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Firefox plans mass marketing drive
November 26, 2005 -
Firefox marks its first year on the Net
November 9, 2005 -
Firefox beta out of the foxhole
November 3, 2005 -
Major Firefox release delayed
July 21, 2005
Firefox 1.5, available free via download, is the browser's first major update since creator the Mozilla Foundation introduced it about a year ago. Since then, Firefox has emerged as one of the most popular alternatives to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, with more than 100 million copies downloaded in the first year, more than 40 million active users and about 8 percent of the browser market.
Firefox is also one of the most widely distributed open-source programs, meaning anyone can use and modify the code. Thousands of volunteer programmers contributed to the new version of the browser, and more than 750,000 people were involved in testing it since Mozilla, a nonprofit, released the first test version Nov. 1.
New in the 1.5 version are more sophisticated security and performance features. In addition to a more effective pop-up blocker, the updated browser is designed to ease security updates. The program checks daily for patches, downloads them automatically and then prompts users to install them, said Chris Beard, vice president of products at Mozilla.
Other improvements include "forward" and "backward" browsing buttons designed to load Web pages more quickly. A new drag-and-drop feature for browser "tabs" lets users keep related pages together.
Firefox 1.5 also supports new Web programming standards, such as AJAX, that enable more graphical capabilities in Web pages. And the browser features more sophisticated application programming interfaces for people who build and use add-on programs, such as browser-based weather updates.
Mozilla plans to introduce new versions more frequently from now on. Firefox 2.0 is due in mid-2006, and the 3.0 release is set for the first quarter of 2007. The group expects to release security and stability updates every six to eight weeks.
In keeping with its grassroots image, Mozilla is tapping its users to help promote the new version of Firefox. It plans to publish their amateur video endorsements on its Web site. Anyone can upload a video for the group's review.
See more CNET content tagged:
Firefox 1.5,
Mozilla Corp.,
Firefox,
Web browser,
open source
FireFox rocks! It's nice to see that they fixed the cuts n paste bug I noticed in earlier beta releases.
I only caught a few words you were saying but there is some truth to it.
part of Vista, people will use it for a bit - at least until the first big
flaw is found. But if nothing else, FireFox has clearly demonstrated
to the home user that there are valid, viable alternatives in
browsers. Corporate IT is another story and I agree that
unfortunately MS has a huge draw there.
I don't get the writer's point at all...
and it seems the best that can be said about Internet Explorer is
that it's "coming with tabbed browsing"
A little late to that party, wouldn't you say?
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne? "
lol
Not many years ago, MS closed down the IE development team. MS didn't think browsers could improve. (I believe this is a fact - correct me if I'm wrong)
You should thank browser creators such as Mozilla and Opera, for getting a better IE at all!
Competition is allways good for us users!
And another thing...
Huge userbase outreach of IE? Sure... but do you honestly think everyone will download IE7 in a matter of weeks? Don't think so.
Windows Vista (shipping with IE7) will also have a very hard time replacing Windows XP.
I hope your sickness has not impaired your sense of grammar, because it has clearly affected your perception of facts.
I don't recall him ever saying IE7 was better, only that everyday consumers will be downfall of Firefox. Just because he believes that IE7 will regain some if its users doesn't mean he isn't a user of Firefox. This isn't a place to trashtalk other users whom you falsely believe as having opinions different from yours. Get your facts straight.
And who knows, IE 7 may well bomb.
Strange to me they let the little boy come up with tab browsing first, I believe in the end that is their downfall and more will slowly start using Firefox.
i remember back a long long time ago(1994) on an operating system practically forgotten(win 3.11) a browser called Spree Mosaic
basically it was like very similar to the ancient Netscape but with tabbed pages.
then some time in 96, 97 there was NeoBrowser which was guys a flashy front end for IE but that had tabbed browsing
now how come if things like that existed way back then that it took Mozilla getting 15% market share to consider offering it.
IE7 should have been released ages ago, IE6 is old and slow and crap in general.
How much longer do you think it would have taken M$ to relaese IE7 if it wasnt for firefox becoming so popular???
i think IE7 wouldnt have come till 2007 if it wasnt for firefox showing just how bad IE6 is, but thats just my opinion.
but then microsoft could have said somethig like 'the 7 in IE7 is for 2007'
but thats just me being stupid
Another fact is I see more and more sites that push standards compliance. Most of them don't push Firefox directly, but they do link to it. I personally know more and more developers that like the ability to use CSS 1&2 to create the layout of their sites and they hate (and I do mean hate) the fact that IE 6 & 7 won't support even a meaningfull amount of CSS standards. As one of my friends said "I have to do more work to make my pages work in IE than I do in any other browser".
