History of Mozilla Firefox

The Mozilla Firefox project was created by Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project. Firefox 1.0 was released on November 9 2004. Firefox 1.5 was released on November 29 2005. Version 2.0 was released on October 24, 2006 and Firefox 3.0 was released on June 17 2008.

Early beginnings: a pared-down browser

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

Firefox retains the cross-platform nature of the original Mozilla browser, using the XUL user interface markup language. The use of XUL makes it possible to extend the browser's capabilities through the use of extensions and themes. The development and installation processes of these add-ons raised security concerns, and with the release of Firefox 0.9, the Mozilla Foundation opened a Mozilla Update website containing "approved" themes and extensions. The use of XUL sets Firefox apart from other browsers, including other projects based on Mozilla's Gecko layout engine and most other browsers, which use interfaces native to their respective platforms (Galeon and Epiphany use GTK+; K-Meleon uses MFC; and Camino uses Cocoa). Many of these projects were started before Firefox, and probably served as inspiration.

The first sign of a Firefox-like project was 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", and "stop" buttons and a URL field (no cache, no stored history, etc.), it was minimalistic and thus a lot lighter than Mozilla itself. Eventually, it was no longer shipped with Mozilla's binary builds.

Although the Mozilla Foundation had intended to make the Mozilla Suite obsolete and to replace it with Firefox, the Foundation continued to maintain the suite until April 12 2006 [ [http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2006/04/12/sunset-announcement-for-fxtb-10x-and-mozilla-suite-17x/ Mozilla Developer News » Blog Archive » Sunset Announcement for Fx/Tb 1.0.x and Mozilla Suite 1.7.x ] ] because it had many corporate users, as well as being bundled with other software. The Mozilla community (as opposed to the Foundation) continues to release new versions of the suite using the product name SeaMonkey to avoid any possible confusion with the original Mozilla Suite.

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 cite journal
title=Open source: Swimming with the tide. In "Consultants' Briefing"
last=Keating
first=Wick
journal=CIO Magazine
date=2004-02-05
accessdate=] . This meant that AMS considered Firebird (as it was called at the time) 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 (after a short stint as "Phoenix Browser") due to trademark issues with the BIOS manufacturer, Phoenix Technologies (who produce a BIOS-based browser called Phoenix FirstWare Connect). The new name, "Firebird", was met with mixed reactions, particularly as the Firebird database server already carried the 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 be referred to as "Mozilla Firebird" (as opposed to just "Firebird"). 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", 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 [http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=78344043 registering] "Firefox" as a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in December 2003. This trademark process led to a delay of several months in the release of Firefox 0.8 when the foundation discovered that in the UK Firefox [http://www.patent.gov.uk/t-find-number?detailsrequested=C&trademark=2007607 had already been registered] as a trademark for browsers by The Charlton Company. The situation was 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 [http://www.cosmicat.com/extensions/firesomething/ "Firesomething"] , which allowed users to randomize the name 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. It has often been argued that free software is typically designed only by programmers — rather than graphic designers or usability gurus — and that it frequently suffers from poor icon and GUI design and lacks a strong visual identity. The early Firebird and Phoenix releases of Firefox 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 an [http://www.actsofvolition.com/files/mozillabranding/ article] covering everything he considered to be wrong with Mozilla's visual identity. The page received a great deal of attention (it was slashdotted). The majority of the criticisms levelled at the article were along the lines of "where's the patch?", an open source way of saying "if you don't like it, you can 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 [http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/ Jon Hicks] , who had previously worked on Camino. The logo was [http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/spot-the-difference/ revised and updated] later, fixing some flaws found when the logo 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. The panda, [http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/branding-firefox according to Hicks] , "didn't really conjure up the right imagery", besides not being widely known. The logo was chosen for the purpose of making an impression, while not shouting out with overdone artwork. The logo had to stand out in the user's mind, be easy for others to remember and stand out while not causing too much distraction when among other icons. It was expected to be the final logo for the product.

