Firefox

Firefox is a popular web browser published by the Mozilla Foundation. You may already be using it on Windows or Mac. It is very good at rendering and has many extensions available from the addons website.

History
Firefox is part of the Mozilla family - it uses the Gecko rendering engine, which came from the Mozilla web suite browser. The Mozilla project came about when Netscape decided to release the source code to their browser as Free Software.

Installing Firefox on Debian
To install Firefox on Debian, run the following commands as root: debian:/root# apt-get install firefox

IceWeasel naming controversy
Due to some issues with trademarks held by the Mozilla Foundation, Debian has been forced to rename Firefox to allow their modifications without violating trademarks. This rename is expected to take place before the release of Debian 4.0 (Etch).

Thunderbird has already been renamed IceDove, and Seamonkey will be packaged as IceApe.

The GNU Project has also forked Firefox, excluding the proprietary Talkback software and adding extra privacy features. This project is also called IceWeasel, and should not be confused with the Debian IceWeasel, which is simply a rename. See the GNUzilla website.

Extensions
On the Mozilla addons website you can find a lot of extensions that can add features, fix problems and hide annoyances on the Web. Some of the most popular extensions are:
 * Adblock - this extension blocks ads based on URL patterns
 * Adblock Filterset.G Updater - this extension loads a large list of URL patterns into Adblock
 * CustomizeGoogle - this extension enables the Google search page to be enhanced
 * Fasterfox - this extension optimises Firefox network settings for better performance.

All of these extensions can be downloaded off addons.mozilla.org.

Links

 * The Firefox website