What Do You Need to Run Firefox?

If your computer is capable of getting on the web, chances are very good that there's a version of Firefox you can install on your computer. Firefox runs on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh computers. Here's what you need to run Firefox on each type of system.

Windows

Firefox runs on virtually all versions of Windows currently in popular usage: Windows 98, 98SE, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP (recommended), and Windows Server 2003.

You also need the following minimum hardware requirements:

• Pentium 233 MHz (a Pentium 500 MHz or greater is recommended)

• 64 MB RAM (128 MB RAM or greater is recommended)

• 52 MB of hard drive space

Linux

For Linux, you need the Linux kernel 2.2.14 with at least the following libraries or packages:

• glibc 2.3.2

• XFree86-3.3.6

• gtk+2.0

• fontconfig (also known as xft)

• libstdc++5

Firefox has been tested on Red Hat Linux 8.0 and later. You also need the following minimum hardware requirements:

• Intel Pentium II or AMD K6-III+ 233 MHz CPU (a Pentium 500 MHz or greater is recommended)

• 64 MB RAM (128 MB RAM or greater is recommended)

• 52 MB of hard drive space

Note

Linux distributors may provide packages for your distribution that have different requirements.

Macintosh

Firefox runs on Mac OS X 10.1.x and later versions.

You also need the following minimum hardware requirements:

• PowerPC 604e 266 MHz (a PowerPC G4 667 MHz or greater is recommended)

• G3, G4, 64 MB RAM (256 MB RAM or greater is recommended)

• 72 MB of hard drive space

In other words, you can install Firefox on almost any computer that you can run almost any browser on.

Note

Users have reported that they have successfully installed and used Firefox 1.0 on computers with significantly less horsepower than the requirements listed here. Feel free to try it if you're feeling adventurous, and then drop the folks at Mozilla a line on how it all worked out. But don't be surprised if there are problems with speed or missing features.

FAQ: Why not use Mozilla?

Because Mozilla's been around longer, you might think it'd be better to use Mozilla than Firefox. Actually, Mozilla (also known as the Mozilla Application Suite or Mozilla 1.x) is an all-in-one Internet solution that includes a browser, email client, HTML editor, and IRC chat client, as well as an array of development tools. However, Mozilla doesn't have many of the advantages of Firefox, such as customizable toolbars. Firefox is also small and fast, which makes it a better choice for browsing. In addition, although Thunderbird is a wonderful email program, there's no reason to download the entire Mozilla suite if you want to use only the browser. You can even add IRC capabilities to Firefox with an extension. (You can get more information on selecting the right products for you at http://www.mozilla.org/products/choosing-products.html.)