Little Browser Grows Up: Firefox at Five
November 9, 2004 was when Firefox was officially born. A look back on its fifth birthday.
Five years ago, Mozilla placed a full-page ad in the New York Times, which required more than $250,000 in donations, the donor names comprising the tiny print behind the Firefox logo. The ad ended up becoming burned indelibly into the minds of many users and showed what the community and the open source concept was capable of.
Firefox had emerged from the Mozilla project that combined a whole bundle of programs (browser, email program, editor and news reader) into one Mozilla Suite. As a separate program, the browser was to be significantly faster to start up and more efficient in delivering webpages.
Meanwhile Firefox has become a well established browser and is no longer the only competitor to Microsoft's Internet Explorer market leader. Firefox wanted to win back some of the market share that Microsoft gained by coupling its operating system with that of Netscape. Firefox 1.0 was also positioning itself against Apple's Safari browser.
According to Marketshare.hitslink.com, worldwide Firefox market share is currently at 24%, as compared to Internet Explorer's 65%, but growing. Chrome, Safari and Opera are each under 5% market share. Best wishes, Firefox, may you never become fat and lazy with age!
Issue 270/2023
Buy this issue as a PDF
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Find SysAdmin Jobs
News
-
CarbonOS: A New Linux Distro with a Focus on User Experience
CarbonOS is a brand new, built-from-scratch Linux distribution that uses the Gnome desktop and has a special feature that makes it appealing to all types of users.
-
Kubuntu Focus Announces XE Gen 2 Linux Laptop
Another Kubuntu-based laptop has arrived to be your next ultra-portable powerhouse with a Linux heart.
-
MNT Seeks Financial Backing for New Seven-Inch Linux Laptop
MNT Pocket Reform is a tiny laptop that is modular, upgradable, recyclable, reusable, and ships with Debian Linux.
-
Ubuntu Flatpak Remix Adds Flatpak Support Preinstalled
If you're looking for a version of Ubuntu that includes Flatpak support out of the box, there's one clear option.
-
Gnome 44 Release Candidate Now Available
The Gnome 44 release candidate has officially arrived and adds a few changes into the mix.
-
Flathub Vying to Become the Standard Linux App Store
If the Flathub team has any say in the matter, their product will become the default tool for installing Linux apps in 2023.
-
Debian 12 to Ship with KDE Plasma 5.27
The Debian development team has shifted to the latest version of KDE for their testing branch.
-
Planet Computers Launches ARM-based Linux Desktop PCs
The firm that originally released a line of mobile keyboards has taken a different direction and has developed a new line of out-of-the-box mini Linux desktop computers.
-
Ubuntu No Longer Shipping with Flatpak
In a move that probably won’t come as a shock to many, Ubuntu and all of its official spins will no longer ship with Flatpak installed.
-
openSUSE Leap 15.5 Beta Now Available
The final version of the Leap 15 series of openSUSE is available for beta testing and offers only new software versions.