Smartfox - Direct copy of Firefox
The SmartFox Internet Browser is a fast, safe and secure open source alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Based on 100% open source mozilla technology, SmartFox enhances your internet experience by providing advanced features such as pop-up blocking, internet acceleration, spyware protection, strengthened privacy, tabbed browsing and much more in one easy to use, intuitive user interface.
Sounds like Mozilla Firefox? If you think so, it's no surprise. SmartFox is a direct copy of Mozilla Firefox 0.8. This can be verified by checking out the source of SmartFox which is available here. The only changes made it to the naming and the images. No code change what so ever.
Thanx to Daniel Glazman for spotting this.
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6 Comments
I dont see this as a problem. I'm just mentioning it.
According to Daniel's blog there's still some Firefox strings in the Smartfox source. They should remove those.
I don't know what to feel really. I mean, it's good that it is on download.com and stuff, but they are 'selling' a browser that's not even at 1.0 yet as a stable version. They could at least wait until 0.9 FINAL or something. Reading through the comments on download.com (http://download.com.com/3302-2356_4-10291248.html) It seems as if most users know that it is just FFx with a differant name. Just, why? To get hits on a page?
Their site is certainly not helping me understand why i should use Smartfox instead of Firefox.
Comment by ap at March 14, 2005 04:35 PM | Permalink
I don't think it's a problem. They acknowledge Mozilla and don't seem to have anybad motivations (the support page directs people to donate to the official Mozilla store).
Just remember that as Firefox is a trademark of the Mozilla Foundation if they want to make a few changes to firefox (even if relatively minor) then they should give it a different name to avoid branding confusion.
Comment by Dave at June 15, 2004 12:32 PM | Permalink