The Firefox icon is a trademark used to designate the official Mozilla build of the Firefox software, and builds of official distribution partners. [ [http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/distribution-policy.html Mozilla Trademark Policy for Distribution Partners] Version 0.9 (DRAFT). Retrieved on November 2, 2006.] Although the core software is open source, the artwork (along with the [http://www.mozilla.org/quality/qfa.html quality feedback agent] and parts of the installer) is not freely licensed without official permission from the developers. For this reason, Debian and other software distributors who distribute patched or modified versions of Firefox do not use the icon.

Delicious delicacies

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

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

The original text was inserted by Blake Ross, one of the lead developers of Firefox, because, [http://blakeross.com/index.php?p=24 he says] , "describing something so complicated in such a small space was quite frankly the last thing I wanted to worry about after rewriting the cookie manager".

However, in reflection of the growing acceptance and use of the Firefox browser in the Internet mainstream, the text was later changed. It was [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213186 considered] a bug 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 for the less technically oriented computer users who were now using Firefox—representing Mozilla's desire to appeal to mainstream users.

After this happened, the following remarks were made by Blake Ross over IRC to Mike Connor:

congratulations mconnor you just destroyed a legend!

The text became a popular in-joke and on August 2004, the [http://www.squarefree.com/extensions/delicious-delicacies/ Delicious Delicacies extension] , which is no longer maintained and updated, was released by Jesse Ruderman. This extension restored the old description of cookies, available in several languages.

As of Firefox 2.0, cookies no longer have a description 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 will no longer support Mac OS X v10.1. This is intended to improve the quality of Firefox releases on Mac OS X v10.2 and above. Users of 10.1 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. The original plan was for a Firefox 1.1 and later a Firefox 1.5. After the first two 1.1 alpha builds, the Mozilla Foundation abandoned the 1.1 release plan and merged it with the planned feature set of 1.5 instead, with 1.5 being released later than was planned for 1.1. The new version resynchronised the code-base of the release builds (as opposed to nightly builds) with the core "trunk" which contains additional features not available in 1.0, as it branched from the trunk around the 0.9 release. As such, there has been a backlog of bug fixes between 0.9 and the release of 1.0, which are now available in 1.5. Version 1.5 implements a new Mac-like [http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/007377.html options interface] , which has been the subject of much criticism from Windows and Linux users, with a " [http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/007150.html 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 settings simply by exiting the browser or using a keyboard shortcut, depending on their settings. Moreover, the software update system has been [http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/008067.html improved] (with binary patches now possible). There are also [http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/008066.html improvements] in the extension management system, with a number of [http://www.mozilla.org/projects/deerpark/new-extension-dev-features.html new developer features] .

Also, Firefox 1.5 has (partial) SVG 1.1 support, as shown in Mozilla's Bugzilla database. This unplanned movement may be due to the release of Opera 8.0 on April 19 2005, which supports SVG Tiny.

Alpha builds of Firefox 1.5 (1.1a1 and 1.1a2) did not contain 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 is the final version supported on Windows 95.

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.

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

Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.x is the final version supported on Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 98.

Firefox Live Chat

In December 2007, [http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Live+Chat Firefox Live Chat] was launched. It allows users to ask volunteers questions through a system powered by Jive Software, with guaranteed hours of operation and the possibility of help after hours. [ [http://blog.mozilla.com/sumo/2007/12/28/firefox-live-chat-launching-today/ Firefox Support Blog » Blog Archive » Firefox Live Chat launching today ] ]

Version 3.0

The Mozilla Foundation released Firefox 3 on June 17 2008. The first Firefox 3 beta (under codename 'Gran Paradiso'. [cite web | url=http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.planning/browse_thread/thread/c73f6a1c25e8e7b0/b714ca46975f0109#b714ca46975f0109 | title = Gecko 1.9/Firefox 3 ("Gran Paradiso") Planning Meeting, Wednesday Jun 7, 11:00 am | accessdate=2006-09-17 |date=June 2, 2006 | last = Vukicevic | first = Vladimir | publisher = Google Groups: mozilla.dev.planning] ) had been released several months earlier on 19 November 2007 [cite web |url=http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2007/11/19/firefox-3-beta-1-now-available-for-download/ |author=Mike Beltzner |publisher=Mozilla Developer News |title=Firefox 3 Beta 1 now available for download] , which was followed by several more beta releases in the Spring of 2008 culminating in the June release. [cite web |accessdate=2007-12-20 |url=http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2007/12/18/firefox-3-beta-2-now-available-for-download/ |author=Mike Beltzner |publisher=Mozilla Developer News |title=Firefox 3 Beta 2 now available for download]

