Mozilla

Mozilla is a free software community that started in 1998. It was begun by people from Netscape. This community works together to make, share, and support software that anyone can use and change freely. They focus on open standards, which help technology work well together for everyone.

The work of the Mozilla community is supported by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation. These groups help keep the community active and support its projects.

Today, Mozilla offers several useful tools. These include the Firefox web browser, which helps people use the internet safely and easily. They also have Thunderbird for managing emails, the Bugzilla system to help track software problems, and the Gecko layout engine that helps websites look good on different devices. These products show how Mozilla helps make the internet better for everyone.

History

On January 23, 1998, Netscape announced that its Netscape Communicator browser software would be free, and that its source code would also be free. The next day, Jamie Zawinski of Netscape created mozilla.org. The project was named "Mozilla" after the original code name of the Netscape Navigator browser—a mix of "Mosaic and Godzilla". A small group of Netscape employees began organizing this new community.

Mozilla started by helping companies like Netscape use free software. But when Netscape's parent company AOL reduced its support in 2003, the Mozilla Foundation took over. Mozilla then created separate apps, such as the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email client, for the public.

Mozilla grew in many ways over the years, including making apps for Android, trying a mobile operating system called Firefox OS, and creating a system for online identity called Mozilla Persona.

In late 2013, Mozilla made a deal with Cisco so that Firefox could play certain videos.

In 2017, Mozilla changed its logo. In 2020, Mozilla had to let go of many workers to save money, as the use of Firefox had dropped a lot. In 2024, Mozilla introduced a new motto: "Reclaim the Internet".

Values

Mozilla is a group that wants to make the internet better for everyone. They make software that is free for all people to use and follows open standards. They also work on new ways to help the internet grow, while still keeping their main product, Firefox, important.

Mozilla has a set of ideas called the Mozilla Manifesto. These ideas say that the internet is important for learning, talking with others, working, and having fun. They believe the internet should stay open for everyone and that people’s safety and privacy online matter a lot. They also think people should help shape how the internet works and that new ideas are important for making the internet better for all.

Venture incubation

Mozilla started a program called Mozilla Builders in 2020 to help fix problems on the internet. It helped 80 projects through three groups: The Startup Studio, The MVP Lab, and The Open Lab. You can see more about this program on its archived website.

In November 2022, Mozilla announced Mozilla Ventures. This program helps new businesses that want to make the internet better. It started in early 2023 with $35 million to support these businesses. The first three companies to get help from Mozilla Ventures are Secure AI Labs, Block Party, and HeyLogin.

Software

Firefox

Firefox is a group of software made by Mozilla, with the Firefox browser as its main product.

Firefox browser

Main article: Firefox

The Firefox web browser works on both computers and mobile devices. It uses the Gecko layout engine to show web pages, which follows current web standards. Firefox was used by about 10–11% of all web browsers worldwide by late 2015, making it the fourth most popular browser.

Firefox began as an experimental project from the Mozilla codebase by Dave Hyatt, Joe Hewitt, and Blake Ross. They thought the Mozilla browser's extra features and commercial needs made it less useful, so they created a simpler, stand-alone browser to replace the older version.

Firefox was first called Phoenix but the name changed to avoid legal issues with Phoenix Technologies. The next planned name, Firebird, was also changed because of concerns from the Firebird project community. The current name, Firefox, was chosen on February 9, 2004.

Firefox for mobile

Main articles: Firefox for Android and Firefox for iOS

Firefox for mobile (code named Fennec) is the version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser for devices like smartphones and tablets. It is now available in two versions: Firefox for Android and Firefox for iOS. Firefox for Android runs on the Android mobile operating system and uses the same Gecko layout engine as Mozilla Firefox. Firefox for iOS, which runs on the iOS mobile operating system, does not use the Gecko Layout Engine because Apple requires all web browsers on iOS to use its built-in WebKit engine. Both versions include features like HTML5 support, Firefox Sync, private browsing, web tracking protection, and tabbed browsing. Firefox for Android also supports add-ons.

Firefox Focus

Main article: Firefox Focus

Firefox Focus is a free and open-source privacy-focused mobile browser for Android and iOS. It was first released in 2015 as a tracker-blocking app for iOS and has since grown into a full mobile browser for both iOS and Android.

