1 Million Firefoxes in 4 Days

Dodger73 writes "The Mozilla guys would have liked to reach 1 Million downloads of the Firefox 1.0 pre-release version within ten days of its release. After four days, the download counter now shows 1,006,060 downloads, surpassing the 10^6 mark more than twice as fast as they desired! Congratulations!"

Comments

Most of that is probably from previous users

[techmuse]

Most of the people who suddenly downloaded the update were probably already using a prior version of Firefox. I would seriously doubt that this represents anything like 1 million new users.

Re:Most of that is probably from previous users

[Anonymous Coward]

I would seriously doubt that this represents anything like 1 million new users.

Has anyone suggested or in any way implied that they were new users?

Re:Most of that is probably from previous users

[AgntOrnge]

Or people who downloaded it to multiple locations such as work and home. The release was also within a day or so of a secuirty announcement so everyone was going to rush to upgrade all of their installs.

Re:Most of that is probably from previous users

[bobbis.u]

Yes, but it does potentially represent that it has been installed on 1 million computers, which is no mean feat in 4 days.

Re:Most of that is probably from previous users

[tfreport]

Of course a lot of the downloads are upgrades. But you are missing the point of why this was so important - MARKETING.

The release of 1.0 PR garnered a lot of media attention. It appeared on news.google.com's front page. On most tech sites there was a mention. The Wall Street Journal mentioned it twice last week. And then it was going to fall from everyone's attention until 1.0 was released...

Except the MARKETING arm of Mozilla/Firefox decided to have a legitimate goal of 1 million downloads in ten days. This would be the most downloads of the browser ever but it was certainly do able. And then when users pushed it over 1 million much sooner - new press release and new stories. Mind share increased. And all of a sudden, it appears Firefox has huge momentum. And 1.0 is not even out yet. So, does this mean a ton of new users, not necessarily right away. But long term it shows that Mozilla has decided how important MARKETING is and they are ready to use its power to take the program to a whole new level.

Re:Most of that is probably from previous users

[fymidos]

This is a pre-release version! Not even a release candidate. This can qualify for a record for *any* computer program -- i don't think even IE can achieve this for a pre-release version dispite the 10 times bigger installed base.
I mean, 1 million downloads in 4 days is really something for any *regular* program.
Here we have a million people willing to download a pre-release version, and track down bugs !!
i would predict that this version will get downloaded by 3 million people.

Can you imagine how many bugs will be reported?
If they manage to deal with them, Firefox v1.0 will be the most stable browser ever made.

Many more millions of "new users" are expected to follow after that.

Re:Most of that is probably from previous users

[Spoing]

1. Most of the people who suddenly downloaded the update were probably already using a prior version of Firefox. I would seriously doubt that this represents anything like 1 million new users.

I have a t-shirt announcing, proudly, 5 million copies of a company's flagship product shipping -- over the span of 4 years. We had a party and press releases, and a few folks recieved nice bonuses.

I think 1 million in 4 days even from current users is impressive.

Firefox vs. Windows update

[IgD]

I installed Firefox for the first time yesterday. It worked pretty well! I wish I could uninstall Internet Explorer using a program like XP Lite. My concern is that I would not be able to use Windows Update. If Firefox could run Windows Update I would remove IE permanently.

Re:Firefox vs. Windows update

[JonLatane]

The extension doesn't really help. It just loads Windows Update in MSIE. Basically, if you want Windows Update, you're going to have to keep MSIE. Or you can download torrents of all the updates, but that's really more trouble than it's worth, despite what some of the /. crowd may say.

Re:Firefox vs. Windows update

[the_denman]

but you can't actualy uninstall it is a part of windows, every time you open up "explorer" to visit a file on your computer you are using IE.

Re:Firefox vs. Windows update

[FePe]

I also installed Firefox for the first time yesterday. I have moved from Internet Explorer to Netscape Navigator to Opera version 5, 6 and 7. I thought Opera was the best browser on the planet, but then I realized it was Firefox!

Firefox launches really quickly, and the websites loads very fast too (actaully a bit faster than Opera as far as I have experienced). The Firefox extensions are really a neat thing; you can validate a page (HTML, CSS, link check etc.) from a menu on a toolbar instead of typing the URL everytime. The other features of the developer extension makes developing a standard website easy outlining deprecated elements for example, or resizing the window.

Overall, my view on Mozilla and Firefox has changed rapidly within a few minutes.

Re:Firefox vs. Windows update

[eofpi]

Opera and Firefox are both leaps and bounds ahead of IE. Like the parent, I came to Firefox from Opera, and the only thing I miss about Opera is the usefulness of some of its keyboard shortcuts. There's probably an extension to give me that functionality back (such as G to disable graphics, F12 for quick options, and number keys for page scaling), but it hasn't been so troubling that I've gone out looking for one.

Re:How many of these are repeats though?

[AmigaAvenger]

but for everyone one of you there is probably one like me. 2 downloads, 1 went to work network server and 8 installs at work. the other went to my home file sharing server, and on to 4 machines.

