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Firefox Breaks 25 Million Downloads

Posted by Zonk on from the thats-a-lot-of-firefoxen dept.

certron wrote to alert us that earlier this week, Mozilla passed the milestone of 25 million downloads. From the official site: "With a minimal set of tools--an affiliate system, a small donations fundraising system, blogs, galleries, forums, and the good old human larynx--you all are spreading Firefox to a quarter of a million people a day. More than 500,000 sites now link to Firefox according to Google--a fivefold increase from six months ago. What was just a small flame 100 days ago has since exploded into a phenomenal demonstration of the power of open source. Tens of thousands of devoted users and fans are a powerful and capable force of change. We have created a special commemorative image if you would like to mark this milestone on your own site." Reader asa also wrote to mention an interview with Bill Gates from this week where the mogul was asked directly what he thought of Firefox.

81 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. More = Better? by samtihen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    25 Million Agree - IE SUCKS!

    Although, the 25 million downloads doesn't actually equate to 25 million users. How many times have you downloaded Firefox? I'm over 10, that's for sure. And how many people got it from others, rather than downloading it?

    I mean, it really doesn't matter, it really shouldn't be a competition anyway. If it is a good product, it will do well. Who really cares if it competes with IE? All more users really do is bring attention (very possibly malicious) to the project.

    1. Re:More = Better? by tehshen · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That is true; but for every person like you who has downloaded it ten times, there's a school or college or organisation that has only downloaded it once, but uses it a hundred times per day. It all tends to balance out in the end.

      --
      Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
    2. Re:More = Better? by pbranes · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Perhaps 25 million can imply - 25 million computers. You probably only download it to 1 machine at a time. So, 1 machine at home, 1 at work, that leaves about 12.5 million distinct users. Still not a bad number. That's more downloads than the latest album of William Shatner singing. :-)

    3. Re:More = Better? by rbarreira · · Score: 2, Insightful
      It all tends to balance out in the end


      More like - it all makes it too difficult to know how many people use firefox.
      --

      The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
    4. Re:More = Better? by tehshen · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why do we need to know how many people use Firefox? Yes, there are multiple downloads, networks, and so on, but the user count is going to be somewhere between 22 and 28 million, which is good whichever way you look at it. And as long as we can reach a nice number with six zeroes on the end we'll be happy.

      --
      Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
    5. Re:More = Better? by Yolegoman · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Who really cares if it competes with IE?

      I care. When we finally wipe IEs damned non-standard display of HTML and CSS from the internet, I won't have to spend hours and days attempting to get my websites rendering properly in Microsofts piece of crap they call a browser.

      That's the main reason I root for FireFox. Sure, no spyware is nice, but for me it's a bonus. That IE thinks they are so l33t as to rewrite the W3 standards makes me angry to the core.

      - Yolego

    6. Re:More = Better? by keiferb · · Score: 3, Funny

      Slashdot isn't complaint.

      You must be new here. The slashdot I know (and love) is one big pile of complaint. =)

    7. Re:More = Better? by podmf · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "Who really cares if it competes with IE?"

      Anyone who is interested in improving the web or merely keeping the web open.

      So long as 90 percent of users see the web through IE, it will remain crippled and vulnerable to desktop client-based lock-in.

      All of Microsoft's published plans and statements about IE and Longhorn confirm their intention to engineer the maximum tie-in between the web and .Net.

      The Apache webserver enables the technical possibility of an open web, but dominance of the desktop client is required to guarrantee it's practical likelihood.

      Only by taking share off IE is it possible to build sites which demonstrate the practical benefits of standards-based web design to non-technical users.

      Right now, up to 90 percent of the effort in standards-based design goes into accomodating IE's crippled CSS ... which is why many web designers can't be bothered.