One of the major changes in Firefox 3 is the implementation of Gecko 1.9, an updated layout engine. The new version fixes many bugs and implements new web APIs.cite web | url = http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Firefox_3_for_developers | title = Firefox 3 for developers | accessdate = 2007-07-17 |date=2007-07-17 | publisher = Mozilla Developer Center]

Version 3.1

Version 3.1 Alpha 2 was launched on September 6, 2008, adding new video support and enhancing the speed of some JavaScript computations. Code named "Shiretoko," Mozilla said it will be the last in a short series of alpha editions, and timely released just days after Google introduced competing Chrome software Google Chrome. [ [http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=software&articleId=9114239&taxonomyId=18&intsrc=kc_top computerworld.com, Mozilla updates Firefox 3.1 with Alpha 2 build] ] [ [http://stuff.techwhack.com/4779-firefox-3.1-alpha-2 stuff.techwhack.com, Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2 released] ] [ [http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10034375-2.html news.cnet.com, Mozilla releases second Firefox 3.1 alpha] ]

Future development

The precursory releases of upcoming Firefox releases are codenamed " [http://www.mozilla.org/projects/minefield/ Minefield] ", as this is the name of the trunk builds. Development of Firefox after version 3.0 is split over two milestones: version 3.1 and version 4.0. Firefox 3.0, formerly in the development stage, was released to the general public on June 17, 2008.cite web|url=http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/06/11/coming-tuesday-june-17th-firefox-3/|title= Coming Tuesday, June 17th: Firefox 3|publisher=Mozilla Developer News] Development for the 3.1 releases takes place on the Mozilla trunk, with releases and pre-release nightly builds coming from the Mozilla 1.8.1 branch (2.0) and the [http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/ Mozilla 1.9 branch] (3.0). Development for 4.0 will be based on Mozilla 2. Mitchell Baker, Mozilla's former Chief Executive Officer, had mentioned some possible future features of Firefox in an interview for APC Magazine. These features included open-source, in-browser video playback, offline application support, and a version of Firefox for mobile phones. [cite web
url=http://apcmag.com/6045/firefox_to_go_head_to_head_with_flash_and_silverlight
title=Firefox to go head-to-head with Flash and Silverlight
accessdate= 2008-01-18
author= Dan Warne
authorlink=http://danwarne.com
date=2007-05-07
work=APC Magazine
publisher=APC Magazines Ltd]

Release history

See also

*History of Mozilla Application Suite
*History of free software
*Mozilla Corporation software rebranded in Debian
*IceCat

References

*Eich, Brendan (2005). [http://wiki.mozilla.org/Global:1.9_Trunk_1.8_Branch_Plan Global:1.9 Trunk 1.8 Branch Plan] . In "Mozilla Wiki". Retrieved December 21 2005.

External links

* [http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/releases/ Firefox release notes for each version]
* [http://www.squarefree.com/burningedge/releases/ Unofficial changelogs for Firefox releases]
* [http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/009698.html Where Did Firefox Come From?]
* [http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id=89 Flexbeta article on the history of Firefox]
* [http://firefox.iprakash.com/about Large amount of useful info about Firefox and its history]
* [http://wiki.mozilla.org/ReleaseRoadmap ReleaseRoadmap - MozillaWiki]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6078016.stm BBC: Firefox browser for web 2.0 age]
* [http://theseblog.free.fr/2004/07/phoenixmozilla-firebirdfirefox-seen.php The SeBlog - A short picture history of Firefox]
* [http://andrew-turnbull.net/mozilla/historyfx.html Another picture history of Firefox, with commentary]