Chapter 9. Surfing the Web with Firefox
IN THIS CHAPTER
Reviewing the history of Firefox
Using Firefox
Configuring Firefox
Working with Bookmarks
Extending Firefox
Like all open source software, many Web browsers are available for installation on your Ubuntu Linux system. Desktop systems such as GNOME and KDE both have multipurpose object browsers (Nautilus and Konqueror, respectively) that can also browse Web pages and are fine for that purpose if you want to learn only one tool and use it for almost everything. However, Ubuntu installs the Mozilla project's Firefox browser as its default Web browser for a good reason—it's the best Web browser available on Linux systems (and on any other system too, IMHO). Firefox is the most popular open source browser available today, and is the only browser in the last decade or so to have actually taken market share away from Internet Explorer. Many of the innovations that Microsoft Windows users are looking forward to in upcoming releases of Internet Explorer were first introduced in Firefox and have been present for quite a few versions.
This chapter starts out with a bit of history that explains what a long strange trip it's been for Firefox, and then discusses how to start, configure, use, and customize Firefox.
A Quick History of Firefox
Firefox has what is perhaps the best possible pedigree in Web browsing history—it is the latest descendant of the original Mosaic Web browser, the original graphical Web browser for Unix systems. Mosaic was created ...
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