Firefox Lockwise

Main article: Firefox Lockwise

Firefox Lockwise was a password manager provided by Mozilla. On computers, it was built into the Firefox browser. On mobile devices, it was offered as a separate app that could be set as the device's default password manager.

Firefox Monitor

Main article: Firefox Monitor

Firefox Monitor is an online service that tells users if their email address and passwords have appeared in data breaches.

Firefox Send

Main article: Firefox Send

Firefox Send was an online encrypted file-transfer service offered by Mozilla. In September 2020, Mozilla announced that it would stop the service and it is no longer part of their products.

Solo AI Website Creator

Main article: Solo AI Website Creator

Solo is a free AI website builder for independent business owners.

Tabstack

Tabstack is an AI developer platform from Mozilla that helps create automated web interactions and data collection for AI applications.

Mozilla VPN

Mozilla VPN, formerly Firefox Private Network, is a paid VPN service and a free privacy extension.

A-Frame

Main article: A-Frame (virtual reality framework)

Mozilla created A-Frame, an open-source web framework designed to make it easier to build virtual reality (VR) and 3D experiences in web browsers. Released in 2015, A-Frame is built on WebGL and uses HTML-like commands, making it friendly for web developers without needing advanced 3D programming skills. A-Frame lets users create immersive VR experiences that work on many devices, from computer browsers to mobile VR headsets like Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard. It also works with other web technologies, like Three.js, to give developers more tools. As part of Mozilla's efforts to support the open and immersive web, A-Frame has helped make VR development more accessible. It allows creators to build and share VR content directly through web browsers, without needing special software or apps. A-Frame has become widely used in the web development and VR communities, with contributions from developers around the world. Mozilla continues to support the project as part of its commitment to an open and immersive web.

Firefox Private Relay

Firefox Private Relay provides users with special email addresses that can help protect against unwanted messages by hiding the user's real email address and organizing subscriptions.

Firefox Relay was first released as a Firefox add-on on April 9, 2020. Mozilla announced Firefox Relay Premium monthly subscription service, ending Beta version of Firefox Relay on November 19, 2021. With the subscription, users can receive unlimited special emails as username@username.mozmail.com as @relay.firefox.com. Instead of the anonymous email addresses provided, @mozmail.com email addresses are now used.

Firefox Reality

In September 2018, Mozilla announced that its VR version was ready for people to download. Called Firefox Reality, the browser was made just for virtual reality. It is currently available for the Oculus.

In January 2019, HTC announced its partnership with Mozilla, making the Firefox Reality web browser available on Vive headsets.

In February 2022, Mozilla announced that Igalia had taken over management of the project, which was renamed to Wolvic. Mozilla no longer supports Firefox Reality.

Firefox OS

Main article: Firefox OS

Firefox OS (project name: Boot to Gecko also known as B2G) is a free software operating system made by Mozilla to support HTML5 apps written using "open Web" technologies instead of technologies specific to one platform. The idea behind Firefox OS is that all software accessible to users will be HTML5 applications, using Open Web APIs to directly control the phone's hardware through JavaScript.

Some devices using this operating system include Alcatel One Touch Fire, ZTE Open, and LG Fireweb.

Mozilla announced the end of Firefox OS development in December 2015. A version called KaiOS, has continued development and is used in many low-cost devices.

Pocket

Main article: Pocket (service)

Pocket was a mobile application and web service for organizing a list of articles to read from the Internet. It was announced that it would be bought by the Mozilla Corporation, the business side of Mozilla's non-profit group, on February 27, 2017. Originally made just for computer browsers, it worked on macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Kobo eReaders, and web browsers. Pocket was closed down on July 8, 2025.

Thunderbird

Thunderbird is a free software, cross-platform email and news client made by volunteers from the Mozilla Community.

On July 16, 2012, Mitchell Baker announced that Mozilla's leaders decided that keeping Thunderbird stable was the most important goal and that new features for Thunderbird were no longer a priority for Mozilla. In that announcement, Baker also mentioned that Mozilla had provided a way for its community to continue developing new features for Thunderbird if they wanted to.

On July 11, 2023, the Thunderbird blog announced the release of a new version of Thunderbird called Supernova. It has a new, modern user interface, among other new features. Changes have also been made to the older code to make it easier to maintain and update.

SeaMonkey

Main article: SeaMonkey

SeaMonkey (formerly the Mozilla Application Suite) is a free and open-source suite of Internet tools including a web browser, an email and Usenet newsgroup message client, an HTML editor (Mozilla Composer), and the ChatZilla IRC chat client.

