19 ms·

Celebrating 10 Years of Firefox

266 points by openjck 12y ago

blutgens 12y ago
FF is awesome, if i wasn't an android guy, I'd be using it exclusively. But chrome <-> android Just Works™
- jvehent 12y ago
  In my opinion, Firefox for android is vastly superior to chrome.
  - wldcordeiro 12y ago
    I really love it, the only think that bothers me is the annoying UA sniffing so many sites do that only check for Chrome/Webkit to display mobile.
    - pwnna 12y ago
      you can fake your UA with an addon on mobile. Works for me most of the time.
      - wldcordeiro 12y ago
        I use that addon as well but I don't think that I should need to. It'd be better if sites used feature detection rather than UA sniffing.
        staktrace 12y ago
        You can help fix that! Report websites at https://webcompat.com/ https://webcompat.com/
  - dnissley 12y ago
    The last time I tried it the only thing it was missing was the thing that chrome does when you tap near several links and chrome determines that the click was somewhat ambiguous and offers you a zoomed up version in a pop-up box. Does it have that now?
    - AaronMT 12y ago
      There's a contributor working on that feature right now as we speak: http://bugzil.la/663803 http://bugzil.la/663803
      - dnissley 12y ago
        Excellent!
  - wooger 12y ago
    The big problem for me on Android is that it doesn't yet support the native android zoom gesture - double tap, hold and swipe up or down. Pinch zooming is for the birds compared to that, and Firefox still hasn't updated to fit in with the Android default gestures (Since JB or KitKat I think).
- bad_user 12y ago
  I like Firefox for Android much more than Chrome. I find its UI better on my 7 inch tablet (those tabs in Chrome are small and annoying and I also prefer Firefox's UI when doing searches). It also has add-ons and for example I use AdBlock Plus (websites on your mobile full of ads are unusable), HTTPS Everywhere (especially important for mobile devices that connect to public Wifis) and LastPass. It also has a Reader Mode that strips the annoying styling off an article, much like Readability or Pocket. You can also save articles for later reading. Feature is still young, but it's been working well for me. It also inherits the Awesome Bar from the desktop version. It does a very good job at suggesting previous links from your history. This saves you from doing searches on Google, which many times is like searching for a needle in a haystack. It's also a platform for apps, apps that get published in the Firefox Marketplace and that can work in Firefox OS as well as on Android (and more recently on your desktop). Much like Chrome for desktop does, but it works on your mobile. Still young, doesn't have many apps, but it's been growing and improving and the whole thing is based on web standards or APIs that Mozilla is pushing for standardization. Try it out, you might like it. And let me tell you, once you become hooked to one of its add-ons, you won't be able to switch back to Chrome anymore ;-)
jvehent 12y ago
I was a Mozilla Suite user 12 years ago. Then became a passionate Firefox user and supporter of the Open Web. Happy Birthday Firefox! Looking forward to 10 more years!
themoonbus 12y ago
Congrats. Although I no longer use it as my everyday browser, it made a big difference for me in the early days of OS X.
bstar77 12y ago
It seems the standards-based browser du jour is moving back in Mozilla's favor lately. I can say, for the first time in ages, that FF is very fast, very stable and very secure. Chrome, on the other hand, has been less stable, less fast and less secure.
- lern_too_spel 12y ago
  I have the same feeling on everything except security, but electrolysis should help with that. http://m.slashdot.org/story/199459 http://m.slashdot.org/story/199459
  - bad_user 12y ago
    Firefox needs a better security model for add-ons. The thing that bothers me in Firefox is the Private Mode (Incognito in Chrome), as it doesn't disable add-ons. And I use private mode quite often. Mozilla has been relying on a more strict review process for whatever gets published on addons.mozilla.org (when compared to Google), with Firefox users experiencing less instances of add-ons turning to mallware/spyware, but I'd like both this review process and a better security model for these add-ons.
    - Excavator 12y ago
      You could set up a separate profile for that¹. You can also use the Profilist² extension in your main profile for easy switching and creation. 1: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-re... 2: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/profilist/ https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/profilist/
      - bad_user 12y ago
        Hey, thanks for the tip on Profilist. Neat stuff, wonder why it isn't included by default.
        12y ago
KyleSanderson 12y ago
DuckDuckGo is not a pre-installed search engine in at-least Nightly.
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  Mozilla have to make money somehow.
- mbrubeck 12y ago
  The DuckDuckGo addition hasn't landed in Nightly yet. It has rolled out to the release channel, and should be in all channels shortly.
- JohnTHaller 12y ago
  It just rolled out in the stable 33.1 release today. It will hit the other channels (Beta, Aurora/Developer, Nightly) shortly.
