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What they mean is, all versions of Firefox put together (2, 3, 3.5) have surpassed one version of Internet Explorer (6), the oldest one.

It's also something that varies by region. Looking at browser versions in Europe, Firefox 3 is on the heels of IE 7, and well ahead of IE 6, which is then followed by Opera 9.6 and Firefox 2. Safari, Chrome, and Opera 9.2 are well behind. Firefox 3.0 and 3.5 are not differentiated, nor are sub-versions of IE 6. Opera 10 and IE 8 do not show yet - they are probably bundled in the "others" category. http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-eu-monthly-200902-200902-bar

something a bit more current (last 3 days so not stat significant):
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-eu-monthly-200911-200911-bar - FF3.5 is most popular in Europe (ie6 has half of FF3.0)
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-na-monthly-200911-200911-bar - IE7 is most popular in US (ie6 ~= safari)

overall
EU (50% v 40%)
US (60% v 30%)

something a bit more current (last 3 days so not stat significant):
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-eu-monthly-200911-200911-bar - FF3.5 is most popular in Europe (ie6 has half of FF3.0)
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-na-monthly-200911-200911-bar - IE7 is most popular in US (ie6 ~= safari)

overall
EU (50% v 40%)
US (60% v 30%)

something a bit more current (last 3 days so not stat significant):
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-eu-monthly-200911-200911-bar - FF3.5 is most popular in Europe (ie6 has half of FF3.0)
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-na-monthly-200911-200911-bar - IE7 is most popular in US (ie6 ~= safari)

overall
EU (50% v 40%)
US (60% v 30%)

something a bit more current (last 3 days so not stat significant):
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-eu-monthly-200911-200911-bar - FF3.5 is most popular in Europe (ie6 has half of FF3.0)
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-na-monthly-200911-200911-bar - IE7 is most popular in US (ie6 ~= safari)

overall
EU (50% v 40%)
US (60% v 30%)

Hi,

I work at StatCounter and I would just like to point out that we have a very diverse sample size from around the world.

As per http://gs.statcounter.com/faq#sample-size for July 2009 here was the breakdown of our sample pageviews for the month.

        * 1.3 billion United States
        * 570 million Brazil
        * 280 million Turkey
        * 260 million Germany
        * 250 million Thailand
        * 240 million China
        * 240 million United Kingdom
        * 180 million Indonesia
        * 160 million Canada
        * 140 million India
        * 109 million Russia

Opera is also listed as #3 for Europe, ahead of Safari and Chrome. The gap between Firefox (all versions) and IE (all versions) is also rather narrower for Europe than for North America.
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-eu-monthly-200902-200902-bar
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-na-monthly-200902-200902-bar

Opera is also listed as #3 for Europe, ahead of Safari and Chrome. The gap between Firefox (all versions) and IE (all versions) is also rather narrower for Europe than for North America.
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-eu-monthly-200902-200902-bar
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-na-monthly-200902-200902-bar

And Firefox has a 100.0% share in Antarctica (maybe just 1 user?) http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-an-monthly-200902-200902-bar

Mac OS X climbed nearly the same amount that Windows fell -- 0.25 percentage points -- to finish above 5% for the first time under Net Applications revised its methodology.

So, XP fell 0.2%, win7 rose 0.3%, but OS X rose 0.25%. Considering that the source for their data, hitslink, doesn't even have OS 10.6 up on their survey yet, I'd say the interpretation that Windows 7 is the one eating Vista's market share is unfounded, it's much more likely that it's a combination of losses to apple and win7.

Moreover, if you look at other stats like statcounter, the monthly data shows no decrease in Windows Vista adoption rate (i.e., still increasing usage share), but still shows OS X increasing its market share.

Basically, there's just as much evidence that it's snow leopard that's eating Vista's lunch as it is win7. Win7 installs could easily be coming from people who skipped vista.

It's true that Windows has been losing ground, but it's OSX that has been gaining, they are up to almost 10% share last time I looked, just a few years ago they were at less than 5%, so that's pretty darn good.

