with the Fastpath plugin, all by Ignite Realtime. Unlike other services by companies such as Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

, Mozilla cannot offer remote control
Remote desktop software
In computing, the term remote desktop refers to a software or an OS feature allowing applications, either command line programs or graphical applications, to be run remotely on a server, while being displayed locally. Remote desktop applications have varying features...

, as volunteers are bound to the privacy policy.

Version 3

The Mozilla Foundation released Firefox 3 on June 17, 2008. The first Firefox 3 beta (under codename 'Gran Paradiso').
had been released several months earlier, on 19 November 2007, which was followed by several more beta releases in the Spring of 2008 culminating in the June release.

One of the major changes in Firefox 3 is the implementation of Gecko
Gecko (layout engine)
Gecko is a free and open source layout engine used in many applications developed by Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation , as well as in many other open source software projects....

 1.9, an updated layout engine
Web browser engine
A web browser engine, , is a software component that takes marked up content and formatting information and displays the formatted content on the screen. It "paints" on the content area of a window, which is displayed on a monitor or a printer...

. The new version fixes many bugs and implements new web APIs.

Version 3.5

After several development releases, the final version was released on June 30, 2009. The current version is 3.5.19, released on April 28, 2011. Also, as of mid-December 2009, Firefox 3.5 was the most popular browser (when counting individual browser versions), passing Internet Explorer 7
Internet Explorer 7
Windows Internet Explorer 7 is a web browser released by Microsoft in October 2006. Internet Explorer 7 is part of a long line of versions of Internet Explorer and was the first major update to the browser in more than 5 years...

. It was the first version to accomplish this feat.

Version 3.6

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

One minor update to Firefox 3.6, version 3.6.4 (code-named Lorentz
Lorentz National Park
Lorentz National Park is located in the Indonesian province of Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya . With an area of 25,056 km² , it is the largest national park in South-East Asia...

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

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

Version 4.0

Nightly builds were marked as 4.0a1pre between February and June 2008, but were renamed to 3.1a1pre afterward.

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

One of the main focuses was to improve the user interface. UI overhaul mockups for the Windows version posted in the Mozilla Wiki showed numerous changes, including optional tab bar display at the top of the window, status bar
Status bar
A status bar, similar to a status line, is an information area typically found at the bottom of windows in a graphical user interface.A status bar is sometimes divided into sections, each of which shows different information. Its job is primarily to display information about the current state of...

 integration with the tab toolbar, as well as search bar and the reload/stop button integration with the awesomebar. A new type of tab, called an application tab, was placed in the tab bar. Similar to the Mozilla Prism
Mozilla Prism
Mozilla Prism is a product which integrates web applications with the desktop, allowing web applications to be launched from the desktop and configured independently of the default web browser. As of November 2010, Prism is listed as an inactive project at the Mozilla labs website.Prism is based...

 project, it allows web pages (such as Google Mail
Gmail
Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...

) to become applications. The browser was given a home tab similar to new tab pages found in Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer 8
Windows Internet Explorer 8 is a web browser developed by Microsoft in the Internet Explorer browser series. The browser was released on March 19, 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are available...

 and Google Chrome
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...

, although users were allowed to customize the button to take them to their homepage instead. The menu bar
Menu bar
A menu bar is a region of a screen or application interface where drop down menus are displayed. The menu bar's purpose is to supply a common housing for window- or application-specific menus which provide access to such functions as opening files, interacting with an application, or displaying...

 disappeared from the mockups, and the UI used animations to manipulate tags and buttons.

The Mac OS X installer was redesigned to make installations easier. Firefox start-up windows were eliminated to make start-up quicker. Preference and add-on manager windows were redesigned to better assist users.

"Door hanger" notifications were to be added to replace "bar" notifications, which were easily spoofed by web pages.

The Gecko layout engine was improved to support more HTML5 and CSS3 features.

In addition, the Firefox Sync project was integrated into the browser to allow users to sync elements such as bookmarks, tabs, and history with either Mozilla or other third-party servers.

