History of Firefox

(category)
Contents
Firefox 10 · 11 · 12 Firefox 7 · 8 · 9 Firefox 4 · 5 · 6 Firefox 3.6 Firefox Portable History of Firefox Features of Firefox Gecko Add-ons Extensions Firefox market adoption
Origins and lineage
Netscape Navigator Mozilla Foundation Mozilla Suite

The Mozilla Firefox project was created by Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project. Firefox 1.0 was released on November 9, 2004. Firefox 1.5 was released on November 29, 2005. Version 2.0 was released on October 24, 2006. Firefox 3.0 was released on June 17, 2008, with Version 3.5 and Version 3.6 released on June 30, 2009 and January 21, 2010 respectively. Version 4.0 was released on March 22, 2011, Version 5.0 was released on June 21, 2011, Version 6.0 was released on August 16, 2011, Version 7.0 was released on September 27, 2011, Version 8.0 was released on November 8, 2011 and Version 9.0 was released on December 20, 2011, with 9.0.1 as the current release that followed on the very next day.

Contents 1 Early history 1.1 Early versions 1.2 Naming 1.3 Branding and visual identity 1.4 "Delicious delicacies" 1.5 Version 1.5 1.6 Version 2 1.7 Firefox Live Chat 1.8 Version 3 1.9 Version 3.5 1.10 Version 3.6 1.11 Version 4.0 2 Rapid release development cycle 2.1 Version 5.0 2.2 Version 6.0 2.3 Version 7.0 2.4 Version 8.0 2.5 Version 9.0 3 Future releases 3.1 Expected release dates 3.2 Version 10.0 3.3 Version 11.0 3.4 Version 12.0 4 Release history 4.1 Mozilla Firefox timeline 5 Release compatibility 6 Localizations 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links

Early history

Early versions

Hyatt, Ross, Hewitt and Chanial's browser was created to combat the perceived 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.

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^[1] 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.

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.^[2]

Naming

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,^[3] and on February 9, 2004 the project was renamed Mozilla Firefox (or Firefox for short).^[4]

The name "Firefox" (a reference to the red panda)^[5] 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^[6] 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^[7] for Charlton Company software.^[8] The situation was resolved when the foundation was given a license to use Charlton's European trademark.

Branding and visual identity

Early Firebird and Phoenix releases of Firefox were considered to have had reasonable visual designs, but were not up to the same standards as many professionally released software packages. In October 2003, professional interface designer Steven Garrity wrote an article covering everything he considered to be wrong with Mozilla's visual identity.^[9] The page received a great deal of attention; the majority of criticism leveled at the article fell along the lines of "where's the patch?"

Shortly afterwards, Garrity was invited by the Mozilla Foundation to head up the new visual identity team. The release of Firefox 0.8 in February 2004 saw the introduction of the new branding efforts, including new icon designs by silverorange, a group of web developers with a long-standing relationship with Mozilla, with final renderings by Jon Hicks, who had previously worked on Camino.^[11][12] The logo was later revised and updated, fixing several flaws found when it was enlarged.^[13]

The animal shown in the logo is a stylized fox, although "firefox" is considered to be a common name for the red panda. The panda, according to Hicks, "didn't really conjure up the right imagery" and wasn't widely known.^[12] The logo was chosen to make an impression while not shouting out with overdone artwork. It had to stand out in the user's mind, be easy for others to remember, and stand out without causing too much distraction when seen among other icons.

The Firefox icon is a trademark used to designate the official Mozilla build of the Firefox software and builds of official distribution partners.^[14] For this reason, Debian and other software distributors who distribute patched or modified versions of Firefox do not use the icon. The crash reporting service was initially closed source, but switched with version 3 from a program called Talkback to the open source BreakPad & Socorro.

"Delicious delicacies"

Early Firefox releases featured a preferences panel that described cookies thus: "Cookies are delicious delicacies".

The phrase was representative of the programmers' quirky sense of humor and was a reflection of the free software movement's unconventional approach. The phrase became something of a cult legend and was even featured in an O'Reilly computer book.

The original text was inserted by Blake Ross, one of the lead developers of Firefox, because, he said, "describing something so complicated in such a small space was quite frankly the last thing I wanted to worry about after rewriting the cookie manager".

However, in reflection of the growing acceptance and use of the Firefox browser in the Internet mainstream, the text was later changed. It was labeled a bug,^[15] and was "fixed" by Mike Connor to read, "Cookies are pieces of information stored by web pages on your computer. They are used to remember login information and other data." The revision was regarded as more likely to be helpful to less technically oriented computer users who were now using Firefox—representing Mozilla's desire to appeal to mainstream users.

The text became a popular in-joke and on August 2004, the Delicious Delicacies extension, no longer maintained or updated, was released by Jesse Ruderman. The extension restored the old description of cookies, available in several languages.

As of Firefox 2.0, cookies are no longer described in the preferences window.

Version 1.5

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).

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.^[16]

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.

Version 2

On March 22, 2006, the first alpha version of Firefox 2 (Bon Echo Alpha 1) was released. It featured Gecko 1.8.1 for the first time.

Firefox 2 was released on October 24, 2006 and contained many new features not found in Firefox 1.5, including improved SVG and JavaScript 1.7 support, as well as UI changes.

Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.x was the final version supported on Windows NT 4.0, 98 and Me. Mozilla Corporation announced it would not develop new versions of Firefox 2 after the 2.0.0.20 release, but continued Firefox 2 development as long as other programs, such as Thunderbird mail client, depended on it. The final internal release was 2.0.0.22, released in late April 2009.

Firefox Live Chat

In December 2007, Mozilla launched Live Chat, a service allowing users to seek technical support from volunteers. Because Live chat is kept running by volunteers, it is only available when they are online.^[17] Support is only available in English officially, but the volunteers may also provide in other languages. Mozilla uses the open source software, Openfire and Spark with the Fastpath plugin, all by Ignite Realtime. Unlike other services by companies such as Microsoft, Mozilla cannot offer remote control, as volunteers are bound to the privacy policy.

Version 3

The Mozilla Foundation released Firefox 3 on June 17, 2008. The first Firefox 3 beta (under codename 'Gran Paradiso').^[18] had been released several months earlier, on 19 November 2007,^[19] which was followed by several more beta releases in the Spring of 2008 culminating in the June release.^[20]

One of the major changes in Firefox 3 is the implementation of Gecko 1.9, an updated layout engine. The new version fixes many bugs and implements new web APIs.^[21]

Version 3.5

After several development releases, the final version was released on June 30, 2009. The current version is 3.5.19, released on April 28, 2011. Also, as of mid-December 2009, Firefox 3.5 was the most popular browser (when counting individual browser versions), passing Internet Explorer 7.^[22] It was the first version to accomplish this feat.

Version 3.6

Version 3.6, released on January 21, 2010, uses the Gecko 1.9.2 engine and includes several interface improvements, such as "personas". This release was referred to as 3.2 before 3.1 was changed to 3.5. The codename for this version was Namoroka.

One minor update to Firefox 3.6, version 3.6.4 (code-named Lorentz) is the first minor update to make non-intrusive changes other than minor stability and security fixes.^[23] It adds Out of Process Plugins (OOPP), which runs plugins in a separate process, allowing Firefox to recover from plugin crashes.

