Mozilla Firefox

CNET Editors' review

Mozilla Firefox maintains its position among the top browsers, while continuing to boast its signature full-featured and open browsing experience. Though it might not have been the pioneer of such concepts like tabbed browsing, it was a catalyst for bringing the concept to mainstream audiences. These features are complemented by an impressive library of over 10,000 extensions that add even more functionality and value to users, thanks to its robust browser. The more recent releases have brought significant improvements to managing memory usage, and Firefox's private-browsing features have gotten more advanced, as well.

Firefox has also ramped up its Social API in recent versions, allowing for direct connections with the Facebook platform; version 21 opens up more networks to connect with by integrating MSN Now, Cliqz, and Mixi services directly into the browser interface. The "Do Not Track" privacy features in Firefox have also been updated, bringing new "neutral" default settings; that means neither "track me" nor "do not track me." However, it's still unclear how the default setting will behave any differently than picking "track me."

Version 21 also adds a monitoring tool called "Heath Report." The Health Report includes a Raw Data feed showing every item that's been scanned and tracked. This graphical representation of browser performance is designed to give users valuable data about startup time, extensions, crashes, and uptime--as well as send data back (if allowed by the user) to Mozilla to help the Firefox team build a better browser. Firefox also allows users to toggle sharing off--via a huge "Data Sharing" button at the top of the interface, or users can disable the entire Health Report via Tools > Options > Advanced > Data Choices.

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All User Reviews
  • All versions:

    4.3 stars

    out of 15,292 votes

    • 5 star: 10217
    • 4 star: 2389
    • 3 star: 950
    • 2 star: 611
    • 1 star: 1125
  • Current version:

    3.2 stars

    out of 34 votes

    • 5 star: 7
    • 4 star: 8
    • 3 star: 7
    • 2 star: 8
    • 1 star: 4
  • My rating:

    0 stars

    Write review

Results 1-10 of 34

  • 2.0 stars

    "Crashes Always"

    June 19, 2013  |   By cmaijer

    Version: Mozilla Firefox 21

    Pros

    It was great in the beginning, was easy to navigate

    Cons

    Crashes, Flash Player doesn't work properly and can not get help fixing it. It became a pain to use and felt like the developers gave up!!

    Summary

    Piece of Crap software with to many issues

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  • 4.0 stars

    "Gets the job done."

    June 18, 2013  |   By RMax304823

    Version: Mozilla Firefox 21

    Pros

    Fast, easy interface. An abundance of Add-Ons and Plug-Ins. No problems with installation or use.

    Cons

    I prefer the previous version. It took a few less clicks to get from one page to another. And some of the changes seem arbitrary -- change for the sake of change. I'm also used to the older version and some habits become automatized. It takes a bit of effort to readjust and I'm not sure it's worth it.

    Summary

    No reason to avoid it.

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Trinh Duyet Mozilla Firefox"

    June 14, 2013  |   By canhtay

    Version: Mozilla Firefox 21

    Pros

    Hoat dong tot

    Cons

    de su dung

    Summary

    Trinh duyet web tot nhat

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  • 3.0 stars

    "Still deciding"

    June 14, 2013  |   By medavee

    Version: Mozilla Firefox 21

    Pros

    Seems to work better that IE that I use on my desktop.

    Cons

    The one page that I use all the time, it always makes me hit the allow button to let it come up

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  • 2.0 stars

    "Disappointing![2]"

    June 11, 2013  |   By gcacars

    Version: Mozilla Firefox 21

    Pros

    Fast tab switch, UI, smooth navigation

    Cons

    After version 19, just about everything. Blurry fonts, crashes all the time, changes the focus of the windows like a virus, super slowly css3 animations, unsuported css3 properties and flash slow and crashing.

    Summary

    I love Firefox, but lately I'm preferring chrome for various things.

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  • 2.0 stars

    "Disappointing!"

    June 10, 2013  |   By stig1111

    Version: Mozilla Firefox 21

    Pros

    Good Lay-out.

    Cons

    Very slow with lots of "Not Responding" delays.

    Summary

    Have been using Mozilla Firefox for many years up until now. Went to Google Chrome which so far is light years faster with no delays.

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  • 4.0 stars

    "Good Browser"

    June 9, 2013  |   By MaicaLosom

    Version: Mozilla Firefox 21

    Pros

    This is one of the browsers I use but i still think GC is still the best because Mozilla is a bit slow and I am not a fan of it's interface.

    Cons

    Sometimes crashing

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Firefox runs fast and stable for me."

    June 8, 2013  |   By wyzwyk

    Version: Mozilla Firefox 21

    Pros

    I love being able to customize this browser with addon extensions. This is very important for me. I'm far more interested in having a browser that's reasonably fast with a huge feature set than having a blazing fast browser with fewer and lower quality addons.

    Cons

    I don't have anything major to complain about at this time.

    Summary

    For the past four releases of this browser I have been running it solely on a linux distribution, no longer dual booting with Windows 7. Firefox runs great on my Linux Mint 14 KDE 64 bit operating system. It's pretty fast and, most importantly, has been rock stable. Very seldomly does it crash.

    To me it seems that many of these Firefox releases outwardly differ very little from previous releases. What's different is so often stuff of secondary interest or esoteric changes "under the hood". The question begs, if there are so few discernable differences from release to release why have so many of them? I can't remember the last time I saw a new Firefox feature that really wowed me, yet the developers at Mozilla are hell-bent on adding new features all the time. The features I most want are likely to be found in the addon extension repository.

    I understand the UI for Firefox will get a huge makeover come version 25. While I find it intriguing in some ways I also have some fears, notably that the developers will carry the trend toward minimalism too far and not give users enough ways to customize their browsers. Being able to tweak the look and feel is a big part of using Firefox for many people. My worst fear is that the Mozilla developers will make change for change's sake, not a meaningful well thought out design. Computer users don't need another Windows 8 or linux Gnome 3 desktop!

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  • 4.0 stars

    "Does the job"

    June 8, 2013  |   By Lizthewiz

    Version: Mozilla Firefox 21

    Pros

    It does the job and it is better and faster than IE.

    Cons

    It crashes sometimes and sometimes it hangs for some reason when opening graphics, flash etc. etc

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  • 3.0 stars

    "One of the best there is :) :)"

    June 4, 2013  |   By jaymans

    Version: Mozilla Firefox 21

    Pros

    rocks nothing compares

    Cons

    none nothing to report :)

    Summary

    Good but if you want better go with Palemoons (FIREFOX) best browsers on the market been using it 8 months problem free crap chrome or google garbage quits you know it's garbage when your computer doesn't like it lol

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Results 1-10 of 34

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