The Mozilla Foundation has released Version 1.0 of its Firefox browser, an open source product that has generated lofty expectations that it will offer real competition to Microsoft's ubiquitous Internet Explorer.

A preview release of Firefox available since last month has been downloaded over eight million times, the Mozilla Foundation said in a press release Tuesday.

Firefox 1.0 is available in 12 languages for Microsoft's Windows, Apple's Mac OS X and Linux. The product can be obtained through Mozilla's Web site as a free download or in CD format with a user's manual for $14.95.

The result of an open source project, Firefox became a reality "thanks to the tireless efforts of hundreds of community volunteers and developers around the world," the Mozilla Foundation said.

Firefox 1.0 features an integrated pop-up ad blocker, and safeguards against online scams such as phishing and spoofing by displaying secure sites' identities, the Mozilla Foundation said.

The product also attempts to improve the browsing experience by consolidating multiple Web pages into a single Window and organizing them with tabs, a feature the Mozilla Foundation calls "tabbed browsing."

For those concerned about a bumpy migration to Firefox from other browsers, the product can import bookmarks, passwords and cookies, the Mozilla Foundation said.

The Mozilla Foundation, in Mountain View, Calif., is a nonprofit organization founded in July 2003 to support the Mozilla open source software project, launched by Netscape in 1998.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.