Firefox Previous Names
Posted on February 7, 2006
Rick pointed out in a comment on my last post that he was thinking Firefox used to be Phoenix and/or Firebird. Of course! I could recall Firebird but Phoenix escaped me. Thanks Rick, for triggering my memory.
If you care, here’s a link to a Flexbeta post with the version history, which is very cool, especially if you are up too late and too tired to care about anything else. So, check it out.
- Phoenix 0.1 - 0.5
- Firebird 0.6 - 0.7.1
- Firefox 0.8 - 1.1
Also, wikipedia states the following:
The project which became Firefox started as an experimental branch of the Mozilla Suite called m/b (or mozilla/browser). When sufficiently developed, binaries for public testing appeared in September 2002 under the name Phoenix.
The Phoenix name survived until April 14, 2003, when it changed due to trademark issues with the BIOS manufacturer, Phoenix Technologies (who produce a BIOS-based browser called Phoenix FirstWare Connect). The new name, Firebird, provoked mixed reactions, particularly since the free database software Firebird uses the same name. In late April, following an apparent name change to Firebird browser for a few hours, the Mozilla Foundation stated that the browser should always bear the name Mozilla Firebird in order to avoid confusion with the Firebird database server. However, continuing pressure from the FLOSS community forced another change, and on February 9, 2004, Mozilla Firebird became Mozilla Firefox (or Firefox for short).
The Mozilla Foundation chose the name “Firefox” for its similarity to “Firebird”, but also for its uniqueness in the computing industry. To avoid any potential further name changes, the Mozilla Foundation began the process of registering Firefox as a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in December 2003.[6] As “Firefox” already existed as a registered trademark in the United Kingdom, the Mozilla Foundation licensed the name from the trademark’s owner.
Now I’m done!
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