Firefox`s 20th Anniversary

The Curious Codex

11 Votes

2024-11-01 Published, 2024-11-01 Updated
577 Words, 3 Minute Read

Richard (Senior Partner)

Richard has been with the firm since 1992 and was one of the founding partners

Netscape Navigator

Netscape Navigator, which was based on Mosaic (NCSA) came to be in 1994, developed by Jim Clark and Marc Andreessen, is celebrating its 30 years anniversary. Netscape Navigator was a firmly established predecessor to firefox and quickly captured about 75% of the market share, mainly because early ISPs were packaging Navigator with their services.

When GEN first started offering internet access in 1992 we were supplying Mosaic, which was very early and mostly text based. In 1994 we packaged Netscape Navigator with all new connections, by supplying the software on a Netscape branded CD together with the welcome pack, because that's how we did it back in the 90's.

Internet Explorer

In the mid 1990s, Microsoft entered the market with Internet Explorer, and a period favourably known as the browser wars ensued. Because Microsoft was bundling IE with Windows, it quickly took share from Netscape even though it was a far inferior product.

Netscape was acquired by AOL in 1998 to be included in their packages, and later that year Netscape went open-source, marking a significant milestone in open source software.

Mozilla Firefox

Continued development of navigator introduced some great features and brought the package to multi-platforms, but in 2003 AOL announced they were shutting down browser development. AOL had its own problems at the time and was in decline as the market exploded with competitors.

The Mozilla foundation was established to be a true NFP to take over the project and continue the work, receiving $2 million from big tech like AOL, IBM and Sun together with funding from many other tech companies.

In 2003 the Mozilla Foundation launched a new browser named Phoenix (This was later changed to Firebird due to trademark issues with Phoenix Technologies), and in 2004 this became Firefox.

In 2005 the Mozilla Foundation created the Mozilla Corporation, mainly to receive money from Google to be the default search engine in firefox, later switching to Yahoo in 2014, then terminating that in 2017.

By 2008, Firefox has 30% of the market, with Internet Explorer still hanging on to 60%.

Today

Today, Firefox is not the most popular browser, and it has an estimated 10% of the market, but things are changing. Closed source Google Chrome, described by some as 'literally spyware' is loosing ground to alternatives and that leaves room for Firefox to increase uptake. Its worth also mentioning that Zen and Librewolf are two browser projects based on open-source firefox that are showing uptake, as well as a myriad of browser alternatives based on open-source chromium.

Firefox, is part of our history and a legacy worthy of celebration. Some of us lived through the browser wars, fewer of us can remember the mosaic browser, but had it not been for early open-source and a kick-start from big tech the browser could have been relegated to vapourware.

Conclusion

Mozilla, even to this day remains mostly committed to user privacy, and sets itself clearly apart from Google Chrome at the opposite side of the table. With recent revelations about Google Chrome, firefox has an opportunity to increase its share, but is faced with stiff competition from other alternatives. A browser, as an every day tool SHOULD be open source, and you should have a wide selection to choose from without the fear of being tracked and monitored and involuntarily contributing to google's search engine.

If you value the work the Mozilla Foundation is doing, then consider Donating as we do every year, and consider donating to other worthy open-source projects, only with continued support can these projects survive.

11 Votes

Comments (1)

Romnie S · 2024-11-16 19:38 UTC
Ive been using Firefox for decades, solid and safe, and isnt literally spyware, like another browser.

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