Firefox 3.6.6 lengthens the amount of time a plug-in is allowed to be unresponsive before the plug-in quits.^[24]

Version 4.0

Nightly builds were marked as 4.0a1pre between February and June 2008,^[25][26] but were renamed to 3.1a1pre afterward.

Firefox 3.7 (Gecko 1.9.3) Alpha 1 was released on February 10, 2010.^[27][28] Alpha 2 was released on March 1, 2010, Alpha 3 on March 17, Alpha 4 on April 12, and Alpha 5 on June 16. The version number was changed to 4.0 (and Gecko's was changed to 2.0) starting with Beta 1, released on July 6, 2010. Beta 2 was released on July 27, Beta 3 on August 11, Beta 4 on August 24, Beta 5 on September 7, Beta 6 (a chemspill release) on September 14. After major delays, Beta 7 was finally released on November 10. Beta 7 was followed by Beta 8, released on December 21. Beta 9 was released on January 14, 2011, Beta 10 on January 25, Beta 11 on February 8, and Beta 12 on February 12. Firefox then moved into the RC stage.^[29] The Final Version of Firefox 4 was released on March 22, 2011.^[30]

One of the main focuses was to improve the user interface. UI overhaul mockups for the Windows version posted in the Mozilla Wiki showed numerous changes, including optional tab bar display at the top of the window, status bar integration with the tab toolbar, as well as search bar and the reload/stop button integration with the awesomebar.^[31] A new type of tab, called an application tab, was placed in the tab bar. Similar to the Mozilla Prism project, it allows web pages (such as Gmail) to become applications. The browser was given a home tab similar to new tab pages found in Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome, although users were allowed to customize the button to take them to their homepage instead. The menu bar disappeared from the mockups, and the UI used animations to manipulate tags and buttons.

The Mac OS X installer was redesigned to make installations easier. Firefox start-up windows were eliminated to make start-up quicker. Preference and add-on manager windows were redesigned to better assist users.

"Door hanger" notifications were to be added to replace "bar" notifications, which were easily spoofed by web pages.

The Gecko layout engine was improved to support more HTML5 and CSS3 features.

In addition, the Firefox Sync project was integrated into the browser to allow users to sync elements such as bookmarks, tabs, and history with either Mozilla or other third-party servers.

Rapid release development cycle

From early 2011, Mozilla initiated a rapid release development cycle,^[32][33] with versions planned to move through Mozilla's NIGHTLY, AURORA and BETA development channels after spending 6 weeks in each.

Version 5.0

Firefox 5 was released on June 21, 2011.^[34] This was the first edition under Mozilla's rapid release development cycle, and was released only three months after Firefox 4.

Even though the GUI was changed very little, Firefox 5 features:

• Better standards support for HTML5, CSS3, MathML, XHR and SMIL
• Better visibility for the Do not track header preference^[35]
• Stability and security improvements^[36][37][38]
• Better tuned HTTP idle connection logic^[35]
• Improved canvas, JavaScript, memory, and networking performance
• Improved spell checking for some locales
• Improved desktop environment integration for Linux users
• Better WebGL security (WebGL content can no longer load cross-domain textures)^[39]
• Background tabs have setTimeout and setInterval clamped to 1000 ms to improve performance^[34]

Immediately following the launch of Firefox 5, several software critics reviewed it. Matt Egan of PC Advisor said that there was not much new to see, and that users would have to double-check they were not still using Firefox 4, although did concede that improvements in speed and stability made an upgrade worthwhile.^[40] Gary Marshall of TechRadar.com commented that there appeared to be a version number race between different browsers and implies in his review that the changes do not merit a full version number. However, he does praise the addition of the Do Not Track button to the user interface and describes how this helps users.^[39] Seth Rosenblatt of CNET agrees with the other two reviewers on the minor nature of the changes and praises the speed and usability improvements.^[41]

Version 6.0

Firefox 6 was released on August 16, 2011. New features in Firefox 6.0 include:^[42]

• about:permissions, a permissions manager. The user can choose what information can be shared with other sites, e.g. passwords.
• The address bar now highlights the domain of the website you are visiting.
• Streamlined the look of the site identity block
• Added support for the latest draft version of WebSockets with a prefixed API
• Added support for EventSource / server-sent events
• Added support for window.matchMedia
• Added Scratchpad, an interactive JavaScript prototyping environment
• Added a new Web Developer menu item and moved development-related items into it
• Improved usability of the Web Console
• Improved the discoverability of Firefox Sync
• Reduced browser startup time when using Panorama
• Fixed several stability issues
• Fixed several security issues

Version 7.0

Firefox 7.0 was released on September 27, 2011. New features in Firefox 7.0 include:^[43]

• Drastically improved memory handling for certain use cases
• Added a new rendering backend to speed up Canvas operations on Windows systems
• Bookmark and password changes now sync almost instantly when using Firefox Sync
• The 'http://' URL prefix is now hidden by default.
• Added support for text-overflow: ellipsis
• Added support for the Web Timing specification
• Enhanced support for MathML
• The WebSocket protocol has been updated from version 7 to version 8.
• Added an opt-in system for users to send performance data back to Mozilla to improve future versions of Firefox
• Fixed several stability issues
• Fixed several security issues

Firefox 7.0.1 was released on September 29, 2011, providing a bug-fix for a problem with add-ons that were hidden after updating.^[44]

Version 8.0

Firefox 8.0.1 was released on November 21, 2011.

• Add-ons installed by third-party programs are now disabled by default
• Added a one-time add-on selection dialog to manage previously installed add-ons
• Added Twitter to the search bar
• Added a preference to load tabs on demand, improving start-up time when windows are restored
• Improved performance and memory handling when using <audio> and <video> elements
• Added Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) support for cross-domain textures in WebGL
• Added support for HTML5 context menus
• Added support for insertAdjacentHTML()
• Improved CSS hyphen support for many languages
• Improved WebSocket support
• Fixed several stability issues

Originally an improved tab animation for moving, reordering and detaching tabs was planned, but the new code was backed out with Beta 5 due to issues with the implementation. ^[45]

Version 9.0

Firefox 9.0 was released on December 20, 2011, and version 9.0.1 followed on the very next day.

• Added type inference, significantly improving JavaScript performance.
• Improved theme integration for Mac OS X Lion.
• Added two finger swipe navigation for Mac OS X Lion.
• Added support for querying Do Not Track status via JavaScript.
• Added support for the font-stretch CSS property.
• Improved support for the text-overflow CSS property.
• Improved standards support for HTML5, MathML, and CSS.
• Fixed several stability issues.

Future releases

The precursory releases of upcoming Firefox releases are named Nightly, as this is the name of the trunk builds, and Aurora, a separate nightly branch for refining code. The next scheduled date for a version shift in these channels is January 31, 2012.

Expected release dates

Version	Channel	Date
Firefox 10	Beta	January 31, 2012
Firefox 11	Aurora	March 13, 2012
Firefox 12	Nightly	April 24, 2012

Version 10.0

Firefox 10.0 is currently on the Beta channel. Release notes here: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/10.0/releasenotes/

Version 11.0

Firefox 11.0 is currently on the Aurora channel. Release notes here: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/11.0a2/auroranotes

Version 12.0

Firefox 12.0 is currently on the Nightly channel.