Not sure where the 10% is coming from, but your supposed 5% stat from a few years ago seems to be more accurate for today's market share.

The iPhone is not ahead of Opera. Net Applications is useless, so you shouldn't trust them. They even admitted to having completely bogus stats recently.

How about the browser with the biggest share of the mobile phone market

You mean Opera?

Also from that link is these stats:
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-RU-monthly-200901-200906

as you can see, in Soviet Russia, Opera browses you.

Opera wasn't free some time ago, but is free for quite some time. And I doubt http://gs.statcounter.com/ -s results are correct for republic of Georgia.

The only problem Opera has is that no body is using it on the PC platform

Opera has more than 40 million PC users, and growing. It's bigger than Safari and Chrome combined in Europe. It's #3 and bigger than Safari and Chrome worldwide as well, but not by that much. Opera is the #1 browser in countries like Russia.

The only problem Opera has is that no body is using it on the PC platform

Opera has more than 40 million PC users, and growing. It's bigger than Safari and Chrome combined in Europe. It's #3 and bigger than Safari and Chrome worldwide as well, but not by that much. Opera is the #1 browser in countries like Russia.

It is an underdog mainly because it makes up such a tiny portion of the browser market

Then Safari and Chrome are as well. Opera is bigger than Safari and Chrome combined in Europe. It's #3 and bigger than Safari and Chrome worldwide as well, but not by that much. Opera is the #1 browser in countries like Russia.

It is an underdog mainly because it makes up such a tiny portion of the browser market

Then Safari and Chrome are as well. Opera is bigger than Safari and Chrome combined in Europe. It's #3 and bigger than Safari and Chrome worldwide as well, but not by that much. Opera is the #1 browser in countries like Russia.

Opera is bigger than Safari and Chrome combined in Europe.

As with any set of statistics, it depends on where, when, and how the measurements are taken. Visit this page, and play with the various settings to see how well Opera does in different countries. It seems that anyone who uses eastern European languages prefers Opera.

http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-RU-daily-20080701-20090808

Depends on who you want to believe.

Depends on where you live.

Behold! IE has fallen below 60% officially.

Ignoring the odd European attitude that success is somehow evil and must be punished

I have never heard about this attitude in Europe. And Microsoft is certainly not being punished for its success. It's being punished for breaking the law!

Opera does fine as a mobile browser, but sucks (and has sucked for the better part of a decade) as a desktop browser

Opera's desktop browser is excellent, as a matter of fact.

while others (e.g., Firefox) have managed to gain significant market share in the face of Microsoft's alleged misbehavior.

Actually, Opera is the #3 browser worldwide. It is also #3 in Europe, where it's bigger than Chrome and Safari combined! So clearly, only Firefox has succeeded at gaining significant market share. Even Google with its vast advertising resources has failed to make a dent after nearly a year! And remember, Safari is the default browser on Mac.

The fact is, Firefox is evidence that the market is broken, as Mozilla points out:

"When the only real competition comes from a not for profit open source organization that depends on volunteers for almost half of its work product and nearly all of its marketing and distribution, while more than half a dozen other "traditional" browser vendors with better than I.E. products have had near-zero success encroaching on Microsoft I.E.'s dominance, there's a demonstrable tilt to the playing field. That tilt comes with the distribution channel - default status for the OS bundled Web browser."

That Opera's management couldn't succeed in the desktop marketplace, and instead co-opted some politicians to extort Microsoft into helping distribute their product is rent seeking of the highest order.

Actually, all Opera did was to report Microsoft's criminal activity to the authorities. Mozilla and Google soon joined, fully supporting the complaint and offering their help as interested third parties, exactly like Opera. Also, your racist, xenophobic argument fails for the simple fact that Opera is ahead of both Chrome and Safari in market share. Apparently it's more important for you to lie about Opera than to actually realize that companies like Google and Mozilla are fully backing the complaint as well.

