Firefox is a Free, OpenSource WebBrowser for Windows, Linux and MacOSX that uses the Gecko rendering engine and the XUL ToolKit, as written by the Mozilla project. MozillaFirefox is becoming increasingly popular and is meant to replace the Mozilla Browser component of SeaMonkey, the Mozilla application suite.

The latest release is 2.0.

The team leader and a large contributer for the project is Ben Goodger, a New Zealander now living in America.

"Firefox" was the new name used in the 0.8 release of the WebBrowser previously known as "Firebird". "Firebird" was the new name used in the 0.6 release of the WebBrowser previously known as "Phoenix". Phoenix got renamed after the BIOS manufacturers of the same name complained. The Phoenix team then did "months of trademark research" to come up with Firebird, which is already the name of an OpenSource database! Strangely enough, that same database was also once called Phoenix and later changed their name to Firebird. The new name Firefox was registered as a trademark worldwide, although it's also the name of a Clint Eastwood sci-fi movie from the early 1980s.

Debian is probably going to stop using the Firefox name though as Mozilla do not permit you to use their trademark if you do not get all patches approved by them, including patches for obsolete versions and security fixes.

See also:

• MozillaFirefoxNotes
• RealWorldWebCompliance
• Firefox Help
• MozillaFirefox Project homepage
• MozillaFirefox product page