Release history

Mozilla Firefox timeline

Current Supported Releases

• Firefox 3.6.25
• Firefox 9.0.1

Current Test Releases

• Firefox 10.0 Beta 1
• Firefox 11.0 Aurora
• Firefox 12.0 Nightly

Future Releases

• Firefox 3.6.26
• Firefox 10.0
• Firefox 11.0
• Firefox 12.0
• Firefox 13.0

Future Test Releases

• Firefox 11.0 Beta
• Firefox 12.0 Aurora
• Firefox 12.0 Beta
• Firefox 13.0 Nightly
• Firefox 13.0 Aurora
• Firefox 13.0 Beta

Release History
Browser name	Gecko version	Version	Codename	Release date[30]	Significant changes
Phoenix	1.2	0.1	Pescadero	September 23, 2002	First release. Customizable toolbar, quicksearch.[46]
		0.2	Santa Cruz	October 1, 2002	Sidebar, extension management.[47]
		0.3	Lucia	October 14, 2002	Image blocking, pop-up blocking whitelist, tabbed browsing.[48]
	1.3	0.4	Oceano	October 19, 2002	Themes, pop-up blocking improvements, toolbar customization.[49]
		0.5	Naples	December 7, 2002	Multiple homepages, sidebar and accessibility improvements.[50]
Firebird	1.5	0.6	Glendale	May 17, 2003	New default theme (Qute), bookmark and privacy improvements, smooth scrolling, automatic image resizing.[51]
		0.6.1		July 28, 2003	Bugfix release.[52]
		0.7	Indio	October 15, 2003	Automatic scrolling, password manager, preferences panel improvements.[53]
		0.7.1	Three Kings	October 26, 2003	Bugfix release (Mac OS X only).[54]
Firefox	1.6	0.8	Royal Oak	February 9, 2004	Windows installer, offline working, bookmarks and download manager improvements, rebranded with new logo.[55]
	1.7	0.9	One Tree Hill	June 15, 2004	New default theme (Winstripe), comprehensive data migration, new extension/theme manager, reduced download size, new help system, Linux installer, mail icon (Windows only).[56]
		0.9.1		June 28, 2004	Bugfix release, updated default theme.[57]
		0.9.2		July 8, 2004	Vulnerability patch (Windows only).[57]
		0.9.3		August 4, 2004	Vulnerability patch.[58]
		0.10	Firefox 1.0 Preview Release "Greenlane"	September 14, 2004	Bugs with higher complexity/risk, localization impact, RSS/Atom feed support, find toolbar, plugin finder.[59]
		0.10.1		October 1, 2004	Vulnerability patch.[60]
Firefox 1		1.0 RC1	Firefox 1.0 Release Candidate 1 "Mission Bay"	October 27, 2004	First Firefox release candidate.
		1.0 RC2	Firefox 1.0 Release Candidate 2 "Whangamata"	November 3, 2004	Second Firefox release candidate.
		1.0	Firefox 1.0 "Phoenix"	November 9, 2004	Official version 1.0 release. Official localized builds.[61]
		1.0.1	Rose & Crown	February 24, 2005	Regular security and stability update.[62]
		1.0.2		March 23, 2005	Regular security and stability update.[63]
		1.0.3		April 15, 2005	Regular security and stability update. Installer improvements.[64]
		1.0.4		May 11, 2005	Regular security and stability update. Fix to DHTML errors encountered at some web sites.[65]
		1.0.5		July 12, 2005	Regular security and stability update.[66]
		1.0.6		July 19, 2005	Off-cycle stability update. Restored API compatibility for extensions and web applications that did not work in Firefox 1.0.5.[67]
		1.0.7		September 20, 2005	Regular security and stability update.[68]
		1.0.8		April 13, 2006	Regular security and stability update.[69] End-of-life 1.0.x product line
Firefox 1.5	1.8	1.1a1	Deer Park Alpha 1 "Strippenkaart"	May 31, 2005	First Firefox 1.1 alpha release. Support for SVG and canvas. "Sanitize" privacy feature. Improvements in JavaScript 1.5 and CSS 2/3. Broken website reporter tool.[70]
		1.1a2	Deer Park Alpha 2	July 12, 2005	Second Firefox 1.1 alpha release. Blazing fast backwards and forwards (FastBack), drag-and-drop tab reordering, improved pop-up blocking, error pages instead of error dialogs.[71]
		1.5b1	Firefox 1.5 Beta 1	September 9, 2005	First Firefox 1.5 beta release. New update system (binary patch). Prettier error pages, more Luna-like Winstripe theme (did not blend well with the Classic theme).[72]
		1.5b2	Firefox 1.5 Beta 2	October 6, 2005	Second Firefox 1.5 beta release. Improvements to automated update system, website rendering and performance. Several security fixes.[73]
		1.5 RC1	Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 1	November 1, 2005	First Firefox 1.5 release candidate.
		1.5 RC2	Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 2	November 10, 2005	Second Firefox 1.5 release candidate.
		1.5 RC3	Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 3	November 17, 2005	Third Firefox 1.5 release candidate.
		1.5	Firefox 1.5 "Deer Park"	November 29, 2005	Official version 1.5 release. Official localized builds. Identical to 1.5 RC3.[74]
		1.5.0.1		February 1, 2006	Regular security and stability update.[75]
		1.5.0.2		April 13, 2006	Regular security and stability update. Native support for Intel-based Macintosh computers by shipping universal binary.[76]
		1.5.0.3		May 2, 2006	Off-cycle security update. Fix for a publicly disclosed denial of service weakness.[77]
		1.5.0.4		June 1, 2006	Regular security and stability update.[78]
		1.5.0.5		July 26, 2006	Regular security and stability update. Added changes for Frisian locale (fy-NL).[79]
		1.5.0.6		August 2, 2006	Off-cycle security and stability update. Fixed an issue with playing Windows Media content introduced by previous update.[80]
		1.5.0.7		September 14, 2006	Regular security and stability update.[81]
		1.5.0.8		November 7, 2006	Regular security and stability update.[82]
		1.5.0.9		December 19, 2006	Regular security and stability update.[83]
		1.5.0.10		February 23, 2007	Regular security and stability update.[84]
		1.5.0.11		March 20, 2007	Regular security and stability update. Regression fixes.[85]
		1.5.0.12		May 30, 2007	Regular security and stability update.[86] End-of-life 1.5.0.x product line
Firefox 2	1.8.1	2.0a1	Bon Echo Alpha 1	March 22, 2006	First Firefox 2.0 alpha release.[87]
		2.0a2	Bon Echo Alpha 2	May 12, 2006	Second Firefox 2.0 alpha release. Links default to open in new tab. Close button on every tab. Inline spell checking for text boxes. Session restoration after browser crash. Search suggestion for Google and Yahoo!. New search plugin manager and add-on manager. Web feed previewing. Bookmark microsummaries. Updates to extension system. Support for Sherlock and OpenSearch. Support for SVG text using svg:textPath.[88]
		2.0a3	Bon Echo Alpha 3	May 26, 2006	Third Firefox 2.0 alpha release. Anti-phishing protection. Search suggestions appear with search history in the search box for Google and Yahoo!. Support for client-side session and persistent storage.[89]
		2.0b1	Firefox 2.0 Beta 1	July 12, 2006	First Firefox 2.0 beta release. Improved feed support. New NSIS-based installer. JavaScript 1.7. Enhanced security and localization support for extensions.[90]
		2.0b2	Firefox 2.0 Beta 2	August 31, 2006	Second Firefox 2.0 beta release. New Winstripe theme refresh: new navigation icons, URL bar refresh (new Go button attached to the URL bar), Search bar refresh, Tab bar refresh, Alltabs button (used to view a popup list of all tabs open).[91]
		2.0 RC1	Firefox 2.0 Release Candidate 1	September 26, 2006	First Firefox 2.0 release candidate.[92]
		2.0 RC2	Firefox 2.0 Release Candidate 2	October 6, 2006	Second Firefox 2.0 release candidate.[93]
		2.0 RC3	Firefox 2.0 Release Candidate 3	October 16, 2006	Third Firefox 2.0 release candidate.[94]
		2.0	Firefox 2.0 "Bon Echo"	October 24, 2006	Official version 2.0 release, identical to 2.0 RC3. Official localized builds.[95]
		2.0.0.1		December 19, 2006	Regular security and stability update.[96]
		2.0.0.2		February 23, 2007	Regular security and stability update.[97]
		2.0.0.3		March 20, 2007	Regular security and stability update. Regression fixes and security fixes.[98]
