Firefox

Mozilla Firefox ( American English Pronunciation [ moʊzɪlə faɪɹfɑks ] ), also briefly called Firefox is a free web browser from the Mozilla project. He was released in September 2002 and was in September 2013 with a global market share of about 18 percent to the three most commonly used web browsers.

• 6.1 Important versions
• 6.2 Portable Edition
• 6.3 64 -bit version of Windows
• 6.4 64- bit version on Linux
• 6.5 Unofficial versions

• 9.1 download figures

History

The Mozilla Firefox project, at that time still under the name Phoenix was initiated by Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross as an experimental branch of the Mozilla Application Suite. The first release of an executable version of the program called Phoenix 0.1 and took place on 23 September 2002.

In 2003, the developers of the Mozilla Application Suite and decided to make a U-turn of their strategy. This was partly due to the decision by Apple 's own Safari web browser on the KHTML renderer and not on the Gecko renderer (which is developed by Mozilla) build.

While the Mozilla developers were previously anxious to summarize possible every major Internet functions such as web browser, email program, address book and HTML editor in one package (Mozilla Application Suite ), it is now desired to the publication of individual, mutually independent components. The aim of the development was a faster startup and less memory and CPU time requirements. At the same time the development of the individual components should be developed and promoted.

The web-browser function took over Firefox. The e -mail function was outsourced under the name Thunderbird. The calendar was developed under the name Sunbird, which, however, was set in 2010 in favor of Thunderbird extension Lightning. The HTML editor has been further developed until 2006 as Nvu, KompoZer to 2010. The official Mozilla Application Suite 1.7 only received security updates. However, since mid-2005, a community project working on the development of the application suite under the name SeaMonkey.

With XULRunner exists a platform that contains the shared Firefox, Thunderbird, and other programs and functions should thus reduce the storage space required and the size of the installation packages. This goal will not be pursued for the official release versions, instead installs itself from Firefox 3 each application its own private XULRunner environment.

Name

Originally Mozilla Firefox was developed under the name Phoenix, but had to be changed this name due to a lawsuit by the U.S. BIOS manufacturer Phoenix Technologies in Mozilla Firebird. Because of the name similarity with another open source project, the Firebird database, the browser was renamed on February 9, 2004 with the release of version 0.8 in Mozilla Firefox.

Firefox is the English translation of the Chinese name hǔo hú火狐, fire fox '. This refers in general the red fox, but also the ( red-brown ) small panda. First, the name was chosen, without being bound to one of the two species. However, the little panda had in the eyes of designer Jon Hicks no particular visual stimulus, so he let himself in the design of the logo of a Japanese, with " Firefox" subtitled Rotfuchszeichnung inspire.

Mozilla communicated to version 1.5 Fx or fx as the preferred abbreviation for the browser, and later, Mozilla positioned no more on this issue. In addition, however, the informal abbreviation for FF is being used.

After a naming dispute with the Debian project on the conditions for using the trademark of the Mozilla included in the Debian distribution and slightly adapted version of Firefox was called Iceweasel. Other Mozilla programs also received new names, all beginning with Ice.

Functions and Features

Just as the Mozilla Application Suite, Firefox uses the Gecko renderer, a cross-program module to display HTML pages and XML-based description language XUL for designing the graphical user interface.

Firefox can by motives (English themes ) that can change the entire user interface, and personas, which, although of the motives limited in their functionality but are particularly easy to install and use, be optically adapted to the taste of the user. With Extensions (English " extensions" ) may also numerous functions, such as mouse gestures, ad blocker or web developer tools to be added.

Since version 0.9, Firefox includes a new default theme called " Winstripe ", the " Qute " replaced as the standard design, so as to give all versions of Firefox a uniform, possibly adapted to the circumstances of each platform appearance. " Winstripe " based on the inserted since version 0.8 on Mac OS X " Pinstripe " motif, which was developed by Kevin Gerich and Stephen Horlander with regard to Apple's guidelines for user interface Apple Human Interface Guidelines.

Firefox supports tabbed browsing, which is meant the display of several, each provided with tabs websites within a single application window. It is also possible from Firefox 4 to group on the panoramic tabs function and display it visually groups.