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    I get that this isn't a code change and so this probably isn't critical, but, still, isn't that exactly backwards?
    - mbrubeck 12y ago
      Yup. To time the release with the tenth anniversary, it had to go around some of the normal release engineering and localization processes.
dbarlett 12y ago
Did anyone else donate to appear in the New York Times ad? https://blog.mozilla.org/press/2004/12/mozilla-foundation-places-two-page-advocacy-ad-in-the-new-york-times/ https://blog.mozilla.org/press/2004/12/mozilla-foundation-pl...
- netrus 12y ago
  I still have my copy of the German FAZ ad. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/7/7c/Firefox_faz_anzeige.pdf http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/7/7c/Firefox_faz_an...
- discipline 12y ago
  Yep, I did. R. Aubry
AdmiralAsshat 12y ago
I've been a Firefox user since it launched. It's still my browser of choice on my personal Windows laptop and on all of my Android devices--I admire Mozilla's willingness to not let the OS vendor hold a monopoly on the browser software, now as much as they did a decade ago with Microsoft. Then again, my primary music player on my laptop is still Winamp, so make of that what you will.
- sitkack 12y ago
  You are 39?
- StuffMaster 12y ago
  Switch to Foobar so you can be whole.
bad_user 12y ago
My love for Chrome ended and I switched back to Firefox about 3 months ago. The switch went well and I'm happy with my choice. Reasons: 1. First version of Chrome for the desktop supported extensions, because it was competing with a popular Firefox, and now on Android they don't give a shit about enabling users to customize the behavior of their browser, which pisses me off. So I switched to Firefox on my Android because it allows me to use these plugins ... AdBlock Plus, HTTPS Everywhere + LastPass. Plus it has a handy Reader Mode, that's like Readability built into my Firefox. And I find the UI nicer on my 7-inch tablet. This naturally led to a decision to switch to Firefox on the desktop too, because Sync. 2. In Firefox on my desktop I like having Tab Groups + the Awesome Bar (which does a good job of doing full text searches in my history, much better than what other browsers are capable of) + a really cool tweak to the Australis theme called "The Fox, Only Better" which is awesome and will make it much harder for me to switch browsers again. I also love it when Mozilla develops something, then everybody benefits, like Asm.js or PDF.js. Try using Chromium instead of Chrome, it's not the same experience. 3. I've been all hooked into Google's stuff, I even pay for a Google Apps account and everything, but I noticed that Google hasn't been aligned with my interests. For example they killed Google Reader to promote Google+, they showed no interest in fixing Gmail's broken IMAP support, they showed no interest in fixing Google Calendar's broken CalDAV support, they discontinued the Exchange support from Gmail, they discontinued the XMPP support from Google Hangouts, they announced no interest in providing alternatives that I know of, certain features in their online products only work in Chrome. It seems to me that Google is only interested in standards as long as they are the underdog. I also moved to Dropbox as my cloud storage, because Google Drive still does not have a Linux client. I mean, Google out of all companies should think that Linux support also means headless servers (like home servers or other appliances), so providing Linux support should be obvious. But no, 2 years later, the OS X client is still shitty and still no Linux support. I have to trust my data to a third-party if I want that, or suffer one of the shitty open-source alternatives and risk my data. So there you have it - Firefox is a great browser and it also tries to make me happy. And yes, I would also like the one-process per tab model, but they are actively working on it. Happy Birthday Firefox.
- JetSpiegel 12y ago
  What's the problem of Gmail's IMAP support? Genuine question. And if you have a headless server, you can run BTSync
eyeareque 12y ago
I just got back from visiting a friend the Mozilla office. Thanks for creating an amazing web browser that opened a new dawn away from the shackles we were once stuck with. Also, thanks for the cake today:)
jordigh 12y ago
This anniversary makes me feel like I should do something nice for Firefox. Then I realised that I've been working on their DVCS of choice, Mercurial. Well, Firefox, you've served me very well over the years. I hope I can make Mercurial better for you in return. Thanks!
- nnethercote 12y ago
  I know git gets all the love and attention, but I think Mercurial is great. Thank you for your contributions.
nagarjun 12y ago
I can't believe it's so old! I still remember using the first version of Firefox. Wrote a small story about my first encounter with it here: http://nagarjun.co/post/102328175145/firefox-is-10-years-old http://nagarjun.co/post/102328175145/firefox-is-10-years-old.
Eric_WVGG 12y ago
“10 years ago we built Firefox ----to-give-you-a-choice--- because we realized how horribly we had botched Netscape Navigator.” fixed
- Eric_WVGG 12y ago
  Why was this comment downvoted? This is exactly why Phoenix — I mean Firebird — I mean Firefox — was started, because the Netscape Suite was a fiasco, but the underlying Gecko rendering engine was worth salvaging. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox#History