		2.0.0.4		May 30, 2007	Regular security and stability update.[99]
		2.0.0.5		July 17, 2007	Security and stability update.[100]
		2.0.0.6		July 30, 2007	Regular security and stability update.[101]
		2.0.0.7		September 18, 2007	Off-cycle security update.[102]
		2.0.0.8		October 18, 2007	Regular security and stability update. Mac OS X 10.5 support.[103]
		2.0.0.9		November 1, 2007	Off-cycle security and stability update.[104]
		2.0.0.10		November 26, 2007	Off-cycle security and stability update.[105]
		2.0.0.11		November 30, 2007	Off-cycle stability update.[106]
		2.0.0.12		February 7, 2008	Regular security and stability update.[107]
		2.0.0.13		March 25, 2008	Regular security and stability update.[108]
		2.0.0.14		April 16, 2008	Off-cycle stability update.[109]
		2.0.0.15		July 1, 2008	Regular security and stability update.[110]
		2.0.0.16		July 15, 2008	Off-cycle security update.[111]
		2.0.0.17		September 23, 2008	Regular security and stability update.[112]
		2.0.0.18		November 12, 2008	Regular security and stability update.[113]
		2.0.0.19		December 16, 2008	Regular security and stability update.[114]
		2.0.0.20		December 18, 2008	Off-cycle security update.[115] End-of-life 2.0.0.x product line
Firefox 3	1.9	3.0a1	Gran Paradiso Alpha 1	December 8, 2006	First Firefox 3.0 alpha release. Cairo graphics library. Cocoa Widgets in OS X builds. Updated threading model. Changes to how DOM events are dispatched, how HTML object elements are loaded, and how web pages are painted. New SVG elements and filters, and improved SVG specification compliance. Windows 95, 98, ME and Mac OS X v10.2 no longer supported. Moving DOM nodes between documents require a call to importNode or adoptNode as per the DOM specification.[116]
		3.0a2	Gran Paradiso Alpha 2	February 7, 2007	Second Firefox 3.0 alpha release. Reflow refactoring (leading to Acid2 test compliance) among numerous layout bug fixes. Web Apps 1.0 API for changing stylesheets support. Inline-block and inline-table values of CSS 2.1's display property implemented. XML documents can be rendered during download. Greatly improved Mac widgets support since Alpha 1. Improvements in Cairo graphics layer. Non-standard JavaScript "Script" object no longer supported.[117]
		3.0a3	Gran Paradiso Alpha 3	March 23, 2007	Third Firefox 3.0 alpha release. Support for allowing web pages to store resources in the browser's offline cache. Support for Animated PNG images. Support for the "HTTPOnly" cookie extension which provides enhanced cookie privacy (also backported to Firefox 2.0.0.5). Improvements to layout and scaling precision across numerous screen and printer resolutions.[118]
		3.0a4	Gran Paradiso Alpha 4	April 27, 2007	Fourth Firefox 3.0 alpha release. Adding of FUEL JavaScript library for extension developers. Rewrite of Page Info dialog. Upgrade to Cairo 1.4.2. More Cocoa regression fixes.[119]
		3.0a5	Gran Paradiso Alpha 5	June 6, 2007	Fifth Firefox 3.0 alpha release. Places (bookmark and history service based on SQLite) used by default, but no front-end changes. Breakpad used as crash reporter on Windows and Mac OS X, superseding closed-source Talkback. Password manager rewrite. Support for Growl and native widgets within forms for Mac OS X.[120]
		3.0a6	Gran Paradiso Alpha 6	July 2, 2007	Sixth Firefox 3.0 alpha release. Upgrade of SQLite to version 3.3.17, leading to increased cookie performance due to transition of cookie service to SQLite. Site-specific preference service, used initially for text zoom, allowing zoom setting to remain on each website. Support for native widgets within forms for Linux. New Quit dialog handles multiple windows more elegantly and allows users to save session. Autoscroll rewrite: numerous bug fixes and significant performance gain. Fixes to the use of units within the download manager. Various Places bug fixes.[121]
		3.0a7	Gran Paradiso Alpha 7	August 3, 2007	Seventh Firefox 3.0 alpha release. More APIs implemented from WHATWG specs, such as ability to read files from file selection fields without need to upload and cut/copy/paste events, and cross-site XMLHttpRequest. New protocol-handling dialog. Experimental full-page zoom support, but no UI to control it. Numerous Mac OS X bug fixes, but OS X 10.3 no longer supported for Gecko 1.9. General bug fixes.[122]
		3.0a8	Gran Paradiso Alpha 8	September 20, 2007	Eighth Firefox 3.0 alpha release. New, basic UI for tagging bookmarks. Remember password prompt changed to non-modal information bar. Malware blacklist support. New UI for FTP and File protocol listings. Applications pane added to preferences. Basic support for web-based protocol handlers.[123]
		3.0b1	Firefox 3.0 Beta 1	November 19, 2007	First Firefox 3.0 beta release.[124]
		3.0b2	Firefox 3.0 Beta 2	December 18, 2007	Second Firefox 3.0 beta release. New UI improvements, including redesigned location bar, Places Organizer, Smart Bookmarks. Various stability and performance improvements.[125]
		3.0b3	Firefox 3.0 Beta 3	February 12, 2008	Third Firefox 3.0 beta release. New UI improvements, including redesigned buttons and location bar. Different default native themes for each operating system. Upgraded to SQLite 3.5.4. Various stability and performance improvements.[126]
		3.0b4	Firefox 3.0 Beta 4	March 10, 2008	Fourth Firefox 3.0 beta release. New UI improvement, including improved default themes for different operating systems. Various improvements in speed and resource usage.[127]
		3.0b5	Firefox 3.0 Beta 5	April 2, 2008	Fifth Firefox 3.0 beta release. Further improved themes to match various operating systems, JavaScript engine optimizations for speed, improved Places organizer.[128]
		3.0 RC1	Firefox 3.0 Release Candidate 1	May 16, 2008	First Firefox 3.0 release candidate.[129]
		3.0 RC2	Firefox 3.0 Release Candidate 2	June 5, 2008	Second Firefox 3.0 release candidate.[130]
		3.0 RC3	Firefox 3.0 Release Candidate 3	June 11, 2008	Third Firefox 3.0 release candidate.[131]
		3.0	Firefox 3.0 "Gran Paradiso"	June 17, 2008	Official version 3.0 release.[132]
		3.0.1		July 16, 2008	Security and stability update.[133]
		3.0.2		September 23, 2008	Regular security and stability update.[134]
		3.0.3		September 26, 2008	Bug fix for retrieving and saving passwords.[135]
		3.0.4		November 12, 2008	Regular security and stability update.[136]
		3.0.5		December 16, 2008	Regular security and stability update.[137]
		3.0.6		February 3, 2009	Regular security and stability update.[138]
		3.0.7		March 4, 2009	Regular security and stability update.[139]
		3.0.8		March 27, 2009	Off-cycle security update.[140]
		3.0.9		April 21, 2009	Regular security and stability update.[141]
		3.0.10		April 27, 2009	Off-cycle stability update.[142]
		3.0.11		June 11, 2009	Regular security and stability update.[143]
		3.0.12		July 21, 2009	Regular security and stability update.[144]
		3.0.13		August 3, 2009	Regular security and stability update.[145]
		3.0.14		September 9, 2009	Regular security and stability update.[146]
		3.0.15		October 27, 2009	Regular security and stability update.[147]
		3.0.16		December 15, 2009	Regular security and stability update.[148]
		3.0.17		January 5, 2010	Off-cycle stability update.[149]
		3.0.18		February 17, 2010	Regular security and stability update.[150]
		3.0.19		March 30, 2010	Regular security and stability update.[151] End-of-life 3.0.x product line
Firefox 3.5	1.9.1	3.1a1	Shiretoko Alpha 1	July 28, 2008	First Firefox 3.1 alpha release. Web standards improvements. Text API for the <canvas> element. Support for using border images. Support for DOM query selectors. Improvements to Smart Location Bar. New tab-switching behavior.[152]