Furthermore, RSS is supported in the form of dynamic bookmarks. This update itself when you start the browser and embody a self-updating list of links, organized into separate folders. So the user always sees at a glance current entries of a news site or a weblog. A display of RSS data in the form of a readable web page is possible since version 2.0 without additional plugins.

Firefox is currently available in 86 languages, including German. This program is free software and is released under the GNU General Public License ( GPL). However, the GPL applies only limited from the perspective of the Mozilla Foundation for the compiled installation packages. As of version 3, the user was prompted to agree to an end-user license agreement (EULA ) when installing the browser. After massive criticism of this approach, especially from the Linux camp, the EULA has been replaced by a " Know your rights " information bar that appears when you first install. This can also be the address bar by typing about: are called rights.

In order to complete searches simplified from the address bar, you can define keywords ( shortcuts) for searching. The keyword search is a slight variation on the ability to assign shortcuts / bookmarks keywords.

Extensions

Firefox offers the possibility of various expansions (English extensions ) and install " Themes " to provide application functionality or other options that are not offered by the actual browsers, or to alter its appearance. Some of these additional functions are intentionally not included in the functionality of the browser, so that a relatively slim browser is retained and also to frame the Firefox project clearer. For the extensions, it was far to files in ZIP format, the blocks written in XUL and JavaScript programs. The use of XUL and JavaScript functions makes this platform independent. With Firefox 4 is a new add -on API (previously " jetpack " ) introduced called interface for extensions that relies solely on the web languages ​​HTML, JavaScript and CSS, to allow the installation and removal of extensions without a browser restart.

Market Place

Under the name Firefox Marketplace, a platform was launched in October 2012, applications you can download for your browser to Firefox users. The Marketplace was initially available only on Firefox for Android, but will later be used on other operating systems. Similar to the Chrome Web Store all programs available there are based on web standards, so do not depend on the particular architecture. To introduce, among others, Twitter and SoundCloud were available in Firefox Marketplace.

Supported Platforms

Firefox is available for the Microsoft Windows operating systems (Windows XP ), Linux and Mac OS X (version 10.5 ) is available. The Linux version of Firefox 3 also requires different packages and third-party libraries that are already included in the majority of distributions from publication date of mid- 2006. From version 13 sets Firefox at least Windows XP with Service Pack 2 ahead.

According to the manufacturer the recommended system requirements for Windows / Linux, an Intel Pentium 4, supports SSE2, 512 MB ​​RAM and 200 MB of hard disk space. The versions for Mac will need an Intel x86 processor and also 512 MB ​​RAM and 200 MB of hard disk space.

Apart from the abovementioned officially supported by Mozilla versions, there are ports for Solaris ( both x86 and Sun SPARC processors ), OS / 2 and IBM's AIX, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, PC -BSD, SkyOS, BeOS and ZETA and RISC OS. Porting to other platforms is possible by the open source '. Meanwhile, a portable edition for use on external storage media (for example, external hard drives, USB sticks or memory cards) for Windows is available. In addition, for various platforms optimized versions are available that attempt to achieve a faster response time and lower memory requirements. For smartphones Mozilla Firefox Mobile has developed which runs under Android. To be able to better use Mozilla Firefox on Windows 8 tablets and other Windows 8 devices, Mozilla has also announced a version in the Metro style.

Web Standards

In a study to support the W3C standards (so-called recommendations ) reached Firefox in version 17.0 a rate of 95 % of the tested properties. For comparison, Safari 6.0 and Opera 12.1 reached 94% of the properties, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 23.0 90 % 10.0 86%.

Since version 3.0, Firefox fulfilled the Acid2 standards. Mozilla announced the following Acid3 test does not want to completely fulfill, because the tests used for this purpose for the SVG graphics were considered outdated. After these tests were removed in September 2011 from Acid3, the Acid3 test fulfills the Firefox version 4.0 with 100/100 points.

Versions and version history

The current main version 27 of Firefox was released simultaneously in several languages ​​on 13 February 2014.