266 points by openjck 12y ago

blutgens 12y ago

FF is awesome, if i wasn't an android guy, I'd be using it exclusively. But chrome <-> android Just Works™

jvehent 12y ago
In my opinion, Firefox for android is vastly superior to chrome.
- wldcordeiro 12y ago
  I really love it, the only think that bothers me is the annoying UA sniffing so many sites do that only check for Chrome/Webkit to display mobile.
  - pwnna 12y ago
    you can fake your UA with an addon on mobile. Works for me most of the time.
    - wldcordeiro 12y ago
      I use that addon as well but I don't think that I should need to. It'd be better if sites used feature detection rather than UA sniffing.
      - staktrace 12y ago
        You can help fix that! Report websites at https://webcompat.com/ https://webcompat.com/
- dnissley 12y ago
  The last time I tried it the only thing it was missing was the thing that chrome does when you tap near several links and chrome determines that the click was somewhat ambiguous and offers you a zoomed up version in a pop-up box. Does it have that now?
  - AaronMT 12y ago
    There's a contributor working on that feature right now as we speak: http://bugzil.la/663803 http://bugzil.la/663803
    - dnissley 12y ago
      Excellent!
- wooger 12y ago
  The big problem for me on Android is that it doesn't yet support the native android zoom gesture - double tap, hold and swipe up or down. Pinch zooming is for the birds compared to that, and Firefox still hasn't updated to fit in with the Android default gestures (Since JB or KitKat I think).
bad_user 12y ago
I like Firefox for Android much more than Chrome. I find its UI better on my 7 inch tablet (those tabs in Chrome are small and annoying and I also prefer Firefox's UI when doing searches). It also has add-ons and for example I use AdBlock Plus (websites on your mobile full of ads are unusable), HTTPS Everywhere (especially important for mobile devices that connect to public Wifis) and LastPass. It also has a Reader Mode that strips the annoying styling off an article, much like Readability or Pocket. You can also save articles for later reading. Feature is still young, but it's been working well for me. It also inherits the Awesome Bar from the desktop version. It does a very good job at suggesting previous links from your history. This saves you from doing searches on Google, which many times is like searching for a needle in a haystack. It's also a platform for apps, apps that get published in the Firefox Marketplace and that can work in Firefox OS as well as on Android (and more recently on your desktop). Much like Chrome for desktop does, but it works on your mobile. Still young, doesn't have many apps, but it's been growing and improving and the whole thing is based on web standards or APIs that Mozilla is pushing for standardization. Try it out, you might like it. And let me tell you, once you become hooked to one of its add-ons, you won't be able to switch back to Chrome anymore ;-)

jvehent 12y ago

I was a Mozilla Suite user 12 years ago. Then became a passionate Firefox user and supporter of the Open Web. Happy Birthday Firefox! Looking forward to 10 more years!

themoonbus 12y ago

Congrats. Although I no longer use it as my everyday browser, it made a big difference for me in the early days of OS X.

bstar77 12y ago

It seems the standards-based browser du jour is moving back in Mozilla's favor lately. I can say, for the first time in ages, that FF is very fast, very stable and very secure. Chrome, on the other hand, has been less stable, less fast and less secure.

lern_too_spel 12y ago
I have the same feeling on everything except security, but electrolysis should help with that. http://m.slashdot.org/story/199459 http://m.slashdot.org/story/199459
- bad_user 12y ago
  Firefox needs a better security model for add-ons. The thing that bothers me in Firefox is the Private Mode (Incognito in Chrome), as it doesn't disable add-ons. And I use private mode quite often. Mozilla has been relying on a more strict review process for whatever gets published on addons.mozilla.org (when compared to Google), with Firefox users experiencing less instances of add-ons turning to mallware/spyware, but I'd like both this review process and a better security model for these add-ons.
  - Excavator 12y ago
    You could set up a separate profile for that¹. You can also use the Profilist² extension in your main profile for easy switching and creation. 1: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-re... 2: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/profilist/ https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/profilist/
    - bad_user 12y ago
      Hey, thanks for the tip on Profilist. Neat stuff, wonder why it isn't included by default.
      - 12y ago

KyleSanderson 12y ago

DuckDuckGo is not a pre-installed search engine in at-least Nightly.