It's rather like if I create a bad tasting drink in my bathtub, then get the government to force Coke and Pepsi to include one bottle of my drink in every six pack they sell.

Actually, it's like if you create a tasty drink, but a dominant player in the market uses its market power to illegaly prevent you from entering the market. You undermine the free market, you face the consequences.

Anyway, you have yet to show how a company which is the #3 browser worldwide and in Europe, and which is seeing massive growth in the market segment where you claim they have "failed" has actually failed. Desktop revenue up more than 100% doesn't sound like "failure" to me.

Ignoring the odd European attitude that success is somehow evil and must be punished

I have never heard about this attitude in Europe. And Microsoft is certainly not being punished for its success. It's being punished for breaking the law!

Opera does fine as a mobile browser, but sucks (and has sucked for the better part of a decade) as a desktop browser

Opera's desktop browser is excellent, as a matter of fact.

while others (e.g., Firefox) have managed to gain significant market share in the face of Microsoft's alleged misbehavior.

Actually, Opera is the #3 browser worldwide. It is also #3 in Europe, where it's bigger than Chrome and Safari combined! So clearly, only Firefox has succeeded at gaining significant market share. Even Google with its vast advertising resources has failed to make a dent after nearly a year! And remember, Safari is the default browser on Mac.

The fact is, Firefox is evidence that the market is broken, as Mozilla points out:

"When the only real competition comes from a not for profit open source organization that depends on volunteers for almost half of its work product and nearly all of its marketing and distribution, while more than half a dozen other "traditional" browser vendors with better than I.E. products have had near-zero success encroaching on Microsoft I.E.'s dominance, there's a demonstrable tilt to the playing field. That tilt comes with the distribution channel - default status for the OS bundled Web browser."

That Opera's management couldn't succeed in the desktop marketplace, and instead co-opted some politicians to extort Microsoft into helping distribute their product is rent seeking of the highest order.

Actually, all Opera did was to report Microsoft's criminal activity to the authorities. Mozilla and Google soon joined, fully supporting the complaint and offering their help as interested third parties, exactly like Opera. Also, your racist, xenophobic argument fails for the simple fact that Opera is ahead of both Chrome and Safari in market share. Apparently it's more important for you to lie about Opera than to actually realize that companies like Google and Mozilla are fully backing the complaint as well.

It's rather like if I create a bad tasting drink in my bathtub, then get the government to force Coke and Pepsi to include one bottle of my drink in every six pack they sell.

Actually, it's like if you create a tasty drink, but a dominant player in the market uses its market power to illegaly prevent you from entering the market. You undermine the free market, you face the consequences.

Anyway, you have yet to show how a company which is the #3 browser worldwide and in Europe, and which is seeing massive growth in the market segment where you claim they have "failed" has actually failed. Desktop revenue up more than 100% doesn't sound like "failure" to me.

Actually, Opera's market share on the desktop is groing, and is about 3%. The desktop user base doubled in less than 2 years. In Europe, Opera is the #3 browser, with a higher market share than Safari and Chrome combined, and closing in on 10%. Your trolling fails again, Microsoft shill :D

Why would Opera make the government force their browser over Firefox and Chrome? Mozilla and Google both joined the antitrust complaint against Microsoft, remember. All Opera did was to report Microsoft's illegal activities to the authorities. They never made the government force anyone to do anything. Opera has no authority over the government.

But hey, keep being an ignorant, hypocritical bigot.

Actually, Opera is the #3 browser in Europe, bigger than Chrome and Safari combined, and closing in on 10% market share. Even Net Applications now lists Opera at 2% worldwide, while the more accurate StatCounter lists it at about 3%.

Actually, Opera is the #3 browser in Europe, bigger than Chrome and Safari combined (and closing in on 10% market share).

Actually, Opera is bigger than Safari and Chrome combined in Europe (last 6 months). Opera should have the #3 spot if it's ordered by market share.

It already is: http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-DE-daily-20080701-20090802 (Warning: Your ad-blocker might block the site. ^^)

Then how come they have the lowest market share even among alternate browsers?

