# What is Firefox? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 26, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-firefox/533832 "2010-03-26T02:19:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-firefox/533832/21 "2010-03-26T17:39:40Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > “Firefox” is the literal translation of the Chinese word for a red panda. According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_panda#Etymology), “firefox” is an alternate English name for the red panda, but not a translation of the Chinese word. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-firefox/533832/22 "2010-03-26T17:46:29Z")
Unfortunately, no one can be told what Firefox is. You have to see it for [yourself](http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/upgrade.html). ---
**Author:** ![Pseudocode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/59ef9b/32.png) [@Pseudocode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pseudocode)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-firefox/533832/23 "2010-03-26T17:48:51Z")
I want no other, no other browser This is our life, our time We are together, I need you forever Is it love? (Oh baby, don’t hurt me!) ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-firefox/533832/24 "2010-03-26T18:25:38Z")
Firefox is a direct descendant of the earliest web browsers that started with the Mozilla project in the early 1990’s. It is a free web browser that has a much more light-weight and agile feel to it than Internet Explorer. It also offers a choice of hundreds of extensions for download to add features and customize it to do and see things the way you want. A lot of people talk about ‘converting’ to a new web browser. That isn’t really a good term in that context. They are just applications and you can have as many of them on your computer as you wish. In the time it took you to ask this question, you could have downloaded and installed Firefox to see for yourself. I recommend you do so now. It is easy to use and not prone to as many security attacks as Internet Explorer although Firefox is not crash-proof either. > **[Download the fastest Firefox ever](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/)** > > Faster page loading, less memory usage and packed with features, the new Firefox is here. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-firefox/533832/25 "2010-03-26T20:22:18Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Firefox is a direct descendant of the earliest web browsers that started with the Mozilla project in the early 1990’s. This is misleading: The first web browser was just called WorldWideWeb. The first _popular_ web browser was Mosaic. Mozilla (then marketed under the name Netscape Navigator) was invented to kill Mosaic, and it did. (The name ‘Mozilla’ comes from ‘Mosaic’ and ‘Godzilla’, with the imagery of a giant lizard that would crush Mosaic.) Then Microsoft released Internet Explorer, which was better than those old versions of Netscape, and so people began to switch to that. This put Netscape, the company which made Netscape Navigator and which made web servers as well as web browsers, in the position of possibly having to rely on Microsoft’s sense of fair play to stay in business: If Internet Explorer got a dominating market share and MS decided to kill Netscape, all it would have to do is program IE to not display pages served by Netscape’s software. Therefore, Netscape decided to release the source code to Mozilla so multiple browsers could be started from it and all of them challenge IE. Firefox is one direct result of that, and it has, in fact, grabbed a huge chunk of IE’s former market share. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-firefox/533832/26 "2010-03-26T20:36:52Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > This is misleading: The first web browser was just called WorldWideWeb. The first _popular_ web browser was Mosaic. According to wikipedia, Lynx was released before Mosaic was. ---
**Author:** ![Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-firefox/533832/27 "2010-03-26T21:03:36Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > According to wikipedia, Lynx was released before Mosaic was. I don’t think it was particularly popular though. Mosaic was the ground-breaker that helped make the internet so widely available to the public. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-firefox/533832/28 "2010-03-26T21:12:03Z")
Lynx was never nearly as popular or widespread as Mosaic. In my part of Bell Labs Mosaic was widely supported, but Lynx never was. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-firefox/533832/29 "2010-03-26T21:15:21Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > According to wikipedia, Lynx was released before Mosaic was. Lynx could never be described as “popular.” ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-firefox/533832/30 "2010-03-26T21:19:05Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Is this a whoosh? The logo looks more like a fox made out of fire, curled around a planet. Here is a [red panda](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_panda). As the name implies, it does look a bit like a fox. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-firefox/533832/31 "2010-03-26T23:05:22Z")
**Jinx**. I’m getting in late to this thread, but we’ve done this dance before. Simple questions like this can more easily be looked up using a search engine such as Google. Please don’t do this again. **samclem** Moderator, General Questions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-firefox/533832.md?page=1)