On March 10, 2005, the Mozilla Foundation announced that it would not release any official versions of the Mozilla Application Suite beyond 1.7.x, because it had now focused on the separate applications Firefox and Thunderbird. SeaMonkey is now maintained by the SeaMonkey Council, which has trademarked the SeaMonkey name with help from the Mozilla Foundation. The Mozilla Foundation provides space for the SeaMonkey developers to work.

Bugzilla

Main article: Bugzilla

Bugzilla is a web-based system for tracking problems and issues, released as free software by Netscape Communications in 1998 along with the rest of the Mozilla codebase. It is now managed by Mozilla. It is used by many groups to track issues for both free and open-source software and proprietary products and projects, including the Mozilla Foundation, the Linux kernel, KDE, Red Hat, Eclipse and LibreOffice.

WebThings

WebThings is a system that let people manage IoT devices through one framework, gateway and user interface. It was based on the W3C Web of Things standard. Since 2020, it is no longer connected to Mozilla. It became an independent project after job cuts in 2020. It was known as Project Things and let users use a Raspberry Pi as a central point for managing IoT devices with decentralized software.

Components

NSS

Main article: Network Security Services

Network Security Services (NSS) is a group of libraries designed to help cross-platform development of security features for applications. NSS provides a complete free software version of crypto libraries that support SSL and S/MIME. NSS is licensed under the GPL-compatible Mozilla Public License 2.0.

AOL, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems/Oracle Corporation, Google and other companies and individuals helped create NSS, and it is used in many products not made by Mozilla, including Evolution, Pidgin, and LibreOffice.

SpiderMonkey

Main article: SpiderMonkey

SpiderMonkey is the original JavaScript engine created by Brendan Eich when he invented JavaScript in 1995 at Netscape. It became part of the Mozilla product family when Mozilla took over Netscape's code in 1998. In 2011, Eich gave the ownership of the SpiderMonkey code and project to Dave Mandelin.

SpiderMonkey is a cross-platform engine written in C++ that follows ECMAScript, a standard based on JavaScript. It includes an interpreter, several just-in-time compilers, a decompiler and a garbage collector. Products that use SpiderMonkey include Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, and many applications outside of Mozilla.

Rhino

Main article: Rhino (JavaScript engine)

Rhino is a free software JavaScript engine. Developed entirely in Java, it turns JavaScript scripts into Java classes. It works in both compiled and interpreted modes.

Gecko

Main article: Gecko (software)

Gecko is a layout engine that supports web pages written using HTML, SVG, and MathML. Written in C++, it uses NSPR for platform independence. Its code is licensed under the Mozilla Public License.

Firefox uses Gecko to show web pages and its user interface. Gecko is also used by Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, and many applications outside of Mozilla.

Rust

Main article: Rust (programming language)

Rust is a compiled programming language. It is designed to be safe, work well with other tasks at the same time, and perform well. It is meant for creating large, complex software that must be both fast and safe from attacks.

Rust is used in an experimental layout engine, Servo, developed by Mozilla and Samsung. Although Servo is not yet used in any browsers for everyday users, the developers plan to gradually add parts of its code into Gecko and Firefox.

XULRunner

Main article: XULRunner

XULRunner is a software platform and experiment that lets applications built with the same technology as Firefox extensions (XPCOM, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, XUL) run as regular computer programs, without needing Firefox installed. XULRunner works on Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems, allowing these applications to work across different systems.

pdf.js

Main article: pdf.js

Pdf.js is a tool that lets web browsers show PDF documents using HTML5 Canvas and JavaScript. It is included in Firefox and Thunderbird by default, letting the browser show and edit PDF documents without needing a separate program. It is also available as an add-on, "PDF Viewer", for Firefox for Android, SeaMonkey, and versions of Firefox that do not include it built-in. It can also be used as part of a website's code, to show PDF documents in any browser that supports the needed HTML5 features and can run JavaScript.

Sccache

sccache is a tool to help with compiling code, written in Rust, similar to Ccache. It acts as a helper for compilers to avoid unnecessary work, storing saved results on local computers or various online storage services. sccache supports caching for C/C++ code, Rust, and NVIDIA's CUDA using NVCC (compiler).