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
Mozilla have to make money somehow.
mbrubeck 12y ago
The DuckDuckGo addition hasn't landed in Nightly yet. It has rolled out to the release channel, and should be in all channels shortly.
JohnTHaller 12y ago
It just rolled out in the stable 33.1 release today. It will hit the other channels (Beta, Aurora/Developer, Nightly) shortly.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  I get that this isn't a code change and so this probably isn't critical, but, still, isn't that exactly backwards?
  - mbrubeck 12y ago
    Yup. To time the release with the tenth anniversary, it had to go around some of the normal release engineering and localization processes.

dbarlett 12y ago

Did anyone else donate to appear in the New York Times ad? https://blog.mozilla.org/press/2004/12/mozilla-foundation-places-two-page-advocacy-ad-in-the-new-york-times/ https://blog.mozilla.org/press/2004/12/mozilla-foundation-pl...

netrus 12y ago
I still have my copy of the German FAZ ad. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/7/7c/Firefox_faz_anzeige.pdf http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/7/7c/Firefox_faz_an...
discipline 12y ago
Yep, I did. R. Aubry

AdmiralAsshat 12y ago

I've been a Firefox user since it launched. It's still my browser of choice on my personal Windows laptop and on all of my Android devices--I admire Mozilla's willingness to not let the OS vendor hold a monopoly on the browser software, now as much as they did a decade ago with Microsoft. Then again, my primary music player on my laptop is still Winamp, so make of that what you will.

sitkack 12y ago
You are 39?
StuffMaster 12y ago
Switch to Foobar so you can be whole.

bad_user 12y ago

My love for Chrome ended and I switched back to Firefox about 3 months ago. The switch went well and I'm happy with my choice. Reasons: 1. First version of Chrome for the desktop supported extensions, because it was competing with a popular Firefox, and now on Android they don't give a shit about enabling users to customize the behavior of their browser, which pisses me off. So I switched to Firefox on my Android because it allows me to use these plugins ... AdBlock Plus, HTTPS Everywhere + LastPass. Plus it has a handy Reader Mode, that's like Readability built into my Firefox. And I find the UI nicer on my 7-inch tablet. This naturally led to a decision to switch to Firefox on the desktop too, because Sync. 2. In Firefox on my desktop I like having Tab Groups + the Awesome Bar (which does a good job of doing full text searches in my history, much better than what other browsers are capable of) + a really cool tweak to the Australis theme called "The Fox, Only Better" which is awesome and will make it much harder for me to switch browsers again. I also love it when Mozilla develops something, then everybody benefits, like Asm.js or PDF.js. Try using Chromium instead of Chrome, it's not the same experience. 3. I've been all hooked into Google's stuff, I even pay for a Google Apps account and everything, but I noticed that Google hasn't been aligned with my interests. For example they killed Google Reader to promote Google+, they showed no interest in fixing Gmail's broken IMAP support, they showed no interest in fixing Google Calendar's broken CalDAV support, they discontinued the Exchange support from Gmail, they discontinued the XMPP support from Google Hangouts, they announced no interest in providing alternatives that I know of, certain features in their online products only work in Chrome. It seems to me that Google is only interested in standards as long as they are the underdog. I also moved to Dropbox as my cloud storage, because Google Drive still does not have a Linux client. I mean, Google out of all companies should think that Linux support also means headless servers (like home servers or other appliances), so providing Linux support should be obvious. But no, 2 years later, the OS X client is still shitty and still no Linux support. I have to trust my data to a third-party if I want that, or suffer one of the shitty open-source alternatives and risk my data. So there you have it - Firefox is a great browser and it also tries to make me happy. And yes, I would also like the one-process per tab model, but they are actively working on it. Happy Birthday Firefox.

JetSpiegel 12y ago
What's the problem of Gmail's IMAP support? Genuine question. And if you have a headless server, you can run BTSync

eyeareque 12y ago

I just got back from visiting a friend the Mozilla office. Thanks for creating an amazing web browser that opened a new dawn away from the shackles we were once stuck with. Also, thanks for the cake today:)

jordigh 12y ago

This anniversary makes me feel like I should do something nice for Firefox. Then I realised that I've been working on their DVCS of choice, Mercurial. Well, Firefox, you've served me very well over the years. I hope I can make Mercurial better for you in return. Thanks!

nnethercote 12y ago
I know git gets all the love and attention, but I think Mercurial is great. Thank you for your contributions.

nagarjun 12y ago

I can't believe it's so old! I still remember using the first version of Firefox. Wrote a small story about my first encounter with it here: http://nagarjun.co/post/102328175145/firefox-is-10-years-old http://nagarjun.co/post/102328175145/firefox-is-10-years-old.

Eric_WVGG 12y ago

“10 years ago we built Firefox ----to-give-you-a-choice--- because we realized how horribly we had botched Netscape Navigator.” fixed

Eric_WVGG 12y ago
Why was this comment downvoted? This is exactly why Phoenix — I mean Firebird — I mean Firefox — was started, because the Netscape Suite was a fiasco, but the underlying Gecko rendering engine was worth salvaging. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox#History