This group became the Mozilla Foundation in 2003. A non-profit group was set up to direct the development of browsers using this code. Eventually, Netscape released the source code for Navigator under an open source license, meaning anyone could see and use the code. The internal company name for the browser was Mozilla.

The origins of Firefox can be traced directly to Netscape, a company whose Web browser, Netscape Navigator, was the dominant browser before Microsoft developed Internet Explorer. In this article, we'll find out what makes Firefox different, what it can do and what effect an open-source browser might have on the Internet landscape. The event was a success - Firefox 3 is now in the Guinness Book of World Records for the application receiving the most downloads in a single day: 8,002,530 to be exact. The goal for the event was to encourage people to download the new browser and establish a record for the most downloads of a single application within a 24-hour period.

On June 17, 2008, Firefox held an event called Download Day as it unveiled the final build of Firefox 3. But Firefox's popularity has grown since its debut, particularly among Web administrators and developers. When Firefox debuted, it faced an uphill battle to claim space in the market. Its competitors included Netscape Navigator and the AOL Browser - and it soundly beat both of them.

From its origins as an offshoot of the once-popular Netscape browser, Firefox is building a growing legion of dedicated users who spread their enthusiasm by word of mouth (or blog).įor a while, it seemed like Microsoft's Internet Explorer was going to dominate the browser market indefinitely. Options are out there, however, and one of them has been steadily chipping away at Internet Explorer's dominance.

Mozilla firefox for pc