3 million in four months

[Sediyama]

Firefox 0.8 had only 3 million downloads in 4 months and with only 100 hours more than a million downloads of 1.0PR!

The community must spread this kind of initiative to other projects.

Now how about fixing slashdot?

[feldhaus]

That's 1,000,000 potential people annoyed with Slashdot's dodgy rendering in Firefox.

Surely somebody here could fix it?

Re:Now how about fixing slashdot?

[Anonymous Coward]

erm... Im on Firefox, and been viewing /. for months with it. So I ask. WHAT dodgy rendering heh, I havent seen anythign wrong with /. at all in Firefox, maybe a reinstall/reconfigure might sort it?

So now they are a worthy target for black hats

[bockman]

Well, it is not like IE, but one million installation is something serious. And if you target gecko, you can add Mozilla and Galeon users. Therefore, it is better to double the attention on the security issues. Something has been done but we all know this is a never ending story.

And since the good guys cannot always win (unless you live in an hollywood movie), it is time to prepare a nice chroot jail in which to run our beloved browser (and maybe the mail client as well).

Bugs

[hendridm]

Is it just me, or does this release seem buggier than 0.9.3? I've have it crash a few times in the last few days, and I've noticed a few popups getting through. 0.9.3 worked flawlessly for me. Anyone else noticing problems? I do like the RSS integration, although the new Find dialog I'm still getting used to. Also, they got rid of my alternate stylesheet icon for sites that only have two choices ("No Style" and the default one), so now I have to go to View -> Page Style to get it). :(

hahaha

[hobo2k]

Adds a Windows Update menuitem under the Firefox (0.9+) tools menu (Opens IE to windowsupdate site)

That's got to be the most useless extension ever!

Average Joe is starting to catch on

[Infonaut]

There have been several posts about how these are redundant downloads, only existing Mozilla/FF users are downloading, etc. But regular IE-using people are starting to switch. I know a half-dozen Windows/IE folks who have switched. A Windows enterprise tech support friend of mine has been switching all of his customers over to Firefox. The German government has been telling people to switch. CERT has told people to watch out for IE.

The important thing is that people are now realizing that they actually have a choice. That's the first step.

Re:Link to get it

[Directrix1]

So when will the mozilla foundation take launch.yahoo.com into actually supporting firefox? I really miss being able to watch decent music videos online.

Is my emerge counted

[Apreche]

I really wonder what their counting method is. I imagine they just look in the web server logs and see how many people downloaded the different binary packages and add them together. But what about people like me who emerge -u firefox? Do we get counted?

1 million is great, and like every poster here has said. The count isn't close to accurate. So let us now aim for 2 million!

Re:New Firefox Users

[asa]

1,000,000? Why stop there? I'll bet they'll have another million in a week or two. We're not going to fight IE if we keep setting our sights in the one million range. Let's try to get 10,000,000 new ones in the next year.

We're not stopping at all. I think we'll make 2 million by the end of our original 10 day campaign.

And 10M isn't nearly ambitious enough for the next year :) To make a real dent, we need 10M downloads a month the next year :) We're gonna take back the web. This is only the beginning :)

Early Hype a mistake

[orangeguru]

IMHO it's a big mistake to make create such a hype on the web for the prerelease version:

* there are still some nasty bugs in there (like some HTML rendering), so they should have waited for a proper 1.0

* many cool plugins and themes haven't been updated for 1.0PR - which would demonstrate the full power of FF

* I can see many avarage Joes downloading 1.0PR and never updating it - jeust because of the buzz

* maybe they should have started the hype, when FF and Thunderbird were ready for 1.0 - so they could offer both in a bundle?

* I still think many major features are either to hidden or need a plugin: mouse gestures should be in by default and 'search in page' is way toooo geeky

* there should be better mechanisms in the software / first startup to make users download their 'usual' plugins (they already have in IE) like Flash, QuickTime and RealPlayer - so that FF will work properly with their usual sites

Re:Early Hype a mistake

[Woy]

* many cool plugins and themes haven't been updated for 1.0PR - which would demonstrate the full power of FF

I find that the most glaring error in firefox. The plugins that need updating EVERY SINGLE VERSION of it. I mean, how hard can it be to make the plugins work across versions? Is the interface changing EVERY version? Is the change worth it? Is it getting THAT much better for plugin programmers? What they'll acomplish with this is that they'll burn trought the good will of the plugin programmers before releasing 1.0 final.

Re:Link to get it

[aurelian]

Get a grip, that wasn't FUD. He may have been mistaken, but there was nothing malicious about it.

Re:Link to get it

[Schreckgestalt]

I had to download 3 extensions to make FF work like IE and to get the tabbed browsing working "as advertised", plus hit about:config once.

Why don't you just tell us what these three extensions were for? I mean hell, how do you think the thing is going to improve if all you say is "it sucks". I really think this version of Firefox is somewhat complete and far superior than IE in its default state.