They don't. Opera is the #3 browser worldwide and in Europe. In fact, it's bigger than Safari and Chrome combined in Europe.

People can do that RIGHT NOW, though. What's stopping them? Nothing.

Except for browser sniffing and browser discrimination. Which also happens to other browser than Firefox that are based on Gecko. Just because of their UA string, a lot fewer sites work in those browsers even though it's the exact same engine as Firefox.

Opera can't get people to use their browser because their browser is flawed in some way, or they lack marketing resources to advertise it. But Microsoft has nothing to do with it.

Microsoft has a lot to do with it, as is evident from the state of the browser market.

Then how come they have the lowest market share even among alternate browsers?

They don't. Opera is the #3 browser worldwide and in Europe. In fact, it's bigger than Safari and Chrome combined in Europe.

People can do that RIGHT NOW, though. What's stopping them? Nothing.

Except for browser sniffing and browser discrimination. Which also happens to other browser than Firefox that are based on Gecko. Just because of their UA string, a lot fewer sites work in those browsers even though it's the exact same engine as Firefox.

Opera can't get people to use their browser because their browser is flawed in some way, or they lack marketing resources to advertise it. But Microsoft has nothing to do with it.

Microsoft has a lot to do with it, as is evident from the state of the browser market.

Opera if you want to compete, get off your lazy ass and do it! Firefox is growing, so is Chrome and Safari and without ANY help from the nanny government!

As is Opera. Its desktop user base has doubled in less than two years. They reported having more than 40 million users a few months ago, and it just keeps growing. They also have 20-30 million Opera Mini users (not counting users from preinstalls).

Also, Opera is currently bigger than Safari and Chrome combined in Europe (and also the #3 browser worldwide, but that's less relevant to the EU case.).

Also, why are you whining like a little crybaby over Opera? Both Google and Mozilla joined the complaint, and helped advise the EC, just like Opera did.

Maybe instead of putting dumb ass P2P crap into your browser

What "P2P crap"? Is Slashdot "P2P crap"?

Opera if you want to compete, get off your lazy ass and do it! Firefox is growing, so is Chrome and Safari and without ANY help from the nanny government!

As is Opera. Its desktop user base has doubled in less than two years. They reported having more than 40 million users a few months ago, and it just keeps growing. They also have 20-30 million Opera Mini users (not counting users from preinstalls).

Also, Opera is currently bigger than Safari and Chrome combined in Europe (and also the #3 browser worldwide, but that's less relevant to the EU case.).

Also, why are you whining like a little crybaby over Opera? Both Google and Mozilla joined the complaint, and helped advise the EC, just like Opera did.

Maybe instead of putting dumb ass P2P crap into your browser

What "P2P crap"? Is Slashdot "P2P crap"?

This fits all of them, and it's likely that either Chrome or Opera is in the #5 slot

Actually, is in the #3 slot worldwide, and in Europe, which is where it actually counts, Opera is also #3, and bigger than Chrome and Safari combined.

Still, you're right, the problem with this solution is that it helps maintain status quo. The browser monopoly has been replaced with what amounts to a browser cartel - no one is going to want to be bumped off of that list.

This does in no way maintain status quo. In fact it makes it EASIER for alternative browsers to enter the market because sites will be written for standards rather than for specific browsers, which means that there will be far fewer compatibility problems, which is the main obstacle when it comes to entering the browser market.

This fits all of them, and it's likely that either Chrome or Opera is in the #5 slot

Actually, is in the #3 slot worldwide, and in Europe, which is where it actually counts, Opera is also #3, and bigger than Chrome and Safari combined.

Still, you're right, the problem with this solution is that it helps maintain status quo. The browser monopoly has been replaced with what amounts to a browser cartel - no one is going to want to be bumped off of that list.

This does in no way maintain status quo. In fact it makes it EASIER for alternative browsers to enter the market because sites will be written for standards rather than for specific browsers, which means that there will be far fewer compatibility problems, which is the main obstacle when it comes to entering the browser market.

