Happy 5th Birthday, Firefox

The Mozilla Blog reminded us today that it’s been five years since Firefox 1.0 first entered the world. Hard to believe that the upstart browser is so old, yet it also feels like Firefox is such an indispensable tool for the Web that I hardly know how I got along without it.

I remember the days when Netscape ruled and only people who barely knew how to operate their computers used Internet Explorer. But just like in that seminal memoir The Other Guy Blinked: How Pepsi Won the Cola Wars, Netscape lost its footing with some disastrous decisions in the late 90s which ultimately led to an inferior product. Microsoft and IE took over PCs and budding web designers (like myself) all cried silent tears.

But out of the ashes of Netscape’s demise came Mozilla, and from Mozilla came Firefox, and five years later we’re still enjoying the benefits of a free, open source browser that complies with Web standards and makes browsing a bit safer.

These days Firefox has more competition than it used to (hey there, Chrome, have a seat by Safari and Opera at the table) and, because Firefox is open source, it is often the basis for niche browsers that come and go. Still, it has a special place in my heart, as I’m sure it does in yours.

Here’s to another 5 years, Firefox. And, if you can manage it, do you think by then you’ll have fixed that thing where you hog all my system’s memory? I’d appreciate it.