My thought here is when IE 7 is released some people may very well switch back to it. However, I think Firefox will continue to take market share, even if it's slowly. When it comes down to it Microsoft is still ignoring web developers (Microsofts own developers admited that they still aren't supporting web standards even at web developers request, that comes from one of their blogs).
The simple fact is that websites should be written once run everywhere (yeah I stole that from Java). Many of the browsers out there are trying for better and better web standard compliance. And many developers are starting to follow those standards. The problem is IE. Instead of creating webpages that are awsome they spend a lot of time making sure their pages are compatible with IE.
To be fair I have had trouble with standards even in standard compliant browsers, but those are usually much easier to work around than either not supporting or incorrectly supporting web standards.
In my opinion the browser shouldn't matter. All companies that create browsers should strive to follow a set standard. I believe that standards has been defined by the W3C. I belive that that Microsoft has intentionally corrupted the adoption and usage of such standards for monitary gain. In the end it is the web developer and the consumer who are hurt the most by this.
IE has gone without a major update since 2001. They've had time to make it far better than what they're promising in IE7. IE6 is the new Netscape 4. They've done a real disservice to everyone.
Even if IE7 is not what I had hoped for, at least it will feature better standards support and good PNG support. Now if Adobe would just improve PNG support in Photoshop...
From MSDN-IE:
I want to be clear that our intent is to build a platform that fully complies with the appropriate web standards, in particular CSS 2 ( 2.1, once it?s been Recommended)
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/07/29/445242.aspx
It does help to read.
Weather you use IE or Firefox does not matter, what matters is the competition, and when products improve we all win. That is what the FTC in particular was created to insure.
Although our main OS is just as buggy as it was 20 years ago (some say more-so), look at the CPU's, hundreds of times faster and practically bullet-proof. If we could only get the OS to follow, ?what a wonderful world it would be?
At home, I tested out an early Alpha test of Firefox 1.5, but I have been using the stable browser there, where I run desktop Linux software almost exclusively. Again, the previous stable release of Firefox (1.0.7 with patches) runs reliably, and it has a few more plugins that I usem including one called Diggler that is available as a packaged addon to both Mozilla and Firefox. Works great. I plan to upgrade at home to 1.5 now that the final release is out, after making sure that the plugins I use have now been added to the new stable release. That's the only reason I haven't also been using it as my regular browser at home.
I also use Thunderbird, and I intend to upgrade it to the latest release as soon as it is available (which should also be any time now - and may already be out, though I have not spotted the release yet).
I use AVG Free Antivirus. Works great with my ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall & Spybot Search & Destroy.
Happy Surfin'!
Jon N.
I assume you tried the same sites in IE and they worked. Without more information though my first guess is that it could be the sites or a setting in Firefox. I have had webpages not work in Firefox that weren't intentionally designed not to, but it was due to poorly written code that IE would fix.
Outside of that I don't know what it is. Maybe you could give us a few of those sites and we could all take a look at them and see.
Also check out Mozilla's Thunderbird for your emailing needs.
-JC
Which do you think is better and why? Opinions?
:-}
Jon N.
The headline is wrong. Firefox 1.5 was never "under wraps," and 1.6 won't be either. Software "under wraps" has been found to be a bad idea for users so we don't do it.
I like Mozilla Firefox just fine and do not plan to switch to IE7. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Back in the old days when I was using IE, I was constantly having to add domains to the "trusted domains" list and generally holding IE's hand. Who needs it?
Tom
I hate to sound ignorant, but I've looked into the settings and it doesn't mention it as an option.
Thanks.
- Didn't take long did it?
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by robertcampbell2
December 7, 2005 12:52 PM PST
- Security Focus has published an exploit for the new and improved Firefox 1.5. http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/73
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Reply to this comment
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- You'd choke too if someone gave you a 500k title
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by grknight
December 12, 2005 1:13 PM PST
- This is not a security bug.
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See all 67 Comments >>http://www.mozilla.org/security/history-title.html
Firefox is just having difficulty handling the history.dat file.
They are working on the issue:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=319004