Mozilla Firefox 3.0 is a version of the

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...

released on June 17, 2008, by the

Mozilla Corporation The Mozilla Corporation (stylized as moz://a) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates and integrates the development of Internet-related applications such as the Firefox web browser, by a global community of open- ...

. Firefox 3.0 uses version 1.9 of the

Gecko Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from . Geckos ar ...

layout engine for displaying web pages. This version fixes many bugs, improves standards compliance, and implements many new web

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...

s compared to Firefox 2.0. Other new features include a redesigned

download manager A download manager is a software tool that manages the downloading of files from the Internet, which may be built: into a Web browser, or as a, usually more sophisticated program Program, programme, programmer, or programming may refer to: Bu ...

, a new "Places" system for storing bookmarks and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

, and separate themes for different

operating systems An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also inc ...

. Firefox 3.0 had over 8 million unique downloads the day it was released, and by July 2008 held over 5.6% of the recorded

usage share of web browsers The usage share of web browsers is the portion, often expressed as a percentage, of visitors to a group of web sites that use a particular web browser. Accuracy Measuring browser usage in the number of requests (page hits) made by each use ...

. Estimates of Firefox 3.0's global market share were generally in the range of 4–5%, and then dropped as users migrated to Firefox 3.5 and later

Firefox 3.6 Mozilla Firefox 3.6 is a version of the Firefox web browser released in January 2010. The release's main improvement over Firefox 3.5 is improved performance (due to further speed improvements in the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine). It uses the Gec ...

. Partially as a result of this, between mid-December 2009 and the end of January 2010, Firefox 3.5 was the most popular browser (when counting individual browser versions), passing

Internet Explorer 7 Windows Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) (codenamed Rincon) is a web browser for Windows. It was released by Microsoft on October 18, 2006, as the seventh version of Internet Explorer and the successor to Internet Explorer 6. Internet Explorer 7 is par ...

.Firefox 3.5 is world's most popular browser, StatCounter says
Nick Eaton. seattlepi blogs. 2009-12-21. Retrieved 2009-12-22. Mozilla ended support for Firefox 3 on March 30, 2010, with the release of 3.0.19.

Development

Firefox 3.0 was developed under the codename ''

Gran Paradiso , photo = Gran_Paradiso.jpg , photo_caption = The Gran Paradiso , elevation_m = 4061 , elevation_ref =Geoportale IGM owww.pcn.minambiente.it/ref> , prominence_m = 1879 , prominence_ref = , range = Graian Alps , parent_peak = , listing ...

''. This, like other Firefox codenames, is the name of an actual place; in this case the seventh-highest mountain in the

Graian Alps The Graian Alps (french: Alpes grées ; it, Alpi Graie ) are a mountain range in the western part of the Alps. Etymology The name ''Graie'' comes from the ''Graioceli'' Celtic tribe, which dwelled in the area surrounding the Mont Cenis pass and t ...

where they first came up with the idea. Planning began in October 2006, when the development team asked users to submit feature requests that they wished to be included in Firefox 3. The Mozilla Foundation released the first

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...

on November 19, 2007, the second beta on December 18, 2007, the third beta on February 12, 2008, the fourth beta on March 10, 2008, and the fifth and final beta on April 2, 2008. The first

release candidate A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

was announced on May 16, 2008, followed by a second release candidate on June 4, 2008, and a third (differing from the second release candidate only in that it corrected a serious bug for Mac users) on June 11, 2008. Mozilla shipped the final release on June 17, 2008. On its release date, Firefox 3 was featured in popular culture, mentioned on ''

The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focuse ...

'', among others.

Changes and features

Backend changes

One of the big changes in Firefox 3 is the implementation of

1.9, an updated layout engine. The new version fixes many bugs, improves standard compliance, and implements new web APIs. In particular, it makes Firefox 3 the first official release of a Mozilla browser to pass the

Acid2 Acid2 is a webpage that test web browsers' functionality in displaying aspects of HTML markup, CSS 2.1 styling, PNG images, and data URIs. The test page was released on 13 April 2005 by the Web Standards Project. The Acid2 test page will be ...

test, a standards-compliance test for web-page rendering. It also receives a better score on the

Acid3 The Acid3 test is a web test page from the Web Standards Project that checks a web browser's compliance with elements of various web standards, particularly the Document Object Model (DOM) and JavaScript. If the test is successful, the results ...

test than Firefox 2. Some of the new features are defined in the

WHATWG The Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) is a community of people interested in evolving HTML and related technologies. The WHATWG was founded by individuals from Apple Inc., the Mozilla Foundation and Opera Software, lea ...

