After 5 years, Firefox faces new challenges by Stephen Shankland

Five years ago, Mozilla made it clear that the browser wars weren’t over after all.

Images: Firefox through the ages

Phoenix01sm 270x205 After 5 years, Firefox faces new challenges by Stephen ShanklandView the full gallery

In the 1990s, Netscape had lost its dominance in the browser market to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, and the Netscape-spawned open-source project called Mozilla had sunk into obscurity. Even a federal antitrust suit accusing Microsoft of anticompetitive practices with its browser and Windows was not enough to turn the tide.

But on November 9, 2004, Firefox 1.0 emerged to fight back again.

The project, originally named Phoenix to symbolize rebirth from Netscape’s ashes, has now clawed its way back to account for nearly a quarter of the browser usage today. Microsoft may not be on the run, but it’s on the defensive, gradually building its browser development effort back up into fighting form.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 9:37 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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