		3.1a2	Shiretoko Alpha 2	September 5, 2008	Second Firefox 3.1 alpha release.[153]
		3.1b1	Firefox 3.1 Beta 1	October 14, 2008	First Firefox 3.1 beta release. Web standards improvements in Gecko layout engine. Added support for CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 properties. New tab-switching shortcut that shows previews of the tab user is switching to. Improved control over Smart Location Bar using special characters to restrict your search. Support for new web technologies.[154]
		3.1b2	Firefox 3.1 Beta 2	December 8, 2008	Second Firefox 3.1 beta release. Available in 54 languages. Added new Private Browsing Mode. Added functions to facilitate clearing recent history by time as well as to remove all traces of a website. New support for web worker threads. New TraceMonkey JavaScript engine on by default for web content. Improvements to Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering. Removed new tab-switching behavior based on user feedback. Support for new web technologies.[155]
		3.1b3	Firefox 3.1 Beta 3	March 12, 2009	Third Firefox 3.1 beta release. Available in 64 languages. Improved new Private Browsing Mode. Improvements to web worker thread support. Improved performance and stability with the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. New native JSON support. Improvements to Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering. Support for new web technologies such as <video> and <audio> elements, W3C Geolocation API, JavaScript query selectors, CSS 2.1 and 3 properties, SVG transforms and offline applications.[156]
		3.5b4	Firefox 3.5 Beta 4	April 27, 2009	First Firefox 3.5 beta release. Available in 70 languages. Improved tools for controlling private data, including Private Browsing Mode. Better performance and stability with new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. Ability to provide Location Aware Browsing using web standards for geolocation. Support for native JSON, and web worker threads. Improvements to Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering. Support for new web technologies such as HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements, downloadable fonts and other new CSS properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 offline data storage for applications, and SVG transforms.[157]
		3.5b99	Firefox 3.5 Preview	June 8, 2009	Preview for Firefox 3.5, pre-release candidate.[158]
		3.5 RC1	Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate 1	June 16, 2009	First Firefox 3.5 release candidate.[159]
		3.5 RC2	Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate 2	June 19, 2009	Second Firefox 3.5 release candidate.[160]
		3.5 RC3	Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate 3	June 24, 2009	Third Firefox 3.5 release candidate.[161]
		3.5	Firefox 3.5 "Shiretoko"	June 30, 2009	Official version 3.5 release. Identical to 3.5 RC3.[162]
		3.5.1		July 16, 2009	Off-cycle security and stability update.[163]
		3.5.2		August 3, 2009	Regular security and stability update.[164]
		3.5.3		September 9, 2009	Regular security and stability update.[165]
		3.5.4		October 27, 2009	Regular security and stability update.[166]
		3.5.5		November 5, 2009	Off-cycle security and stability update.[167]
		3.5.6		December 15, 2009	Regular security and stability update.[168]
		3.5.7		January 5, 2010	Off-cycle stability update.[169]
		3.5.8		February 17, 2010	Regular security and stability update.[170]
		3.5.9		March 30, 2010	Regular security and stability update.[171]
		3.5.10		June 22, 2010	Regular security and stability update.[172]
		3.5.11		July 20, 2010	Regular security and stability update.[173]
		3.5.12		September 7, 2010	Regular security and stability update.[174]
		3.5.13		September 15, 2010	Off-cycle stability update.[175]
		3.5.14		October 19, 2010	Regular security and stability update.[176]
		3.5.15		October 27, 2010	Off-cycle security update.[177]
		3.5.16		December 9, 2010	Regular security and stability update.[178]
		3.5.17		March 1, 2011	Regular security and stability update.[179]
		3.5.18		March 22, 2011	Off-cycle security update. Blacklists a few invalid HTTPS certificates.[180]
		3.5.19		April 28, 2011	Regular security and stability update.[181] End-of-life 3.5.x product line
Firefox 3.6	1.9.2	3.6a1	Namoroka Alpha 1	August 7, 2009	First Firefox 3.6 alpha release. Compositor (Phase 1), which moves Gecko to using one native widget per top-level content document. A new focus model. The chromedir attribute has been replaced with a pseudoclass. Several new CSS3 properties including background size and gradients for background images. Speed improvements to the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. Startup and responsiveness improvements throughout the application.[182]
		3.6b1	Firefox 3.6 Beta 1	October 30, 2009	First Firefox 3.6 beta release. Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas. Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe. Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames. Support for the WOFF font format. Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time. Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.[183]
		3.6b2	Firefox 3.6 Beta 2	November 10, 2009	Second Firefox 3.6 beta release. A mechanism to prevent incompatible software from crashing Firefox.[184]
		3.6b3	Firefox 3.6 Beta 3	November 17, 2009	Third Firefox 3.6 beta release. A change to how third-party software integrates with Firefox to increase stability. The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.[185]
		3.6b4	Firefox 3.6 Beta 4	November 26, 2009	Fourth Firefox 3.6 beta release. Added support for the HTML5 File API.[186]
		3.6b5	Firefox 3.6 Beta 5	December 17, 2009	Fifth Firefox 3.6 beta release.[187]
		3.6 RC1	Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate 1	January 8, 2010	First Firefox 3.6 release candidate.[188]
		3.6 RC2	Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate 2	January 17, 2010	Second Firefox 3.6 release candidate.[189]
		3.6	Firefox 3.6 "Namoroka"	January 21, 2010	Official Firefox 3.6 release. Identical to 3.6 RC2. [190]
		3.6.2[t 1]		March 22, 2010	Security and stability update.[191]
		3.6.3		April 1, 2010	Quick turn-around security update.[192]
		3.6.3plugin1	Firefox 3.6.3plugin1 "Lorentz"	April 8, 2010	First Firefox "Lorentz" beta, followed by 7 more Firefox 3.6.4 pre-release builds, all codenamed "Lorentz".[193]
		3.6.4	Firefox 3.6.4 (OOPP) "Lorentz"	June 22, 2010	Regular security and stability update, including OOPP.[194]
		3.6.6[t 2]		June 26, 2010	Off-cycle stability update. Modified crash protection feature to increase amount of time plugins allowed to be non-responsive before being terminated.[195]
		3.6.7		July 20, 2010	Regular security and stability update.[196]
		3.6.8		July 23, 2010	Off-cycle stability update.[197]
		3.6.9		September 7, 2010	Regular security and stability update. Also added support for X-FRAME-OPTIONS HTTP response header to help prevent clickjacking and removed option to enable experimental HTML5 parser via user preference html5.enable in about:config.[198]
		3.6.10		September 15, 2010	Off-cycle stability update.[199]
		3.6.11		October 19, 2010	Regular security and stability update.[200]
		3.6.12		October 27, 2010	Off-cycle security update.[201]
		3.6.13		December 9, 2010	Regular security and stability update.[202]
		3.6.14		March 1, 2011	Regular security and stability update.[203]
		3.6.15		March 4, 2011	Off-cycle stability update. Fixed issue where some Java applets failed to load in Firefox 3.6.14.[204]