HTML 5 HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML L ...

specification, such as support for web-based protocol handlers, a native implementation of the getElementsByClassName method, support for safe message-passing with postMessage, and support for offline web applications. Other new features include

APNG Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG) is a file format which extends the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) specification to permit animated images that work similarly to animated GIF files, while supporting 24-bit images and 8-bit transparenc ...

support, and

EXSLT EXSLT is a community initiative to provide extensions to XSLT, which are broken down into a number of modules, listed below. The creators (Jeni Tennison, Uche Ogbuji, Jim Fuller, Dave Pawson, et al.) of EXSLT aim to encourage the implementers of ...

support. A new internal memory allocator, jemalloc, is used rather than the default

libc The C standard library or libc is the standard library for the C programming language, as specified in the ISO C standard.ISO/IEC (2018). '' ISO/IEC 9899:2018(E): Programming Languages - C §7'' Starting from the original ANSI C standard, it was ...

one. Gecko 1.9 uses

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

as a graphics backend, allowing for improved graphics performance and better consistency of the look and feel on various operating systems. Because of Cairo's lack of support for

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturin ...

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The second operating system in the 9x line, it is the successor to Windows 95, and was released to ...

Windows ME Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (marketed with the pronunciation of the pronoun "me"), is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the successor to Windo ...

, and

Windows NT Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems sc ...

(versions 4.0 and below), and because

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

ended support for Windows 98 and Windows ME on July 11, 2006, Firefox 3 does not run on those operating systems. Similarly, the Mac version of Firefox 3 runs only on

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

10.4 or higher, but, unlike previous versions, has a native

Cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...

widget interface.

Frontend changes

As for the frontend changes, Firefox features a redesigned download manager with built-in search and the ability to resume downloads. Also, a new plug-in manager is included in the add-ons window and extensions can be installed with a

package manager A package manager or package-management system is a collection of software tools that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing computer programs for a computer in a consistent manner. A package manager deals wi ...

Microformat Microformats (μF) are a set of defined HTML classes created to serve as consistent and descriptive metadata about an element, designating it as representing a certain type of data (such as contact information, geographic coordinates, events ...

s are supported for use by software that can understand their use in documents to store data in a machine-readable form. The

password manager A password manager is a computer program that allows users to store and manage their passwords for local applications and online services. In many cases software used to manage passwords allow also generate strong passwords and fill forms. Pas ...

in Firefox 3 asks the user if they would like it to remember the password after the

login In computer security, logging in (or logging on, signing in, or signing on) is the process by which an individual gains access to a computer system by identifying and authenticating themselves. The user credentials are typically some form ...

attempt rather than before. By doing this users are able to avoid storing an incorrect password in the password manager after a bad login attempt. Firefox 3 uses a "Places" system for storing bookmarks and history in an

SQLite SQLite (, ) is a database engine written in the C programming language. It is not a standalone app; rather, it is a library that software developers embed in their apps. As such, it belongs to the family of embedded databases. It is the most ...

backend. The new system stores more information about the user's history and bookmarks, in particular letting the user tag the pages. It is also used to implement an improved

frecency computing, frecency is any heuristic that combines the frequency and recency into a single measure. Heuristic In its simplest form, the frequency and recency rating can be added to form a frecency rating. The ratings can be found by sorting ite ...

-based algorithm for the new location bar auto-complete feature (dubbed the "Awesomebar"). The Mac version of Firefox 3 supports

Growl Growling is a low, guttural vocalization produced by predatory animals; producing ''growls''. Growling or growl may also refer to: Sounds * Death growl, the dominant singing style in death metal music * Stomach growl, or borborygmus, noise prod ...

notifications, the Mac OS X spell checker, and

Aqua Aqua is the Latin word for water. It is used in many words which relate to water, such as aquatic life. In English, it may also refer to: Arts * Aqua (color), a greenish-blue color Business * Aqua (skyscraper), an 82-story residential skysc ...

-style form controls.

Themes

To give the browser a more native look and feel on different operating systems, Firefox 3 uses separate themes for

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

, and

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

. When running on

GNOME A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

, Firefox 3 displays icons from the environment; thus, when the desktop environment icon theme changes, Firefox follows suit. Additional icons were also made to be used when no appropriate icon exists; these were made following the

Tango Desktop Project The Tango Desktop Project was an open-source initiative to create a set of design guidelines and to provide a consistent user experience for applications on desktop environments. The project created a set of icons known as the Tango Icon Libr ...

guidelines. Additionally, the GTK version has replaced the non-native tab bar that was implemented in Firefox 2.0 and instead uses the native GTK+ tab style. The default icons and icon layout for Firefox 3 also changed dramatically, taking on a keyhole shape for the forward and back buttons by default on two of the three platforms. However, the keyhole shape does not take effect in Linux or in the small-icon mode.

