Mozilla Firefox 2

Mozilla Firefox 2

Mozilla Firefox IconMozilla Firefox wordmark
File:Wikipedia Main Page in Firefox 2.0.0.12.png Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.12 running on Ubuntu displaying Wikipedia
Developer(s)	Mozilla Corporation, Mozilla Foundation
Initial release	24, 2006 (2006-10-24)
Stable release	2.0.0.20
Written in	C++, XUL, XBL, JavaScript
Operating system	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris
Engine	Gecko
Platform	Cross-platform
Size	5.5 MB - 16.5 MB
Available in	60 languages
Development status	End of Life
Type	Web browser, FTP client, gopher client
License	MPL/GPL/LGPL/Mozilla EULA (for binary redistribution)
Website	firefox.com

File:Firefox.svg (category)
Contents
Firefox 3.6 Firefox 3.5 Firefox 3 Firefox 2 Portable Edition Firefox History Firefox Features Gecko Add-ons Extensions Firefox Market adoption
Origins and Lineage
Netscape Navigator Mozilla Foundation Mozilla Suite

Mozilla Firefox 2 was a version of Mozilla Firefox, a web browser released on October 24, 2006 by the Mozilla Corporation.

Firefox 2 uses version 1.8 of the Gecko layout engine for displaying web pages. The release contained many new features not found in Firefox 1.5, including improved support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and JavaScript 1.7, as well as user interface changes.

On March 22, 2006, the first alpha version of Firefox 2 (Bon Echo Alpha 1) was released. It featured Gecko 1.8.1 for the first time. Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.x is the final version supported on Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 98. Mac OS X 10.5 support was added October 18, 2007 with version 2.0.0.8.

Firefox 2.0 featured updates to tabbed browsing environment, the extensions manager, the GUI, and the find, search and software update engines; a new session restore feature; inline spell checking; and an anti-phishing feature which was implemented by Google as an extension, and later merged into the program itself.

Mozilla ended support for Firefox 2 on 18 December, 2008.

Overview

• Links default to open in new tab.
• Close button on every tab.
• Inline spell checking for text boxes.
• Session restoration after a browser crash.
• Search suggestion for Google and Yahoo!.
• New search plugin manager and add-on manager.
• Web feed previewing. Bookmark microsummaries.
• Updates to the extension system.
• Support for Sherlock and OpenSearch.
• Support for SVG text using svg:textPath.
• Anti-phishing protection.
• Search suggestions appear with search history in the search box for Google and Yahoo!.
• Support for client-side session and persistent storage.
• Improved feed support.
• A new NSIS-based installer.
• JavaScript 1.7.
• Enhanced security and localization support for extensions.
• New Winstripe theme refresh:
  • New navigation icons
  • URL bar refresh (New Go button attached to the URL bar)
  • Search bar refresh Tab bar refresh
  • Alltabs button (used to view a popup list of all tabs open)

Market adoption & usage of Firefox 2

Main article: Market adoption of Mozilla Firefox

As one article noted after the release of Firefox 2.0 in October 2006, "IE6 had the lion's share of the browser market with 77.22%. Internet Explorer 7 had climbed to 3.18%, while Firefox 2.0 was at 0.69%."

A Softpedia article, however, noted in July 2007 that "Firefox 2.0 has been also expanding its share constantly in spite of IE7. From just 0.69% in October 2006, Firefox 2.0 is now accounting for 11.07% of the market. Mozilla has even sacrificed version 1.5 of its open source browser for Firefox 2.0. With support cut at the end of June, Firefox 1.5 dropped to just 2.85%."

Firefox 2 began to lose notable market share to Firefox 3 within 24 hours after its release, Firefox 3 usage rose from under 1% to over 3% according to Net Applications in that time period. Firefox 2 market share consistently dropped, eventually being surpassed by Firefox 3 in 2008 in the general browser market as the Firefox version with the greatest share, and by early 2009 had dropped under 3 percent.

Release compatibility

Operating system		Compatibility
Linux kernel 2.2.14 and newer (with some libraries)		2.0.0.20
Apple Mac OS X	v10.1 Puma	Template:N
	v10.2 Jaguar-10.3 Panther	2.0.0.20
	v10.4 Tiger	2.0.0.20
	v10.5 Leopard	2.0.0.8 to 2.0.0.20
OS/2 and eComStation		2.0.0.20
Microsoft Windows	95	Template:N
	NT 4/98/Me	2.0.0.20
	2000/XP/2003/Vista/ Home Server/2008	2.0.0.20

Release history

Main article: History of Mozilla Firefox#Release history

External links

• Mozilla Firefox homepage for end-users
• Mozilla Firefox project page for developers
• Mozilla EULA
• Mozilla Firefox 2 at the Open Directory Project
• Mozilla Firefox 2 download page