Mozilla Firefox 4
Original author(s)Mozilla Corporation
Developer(s)Mozilla Corporation
Mozilla Foundation
Initial releaseMarch 22, 2011 (2011-03-22)[1]
Final release
4.0.1 / April 28, 2011 (2011-04-28)
Repository
Written inC++, JavaScript,[2] CSS,[3][4] XUL, XBL
EngineGecko
Operating systemCross-platform
Size11.9 MB – Windows
26.8 MB – Mac OS X
13.2 MB – Linux
Available in81 languages
TypeWeb browser
FTP client
LicenseMPL/GNU GPL/GNU LGPL[5]
Websitefirefox.com
Customized Firefox 4 on Ubuntu

Mozilla Firefox 4 is a version of the Firefox web browser, released on March 22, 2011.[6] The first beta was made available on July 6, 2010; Release Candidate 2 (a base for the final version) was released on March 18, 2011.[7][8] It was codenamed Tumucumaque,[9] and was Firefox's last large release cycle. The Mozilla team planned smaller and quicker releases following other browser vendors.[10] The primary goals for this version included improvements in performance, standards support, and user interface.[11]

There was one security update in April 2011 (4.0.1) and version 4 of the browser was made obsolete by the release of Firefox 5 in June 2011.[12]

This marked a transition to giving much less weight to major version numbers, with 5 more major version numbers used by December of that year (5, 6, 7, 8, and 9), compared to 4 in nearly a decade of Firefox development (1, 2, 3, 4).

History

On October 13, 2006, Brendan Eich, Mozilla's Chief Technology Officer, wrote about the plans for "Mozilla 2", referring to the most comprehensive iteration since its creation of the overall platform on which Firefox and other Mozilla products run.[13] Most of these objectives were incorporated into versions 3.0, 3.5, and 3.6. The largest changes, however, were deferred to Firefox 4.0.

In early May 2010, Mozilla's plans for Firefox 4.0 were officially detailed through a blog post by Mike Beltzner, Firefox director.[11]

On May 25, 2011, the Firefox release manager wrote in an email "Firefox 5 will be the security update for Firefox 4," confirming Firefox 4 had entered its "end of life" phase where Mozilla will no longer issue updates. Mozilla continued to issue updates for Firefox 3.6 after 4's EOL declaration. Only one update (4.0.1) was issued for Firefox 4 during its lifetime. Many looking for a copy of this version 4 will be directed to version 6, which cannot run on PowerPC Macintoshes.[12]

Features

Mozilla Firefox 4 includes many new features since version 3.6.[14]

User interface

Firefox 4 brought a new user interface, with a new look designed to make it faster.[15] Early mockups of the new interface on Windows,[16] Mac OS X,[17] and Linux[18] were first made available in July 2009.

New features included improved "doorhanger" notifications, Firefox Panorama (a feature that lets the user visually group tabs),[19][20] application tabs, a redesigned extension manager,[21] Jetpack extensions support, integration with Firefox Sync,[22] and support for multitouch displays.[23]

Many changes were made to the user interface. By default, tabs were displayed on the top of the window, above the location bar in the area formerly occupied by the window's title bar.[24] The "stop", "reload", and "go" buttons were combined into a single button, placed on the right side of the address bar. The button changed dynamically, based on the current state of the page.[16]

On Windows Vista and Windows 7, the menu bar is hidden by default with the most common actions moved to a new "Firefox" menu in the upper left-hand corner of the browser. Users can create persistent "app tabs", and customize the tab bar, as well as the bookmark and navigation bars. Many of these features are similar to ones introduced by Google Chrome.

Engine

Firefox 4 is based on the Gecko 2.0 engine, which adds and improves support for HTML5,[25] CSS3, WebM, and WebGL.[11] Also, it includes a new JavaScript engine (JägerMonkey)[26] and better XPCOM APIs.