    8. Re:More = Better? by sepluv · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Not to mention all the people who:
      1. get it from a friend
      2. use the official bittorrent (or another P2P system)
      3. download it from another FTP or WWW site (or from within a LAN)
      4. download a different build (optimised, more free, different options, added features, &c)
      5. get it with their OS distro (or through their distro's installation FTP/rsync/WWW/jigdo site)
      6. order the CD
      7. have a copy on a software compilation CD (e.g.: from the front of a magazine)

      The you have to consider, that most people download it to try it. Some might actually decide they prefer their current WWW browser (especially if they don't use IE) and stop using it.

      Basically these statistics, if anything, only give an indication of trends (i.e.: acceleration/deceleration) in use as opposed to the actual number of users.

      --
      Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
      [This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
    9. Re:More = Better? by Phisbut · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Perhaps 25 million can imply - 25 million computers.

      Almost... I, for one, have 3 of them on my home machine... one in English, one in French and one in German. I'm developping extensions, and using the different languages to test the localization.

      But then, there might not be a lot of people in my situation... we'd have way too many extensions if there were ;-)

      --
      After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
      - The Tao of Programming
    10. Re:More = Better? by Reignking · · Score: 2, Interesting

      25 million and my company it is still barely -- or not -- registering on my company's logs. It's a shame, too, because until it does, I'll be the only one that cares that our site looks like ass in Firefox.

      --
      One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
    11. Re:More = Better? by sepluv · · Score: 3, Informative
      this very page (Slashdot) appears totally corrupted

      This was fixed in Gecko in May 2004 on the trunk which is used by the latest stable version of Mozilla Suite (but not on the aviary branch).

      To fix it in Firefox:

      get a recent nightly build--I find them just as stable

      get the new minor stable version (1.0.1) which is coming out this month

      just install the Slashfix extension.

      BTW the bug only occured sometimes if your machine was fast and it was rendering /. too quickly--you could try reloading--it was a genuine bug as it occured intermittently, but the awful slashcode HTML doesn't help (esp. their use of evil many-nested tables for layout--see the funny and informative Why tables for layout is stupid).

      Sage cannot reload my RSS feeds

      Sage? (BTW, how can you imply that MSIE is better than Firefox in this regard when MSIE doesn't even support RSS feeds.)

      I guess I'd somehow like Firefox to "emulate" MSIE when it comes to viewing some "incompatible" sites

      It already does to some extent. It is called quirks mode. It uses that mode to render /. as /. is not standard-compliant. Go to page info on the page context menu to see which mode it is using for the page--quirks mode will kick in if a page isn't standards-compliant.

      There's always tech evangelism (or filing a tech-evang Bugzilla bug)

      Konqueror could pretend to be another browser

      So can Firefox. To do it on the fly in Firefox, use the User Agent Switcher.
      --
      Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
      [This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
    12. Re:More = Better? by fm6 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      25 Million Agree - IE SUCKS!
      That pretty much summarizes the reason for Firefox's recent surge in popularity.
      Although, the 25 million downloads doesn't actually equate to 25 million users. How many times have you downloaded Firefox? I'm over 10, that's for sure. And how many people got it from others, rather than downloading it?
      You've downloaded it 10 times? You're obviously an early adopter, which makes you pretty unrepresentative. On the other hand, many downloads never get past the evaluation phase. I myself tried Firefox 2 or 3 times, but resisted changing until a nonbuggy Googlebar became available.

      Oh yeah, and don't forget upgrades.

      Anyway, the download number is just another gee-whiz statistic, unconnected with any real measure of Firefox's progress. I'd be much happer to see evidence that its user share has grown out of the single digits. Pity Google stopped tracking browsers.

      Slightly offtopic: I have to put in a word to Firefox extension developers, which seem to be legion these days. (I have 13 extensions installed, everying from a RSS browser to a simple tweak that prevents right-click from being disabled.) Extension are easily Firefox's coolest feature. But they're also its biggest potential problem, because nobody bothers to sign their extension. Please start doing so, before the malware bozos decide that your extension is something they can steal and modify to their own ends.

