Desktop Nature Wallpaper

Desktop Nature Wallpaper History

Source(google.com.pk)

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 dispute with the BIOS manufacturer, Phoenix Technologies (which produces a BIOS-based browser called Phoenix FirstWare Connect). The new name, Firebird, met with mixed reactions, particularly as the Firebird database server 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,[1] and on February 9, 2004 the project was renamed Mozilla Firefox (or Firefox for short).[2]

The name "Firefox" (a reference to the red panda)[3] 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[4] 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 Firefox had already been registered as a trademark in the UK[5] for Charlton Company software.[6] The situation was resolved when the foundation was given a license to use Charlton's European trademark.

Early versions[edit]

Early description of what cookies are in Preferences window of Mozilla Firefox 0.9.3. This description was soon dropped in later versions.

Hyatt, Ross, Hewitt and Chanial's[7] browser was created to combat the 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.

On February 5, 2004, business and IT consulting company AMS 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.[8]

Version 1.0[edit]

Main article: Firefox 1

Firefox 1.0, the first release targeted for general public

Firefox 1.0 was released on November 9, 2004.[9] The launch of version 1.0 was accompanied by "a respectable amount of pre-launch fervor"[10] including a fan-organized campaign to run a full-page ad in The New York Times.

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[11] 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 to avoid confusion with the original Mozilla Suite.

Version 1.5[edit]

Main article: Firefox 1.5

"Deer Park", the codename of the Firefox 1.1 and 1.5 Alphas, did not include Firefox branding.

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, in order to improve the quality of Firefox releases on Mac OS X v10.2 and above. Mac 10.1 users could still use Firefox versions from the 1.0.x branch (e.g. Firefox 1.0.7).

Updated options window introduced in Firefox 1.5

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 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 1.1 support.[12]

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.