		3.6.16		March 22, 2011	Off-cycle security update. Blacklisted several invalid HTTPS certificates.[205]
		3.6.17		April 28, 2011	Regular security and stability update.[206]
		3.6.18		June 21, 2011	Regular security and stability update.[207]
		3.6.19		July 11, 2011	Off-cycle stability update. Turned off downloadable font support for users running Mac OS X 10.7 due to an underlying platform bug. No changes made on Windows side.[208]
		3.6.20		August 16, 2011	Regular security and stability update.[209]
		3.6.21		August 30, 2011	Off-cycle security update. Blacklisted a compromised HTTPS certificate.[210]
		3.6.22		September 6, 2011	Off-cycle security update.[211]
		3.6.23		September 27, 2011	Regular security and stability update.[212]
		3.6.24		November 8, 2011	Regular security and stability update.[213]
		3.6.25		December 20, 2011	Regular security and stability update.[214]
Firefox 4	1.9.3	3.7a1	Mozilla Developer Preview 3.7 Alpha 1	February 10, 2010	First Firefox 3.7 alpha release. Support for WebGL(Disabled by default, but can be enabled by changing a preference). Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.[215]
		3.7a2	Mozilla Developer Preview 3.7 Alpha 2	March 3, 2010	Second Firefox 3.7 alpha release. On Windows and Linux, plugins (such as Flash and Silverlight) are now isolated from Firefox. Plugin crashes will not kill Firefox itself, and unresponsive plugins are automatically restarted. The SSL security system has been changed to fix a renegotiation flaw. Link history lookup is now performed asynchronously on a thread. Loading the HTML5 specification no longer causes very long browser pauses. Some JavaScript engine improvements. The stop and reload buttons have been merged when they are adjacent on the toolbar. More performance and stability improvements. [216]
		3.7a3	Mozilla Developer Preview 3.7 Alpha 3	March 17, 2010	Third Firefox 3.7 alpha release. An experimental Direct2D rendering backend on Windows is available, turned off by default. Significant API improvements are available for JS-ctypes. Mozilla now uses an infallible allocator. Additional fixes for multi-process plugins.[217]
		3.7a4	Mozilla Developer Preview 3.7 Alpha 4	April 12, 2010	Fourth Firefox 3.7 alpha release. CSS :visited selectors have been changed to block ways that websites can quickly check a user's browsing history. Currently loaded web pages are shown in the location bar autocomplete list, allowing switching to existing tabs. The beta version of Adobe Flash is now run in a separate process on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). Full-screen video on Windows is now rendered using hardware acceleration when available. Mozilla has implemented the Core Animation rendering model for plugins on Mac OS X. Linux builds are now built with -fomit-frame-pointer. Support for new SVG and HTML5 web technologies. [218]
		3.7a4webm	Mozilla Developer Preview 3.7 Alpha 4 WebM	May 19, 2010	Added WebM video playback.
		3.7a5	Mozilla Developer Preview 3.7 Alpha 5	June 14, 2010	Fifth Firefox 3.7 alpha release. First official release to include linux-x86_64 and mac-x86_64 builds and first regular release to include WebM video playback. New Addons Manager (placeholder UI only). Tab on Top can now be implemented. Firefox now uses hardware acceleration for video playback. Cocoa NPAPI support. ChromeWorker with jsctypes support. Lazy frame construction for faster dynamic pages. JavaScript performance improvments. Loading the URL about:memory now shows how much memory is used by different parts of Firefox. More Performance improvement and support for new CSS and HTML5 web technology. [219]
	2.0	4.0b1	Firefox 4.0 Beta 1	July 6, 2010	First Firefox 4.0 beta release. Tabs are now on top by default on Windows. On Windows Vista and Windows 7 the menu bar has been replaced with the Firefox button. The Bookmarks Toolbar has been replaced with a Bookmarks Button by default (you can switch it back if you'd like). Support for more HTML5 technologies.[220]
		4.0b2	Firefox 4.0 Beta 2	July 27, 2010	Second Firefox 4.0 beta release. Tabs are now on top by default on OSX. App Tabs can now be created. Content animation using CSS Transitions can now be implemented. Responsiveness and scrolling improvements from the new retained layers layout system. JavaScript speed improvements due to engine optimizations. Changes to how XPCOM components are registered in order to help startup time and process separation. [221]
		4.0b3	Firefox 4.0 Beta 3	August 11, 2010	Third Firefox 4.0 beta release. Web authors can now get touch events from Firefox users on Windows 7 machines. A new way of representing values in JavaScript that allows Firefox to execute heavy, numeric code (used for things like graphics and animations) more efficiently.[222]
		4.0b4	Firefox 4.0 Beta 4	August 24, 2010	Fourth Firefox 4.0 beta release. Firefox Sync is now included. Panorama, a new feature that gives users a visual overview of all open tabs, allowing them to be sorted and grouped, is now included. An experimental API is included to provide more efficient Javascript animations. Firefox now supports the HTML5 video "buffered" property.[223]
		4.0b5	Firefox 4.0 Beta 5	September 7, 2010	Fifth Firefox 4.0 beta release. Support for the new proposed Audio Data API. Direct2D Hardware Acceleration is now on by default for Windows 7 users. Firefox button has a new look for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users. Support for HSTS security protocol allowing sites to insist that they only be loaded over SSL.[224]
		4.0b6	Firefox 4.0 Beta 6	September 14, 2010	Sixth Firefox 4.0 beta release. Fixed a stability issue affecting Windows users. Fixed an issue causing rendering errors with plugins affecting Mac OS X users.[225]
		4.0b7	Firefox 4.0 Beta 7	November 10, 2010	Seventh Firefox 4.0 beta release. Uses JägerMonkey, a new, faster JavaScript engine. WebGL is enabled by default on Windows and Mac OS X. Certain rendering operations are now hardware-accelerated using Direct3D 9 on Windows XP, Direct3D 10 on Windows Vista and 7, and OpenGL on Mac OS X. Improved web typography using OpenType with support for ligatures, kerning and font variants. HTML5 Forms API makes web based forms easier to implement and validate. [226]
		4.0b8	Firefox 4.0 Beta 8	December 21, 2010	Eighth Firefox 4.0 beta release. The Firefox Sync setup experience has been greatly improved across desktop and mobile devices. Speed, functionality, and compatibility improvements to WebGL. Additional polish for the Firefox Add-ons Manager. [227]
		4.0b9	Firefox 4.0 Beta 9	January 14, 2011	Ninth Firefox 4.0 beta release. Overhaul of the bookmarks and history code, enabling faster bookmarking and startup performance. Per-compartment garbage collection is now enabled, reducing work done during complex animations.[228]
		4.0b10	Firefox 4.0 Beta 10	January 25, 2011	Tenth Firefox 4.0 beta release. Compatibility and stability improvements when using Adobe Flash on Mac OS X. Improvements in memory usage. Support for a graphics driver blacklist to improve stability.[229]
		4.0b11	Firefox 4.0 Beta 11	February 8, 2011	Eleventh Firefox 4.0 beta release. Support for the proposed Do Not Track ("DNT") header. Connection status messages are now shown in a small overlay. WebGL has been re-enabled on Linux. The default homepage design has been refreshed. Firefox no longer switches into offline mode automatically. [230]