JägerMonkey is a new JavaScript engine designed to work alongside the TraceMonkey engine introduced with Firefox 3.5. It improves performance by compiling "non-traceable" JavaScript into machine language for faster execution.[27]

Firefox 4 is the first version of Firefox to drop native support of the Gopher protocol; however, continued support is available through an add-on.[28]

Firefox 4 introduces an audio API, which provides a way to programmatically access or create audio data associated with an HTML5 audio element.[29] It allows, for example, to visualize raw sound data, to use filters or to show the audio spectrum.[30]

Firefox 4 no longer relies on the underlying OS for text layout/shaping. Instead, it uses HarfBuzz. This allows for smart OpenType layout/shaping which is consistent across different operating systems.

Performance

Firefox 4 has marked a major change in performance in comparison to former versions 3.6 and 3.5. The browser has made significant progress in Sunspider JavaScript tests as well as improvements in supporting HTML5.[31]

Since Firefox 4.0 Beta 5, hardware acceleration of content is enabled by default on Windows Vista and Windows 7 machines using Direct2D, on OS X using Quartz (basically CPU-only), and Linux using XRender. Hardware acceleration of compositing is enabled by default on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 machines using Direct3D, OS X and Linux using OpenGL.[32] Using hardware acceleration allows the browser to tap into the computer's graphics processing unit, lifting the burden from the CPU and speeding up the display of web pages. Acceleration is only enabled for certain graphics hardware and drivers.[33]

One of the performance optimizations was moving all application data into a single file, omni.jar, using a new file format based on the Java Archive format(previous versions used multiple files in the Java Archive format).[34] For later versions the file was renamed omni.ja.[35][36]

Privacy

Firefox 4 contains support for the "do not track" header, an emerging standard for Web privacy.[37] The header signals the user's request to the web service that any web visitor tracking service be disabled. In the future, this privacy request may become a legal requirement.[38]

It also introduced the ability to delete flash cookies, subjecting them to the same deletion rules as ordinary HTTP cookies.[39][40]

Development

Nightly builds were marked as 4.0a1pre between February and June 2008,[41][42] but were renamed to 3.1a1pre afterwards.

Timeline

Reception


Market share overview
According to StatCounter data
December 2023[51]
Browser  % of Fx  % of total
Firefox 1 ——
Firefox 2 ——
Firefox 3 ——
Firefox 4 ——
Firefox 5–9 ——
Firefox 10–16 2.35%0.08%
Firefox 17–23 ——
Firefox 24–30 ——
Firefox 31–37 ——
Firefox 38–44 ——
Firefox 45–51 ——
Firefox 52–59 3.28%0.11%
Firefox 60–67 ——
Firefox 68–77 ——
Firefox 78–90 0.60%0.02%
Firefox 91–101 0.90%0.03%
Firefox 102–114 3.88%0.13%
Firefox 115 and 115 ESR 13.43%0.45%
Firefox 116 0.30%0.01%
Firefox 117 0.30%0.01%
Firefox 118 3.58%0.12%
Firefox 119 9.85%0.33%
Firefox 120 41.19%1.38%
Firefox 121 14.33%0.48%
Firefox 122 ——
All variants[52] 100%3.35%

On 22 March 2011, and during the 24-hour launch period, Firefox 4 received 7.1 million downloads, as counted and verified by the Mozilla Foundation.[53] Before that date, 3 million people downloaded the second release candidate of the browser, which later became the final version.[54] As a result, the new version of the browser received 10 million downloads on the first day.[55] Notwithstanding, it fell behind the previous record established by the launch of Firefox 3 in 2008, which was 8 million. Second-day downloads for the browser were reported to be 8.75 million, but the lack of an official representative from Guinness to monitor the numbers, made the record attained by Firefox 3 only unofficially been broken.[53]

Usage share

On the official launch date, the usage share for the Firefox 4 was 1.95%, which was 0.34% higher than the previous day according to analytics website StatCounter. As a comparison, the usage share for the Internet Explorer 9 on March 22 was 0.87%,[56] and it was released the prior week, on March 14. A potential factor on Firefox 4's higher usage share is that the latter supports both Windows 2000 and XP, two operating systems Internet Explorer 9 does not support.

