it is a web browser.
Mozilla Firefox (abbreviated officially as Fx, but also commonly as FF) is a free web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite, managed by the Mozilla Corporation. Firefox had 18.41% of the recorded usage share of web browsers as of May 2008, making it the second-most popular browser in current use worldwide, after Internet Explorer.[1]
Firefox uses the free Gecko layout engine, which implements some current web standards plus a few features which are intended to anticipate likely additions to the standards.
Firefox includes tabbed browsing, a spell checker, incremental find, live bookmarking, a download manager, and an integrated search system that uses the user's desired search engine. Functions can be added through around 2,000 add-ons created by third-party developers,[2] the most popular of which include NoScript (script blocker), Tab Mix Plus (adds many customizable options to tabs), FoxyTunes (controls music players), Adblock Plus (ad blocker), StumbleUpon (website discovery), DownThemAll! (download functions) and Web Developer (web tools).[3]
Firefox runs on various versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and many other Unix-like operating systems. Its current stable release is version 3.0, released on June 17, 2008.[4] Firefox's source code is free software, released under a tri-license GPL/LGPL/MPL.[5]
Features included with Firefox are tabbed browsing, spell checker, incremental find, live bookmarking, an integrated download manager, and an integrated search system that uses the user's desired search engine. The developers of Firefox aimed to produce a browser that "just surfs the web"[24] and delivers the "best possible browsing experience to the widest possible set of people."[25]
Users can customize Firefox with extensions and themes. Mozilla maintains an add-on repository at addons.mozilla.org with nearly 2000 add-ons in it as of September 2007.[2]
Firefox provides an environment for web developers in which they can use built-in tools, such as the Error Console or the DOM Inspector, or extensions, such as Firebug.
[edit] Standards support
Mozilla Firefox supports many web standards, including HTML, XML, XHTML, SVG 1.1 (partial),[26] CSS (with extensions[27]), ECMAScript (JavaScript), DOM, MathML, DTD, XSLT, XPath, and PNG images with alpha transparency.[28] Firefox also supports standards proposals created by the WHATWG such as client-side storage,[29][30] and canvas element.[31]
Firefox passes the Acid2 standards-compliance test from version 3.0.[32] Firefox 3.0 does not pass the Acid3 test; it scores 71/100 and does not render the image correctly.
[edit] Security
Firefox uses a sandbox security model,[33] and limits scripts from accessing data from other web sites based on the same origin policy.[34] It uses SSL/TLS to protect communications with web servers using strong cryptography when using the https protocol.[35] It also provides support for web applications to use smartcards for authentication purposes.[36]
The Mozilla Foundation offers a "bug bounty" to researchers who discover severe security holes in Firefox.[37] Official guidelines for handling security vulnerabilities discourage early disclosure of vulnerabilities so as not to give potential attackers an advantage in creating exploits.[38]
Because Firefox has fewer and less severe publicly known unpatched security vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer (see Comparison of web browsers), improved security is often cited as a reason to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox.[39][dead link][40][41][42] The Washington Post reports that exploit code for critical unpatched security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer was available for 284 days in 2006. In comparison, exploit code for critical security vulnerabilities in Firefox was available for 9 days before Mozilla shipped a patch to remedy the problem.[43]
A 2006 Symantec study showed that although Firefox had surpassed other browsers in the number of vendor-confirmed vulnerabilities that year through September, these vulnerabilities were patched far more quickly than those found in other browsers.[44] Symantec later clarified their statement, saying that Firefox still had fewer security vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer, as counted by security researchers.[45] As of June 7, 2008, Firefox 2 has three security vulnerabilities unpatched, the most severe of which was rated "less critical" by Secunia.[46] Internet Explorer 7 has ten security vulnerabilities unpatched, the most severe of which was rated "Moderately critical" by Secunia.[47]
[edit] Version 3.0
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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into History of Mozilla Firefox. (Discuss)
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Mozilla sets record for most software downloads in 24 hours
The development name for Mozilla Firefox 3.0 was Gran Paradiso.[48] "Gran Paradiso", like other Firefox development names, is an actual place; in this case the seventh-highest mountain in the Graian Alps.
In 2006, the development team asked users to submit feature requests that they wish to be included in Firefox 3.[49]
The Mozilla Foundation released the first beta on 19 November 2007,[50] the second beta on 18 December 2007,[50] the third beta on 12 February 2008, the fourth beta on 10 March 2008, and the fifth and final beta on 2 April 2008.[51] The first release candidate was released on 16 May 2008. The second release candidate was released on 4 June 2008 followed by a third release candidate (differing from the second release candidate only in that it corrected a serious bug for Mac users) on 11 June 2008. Mozilla engineers shipped the final release on June 17, 2008.[20][52]
NetApplications notes that the use of Firefox 3 beta has been increasing rapidly up to a usage share of 0.62% in May 2008. They interpret this increase to mean that Firefox 3 betas are stable and that users are using it as their primary browser.[53] Within 24 hours after the release of Firefox 3.0, usage rose from under 1% to over 3% according to NetApplications.[54]
Firefox 3.0 was featured even in popular culture, mentioned on, among others, The Colbert Report on its release date.[55]
[edit] Guinness World Record
World map of all downloads of Mozilla Firefox since June 28, 2006
World map of all downloads of Mozilla Firefox since June 28, 2006
The official date for the launch of Firefox 3 was June 17, 2008, named "Download Day 2008". Firefox was aiming to set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours. There is not currently a standing record for this feat.[56]
Download Day officially started at 11:16 a.m. PDT (18:16 UTC) on June 17.[57] With the announced date, the download day was June 18 for timezones greater than GMT +6, which includes half of Asia and all of Oceania.
The large number of users attempting to access the Mozilla website on June 17 caused it to become unavailable for at least a few hours and attempts at upgrading to the new version resulted in server timeouts. The site was not updated for the download of Firefox 3 until 12:00 PDT (19:00 UTC), two hours later than originally scheduled.[58][59]
When "Download Day" ended at 11:16 AM PDT (18:16 UTC) June 18 [60], 8,249,092 unique downloads had been recorded.[61] As of June 25, 2008, more than 20 million people had downloaded Firefox 3.[62][63]