		4.0b12	Firefox 4.0 Beta 12	February 25, 2011	Twelfth Firefox 4.0 beta release. Increased performance while viewing Flash content. Improved plugin compatibility with hardware acceleration enabled. Hovering over links now displays the URL at the bottom of the window rather than in the location bar. General stability, performance, and compatibility improvements. [231]
		4.0 RC1	Firefox 4.0 Release Candidate 1	March 9, 2011	First Firefox 4.0 release candidate. General stability, performance, and compatibility improvements. [232]
		4.0 RC2	Firefox 4.0 Release Candidate 2	March 18, 2011	Second Firefox 4.0 release candidate. Blacklisted a few invalid HTTPS certificates. Updated localizations for 29 locales. Added Vietnamese localization, bringing the total languages available in Firefox 4 to 83. [233]
		4.0	Firefox 4.0 "Tumucumaque"	March 22, 2011	Official Firefox 4.0 release. Identical to 4.0 RC2.[234]
		4.0.1	Firefox 4.0.1 "Macaw"	April 28, 2011	Regular security and stability update.[235] End-of-life 4.0.x product line
Firefox 5	5.0	5.0a2	Firefox 5.0 Aurora	April 13, 2011	First Firefox 5.0 Aurora build.[33][236]
		5.0b1	Firefox 5.0 Beta 1	May 4, 2011	No official Firefox 5.0 beta release. Renamed "Aurora 5.0 Alpha 2" build to test release channel switching for users on the Aurora-Channel.[237]
		5.0b2	Firefox 5.0 Beta 2	May 20, 2011	First Firefox 5.0 Beta release.[238][239]
		5.0b3	Firefox 5.0 Beta 3	June 1, 2011	Second Firefox 5.0 Beta release.
		5.0b5[t 3]	Firefox 5.0 Beta 5	June 9, 2011	Third Firefox 5.0 Beta release.
		5.0b6	Firefox 5.0 Beta 6	June 14, 2011	Fourth Firefox 5.0 Beta release.
		5.0b7	Firefox 5.0 Beta 7	June 15, 2011	Fifth Firefox 5.0 Beta release.
		5.0	Firefox 5.0	June 21, 2011	Official Firefox 5.0 release.[240]
		5.0.1	Firefox 5.0.1	July 11, 2011	Off-cycle stability update. Worked around issue in Mac OS X 10.7 that caused Firefox to crash, and issue caused by Apple's "Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 5" that prevented Java plugin from loading. No changes made on Windows side.[241] End-of-life 5.0.x product line on August 16, 2011.
Firefox 6	6.0	6.0a1	Firefox 6.0 Nightly	April 13, 2011	First Firefox 6.0 Nightly build.[33][242]
		6.0a2	Firefox 6.0 Aurora	May 25, 2011	First Firefox 6.0 Aurora build.[243][244]
		6.0b1	Firefox 6.0 Beta 1	July 8, 2011	First Firefox 6.0 Beta release.[245][246]
		6.0b2	Firefox 6.0 Beta 2	July 16, 2011	Second Firefox 6.0 Beta release.
		6.0b3	Firefox 6.0 Beta 3	July 26, 2011	Third Firefox 6.0 Beta release.
		6.0b4	Firefox 6.0 Beta 4	August 1, 2011	Fourth Firefox 6.0 Beta release.
		6.0b5	Firefox 6.0 Beta 5	August 5, 2011	Fifth Firefox 6.0 Beta release.
		6.0	Firefox 6.0	August 16, 2011	Official Firefox 6.0 release. The address bar now highlights the domain of the website you're visiting.Streamlined the look of the site identity block. Added support for the latest draft version of WebSockets with a prefixed API. Added support for EventSource / server-sent events. Added support for window.matchMedia. Added Scratchpad, an interactive JavaScript prototyping environment. Added a new Web Developer menu item and moved development-related items into it. Improved usability of the Web Console.Improved the discoverability of Firefox Sync. Reduced browser startup time when using Panorama. Fixed several stability and security issues.[247]
		6.0.1	Firefox 6.0.1	August 30, 2011	Off-cycle security update. Blacklisted a compromised HTTPS certificate.[248]
		6.0.2	Firefox 6.0.2	September 6, 2011	Off-cycle security update.[249] End-of-life 6.0.x product line on September 27, 2011.
Firefox 7	7.0	7.0a1	Firefox 7.0 Nightly	May 25, 2011	First Firefox 7.0 Nightly build.[250]
		7.0a2	Firefox 7.0 Aurora	July 6, 2011	First Firefox 7.0 Aurora build.[251][252]
		7.0b1	Firefox 7.0 Beta 1	August 18, 2011	First Firefox 7.0 Beta release.[253][254]
		7.0b2	Firefox 7.0 Beta 2	August 26, 2011	Second Firefox 7.0 Beta release.
		7.0b4 [t 4]	Firefox 7.0 Beta 4	September 6, 2011	Third Firefox 7.0 Beta release.
		7.0b5	Firefox 7.0 Beta 5	September 9, 2011	Fourth Firefox 7.0 Beta release.
		7.0b6	Firefox 7.0 Beta 6	September 19, 2011	Fifth Firefox 7.0 Beta release.
		7.0	Firefox 7.0	September 27, 2011	Official Firefox 7.0 release.[255]
		7.0.1	Firefox 7.0.1	September 29, 2011	Off-cycle stability update. Fixed a rare issue that hid one or more add-ons after a Firefox update.[256] End-of-life 7.0.x product line on November 8, 2011.
Firefox 8	8.0	8.0a1	Firefox 8.0 Nightly	July 6, 2011	First Firefox 8.0 Nightly build.[257]
		8.0a2	Firefox 8.0 Aurora	August 19, 2011	First Firefox 8.0 Aurora build.[258][259]
		8.0b1	Firefox 8.0 Beta 1	September 29, 2011	First Firefox 8.0 Beta release.[260][261]
		8.0b2	Firefox 8.0 Beta 2	October 10, 2011	Second Firefox 8.0 Beta release.
		8.0b3	Firefox 8.0 Beta 3	October 13, 2011	Third Firefox 8.0 Beta release.
		8.0b4	Firefox 8.0 Beta 4	October 19, 2011	Fourth Firefox 8.0 Beta release.
		8.0b5	Firefox 8.0 Beta 5	October 27, 2011	Fifth Firefox 8.0 Beta release. Removed support for new tab animation due to incompatibilities with some extensions.
		8.0b6	Firefox 8.0 Beta 6	November 1, 2011	Sixth Firefox 8.0 Beta release.
		8.0	Firefox 8.0	November 8, 2011	Official Firefox 8.0 release.[262]
		8.0.1	Firefox 8.0.1	November 21, 2011	Off-cycle stability update.[263] End-of-life 8.0.x product line on December 20, 2011.
Firefox 9	9.0	9.0a1	Firefox 9.0 Nightly	August 17, 2011	First Firefox 9.0 Nightly build.[264]
		9.0a2	Firefox 9.0 Aurora	September 28, 2011	First Firefox 9.0 Aurora build.[265][266]
		9.0b1	Firefox 9.0 Beta 1	November 11, 2011	First Firefox 9.0 Beta release.[267][268]
		9.0b2	Firefox 9.0 Beta 2	November 17, 2011	Second Firefox 9.0 Beta release.
		9.0b3	Firefox 9.0 Beta 3	November 24, 2011	Third Firefox 9.0 Beta release.
		9.0b4	Firefox 9.0 Beta 4	December 1, 2011	Fourth Firefox 9.0 Beta release.
		9.0b5	Firefox 9.0 Beta 5	December 8, 2011	Fifth Firefox 9.0 Beta release.
		9.0b6	Firefox 9.0 Beta 6	December 15, 2011	Sixth Firefox 9.0 Beta release.
		9.0	Firefox 9.0	December 20, 2011	Official Firefox 9.0 release.[269]
		9.0.1	Firefox 9.0.1	December 21, 2011	Off-cycle stability update.[270] End-of-life 9.0.x product line on January 31, 2012.
Firefox 10	10.0	10.0a1	Firefox 10.0 Nightly	September 28, 2011	First Firefox 10.0 Nightly build.[271]
		10.0a2	Firefox 10.0 Aurora	November 8, 2011	First Firefox 10.0 Aurora build.[272][273]
		10.0b1	Firefox 10.0 Beta 1	December 22, 2011	First Firefox 10.0 Beta release.[274][275]
		10.0b2	Firefox 10.0 Beta 2	December 28, 2011	Second Firefox 10.0 Beta release.
		10.0	Firefox 10.0	January 31, 2012	Official Firefox 10.0 release.
Firefox 11	11.0	11.0a1	Firefox 11.0 Nightly	November 9, 2011	First Firefox 11.0 Nightly build.[276]
		11.0a2	Firefox 11.0 Aurora	December 20, 2011	First Firefox 11.0 Aurora build.[277][278]
		11.0b1	Firefox 11.0 Beta 1	January 31, 2012	First Firefox 11.0 Beta release.
		11.0	Firefox 11.0	March 13, 2012	Official Firefox 11.0 release.
Firefox 12	12.0	12.0a1	Firefox 12.0 Nightly	December 20, 2011	First Firefox 12.0 Nightly build.[279]
		12.0a2	Firefox 12.0 Aurora	January 31, 2012	First Firefox 12.0 Aurora build.
		12.0b1	Firefox 12.0 Beta 1	March 12, 2012	First Firefox 12.0 Beta release.
		12.0	Firefox 12.0	April 24, 2012	Official Firefox 12.0 release.
Firefox 13	13.0	13.0a1	Firefox 13.0 Nightly	January 31, 2012	First Firefox 13.0 Nightly build.
		13.0a2	Firefox 13.0 Aurora	March 12, 2012	First Firefox 13.0 Aurora build.
		13.0b1	Firefox 13.0 Beta 1	April 24, 2012	First Firefox 13.0 Beta release.
		13.0	Firefox 13.0	June 5, 2012	Official Firefox 13.0 release.
Browser name	Gecko version	Version	Codename	Release date[30][280]	Significant changes

