The browser formerly known as Firebird gets FEB 09 2004
The browser formerly known as Firebird gets an update and a new name: Firefox. Which is also a fighter pilot movie with Clint Eastwood.
There are 33 reader comments
00 09 200410:00AM
Gah. Another awful name for this great browser. Get with it Mozilla!
15 09 200410:15AM
And from the article Steven linked to, an explanation of the name change.
46 09 200411:46AM
If there is ever a firefoxnews.com site, I'd watch out for Rupert Murdoch's lawyers.
14 09 2004 1:14PM
Nick said "Gah. Another awful name for this great browser. Get with it Mozilla!"
Nick - fair enough, I can see why some people wouldn't like the new name - but the bottom line is, naming is HARD!
I criticised the visual aspects of the browser last fall and they put me in charge of some of it - so watch out! ;-)
08 09 2004 2:08PM
Steven: I have a little more empathy after reading the article on naming. I just don't think "Firefox" rolls off the tongue. It sounds like some high school kid's BBS handle, minus the random capitalization. Yes, the Firefox logo is very cool. But the name appeals to too small a niche: ubernerds. I know "Internet Explorer" doesn't exactly get the blood pumping, but it's built into Windows...who needs branding? Anyway I'll use Firefox no matter what you call it, but my parents might not.
34 09 2004 2:34PM
I have no idea why but the install process took away the back and forward buttons and the scroll bar. I restarted and the same thing, restarted again and the same thing. Click on it by accident and it was working fine. Reminded me of the old config.sys days where doing the same thing occasionally did different things.
45 09 2004 2:45PM
Firefox is also an old Atari arcade game based off the movie. Their only laserdisc game actually, and extremely rare.
55 09 2004 2:55PM
To be consistent, they should change Thunderbird's name to "Blue Thunder".
20 09 2004 4:20PM
The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High! (Furinkan High... Furinkan High...) Tatewake Kunou. Age: 17.
(those who get my above joke gets 1000 points!)
47 09 2004 4:47PM
To be consistent, they should change Thunderbird's name to "Blue Thunder".
That's brilliant. Next logical step is "Airwolf" for their next app (RSS reader?).
05 09 2004 6:05PM
I'm soaking in it. Firefox rox.
06 09 2004 6:06PM
What .. no ThunderFox jokes?
19 09 2004 6:19PM
I had no problems with the Win32 installer. Worked perfect straight from the download
37 09 2004 6:37PM
disappearing scrollbars... oh joy.
41 09 2004 6:41PM
I love it, actually--it really is as fast as it claims to be. Quite unfortunately, though, I find myself going back to IE all the time because I don't have the options I normally use (such as the Google toolbar)
06 09 2004 7:06PM
chicagotex- there's a googletoolbar extension available for firefox/bird. oh yeah, my scrollbar has disapeared now that i've installed firefox as well. my back and forward buttons still work, as does my scrollwheel, but no scrollbar. scrollbars don't show up in frames of any flavor, either.
19 09 2004 7:19PM
Got it, thanks! It wasn't showing up for some reason. I still have a scrollbar, though.
21 09 2004 7:21PM
(Which is, of course, good--just unsure as to why I have one and other people don't.) Anyway, thanks for the link. It's now my default browser.
10 09 200411:10PM
If I remember right, "Firefox" was a novel written by Craig Thomas (not this Craig Thomas). Later on, it was made into a movie starring Clint Eastwood. Incidentally, the book had a sequel, FireFox Down. Hope the browser does not follow its literary namesake.
11 10 200412:11AM
i figured out how to make my scrollbar reappear- maybe this will help other people. it seemed to be a theme problem, so i went to the homesite of my favorite theme and downloaded the new firefox version. I used one from here, but you might find them other places, i don't know. it's worth a try, anyway.
32 10 2004 1:32AM
roger that margaret. just discovered that myself.
thanks.
39 10 2004 2:39AM
Do we have to think in Russian to use it?
43 10 2004 6:43AM
Firefox...hmm, not so bad. Perhaps Moz could roll all the other stuff into it - browser, e-mail, newsgroup client, IRC chat client, HTML editing - and call it Fox Force Five.
36 10 2004 7:36AM
Firefox sounds.. cute and powerful at the same time. And everythings looks like they really stay with that name this time, so I'm all for it. Great logo, too.
12 10 2004 9:12AM
Either my site is horribly coded, Firefox has some kind of CSS bugs, or both. Everything looks great in Firebird 0.7 and (gah) IE6, but Firefox gets very persnickety. Frustrating.
10 10 200410:10AM
My first reaction to the new logo (while I understand the fire and the fox imagery) was that it looked like the world was being consumed in some horrible fire. Kind of reminds me of the weird/cool Sherwin-Williams' "Cover The Earth logo...
18 10 200411:18AM
The browser seems good to me, but the little icon version of the logo looks a little like a tomato.
53 10 2004 9:53PM
My first reaction to the logo was that the poor fox is burning up during reentry. I agree with Thomas... the name and logo look great to me.
13 11 200411:13AM
Well, aside from the name (which I have no problem with - thank you very much), I think Firefox is GREAT! I admit that I don't immediately find many improvements over Firebird I was just running yesterday, but hey, it works great and it's better than IE. Nice job, Mozilla.
53 11 2004 7:53PM
is it just me, or do favicons in the bookmarks and toolbars still NOT stay after closing? Argh.
16 12 200410:16AM
thanks margaret. i use the same theme and your link was very helpful.
39 12 200412:39PM
I like the new logo. As for the name - well - 'Eh.' But Firebird sucked as a name, too. Even Phoenix was very generic, dull...
BTW re software problems - this version is only 0.8 and it doesn't work very well when installed over an existing profile, either themes or extensions can mess it up. They're supposed to be fixing this on 0.9. I don't use the browser personally, might consider it at 1.0, still with mozilla 1.6 for now though as I like the interface better.
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.
Steven Garrity55 09 2004 9:55AM
There's a nice post about the logo/icon design process at HicksDesign.co.uk.