    13. Re:More = Better? by Eraser_ · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Of course, I downloaded it once, put it on a fileserver, and put it on about 300+ work computers (and growing). I also downloaded it once at home and loaded it on 4 seperate computers, who have four seperate users. It is included as the default browser on any lab cloning images I make for students, along with hiding IE as much as possible. Shockingly, between that and restricting executables, these computers are spyware free now. If only we had Group Policy.

      Even people who know nothing about computers want that mozilla thing!

  2. Update! by RobertTaylor · · Score: 5, Funny

    25,241,830 and counting to be precise ;)

    1. Re:Update! by 4of12 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Only 374,758,170 downloads left to match the estimated 400 million worldwide IE (windows) users ;)

      IE users didn't have to download their browser.

      IE users didn't even have to make a conscious decision to include it with their pre-installed operating system that came on their PC.

      Firefox's adoption would have reached 400 million if it had the same advantage in deployment.

      --
      "Provided by the management for your protection."
  3. Refresh button by madaxe42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Damn, knew I'd pressed it a few times too many on getfirefox.com

  4. Breaking downloads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Someone better file a bug. CRC errors are a pain in the butt.

  5. Interview with Bill Gates by Walkiry · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Problem is, he doesn't really say much other than "we have competition in many places, we'll keep working to be the best". Typical marketdroid stuff. The funny thing is that one of the things he mentions is that they'll be trying to be #1 in "Security". Heh. One can only hope...

    --
    ---- Take the Space Quiz!
  6. Firefox *breaks* downloads? by thiophene · · Score: 5, Funny

    I read that the wrong way.

  7. I guess he's talking about the 1.0 version by cflorio · · Score: 2, Insightful
    "What was just a small flame 100 days ago has since exploded into a phenomenal demonstration of the power of open source."

    I know I've been using firefox for over 100 days (I think i jumped on the bandwagon around the .4 release)

  8. Power of open source? by suso · · Score: 5, Interesting

    has since exploded into a phenomenal demonstration of the power of open source.

    I see what you're trying to say, but I don't know whether you can call this newfound popularity due to open source. When I think of firefox, It doesn't even occur to me at first that its open source. I mean, I know that it is, but thats not the first thing I think of. When I think of something like Gnome, I think of it as open source. Mozilla and friends just have a different feeling. Does anyone else think that too?

    1. Re:Power of open source? by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I see what you're trying to say, but I don't know whether you can call this newfound popularity due to open source. When I think of firefox, It doesn't even occur to me at first that its open source.

      Yes, same here. Imagine if the Opera people had decided to make their browser free as in beer without any ads and whatnot. Then it very well could have been as popular as Firefox.

      "Free as in beer" is a big deal in this case. There's no market for browsers you have to pay for.

    2. Re:Power of open source? by LittleKing · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I love Firefox and the community, however, lately I'm starting to have issues with the community. We all talk about how better firefox and open source is and how buggy IE is. We say that OSS, while may have bugs, can be fixed quickly when an exploit is found.

      My problems is since the URL exploit has been brought to light (and some can argue it's not firefox fault) there hasn't been an official update, only the manual hack. This really bothers me. When a security issue like this comes up, I want firefox to automatically update, or at least tell me there's an update.

      While I can do the manual fix I know many users that if using FireFox would not or even know about the problem. Why do we talk about better security and quicker updates when it isn't actually happening. I am not a programmer, but I love the community and support where I can. This issue needs to be addressed before the script kiddies and Hackors start to use the exploits that are found.

      Finally, I want to say thanks to the developers for a great product and congrats for the 25 million downloads.