Previously, the previous time was still a long supplied with updates following the publication of a new major version. In March 2010, has been set with version 3.0.19 to support and develop the branch 3.0 and in April 2012 with version 3.6.28 of the branch 3.6 and introduced a new version cycle.

Since then, security and stability updates published only in exceptional cases. Instead, the next major release with new or updated or changed functions was also treated as a security and stability update. This approach gave rise to criticism, because it "Companies can not be expected (be ) to switch every six weeks on a new version of the browser to stuff just to security leaks ." However, were proponents of this approach in the rapid delivery of new features and support for new weaving techniques and advantages, especially for home users.

In response to the criticism published the Mozilla Corporation for businesses, educational institutions and government agencies in early 2012 with version Firefox 10 ESR turn a so-called Extended Support Release version ( German: Version with extended support), the most recently version 3.6 contains no new features but only errors and security updates, and the seventh major release will be replaced about once a year by a new ESR version. Thus appeared the end of 2012 Firefox 17 ESR and the end of 2013 Firefox 24 ESR.

Important versions

The following table shows only the major versions of Mozilla Firefox, version 4 and in particular the so-called ESR versions ( Extended Support Release), which are supplied over a longer period of time with updates. A detailed listing of all published major versions, including the pre-release versions and the security and stability updates, is available in the main article.

Portable Edition

The official release of Mozilla Firefox normally requires an installation on the target system. However, this complicates the computer overarching use with removable media ( for example, a USB stick), providing, inter alia, in Firefox with the same profile, that is the same bookmarks, history, form data, passwords, settings and so on, at office use and home computer. For this reason, an unofficial, portable edition of Firefox is available from PortableApps - Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition - which has been adapted to the extent that they can be unpacked directly to a removable drive and is available on this. The sensitive data remains on the removable disk and must not remain on the local hard disk of the used computer. A similar behavior is also through the manipulation of the Firefox profile path in the program configuration: possible (about config).

64 -bit version of Windows

Apart from the official 32- bit version of Firefox Mozilla for Windows provides for testing a 64- bit version of the nightly build for download. These versions are not officially released and supported. In this regard, concerns about Mozilla brought to my attention that Firefox thereby connecting to 64 -bit systems proverbial " oversleep " and could give market share.

At the same time open-source projects such as " Waterfox " and " Cyberfox " have been the object of offering generated from the current source 64- bit versions.

Built on Firefox, Pale Moon promises optimizations for modern Windows systems and is also available as a 64- bit version.

64- bit version on Linux

The official Firefox versions for Linux and Mac OS X or later 64 -bit support.

Unofficial versions

Mozilla itself is keen that Firefox works on all systems reliably, and therefore does not make any code optimizations for specific processors. From Mozilla Firefox exist, as well as Mozilla Thunderbird, but many unofficial versions ( builds) for different operating systems.

One reason is to optimize for certain platforms (such as SSE2 builds for Pentium 4 processors ). In combination with techniques such as profile-guided optimization, support the newer C compiler to reaction time and memory requirement could be significantly improved, and consequently the speed of the browser is increasing. Nevertheless, the use of such unofficial versions is no guarantee of a faster surfing, isolated it comes to sacrificing speed.

Another reason is to support older systems that are not supported by the current official version. Example is the TenFourFox project, which provides up to date with PowerPC versions of the operating system Mac OS X architecture.

A disadvantage is the higher cost of unofficial versions when upgrading to new versions, which are also often published with considerable delay. In contrast to the official releases most optimized versions are not published as an installable packages, but only as a compressed archives - an automatic update is therefore not available.

Privacy Policy

The Mozilla Foundation insured, to seek the protection of the privacy of the user.

In the reports that are created when the program crashes, including the names of the installed add -ons and information about the system used ( processor name, operating system used, ...) are included. The website at issue concretely, the user can suppress the other hand. Sending a crash report must also be confirmed explicitly by the user.

To protect against phishing and malware pages visited with a locally stored list of reported suspicious pages from another manufacturer to be adjusted ( by default Google), which is roughly updated every 30 minutes.