Rapid release development cycle

From early 2011, Mozilla initiated a rapid release development cycle, with versions planned to move through Mozilla's NIGHTLY, AURORA and BETA development channels after spending 6 weeks in each.

Version 5.0

Firefox 5 was released on June 21, 2011. This was the first edition under Mozilla's rapid release development cycle, and was released only three months after Firefox 4.

Even though the GUI
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...

 was changed very little, Firefox 5 features:
  • Better standards
    Web standards
    Web standards is a general term for the formal standards and other technical specifications that define and describe aspects of the World Wide Web. In recent years, the term has been more frequently associated with the trend of endorsing a set of standardized best practices for building web sites,...

     support for HTML5, CSS3, MathML
    MathML
    Mathematical Markup Language is an application of XML for describing mathematical notations and capturing both its structure and content. It aims at integrating mathematical formulae into World Wide Web pages and other documents...

    , XHR
    XMLHttpRequest
    XMLHttpRequest is an API available in web browser scripting languages such as JavaScript. It is used to send HTTP or HTTPS requests directly to a web server and load the server response data directly back into the script. The data might be received from the server as XML text or as plain text...

     and SMIL
    Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language
    SMIL , the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, is a W3C recommended XML markup language for describing multimedia presentations. It defines markup for timing, layout, animations, visual transitions, and media embedding, among other things...

  • Better visibility for the Do not track header
    Do not track header
    The do not track header is a proposed HTTP header field that would request a web application to disable their tracking of a user. The "Do Not Track" standard was created by researchers at Stanford University and is under discussion in the United States Congress and the Federal Trade Commission...

     preference
  • Stability and security
    Security
    Security is the degree of protection against danger, damage, loss, and crime. Security as a form of protection are structures and processes that provide or improve security as a condition. The Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM 3 defines security as "a form of protection...

     improvements
  • Better tuned HTTP
    Hypertext Transfer Protocol
    The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web....

     idle connection logic
  • Improved canvas, JavaScript
    JavaScript
    JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....

    , memory
    Computer memory
    In computing, memory refers to the physical devices used to store programs or data on a temporary or permanent basis for use in a computer or other digital electronic device. The term primary memory is used for the information in physical systems which are fast In computing, memory refers to the...

    , and networking
    Computer network
    A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....

     performance
  • Improved spell checking
    Spell checker
    In computing, a spell checker is an application program that flags words in a document that may not be spelled correctly. Spell checkers may be stand-alone capable of operating on a block of text, or as part of a larger application, such as a word processor, email client, electronic dictionary,...

     for some locale
    Locale
    In computing, locale is a set of parameters that defines the user's language, country and any special variant preferences that the user wants to see in their user interface...

    s
  • Improved desktop environment integration for Linux users
  • Better WebGL
    WebGL
    WebGL is a software library that extends the capability of the JavaScript programming language to allow it to generate interactive 3D graphics within any compatible web browser...

     security (WebGL content can no longer load cross-domain textures)
  • Background tabs have setTimeout and setInterval clamped to 1000 ms
    Millisecond
    A millisecond is a thousandth of a second.10 milliseconds are called a centisecond....

     to improve performance

Immediately following the launch of Firefox 5, several software critics reviewed it. Matt Egan of PC Advisor said that there was not much new to see, and that users would have to double-check they were not still using Firefox 4, although did concede that improvements in speed and stability made an upgrade worthwhile. Gary Marshall of TechRadar.com commented that there appeared to be a version number race between different browsers and implies in his review that the changes do not merit a full version number. However, he does praise the addition of the Do Not Track button to the user interface and describes how this helps users.
Seth Rosenblatt of CNET agrees with the other two reviewers on the minor nature of the changes and praises the speed and usability improvements.

Version 6.0

Firefox 6 was released on August 16, 2011. New features in Firefox 6.0 include:
  • about:permissions, a permissions manager. The user can choose what information can be shared with other sites, e.g. passwords.
  • 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

Version 7.0

Firefox 7.0 was released on September 27, 2011. New features in Firefox 7.0 include:
  • 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


Firefox 7.0.1 was released on September 29, 2011, providing a bug-fix for a problem with add-ons that were hidden after updating.