In Europe, Opera is larger than Chrome and Safari combined. http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-eu-daily-20090625-20090724 It would be Safari getting left out.

I don't just think there aren't any viruses out there that can infect Linux, I know it. I don't think there aren't any trojans out there that can damage my Linux box, I know it. I don't think that any site that tries to run a drive-by download on my box will fail, I know it. As long as the above statements are true for Linux out-of-the-box and aren't for a clean install of any version of Windows, I'll continue to consider Linux better than Windows.

If I have Vista with UAC turned on and Opera, how likely is a drive by download? I scan with a couple of (free) antivirus scanners every so often and I've never got a virus. I also scan with Spybot Search and Destroy and I never get spyware. I paid nothing for the OS and I can actually run modern software if I want to.

I don't much like Vista - XP or Windows 7 seem much quicker, but even Vista is far more useful than Ubuntu which I've actually got on another machine. Ubuntu is a pain to set up and Wine has no chance of running modern games. There's a lot of free software for Ubuntu but there is more for Windows and the standard is much higher.

Which is probably why, despite the heroic but unpaid efforts of evangelists like yourself Linux has been flatlining at less than 1% market share. Face it Linux had its chance a few years back and it blew it. Even if Linus finally gets his act together - e.g. by forcing all the distros to support one package format and allowing binary drivers it will still basically be irrelevant. MacOS has taken over the "desktop Unix" niche and in any case most people are happy with Windows.

Bleating about viruses and trojans to people who've solved that problem ages ago isn't going to convince people to switch.

If I were a big site like YouTube, I'd phase out all non-standard rendering, and go full standard.

Then I would direct all the heat straight to Microsoft (and others just as much if they do something non-standard or have bugs).

I could imagine making it more comfortable, by pre-testing the site with all browsers, and then redirect to a site that makes it all clear in less than 7 seconds, who it is that is to blame for this, and why. I would also display a browser-dependent e-mail address and redirect all mails that go to that address right to the bug trackers / mailing lists of that browser management or development team.

Ok, this is easier in Germany, with the IE (all versions) having close to 28 percent with a strong trend downwards.

The market share for IE6 is now well down in the single digits.

According to whom? Even on w3schools.com, which is visited almost exclusively by web developers, more than 14% of people are still using IE6.

According to StatCounter: http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-US-monthly-200807-200907 . Their graph shows IE6 at 9.45% in July, just barely dipping below 10% for the first time ever.

20% according to statcounter.

http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww-daily-20080701-20090714

Right on: firefox relative usage peaks during weekends, IE dips during the weekends. It's easily visible in the graphs: http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-daily-20080701-20090707

I suspect the problem to be more subtle though. Possibly a change in the useragent string of firefox 3.5 that was not picked up correctly or something like that.

If you look at a shorter time period, you'll be shocked even more!

But currently, Apple seems to be better at marketing.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Browser Version Market Share

you'll see that mostly what's happened is that IE7 has dropped in almost exact step with the growth of IE8, probably because most of it represents autoupgrades done by windows update, and apart from that IE overall has lost a few percent to FF in the same period, and that's about it.

Yes, it has, indeed!
And that with many Firefox users using AdBlock Plus, which blocks Statcounter pixels (and in fact everything from those domains) by default. I had to disable it, for the site to load any graphics, scripts, etc.
(Oh, and "Other" must be Firefox 3.5, which just came out.)

Take a look at the line graphs over a year. http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-daily-20080701-20090707 There's a bounce every weekend for Firefox. Also, what happened in Brazil last September 18?? http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-BR-daily-20080701-20090707

Take a look at the line graphs over a year. http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-daily-20080701-20090707 There's a bounce every weekend for Firefox. Also, what happened in Brazil last September 18?? http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-BR-daily-20080701-20090707

-an-, -na-

What's the difference?!?!

Oh, http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-na-daily-20080701-20090707-bar