Also, at launch, Mozilla prompted existing customers to upgrade their browsers to the newer version, something Microsoft hadn't applied to users of older versions of Internet Explorer.[57] Instead, Microsoft prompted users to upgrade via Windows Update several weeks after launch.

On March 26, 2011, Firefox 4's usage share exceeded that of the 10-year-old and discontinued Internet Explorer 6 for the first time. Also on that date, the browser's usage share was higher than all versions of Safari, Opera and older versions of Firefox with the exception of Firefox 3.6. As a reference, Internet Explorer 9's usage share first exceeded that of Internet Explorer 6 on May 1, 2011 (48 days after release), and Internet Explorer 9 became the second most used version of Internet Explorer for the first time on May 22, 2011 (69 days after release).

According to StatCounter, Firefox 4 reached its usage share peak of 16.7% on June 19, 2011. After that date, it started to decline due to weekly trends and the release of Firefox 5.

Migration issues

Screenshot of expanded Firefox button on Mozilla Firefox 4.0
Expanded Firefox button showing the new arrangement of menus and commands

Firefox 4 represents a departure in user interface layout and behaviour from previous versions.[58] Users face some issues negotiating these changes, some of which are not documented in the release notes.[59]

Firefox button

The Firefox button groups the menus in Firefox 4. It is displayed by default on the Windows 7 and Windows Vista operating systems.[59] It can be displayed on other operating systems by selecting "Toolbars" from the View menu and unchecking "Menu Bar". The Menu bar can be restored by selecting "Options" from the Firefox button menu and checking "Menu Bar". Certain menu items, such as "Page Info" and "Import" (for importing bookmarks and other browser data), are not available from the Firefox button menu but remain available from the Menu bar.[60] The Menu bar can be displayed temporarily by pressing and releasing the Alt key.[61] Selecting a Menu bar command or pressing the Alt key again dismisses the Menu bar.

Session data

A prompt to save the session (tabs and windows) was presented by default in Firefox 3, with the session restored on the next start if the user selected the "Save & Quit" option. In Firefox 4, all sessions are saved. On the next start, the session is available from the History menu.[62]