Version 8.0

  • 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
    Twitter
    Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

     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
  • Added Cross-Origin Resource Sharing
    Cross-Origin Resource Sharing
    Cross-Origin Resource Sharing is a web browser technology specification, which defines ways for a web server to allow its resources be accessed by a web page from a different domain...

     (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


Originally an improved tab animation for moving, reordering and detaching tabs was planned, but the new code was backed out with Beta 5 due to issues with the implementation.

Future releases

The precursory releases of upcoming Firefox releases are named Nightly, as this is the name of the trunk
Trunk (software)
In the field of software development, trunk refers to the unnamed branch of a file tree under revision control. The trunk is usually meant to be the base of a project on which development progresses. If developers are working exclusively on the trunk, it always contains the latest cutting-edge...

 builds, and Aurora, a separate nightly branch for refining code. The next scheduled date for a version shift in these channels is December 20, 2011.

Expected release dates

Version Channel Date
Firefox 9 Beta December 20, 2011
Firefox 10 Aurora January 31, 2012
Firefox 11 Nightly March 13, 2012

Version 9.0

The log of changes in version 9 was first published in 11 November 2011 with the first public Beta release.
  • Added type inference
    Type inference
    Type inference refers to the automatic deduction of the type of an expression in a programming language. If some, but not all, type annotations are already present it is referred to as type reconstruction....

    , 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
    Do not track header
    The do not track header is a proposed HTTP header field that would request a web application to disable their tracking of a user. The "Do Not Track" standard was created by researchers at Stanford University and is under discussion in the United States Congress and the Federal Trade Commission...

     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.

Color chart

Colour Meaning
Red Former release; no longer supported
Pink Former test release
Yellow Former release; still supported
Green Current supported release
Blue Future release
Gold Current test release
Purple Future test release


Current Supported Releases
  • Firefox 3.6.24
  • Firefox 8.0.1


Current Test Releases
  • Firefox 9.0 Beta 3
  • Firefox 10.0 Aurora
  • Firefox 11.0 Nightly


Future Releases
  • Firefox 3.6.25
  • Firefox 9.0
  • Firefox 10.0
  • Firefox 11.0
  • Firefox 12.0


Future Test Releases
  • Firefox 10.0 Beta
  • Firefox 11.0 Aurora
  • Firefox 11.0 Beta
  • Firefox 12.0 Nightly
  • Firefox 12.0 Aurora
  • Firefox 12.0 Beta




Localizations

The number of localizations of Firefox has increased steadily. The first official release in November 2004 was distributed in 28 languages, including British
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...

/American
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....

 English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, European
Peninsular Spanish
Peninsular Spanish, also known as European Spanish, refers to the varieties of the Spanish language spoken in the Iberian Peninsula, as opposed to the Spanish spoken in the Americas and in the Canary Islands....

/Argentine Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, and Chinese
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....

 in Traditional/Simplified characters, while Firefox 4.0 is available in over 80 languages.

See also

  • GNU IceCat
    GNU IceCat
    GNU IceCat, formerly known as GNU IceWeasel, is a free software rebranding of the Mozilla Firefox web browser distributed by the GNU Project. It is compatible with both the GNU/Linux and Mac OS X operating systems....

  • History of Free Software
    History of free software
    This is a timeline-style look at how free and open-source software has evolved and existed from its inception.The phrase "free software" refers to software that is liberally licensed, allowing the end user more freedoms than conventional-software licences. This is not to be confused with software...

  • History of Mozilla Application Suite
    History of Mozilla Application Suite
    The history of the Mozilla Application Suite began with the release of the source code of the Netscape suite as an open source project. Going through years of hard working , Mozilla 1.0 was eventually released on June 5, 2002...

  • Mozilla Corporation software rebranded by the Debian project

External links

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