Changes

Firefox was originally developed as an offshoot of the Mozilla Browser project, developed by [[Netscape]], as a lightweight version of the software.  The original Mozilla browser was extremely feature rich, including such things as an [[HTML]] editor, which created a large and correspondingly slow piece of software.  Firefox has gone through several name changes, all due to existing trademarks.  It was originally named ''Phoenix'', then ''Firebird'' and finally ''Firefox''.

Firefox was originally developed as an offshoot of the Mozilla Browser project, developed by [[Netscape]], as a lightweight version of the software.  The original Mozilla browser was extremely feature rich, including such things as an [[HTML]] editor, which created a large and correspondingly slow piece of software.  Firefox has gone through several name changes, all due to existing trademarks.  It was originally named ''Phoenix'', then ''Firebird'' and finally ''Firefox''.

Since its original release in 2002, Firefox has had a continued increase in the market share of web browsers until 2009, then a small decline due to competition from [[Google Chrome]].  Exact numbers are difficult to determine, but as of May 2011 worldwide, Firefox had a 22% share<ref>[http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0 Browser market share]</ref>, and as of March 2011, 29.5% in Europe<ref>[http://en.atinternet.com/Resources/Surveys/Browser-Barometer/Browser-Barometer-April-2011/index-1-2-3-236.aspx AT Internet Institute - Article]</ref>.   

Since its original release in 2002, Firefox has had a continued increase in the market share of web browsers until 2009, then a small decline due to competition from [[Google Chrome]].  Exact numbers are difficult to determine, but as of November 2012 worldwide, Firefox had a 24% share<ref>[http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0 Browser market share]</ref>, and as of November 2012, 28.5% in Europe<ref>[http://en.atinternet.com/Resources/Surveys/Browser-Barometer/Browser-Barometer-April-2011/index-1-2-3-236.aspx AT Internet Institute - Article]</ref>.   

The browser is officially supported in over 70 languages<ref>[http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html Firefox International Versions]</ref>, and is available for the different versions of Microsoft [[Windows]], [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] Mac [[OS X]], and [[Linux]] operating systems.  Unofficial builds are available for Sun Microsystems Solaris, BSD, and other operating systems.

The browser is officially supported in over 70 languages<ref>[http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html Firefox International Versions]</ref>, and is available for the different versions of Microsoft [[Windows]], [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] Mac [[OS X]], and [[Linux]] operating systems.  Unofficial builds are available for Sun Microsystems Solaris, BSD, and other operating systems.