The Mozilla Foundation today unleashed its long-awaited Firefox 1.0 web browser.

The release follows hot on the heels of last month's Preview Release, which the non-profit making organisation reports has already been downloaded by over eight million people.

The announcement marks the worldwide launch of Mozilla Firefox, with immediate availability for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux as a free download from Mozilla.org.

The browser is currently available in over a dozen languages, with "many more on the way".

"We are delighted to be announcing this major milestone for the Mozilla Foundation and for the Firefox browser, which has been made possible thanks to the tireless effort of hundreds of community volunteers and developers around the world," said Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla Foundation.

The browser ships with features including automatic pop-up blocking, online fraud protection to help users fight off phishing scams and improved search functionality.

According to Mozilla, Firefox's Tabbed Browsing facility, which allows many web pages to load within the same window, can boost web surfing speed.

The organisation added that the product has been designed to make it easy to switch from Internet Explorer and other browsers by offering support for importing existing bookmarks, passwords, cookies and other data.

Online documentation, tutorials, FAQs and links to commercial support partners are available at Mozilla.org.