By Paul Festa, 9 November 2004 08:48
NEWS
After 19 months of development, two name changes and more than eight million downloads of its preview release, the Firefox browser is finally turning 1.0.
Firefox, a browser based on the Mozilla Foundation's open-source development work, is scheduled to be available for free download at 1 a.m. PDT Tuesday 9 a.m. GMT).
If the download statistics from preview releases of Firefox are any indication, the open-source browser could be headed for a big debut.
Mitchell Baker, president of the not-for-profit Mozilla Foundation, said: "Our browser is moving into the mainstream. Being an alternative browser in today's market is a challenge, but people have begun to realise that the browser matters, that the browser you get with your computer can be a beginning point and not an endpoint."
The browser Mozilla releases on Tuesday morning won't be significantly different from the preview releases that have launched in recent months. Mozilla changed its default start page to appeal to new users, but other changes are minor performance improvements and bug fixes.
But the release could nonetheless make a big impact if pre-release trends propel the open-source browser into serious contention with Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
While web analysts have largely ignored the browser market since declaring IE the winner of the browser war, scattered website measurement statistics have suggested gains for Firefox and other minority browsers against the IE juggernaut.
IE continues to command more than 90 per cent of the market, with Opera Software's browser, Apple's Safari browser and other Mozilla-based browsers making up the difference. Firefox has set its sights on gaining 10 per cent of the market by the end of 2005.
In addition to making apparent market inroads and shattering its own download goals, Firefox has succeeded in blazing an open-source fundraising trail that backers call unprecedented.
To place full-page ads in The New York Times , the Mozilla Foundation raised more than $250,000 in donations in the first 10 days of a fundraising campaign.
Mozilla owes part of its Firefox success to widespread security concerns about IE. While all the browsers have faced security bugs, IE's security reputation has suffered chronic damage amid a steady torrent of security bugs and spyware schemes targeting IE users.
The Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), the computer threats division of the US Department of Homeland Security, issued an advisory urging Americans to consider ditching IE in favour of its competitors. Independent groups have launched their own campaigns urging web surfers to consider IE alternatives.
Microsoft in August updated IE with significant security measures, but that update is available only to the approximately half of all Windows users running Windows XP.
Comments
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1. Ron Enderland
GO FIREFOX! May Bill Gates shudder . . .
2. the piethief
IE's reputation is insecure
"IE's security reputation has suffered chronic damage" really? I've followed IE from ver 2 to current day 6 and it has never had a security reputation except for being insecure in nature.
Firefox owns an as alternative browser and it looks like all those lazy web guys are now taking out their browser dependant code and moving back to an open standards in an effort to support all browsers.
Having said all that though 'spreadfirefox.com' has really dropped the ball by being down today (the first download day for many countries). And i say that as a member of it who chipped in to the upcoming New York Times ad.
3. Andy K
FireFox is great. As soon as I read about it, I downloaded it and am using it all the time.
Would never go back to IE -INSECURE EXPLORER!
4. Paul Taylor
FireFox 1.0 is Great !. I have rolled it out in my entire organisation. Now Spyware isssues are a thing of the past. Plus its a small package and alot faster than IE.