The Iconfactory The Iconfactory is a software and graphic design company that designs commercial icons and User interface design, user interfaces and publishes desktop applications and mobile apps for macOS and iOS. History The Iconfactory was founded in April ...

created the icons for the Microsoft Windows platform. In addition, separate icons sets are displayed for Windows XP and Vista.

Breakpad

Breakpad
(previously called "Airbag") is an open-source

crash reporter A crash reporter is usually a system software whose function is to identify reporting crash details and to alert when there are crashes, in production or on development / testing environments. Crash reports often include data such as stack traces ...

utility which replaced the proprietary Talkback. It has been developed by

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

and Mozilla, and used in Firefox and

Thunderbird Thunderbird, thunder bird or thunderbirds may refer to: * Thunderbird (mythology), a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture * Ford Thunderbird, a car Birds * Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds ...

. This product is significant because it is the first open-source multi-platform crash reporting system. During development, Breakpad was first included May 27, 2007 in Firefox 3 trunk builds on Windows NT, Mac OS X, and, weeks later, on Linux. Breakpad replaced Talkback (also known as the Quality Feedback Agent) as the crash reporter used by the

Mozilla Mozilla (stylized as moz://a) is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, spreads and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting exclusively free software and open standards, wi ...

software to report crashes of its products to a centralized

server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...

for aggregation or case-by-case analysis. Talkback was

proprietary software Proprietary software is software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern copyright and int ...

licensed to the Mozilla Corporation by

SupportSoft Support.com, Inc. is a technical support company for businesses and consumers. It is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware with administrative office in Sunnyvale, California. The company's services are performed on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Andro ...

Usage

Net Applications noted that the use of Firefox 3 beta rapidly increased to a usage share of 0.62% in May 2008. They interpreted this increase to mean that Firefox 3 betas were stable and that users were using it as their primary browser. Within 24 hours after the release of Firefox 3.0, usage rose from under 1% to over 3% according to Net Applications. It reached a peak of 21.17% in April 2009 before declining as users switched to Firefox 3.5 and later

Guinness World Record

The official date for the launch of Firefox 3 was June 17, 2008, named "Download Day 2008". Firefox was aiming to set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours. Download Day officially started at 11:16 a.m. PDT (18:16 UTC) on June 17. With the announced date, the download day was June 18 for

time zones Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

greater than GMT +6, which includes half of

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

and all of

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...

. The large number of users attempting to access the Mozilla website on June 17 caused it to become unavailable for at least a few hours, and attempts at upgrading to the new version resulted in server timeouts. The site was not updated for the download of Firefox 3 until 12:00 PDT (19:00 UTC), two hours later than originally scheduled. Firefox 3 Downloads

When "Download Day" ended at 11:16 AM PDT (18:16 UTC) June 18, 8,249,092 unique downloads had been recorded. On July 2 Mozilla announced they had won the record, with 8,002,530 unique downloads and parties in over 25 countries. As of July 7, 2008, more than 31 million people had downloaded Firefox 3. Gareth Deaves, Records Manager for

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

, complimented Mozilla, saying, "Mobilizing over 8 million internet users within 24 hours is an extremely impressive accomplishment and we would like to congratulate the Mozilla community for their hard work and dedication."

Operating System support

Firefox 3 runs on

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), releas ...

and later, and on Windows 98 and ME with the third-party Kernel Extender installed.

Critical response

While the new functionality of the location bar, dubbed the "Awesomebar", was overall well-received, there were those who did not like it due to

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

and performance changes, so much that extensions were made to revert it. Firefox 3 received

CNET ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

Editors' Choice in June 2008.

References

External links

Mozilla Firefox homepage
for

end-users In product development, an end user (sometimes end-user) is a person who ultimately uses or is intended to ultimately use a product. The end user stands in contrast to users who support or maintain the product, such as sysops, system administrat ...

Mozilla Firefox project page
for developers
Mozilla EULA
* *
Review of Firefox in PC Magazine
{{Web browsers, desktop 3 2008 software Free software programmed in C++ Gopher clients History of web browsers Linux web browsers MacOS web browsers POSIX web browsers Unix Internet software Windows web browsers Software that uses XUL