This new feature, called on-demand session restore, overwrites the previous session on exit without prompting. The user can check whether there is a saved session at any time by viewing the History menu item "Restore Previous Session".[63] If it is available (not greyed out) there is a restorable session available.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Releases/Firefox 4.0". MozillaWiki. Mozilla Foundation. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
  2. ↑ LCC 3401 Firefox Group (2005). "Firefox Extension Development Tutorial". Rietta. Archived from the original on August 4, 2009. Retrieved December 19, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ Walsh, David (July 10, 2008). "Firefox uses an 'html.css' stylesheet for default rendering styles". The David Walsh Blog. Retrieved December 19, 2009.
  4. ↑ "The Firefox addon, Stylish takes advantage of Firefox's CSS rendering to change the appearance of Firefox". Userstyles.org. Archived from the original on May 23, 2009. Retrieved December 19, 2009.
  5. ↑ "Mozilla End-User Licensing Agreements". Mozilla Foundation. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  6. ↑ Fiveash, Kelly (March 21, 2011). "Firefox 4 gets yet another final test build release". The Register. Archived from the original on March 8, 2018.
  7. 1 2 Firefox/4/Beta "Firefox/4/Beta". MozillaWiki. Mozilla Foundation. March 23, 2011. Retrieved February 10, 2011. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  8. ↑ Rooney, Paula (March 2, 2011). "Firefox 4 RC expected to ship roughly on March 9". ZDNet. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016.
  9. ↑ Novak, Chelsea (July 8, 2011). "Looking back on Mozilla Parks". Chelsea Novak (blog). Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved September 27, 2013 – via WordPress.
  10. ↑ Kobie, Nicole (February 28, 2011). "Mozilla: Firefox 4 will be our last big release". PC Pro. Archived from the original on October 13, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
  11. 1 2 3 Beltzner, Mike (May 10, 2010). "Firefox 4: fast, powerful, and empowering". Archived from the original on May 12, 2010. Retrieved September 21, 2010.
  12. 1 2 Keizer, Gregg (June 22, 2011). "Mozilla retires Firefox 4 from security support". Computerworld. Archived from the original on May 16, 2018.
  13. ↑ Eich, Brendan (October 13, 2006). "Mozilla 2". Brendan Eich (blog). Archived from the original on April 26, 2016. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Firefox 4 beta 6 release notes". Mozilla. September 14, 2010. Archived from the original on May 19, 2011. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
  15. ↑ Metz, Cade (May 10, 2010). "Mozilla spills plan for, yes, Firefox 4". The Register. Archived from the original on July 29, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2010.
  16. 1 2 "Firefox 4.0 Windows Theme Mockups". MozillaWiki. Mozilla Foundation. June 2, 2010. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  17. ↑ "Firefox 4.0 Mac Theme Mockups". MozillaWiki. Mozilla Foundation. June 16, 2010. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  18. ↑ "Firefox 4.0 Linux Theme Mockups". MozillaWiki. Mozilla Foundation. July 21, 2010. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  19. ↑ "Use Tab Groups to organize a lot of tabs". Mozilla. Archived from the original on September 6, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2013.
  20. ↑ Rankin, Aza (2010). "Firefox Panorama: Tab Candy Evolved". AzaRask.in (blog). Archived from the original on March 4, 2013. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
  21. ↑ Shankland, Stephen (May 11, 2010). "Firefox 4 release plan: The need for speed". CNET. Archived from the original on May 13, 2010. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  22. ↑ Connor, Mike (August 24, 2010). "Sync in Firefox 4 Beta". Mozilla Labs. Archived from the original on August 27, 2010.
  23. ↑ Shankland, Stephen (May 28, 2010). "Mozilla prepares coders for Firefox 4 features". CNET. Archived from the original on August 31, 2010. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  24. ↑ Faaborg, Alex (June 24, 2010). "Why Tabs are on Top in Firefox 4". The Mozilla Blog. Archived from the original on June 19, 2012. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
  25. ↑ Sivonen, Henri (May 11, 2010). "Firefox 4 HTML 5 parser – inline SVG, speed and more". Mozilla Hacks. Archived from the original on June 26, 2010. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
  26. ↑ Blizzard, Christopher (March 8, 2010). "a quick note on JavaScript engine components". Mozilla Hacks. Retrieved March 19, 2010.
  27. ↑ Mandelin, David (February 26, 2010). "Starting JägerMonkey". The Mozilla Blog. Archived from the original on August 30, 2010.
  28. ↑ "Firefox 4 for Developers". Mozilla Developer Network. August 25, 2010.
  29. ↑ "Audio Data API". MozillaWiki. Mozilla Foundation. August 25, 2010. Retrieved September 29, 2010.