And what about the tabbed browsing? Everything works like expected to me.

then build a "consumer" download

What a brilliant idea. There should also be a Google for the intelligent and one for the stupid masses. And there should also be a 2.6.x kernel for people who know what thei're doing and one for those who don't. No, this is really a bad idea. There should always be one product, which needs to be compatible with every type of user. Firefox is doing this in a great way!

Re:Link to get it

[Anonymous Coward]

> get the tabbed browsing working "as advertised"

Your average AOLer doesn't give a crap about Tabbed Browsing, and if they do, the built-in behavior is fine.

Stop projecting your nerdy predilections on "normal users".

Re:Link to get it

[gartogg]

It's funny, because I had never used "tabbed browsing" before firefox, and I actually only downloaded it because my web site was getting hits with it and I wanted to check out if the css looked ok... Tabbed browsing is quite possible the most useful thing about a web browser I have seen since the creation of plugins...

I really can't Im,agine that anyone who uses firefox can really say no-one will care about tabbed browsing.

Re:Supported browsers

[HermanAB]

Heh, FF users are probably a more select and savvy group than the unwashed masses using IE. So, why any business would turn away 5 to 10% of its best possible clients, I fail to understand.

We have a dress code sir, 'no ties allowed'...

Opera

[RAMMS EIN]

``Something I don't think has been promoted enough is that Firefox works brilliantly on older computers.''

I honestly think Opera does a much better job there. I find Firefox dog slow to launch and only barely acceptable in use (on a modern computer), whereas Opera just blazes away.

On the other hand, Firefox is overtaking Opera in functionality and configurability, and is much more tolerant of broken web pages.

How?

[Code Dark]

First off, I'd like to say congrats to the Mozilla Foundation, cause damn- great browser, and a lot of downloads for 100 hours...
What I want to know is how SpreadFirefox.com measures the downloads. Is it just run by the Mozilla Foundation and counts the download link? That's most likely, but it does approximate... I hope this isn't just propoganda.
Lastly, I wonder how many of these downloads are people that download it, install it, and then delete it and switch back to IE? Although that seems ludacris to me (I love Firefox), I'm sure that the IE addiction remains. I hope that this counter represents growing popularity, and not just geeks with 0.9.3 upgrading to 1.0...

Re:I downloaded it once for 20,000 users

[Anonymous Coward]

How about posting about it here too, either as a comment or a full story feature, if you're not too busy? In particular, strategy uesd for migrating any Javascript-heavy web apps etc, and how your helpdesk coped? Case studies (the larger the better) are vital for pitching Firefox (and OSS more generally) to PHBs.

Anyone read CERT?

[plik]

I'm really surprised I haven't seen many comments relating to this.

http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA04-261A. ht ml

Two days ago, CERT accounced that there were multiple vulnerabilities in Mozilla products. The only unaffected version of Firefox is PR1.0. It is doubtless that this caused a number of downloads of existing installs who would have chosen to not run the Preview Release.

Them hitting their 1mil marker isn't neccesarily a good thing.

Re:Anyone read CERT?

[I_redwolf]

I don't understand the rationality behind this. The vulnerabilities have been fixed, if people who were affected are upgrading why isn't this a good thing?

Free software, free security patches, plus the added fact that people are upgrading to currently non-affected versions?

Where's the "isn't necessarily a good thing" part?

Re:Link to get it

[wuice]

News flash: Firefox is not IE.

Most people (novice or otherwise) that I've ever introduced Firefox to are very thankful for that fact; I'm sorry your daddy wasn't. If you want something that works just like IE, my advice is stick with IE.

Re:coolness

[joshuaobrien]

In that vein, tab-specific errors (e.g., host not found) should be displayed only on their tab rather than as a dialog box that interrupts other tabs.

More installs....

[Netbrian]

I've actually worked to increase the number of users even more, though unfortunately it isn't going to show up here. I work at a technical support help desk on campus, and we often have users that come in with computers infested with spyware. After we remove the spyware, we've been installing Firefox on every machine, and instructing them about how one of the ways to avoid getting it in the first place (among other things) is to use an alternate browser. Unfortunately for this download statistic, we install from a CD for speed purposes (and so they don't need to have internet access when installing). Hopefully more widescale adoption should combat the tide of spyware!

Re:I downloaded it once for 20,000 users

[Mikeydude750]

Funny...the Firefox 1.0PR is more mature than IE "Gamma-test" 6.0

it's not about the downloads

[Anonymous Coward]

it's not about the downloads, it's about the usage
that will get lazy IE-centered webdevelopers off their b*tts
our goal should be that every webpage should work with Firefox!!!

Corporate caches mean even more downloads really

[Aliks]

I downloaded the prerelease version at work and was amazed at the download speed. Basically I clicked the button and it was there.

Then I realised that I must have been getting the file from some local cache.

I don't think this counts against the download counter, so add a couple of dozen (at least) for every big corporate.