      --
      Art by Mindy Herman, my wife.
    3. Re:Power of open source? by hkmwbz · · Score: 2, Informative
      "There's no market for browsers you have to pay for."
      Sure there is. Opera has its niche market, and in fact, the company is growing rapidly.
      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  9. FireFox and IE have something in common... by bigtallmofo · · Score: 4, Funny

    "FireFox Breaks 25 Million Downloads"

    and

    "Internet Explorer Breaks 25 Million Computers"

    Of course, this is just a low estimate on both.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
  10. Hahaha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    GATES: No, in fact that's one thing I like about the Microsoft culture -- is that we wake up every day thinking about companies like Wang...
    So what you're telling me is the first thing on his mind every morning is wang? Interesting.
    1. Re:Hahaha by Quantum+Fizz · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm reminded of a Wang Computers tee-shirt my friend had back in the 80's. Nothing but a slogan :
      "My Wang never goes down!"

  11. What bill says by gowen · · Score: 5, Insightful
    In fact, we just announced that we'll have a new version of the browser so we're innovating very rapidly there
    Wow, a new web browser 4 years after the old, and several years after you've declared that there wasn't even going to be another stand-alone version.

    Four years of stasis.
    Two years of complete disinterest.

    That's some really rapid innovation, there, Bill.
    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
    1. Re:What bill says by confusion · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They have to dust-off the old 'anti-netscape' playbook now. FF has risen to a level where MS is very concerned about losing momentum and support for their proprietary IE extensions. I know many software vendors have it on their near term road maps to inter-operate with Firefox (they don't now, due to the use of proprietary extensions in IE). MS really hasn't had to deal with any competing products taking up market/mind share so quickly in the past.

      Jerry
      http://www.syslog.org/

  12. Speed up Firefox by BobWeiner · · Score: 4, Informative

    This may have already been mentioned, but here's a link on tweaking Firefox to make it even faster on a broadband connection. I've applied these settings and notice an immediate performance boost.

    --
    The PC Weenies: 11 Years of Online Tech 'Too
  13. The difference is simple :) by KZigurs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Firefox thinks about usability.

    You wouldn't associate Open Source with usability even if forced to.

    1. Re:The difference is simple :) by suso · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hmmmm, this is interesting. You might think that the parent comment is flamebait or a troll, but I think this person has a point. As an open source community, I think we can learn a lot from how firefox has succeeded so well and so quickly, analyze it and apply it to a lot of other projects. Much like how the FSF originally redid all the unix applications before rewriting the kernel, maybe the goal could be to redo all windows applications and then subplant the underlying OS.

    2. Re:The difference is simple :) by TwistedSquare · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I think this is an interesting and important point. As Linux and Mac OS X gain market share and popularity, especially among developers, more and more applications are being developed cross-platform - a lot, but not all, originating from the Unix side of things. Once all the applications that you use are portable, or similar enough programs are available on each OS, your choice of OS becomes a much easier choice because you can choose on the OS's merits rather than what applications are available for it.

      So for example, my web browser is Firefox and my mail client is Thunderbird. I can handle text editors on both Windows and Linux, which means the only things remaining that bind me to Windows are games and IM clients. If I didn't use them, I could choose between OSes based on say stability, features (e.g. available filesystems), and so on.

  14. Someone please stop the download bots!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ok, Firefox fans, you can stop the auto-download bots now you've made your point !!

  15. Nice of Bill to take all the credit by grandmofftarkin · · Score: 4, Interesting
    "There's a new technology that is an industry standard we created called Sender ID"

    No mention of SFP or the guys behind it.

  16. Serious Question... by phunhippy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I like Firefox.. however its not my browser of choice and here's why..

    I am constantly switching with ctrl-tab between using IE for web based crap and going throough my file system.. ctrl-tab type c:\ and bam.. you get the idea?

    I like the interface explorer gives me for browsing my files. I don't like the interface FIREFOX or any other browser gives me.. Is there any way I can get that interface inside firefox? some plugin maybe?

    Any thoughts?

    1. Re:Serious Question... by kryptkpr · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you like the awful way explorer manages files, you've never tried anything better.

      Try this.. I've been using a *commander since the days of MS-DOS 5. Once you go split-panel, you don't go back. Not to mention stuff like built-in ZIP, RAR, FTP (archives get treated as folders, FTP is treated as a drive), a Search that works MUCH better then explorer's, wildcard file selection, .. I'm gonna stop now.

      Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with TotalCmd, other then loving their product.

      --
      DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
    2. Re:Serious Question... by skadus · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's not what you're looking for, but since you're hitting ctrl+tab, it's not much of a big deal to hit win+r to start the run box. It'll open a new program ([win]+[r], c: [enter] will start explorer pointed at c:), but it's almost as good.

      That's how I browse my files, actually. It's relatively fast, and if you have a general idea (and autocomplete) you can get your stuff a hell of a lot quicker than clicking a bunch of plus signs and file folders.

    3. Re:Serious Question... by ToLu+the+Happy+Furby · · Score: 2, Informative

      Or just win+e to open Windows Explorer...

  17. "Reader" Asa... by ronobot · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...is likely Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's chief quality control and testing guy. Congrats to Asa, and the rest of the team. I can't imagine browsing the internet without Mozilla, and especially Firefox.

  18. IT WAS NEW by BitwiseX · · Score: 2, Funny

    When I was downloading Firefox this morning on my 2nd machine, I had this funny feeling in my gut. Now I know why.. I WAS the 25millionth person! Or maybe it was just gas....

  19. Re:In other news by bcmm · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's fixed in the trunk build, and will be fixed in FF 1.1.

    --
    # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i llama
    Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
  20. This was too much... by Obiwan+Kenobi · · Score: 4, Funny

    To paraphrase into hilarity:

    Bill Gates: "No, in fact that's one thing I like about the Microsoft culture -- is that we wake up every day thinking about ... Wang."

  21. What would make it better by MyLongNickName · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The only reason I use IE is because when I am in Windows Explorer, I like to just type in the URL, and go. Otherwise, I use Firefox. You don't know how many times in the day, I hit Ctrl+T to get a new tab, and realize I am in IE (or worse, go to do a search and see the clunky dialog box come up). I then have to switch over.

    Anyone know of a way to integrate firefox without adverse effects? I'd love to ditch ie 100%, but old habits die hard, plus I'd hate to lose the efficiencies...

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  22. Re:In other news by RangerRick98 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The fix is coming in the next Firefox version. In the meantime, try this.

    --
    "You're older than you've ever been, and now you're even older."
  23. BEFORE applying settings!!!!! by codesurfer · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm sure many people know about this, but please read the following before applying the settings mentioned in the parent article. There are other things to consider. The following is an excerpt

    The dearly beloved "run the turbines at Military Power 'til they blow up" Scribner on your staff who suggests sticking their foot through the floorboards by tweaking Firefox & setting "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to "30" connections (This means it will make 30 requests at once.)
    Said Scribner, who is obviously a gamer & overclocker freak, _FORGOT_ to read the comments section at th4e bottom of the posting http://forevergeek.com/open_source/make_firefox_fa ster.php#comments
    "#13 Great little tips, but only one problem, and that's that you're breaking servers by doing this. 3-5 requests is fine, but trying to do 30 requests at once puts some strain on the server. If two people try to access the same page at once with this set, that's 60 connections. Most httpd's are set to cut off after there are 100 connections made. So, 4 people with this set could not access the same site. I urge you to think things through before setting something like this and killing the websites you browse."

    1. Re:BEFORE applying settings!!!!! by naylor83 · · Score: 4, Informative

      See my above reply. Firefox & Mozilla never do more than 8 requests. Setting a higher value is pointless.

    2. Re:BEFORE applying settings!!!!! by Ford+Prefect · · Score: 2, Funny

      Great little tips, but only one problem, and that's that you're breaking servers by doing this. 3-5 requests is fine, but trying to do 30 requests at once puts some strain on the server.

      Hmm... Y'know, I've got an idea.

      One meellion maximum connections!

      * Puts little finger to mouth and points Firebadger at Microsoft. *

      Mwuhahahaha!

      --
      Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
    3. Re:BEFORE applying settings!!!!! by m50d · · Score: 5, Funny

      You must be new here. We *like* killing servers.