The automatic software update of the program stores a cookie called "off", which contains a unique numeric value to distinguish the Firefox installations. This can be disabled in the settings by disabling automatic updates or blocked cookies.

Criticism

Developed by Mozilla XUL interface, an XML-based description language for graphical user interfaces, is used instead of operating system-specific interface. Mozilla based this step that XUL surfaces are very simple and platform independent developers to modify and thereby the greatest possible freedom would be granted. Mozilla offered until 2013 for Mac OS X as an alternative Camino. This browser uses, such as Firefox also, the Gecko renderer for displaying the web content for the surface, however, the native Cocoa programming interface used.

Older versions of Mozilla Firefox has been repeatedly criticized for one considered to be excessive consumption of system resources. The developers said that this behavior was intended partly as more open sides, since version 1.5 for faster navigation would be cached when resources are available on the system sufficiently. The version 3.0 of the browser has been optimized in part to the reduction of resource consumption down. The success of these measures is confirmed in a comparative test of the IT news portal ZDNet.de. From an article published by the website Lifehacker.com benchmark a pre-release version of Mozilla Firefox 4.0 came out as needing the least memory browser.

Dissemination

The exact distribution of a web browser can be measured reliably is difficult. Different statistics have revealed the following values ​​for the spread of Firefox:

According to a study by the French company AT Internet Institute used in March 2008, 35 percent of German web users Mozilla Firefox. In Austria, the browser was able to secure a share of 32.6 percent and Switzerland accounted for 26.4 percent. Leaders were Finland ( 45.9 percent ), Poland ( 44 percent) and Slovenia ( 43.7 percent).

The German IT and telecommunications news portal Golem.de established in October 2009 under its readers a market share of 58.3 percent. According to the company, the offer of Golem.de but primarily aimed at " professional computer users," the numbers are not so representative.

Also, the IT news service Heise Online reported a disproportionately high share of alternative web browser among its readers. In July 2007, the first preferred more than half of the Heise online readers Mozilla Firefox.

In German-speaking Firefox is the most used browser since mid-2009. In April 2013, held in Germany with a market share of 39.3 percent, ahead of Internet Explorer from Microsoft ( 22 percent).

In September 2010, Firefox had a market share of over 30 percent worldwide. Since then, the shares fell; in September 2013 they still amounted to about 18 percent.

Download numbers

To promote the spread of the free Firefox browser and to hold its own in the browser war, organized Mozilla several so-called "Download Day", which had the goal to reach as many downloads in the shortest possible time. Several times, the project was able to surpass itself and also holds the world record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours.

To mark the release of the first preview version of Firefox 1.0 in September 2004 continued Mozilla aim to reach one million downloads in ten days; after only four days succeeded in doing so. With the release of the final version 1.0 in November 2004, this brand has been broken on the first day and nearly six months later, on 19 October 2005, a total of 100 million downloads were counted. The 2.0 version has been downloaded according to the manufacturer within 24 hours after the release of over two million people.

In conjunction with the release of version 3.0 Mozilla called for a "Download Day" in order to establish a world record for most software downloads in 24 hours. This goal was achieved with 8.00253 million downloads worldwide and also included in the Guinness Book of World Records.

While the number of downloads for the release of version 1.0 still increased exponentially since she developed a relatively linear. Until April 2010, over 1.3 billion downloads were recorded.

Financing and advertising

The Mozilla Foundation 2010 had annual revenues of 123 million U.S. dollars, of which about 100 million out of a sponsorship agreement with Google. In December 2011, the contract was extended until 2014. Fixed is an annual payment of approximately $ 300 million. In turn Mozilla released its browser with Google as the default search engine. Additional factors were IT professionals with Google in the development of Mozilla's web browser.

For the official release of version 1.0, the U.S. initiative Spread Firefox switched on 16 December 2004, a double- page ad in the New York Times, which was financed through donations. More than 10,000 persons or families donated in ten days each between 10 and 45 dollars, a total of 250,000, which they were mentioned by name in the display.

In Germany, a promotion was " Firefox comes " through the action financed by donations. The ad appeared on 2 December 2004 in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and other national newspapers.