  30. ↑ "Firefox 4 beta flaunts audio API to create music visuals". International Business Times. September 8, 2010. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012.
  31. ↑ Sullivan, Jay (November 10, 2010). "Fasten Your Seatbelts – Firefox 4 Beta adds new JavaScript power and faster graphics". Retrieved November 10, 2010.
  32. ↑ Rouget, Paul (September 7, 2010). "Firefox 4: hardware acceleration". Mozilla Hacks.
  33. ↑ Jacob, Benoit (March 4, 2011). "Upgrade your graphics drivers!". Archived from the original on August 6, 2011. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  34. ↑ Glek, Taras (September 14, 2010). "Firefox 4: jar jar jar | All About Performance". The Mozilla Blog. Archived from the original on October 3, 2016. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
  35. ↑ Guru, The (November 16, 2011). "omni.jar to become omni.ja | Firefox Extension Guru's Blog". Blog.ffextensionguru.com. Archived from the original on March 10, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
  36. ↑ "How to Optimize or Deoptimize Firefox OMNI.JA File". December 15, 2016. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
  37. ↑ Mossberg, Walter S. (March 31, 2011). "New, Lean Firefox 4: Re-Built to Play Catch-Up". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 31, 2011.
  38. ↑ Valentino-DeVries, Jennifer (March 14, 2011). "Firefox Maker: 'Do Not Track' Likely to Be Regulated". Digits. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 31, 2011.
  39. ↑ Beltzner, Mike (January 13, 2011). "Bugzilla entry 625495 – Clear Adobe Flash Cookies (LSOs) when Clear Cookies is selected in the Privacy > Custom > Clear History". Retrieved September 28, 2011. Change to the "on close" firefox behavior to use the new NPAPI ClearSiteData API.
  40. ↑ Beltzner, Mike (January 13, 2011). "Bugzilla entry 625496 – Clear Adobe Flash Cookies (LSOs) when Cookies is selected in Clear Recent History". Retrieved September 28, 2011. Change to the "clear recent history" firefox behavior to use the new NPAPI ClearSiteData API.
  41. ↑ "Index of /pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/2008/02/2008-02-20-02-mozilla-central". FTP.Mozilla.org. February 20, 2008.
  42. ↑ "Index of /pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/2008/06/2008-06-06-02-actionmonkey". FTP.Mozilla.org. June 6, 2008.
  43. ↑ "Platform/2010-02-02 Notices / Schedule". MozillaWiki. Mozilla Foundation. February 2, 2010. Retrieved February 6, 2010.
  44. ↑ Release Notes: Mozilla Developer Preview Archived February 13, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Mozilla.org. Retrieved on November 8, 2010.
  45. ↑ Shankland, Stephen (August 19, 2010). "Firefox 4 beta 4 adds hardware acceleration". CNET. Retrieved September 9, 2021. Another change that already arrived in Firefox 4 beta 3 is a feature called "switch to tab," which can move a person to an open tab when they start typing it into the address bar. It makes it easier to locate specific Web pages amid the tab clutter
  46. ↑ Jones, Matthew (February 17, 2011). "Firefox 4 RC targeted for Feb 25, final by March". Neowin.
  47. ↑ Fiveash, Kelly. "Mozilla confirms Firefox 4 beta 12 is FINAL test build". The Register.
  48. ↑ "Mozilla Firefox 4 Release Candidate version 1 Release Notes". Mozilla. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
  49. ↑ "Mozilla Firefox 4 Release Candidate version 2 Release Notes". Mozilla. Retrieved March 18, 2011.
  50. ↑ Sicore, Damon. "Firefox 4 Final Release Schedule". mozilla.dev.planning. Google Groups.
  51. ↑ "Top 12 Desktop, Mobile, Tablet & Console Browser Versions on Dec 2023". StatCounter Global Stats.
  52. ↑ "Top 9 Desktop, Mobile, Tablet & Console Browsers on Dec 2023". StatCounter Global Stats.
  53. 1 2 Keizer, Gregg (March 27, 2011). "Firefox 4 sets unofficial download record". Computerworld. Retrieved March 29, 2011.
  54. ↑ Kovacs, Gary. "Firefox Four: Day One". The Mozilla Blog.
  55. ↑ Latif, Lawrence (March 23, 2011). "Mozilla confirms over 10 million Firefox 4 downloads in 24 hours". The Inquirer. Archived from the original on March 26, 2011.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  56. ↑ "Firefox 4 Hits the Ground Running and Eclipses Internet Explorer 9". StatCounter. March 23, 2011.
  57. ↑ Gavin, Ryan (March 29, 2011). "A thoughtful approach to measuring browser adoption". Exploring IE.
  58. ↑ Warren, Christina (March 23, 2011). "Faster, Sleeker & More Stable: Hands-on With Firefox 4 [REVIEW]". Mashable. Retrieved April 1, 2011.
  59. 1 2 "Firefox 4 release notes". Mozilla. Archived from the original on March 23, 2011. Retrieved April 1, 2011.
  60. ↑ "Firefox Help: Page Info window". Retrieved April 1, 2011.
  61. ↑ Buckskin, Greg. "How to Import Bookmarks Into Firefox 4". Howstruct. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
  62. ↑ "Mozilla Firefox Developer Forum". mozilla.dev.apps.firefox. Google Groups. Retrieved April 1, 2011.
  63. ↑ O’Shannessy, Paul (September 10, 2010). "Restore Previous Session". ZPAO. Retrieved April 1, 2011.
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