Colour	Meaning
Red	Former release; no longer supported
Pink	Former test release
Yellow	Former release; still supported
Green	Current supported release
Blue	Future release
Gold	Current test release
Purple	Future test release

1. ^ There was no version 3.6.1.
2. ^ There was no version 3.6.5.
3. ^ Builds of version 5.0b4 were created, but not released.
4. ^ Builds of version 7.0b3 were created, but not released.

Release compatibility

Operating system		Latest stable version	Support Status
Linux kernel 2.2.14 and newer (with some libraries[281])		9.0.1[281]	2004–present
Mac OS X	10.0 - 10.1	1.0.8	2004–2006
	10.2 - 10.3	2.0.0.20	2004–2008
	10.4 - 10.5 (PPC)	3.6.25	2005–present
	10.5 (Intel) - 10.7	9.0.1[281]	2007–present
Microsoft Windows	95	1.5.0.12	2004–2007
	NT 4 / 98 / ME	2.0.0.20	2004–2008
	2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista / 2008 / 7 / 2008R2	9.0.1[281]	2004–present
OS/2 and eComStation		6.0.2[282]	Unofficial
Sun Java Desktop System		1.0.4	Unofficial
Solaris (x86 & SPARC)	8 - 9	2.0.0.20	Unofficial
Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris (x86 & SPARC)		9.0[283]	Unofficial

Localizations

The number of localizations of Firefox has increased steadily. The first official release in November 2004 was distributed in 28 languages, including British/American English, European/Argentine Spanish, and Chinese in Traditional/Simplified characters, while Firefox 4.0 is available in over 80 languages.^[284]

See also

• GNU IceCat
• History of Free Software
• History of Mozilla Application Suite
• Mozilla Corporation software rebranded by the Debian project

Notes

References

External links

• Mozilla Firefox release notes for each version
• Indistinguishable from Jesse, Jesse Ruderman, unofficial changelogs for Firefox releases
• MozillaZine Weblogs, Where Did Firefox Come From?
• MozillaWiki, MozillaWiki - ReleaseRoadmap
• BBC News, Firefox browser for web 2.0 age

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