Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The History of Mozilla Firefox

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the there's-gonna-be-a-quiz-at-the-end dept.

Gsurface writes "Flexbeta has an article based on the history of Mozilla Firefox. The article goes build-by-build of every Firefox release since the early Phoenix days noting some of the most significant changes in every release."

3 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. JWZ. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The true history Jamie Zawinski.

  2. Re:changelog by Vamphyri · · Score: 5, Informative

    Obligatory link to said historic changelogs list here

  3. Text, sans images... by wx327 · · Score: 5, Informative

    - Flexbeta (http://www.flexbeta.net/index.php)
    -- The History of Mozilla Firefox: From Phoenix, to Firebird, to Firefox (http://www.flexbeta.net/articles.php?action=showd &showarticle=89) Flexbeta Home
    The History of Mozilla Firefox: From Phoenix, to Firebird, to Firefox
    Posted by Gsurface on 30 Mar 2005 - 22:41
    Introduction

    Firefox is not just a browser; it is a religion, a way of life some might say, and for others, like me, a great damn way of reaching the web without all the ugly stuff that comes with it. Firefox has gone a long way, from name changes to added features, to conquering market share off of the world's most popular browser. Firefox has reached millions via not just web, but also through newspaper headlines all funded by Firefox users themselves. Many of the current Firefox users have been loyal users since the bird's initial flight, and though Firefox has been in the wild now for quiet some time, there are plenty of Firefox users that have recently discovered this marvelous browser. The Firefox browser was previously known as Firebird and before that, Phoenix. While the name has changed, the concepts remain the same. The history of Firefox begins with an idea to make an already existing web browser faster and leaner. Originally dubbed Phoenix, the browser within a few years turns into a revolution, an escape for many from the constant security vulnerabilities from Internet Explorer. The story starts with Phoenix 0.1, and builds up to what we know today as Mozilla Firefox.

    Phoenix 0.1 - 0.3

    Phoenix 0.1
    Firefox begins not as Firefox, but as Phoenix, which was initially made public on September 23, 2002. The Phoenix browser, which uses a large amount of the Mozilla code, was designed to be a lean and fast browser that loads in about half the time of Mozilla. The initial release was codenamed "Pescadero", which means fisherman in Spanish, with a build of 0.1. Phoenix did not feature an installer, rather the user had to download the file and run the executable. Though the menus were customizable, there wasn't much to add to the toolbar. The only items that were available were the home icon, print icon, a go button and a button to go to the Mozilla home page. Though still a baby, Phoenix had a lot to offer such as a download manager which IE did not contain. Looking into the preferences, Phoenix 0.1 had little options for the user (compared to newer builds). This initial build did not contain a Google search engine on the toolbar, but it did contain a popup blocker and tabbed browsing. Certain shortcut features such as writing the URL then pressing Ctrl + Enter to automatically enter the .COM part of the URL was not available in 0.1. Phoenix 0.1 did not include a sidebar, which in the second release the Mozilla team would implement it.

    Phoenix 0.2
    The second release of Mozilla Phoenix, build 0.2, codenamed Santa Cruz, was released a few days after 0.1 on October 10th, 2002. Plenty of features were added to this new build including the sidebar, which allowed the user to view either their bookmarks, history, or recent downloads as a side window of the browser. Other enhancements were implemented including new options to the preferences section. Now users were able to disable Java and edit some tab browsing options. Phoenix 0.2 also introduced the ability to add extensions and themes to the browser.

    The toolbar customization went through a huge overhaul. The user was able to add much more icons to their toolbar including a history icon, downloads, bookmarks, new window and a search bar. The search bar was for searching on the current page, dmoz.org, and Google, of course. Phoenix 0.2 was also marginally faster than 0.1, though it was very hard to notice the difference. Though some bugs were fixed in this build, the Mozilla team concentrated more on enhancing the browser and dedicat