Mozilla Firefox is a free open source browser available for Windows, Linux, Mac and the Android mobile operating system. The browser development started in 2003 at a time when Internet Explorer dominated the browser landscape. First versions of Firefox, originally titled Phoenix, were released in early 2004. Firefox version 1.0 was released in November 2004 and new versions of the browser were released since then in regular intervals.
Firefox is currently the number three browser in the world market share wise only trailing Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Google’s Chrome browser which appeared on the scene in 2008.
Mozilla adopted Google’s release scheme by switching to a rapid release schedule in 2011 under which new versions of the browser are released every 42 days. The browser is currently available in four different channels, namely Stable, Beta, Aurora and Nightly. The majority of users are on the stable channel which offers the best stability but is the last to receive new features which are first introduced in Nightly versions of Firefox and then moved to Aurora and Beta releases before they make their way into the stable version of the Internet browser
Below are all Firefox articles, tips and tricks, and reviews that we have published here on Ghacks. You may want to start browsing our Firefox Add-ons reviews or our selection of Firefox Tips.
M.C.Straver, the lead developer of the Pale Moon web browser, has created a fork of the Mozilla Code Repository as a starting point for further development. The developers of Pale Moon, a browser based on Firefox code, had to find a way to deal with the changes that Mozilla planned to make to the core […]
Firefox Sync is Mozilla's official data synchronization service for the Firefox web browser. Firefox users need to sign up for it using an email address before it becomes available. Once it does, browser data such as bookmarks, the browsing history, tabs, passwords or preferences are synced automatically across all devices that you sign in with […]
ReqBlock is a WebExtension for the Firefox web browser that enables you to check and block Firefox connections to web resources. Firefox users have a couple of options when it comes to blocking resources. They can run an add-on in the browser to block resources, or configure firewall or hosts file on the operating system […]
Mozilla Firefox 54.0 was released this week, and one of the changes it shipped with was a simplification of the download button and download status panel. The change impacts the download icon that Firefox displays in its interface, and the download panel, which opens when you click on the download icon. Mozilla stripped away information […]
Firefox Focus, known as Firefox Klar in Germany, is a privacy-focused web browser by Mozilla that will be available for Android soon as well. Firefox Focus is different from other browsers; first, because it is clearly focused on privacy, and second, because it offers a stripped down experience that is focused on single tab browsing. […]
Mozilla plans to launch a redesigned options page later this year in Firefox, and one of the changes is a search option to find preferences quickly. The new preferences page lists less groups than before. The effect is that some preferences have moved to another location, and that users may need some time adjusting to […]
This article offers information on changes made to the Firefox 54 preferences, as well as new, deprecated, or removed Ghacks user.js preferences. Mozilla released Firefox 54.0 this week to the Stable channel. The major change of the release was the enabling of multiple content processes. You can download the latest version of the Ghacks user.js […]
Personal Blocklist is a port of the Google Chrome extension by Google that enables you to block sites when you are using Google's Search engine. If you run searches on an Internet search engine, you may eventually stumble upon sites that rank highly, but don't provide a lot of value. You may also have made […]
Firefox 54.0 has been released on June 13, 2017 to the stable channel. The new version is offered through the Firefox web browser's automatic update functionality, and also provided as a direct download from Mozilla's website. All other Firefox channels, those are Beta, Nightly and ESR, are also updated. Mozilla did remove the Aurora channel […]
Firefox displays "This Connection is not Secure. Logins entered here could be compromised" warning messages when sites don't protect their login pages with HTTPS. The idea behind the feature is to display a visual reminder to Firefox users that the data that they enter into a form is not protected when they hit the login […]
Mozilla plans to launch a New Tab Page design and functionality when it releases Firefox 57 in November 2017 to the stable channel audience. Firefox users won't lose any functionality when the New Tab Page launches, but they will get more features on the page, and more customization options. The current New Tab Page of […]
Mozilla plans to ship Firefox's new interface Photon, out with Firefox 57, without a search box for new users of the web browser. Mozilla notes however that the search box won't be removed entirely in Firefox 57. It remains visible for existing Firefox installations where it is displayed on, and remains also an option in […]
Archiver Menu is a Firefox add-on that allows you to make a copy of a web page on archiving sites, and to retrieve a cached copy of it. There are situations where you may want to keep a copy of an article or web page. Maybe for local access, legal reasons, reference, documentation, or fear […]
SmartUp Gestures is a popular mouse gestures and drag&drop extensions for the Google Chrome web browser that is now also available for Firefox. Firefox supports a handful of drag&drop operations by default, but to make use of mouse gestures and advanced operations, add-ons are required. Our first review of a mouse gestures add-on for Firefox […]
Mozilla added a much requested feature to Firefox's Container Tabs experiment recently that enables you to always open sites in a specific container. Container Tabs is an upcoming feature of the Firefox web browser that is available as a Test Pilot experiment, and in Firefox Nightly. Mozilla launched the Container Tabs experiment a couple of […]
HTTPS Everywhere is a popular cross-browser extension that you may use to enforce the use of HTTPS on websites that support it. While the extension does nothing for sites that use only HTTP or HTTPS, it is designed for those sites that support both protocols but don't enforce one or the other on its users. […]