Shumway

Main article: Shumway (software)

Shumway is a free software replacement for Adobe Flash Player developed since 2012, using open web technologies instead of Flash technologies. It uses JavaScript and HTML5 Canvas to show Flash and run ActionScript. It is included in Firefox Nightly by default and can be added as an extension for any recent version of Firefox. The last version could only show simple Flash projects. The project was stopped in 2016.

Servo

Main article: Servo (software)

Servo is a browser engine being developed for use in applications and special purposes. In August 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mozilla laid off most of the Servo development team due to lack of money and changes in the organization. Servo then became part of the Linux Foundation, where development continues.

SOPS: Secrets OPerationS

SOPS is a tool for editing encrypted files that works with YAML, JSON, ENV, INI, and BINARY formats and uses encryption from AWS KMS, GCP KMS, Azure Key Vault, age, and PGP.

Taskcluster

Taskcluster is a system for managing tasks that helps with Mozilla's automatic building and testing. First made for Firefox's automatic builds and tests, it is a flexible, scalable open-source system. Taskcluster is used a lot for building and releasing Firefox, Thunderbird, NSS, and other Mozilla projects.

WebXR Viewer

WebXR Viewer is a tool for creating and running AR experiences using web technologies and ARKit.

Other activities

Mozilla has worked on many projects to improve the internet and technology for everyone.

Mozilla made tools for virtual reality to make the web more interactive, but they stopped this work in 2024. They also had a system that made logging into websites easier, but it stopped working in 2016. Another project gave free location information, but this will stop by July 2024.

Mozilla has a big website called MDN Web Docs that teaches people about web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They started a project called Common Voice to help make voice recognition technology free for everyone. People can help by reading sentences on the website.

Mozilla also has a project called IRL that looks at important stories about how the internet affects our lives.

Controversies

Mozilla has faced some issues over the years.

In 2014, they added a feature showing ads based on what people looked at online, but they stopped it in 2015 because people were worried.

In 2017, Mozilla added a surprise feature to Firefox called "Looking Glass" without telling users first. This made people unhappy, so they apologized and shared the feature's code.

Also in 2017, Mozilla tested a new search tool with a few users in Germany. Some people were upset because it used their browsing history to suggest search results.

In 2020, Mozilla sent messages about their own blog post to users without asking, which upset many Firefox users.

Mozilla settled some labor issues in 2025 related to hiring, agreeing to pay for lost benefits and wages.

In 2024, Mozilla ended a partnership after people raised concerns about the company's past ties to data aggregators.

A former officer filed a lawsuit in 2024 alleging discrimination after taking time off for cancer treatment. The case was settled in 2025.

In 2024, a group complained about a Firefox feature, saying it tracked users without permission.

Mozilla changed its terms in 2025, which caused concerns about privacy. They later changed some wording after getting feedback.

Community

The Mozilla Community has many members from around the world. These members, both paid workers and volunteers, work together to support the goals listed in the Mozilla Manifesto. Some groups focus on helping people speak different languages use Mozilla Firefox and other Mozilla websites.

There are also groups based on where people live. They work together on tasks like helping others use the internet or sharing information. In 2017, Mozilla started a challenge called Wireless Innovation for Network Security (WINS). This challenge gave away money to people who created new ways to connect the internet after natural disasters. It also aimed to help places that did not yet have internet access.

The Mozilla Reps program was a volunteer program. Volunteers needed to be at least 18 years old. They helped find new members, held workshops, and went to Mozilla meetings. This program ended in 2023.

Conferences and events

Mozilla Festival

The Mozilla Festival, also called MozFest, is a special yearly event. It mixes online and in-person activities. People from all over the world join, including technology experts, artists, teachers, activists, and researchers. In 2021, the festival was held online and had many participants from many countries. They talked about important subjects like human rights, climate justice, and creating safe and helpful artificial intelligence.

MozFest lasts two weeks and has many activities. These include discussions, movies, talks, and special events. Topics include keeping information private, solving problems with false information online, creating free tools for everyone, and making artificial intelligence safe and helpful.

MozCamps

MozCamps are events that last several days. They help grow the group of people who support Mozilla by having talks, workshops, and smaller meetings. These camps used to happen in many places around the world, but they have not been held since 2014.

Mozilla Summit

The Mozilla Summit was a big meeting where active members and Mozilla workers came together. In 2013, many people from many countries and languages met in different cities. The last Summit was in 2017. After that, Mozilla started smaller meetings called All Hands. In these meetings, workers and volunteers meet to work together.