      --
      I am trolling
  24. what makes it better are the plugins, my top 5 by Steve_Jobs_HNIC · · Score: 5, Informative

    here they are:

    Adblock
    Session Saver
    Web Developer
    IE View
    Target Alert

    1. Re:what makes it better are the plugins, my top 5 by tehshen · · Score: 5, Informative

      And before the complaints come,

      Slashfix

      --
      Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
    2. Re:what makes it better are the plugins, my top 5 by Spunk · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sadly, this extension doesn't work for me.

    3. Re:what makes it better are the plugins, my top 5 by tindur · · Score: 2, Funny

      Still getting dupes and spleling errors?

    4. Re:what makes it better are the plugins, my top 5 by Calroth · · Score: 2, Informative

      Since nobody's mentioned this yet... in Windows (and probably Linux), you can force a reflow by changing the font size. Hold down Ctrl and scroll the mouse wheel up, then down. (Or down, then up.)

      It's become almost subconscious for me to do now, just like middle-clicking links to open new tabs.

  25. Err go Ego by canuck57 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    GATES: We're responsible for the creation of the PC industry.

    With a statement like that, what about TRS-80, Apple II, Commodore PET and others. Steve Jobs would be the man if he wasn't so closed up with his architecture and IBM was not. All Microsoft and Bill did was be in the right place when IBM had 100,000 PCs without an OS. After that they screwed their way to the top of the heap with questionable business practices to ride the wave. It was well under way long before Bill had DOS.

    Microsoft even had interest in SCO to get code and make sure they didn't rival their Windows NT. Oh yes, these two companies have a long relationship more than most know.

    In fact, we just announced that we'll have a new version of the browser so we're innovating very rapidly there and it's our commitment to have the best.

    I guess this hints of a new browser. I wonder how much open source code and ideas it will contain. Most people, including Microsoft seem to forget that Microsoft really hasn't invented anything new. They just use other's ideas.

    In a few years when the biggest market in the world runs Linux (China) we will see Microsoft in second place. It will be a glorious day when Microsoft gets a long needed lesson in humility.

    1. Re:Err go Ego by _Hellfire_ · · Score: 2, Informative

      GATES: We're responsible for the creation of the PC industry.

      For some more information on why this statement is utter bullshit, I recommend Fire in the Valley - The Making of the Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine. It is a very in-depth rundown on who did what, when how and why to get the PC where it is today. Hefty book but it's told like a story with interviews and quotes from those that started it - yes including Mr Gates.

      --
      "And then I visited Wikipedia ...and the next 8 hours are a blur..."
    2. Re:Err go Ego by Deacon+Jones · · Score: 2, Interesting
      further on in the multi-page interview, he states:

      "Well, my success is creating great software... And I think my most important work was the early work -- conceiving of the idea of the PC and how important that would be, and the role software would play, having standards there."

      Amazing, he really does believe he created not only the PC, but even the very idea of the PC.

      --
      I pulled a jack move to cop this sig
    3. Re:Err go Ego by marhar · · Score: 2, Interesting
      what about TRS-80, Apple II, Commodore PET and others.



      Well, Microsoft wrote Level 2 BASIC which came with the TRS-80 and built the Softcard, which added a Z-80 to the Apple II and ran CP/M. picture

      Microsoft even had interest in SCO to get code and make sure they didn't rival their Windows NT.



      Erm, your history is a bit off. Microsoft was a pretty substantial contributor to Xenix for the TRS-80 Model 16, which had a 68000 processor.

      It seemed that Microsoft's strategy at the time was to travel the Xenix route to higher end computing, but AT&T insisted on a $400/CPU royalty payment. This was of course untenable for "cheap" microcomputers, so Microsoft eventually went the route of developing NT.

      It is interesting to think of how things would be if the licensing arrangement had worked out, and Xenix would have been the base for mass computing.

  26. Friends by cyberfunk2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A lot of my non-technical friends have recently become wise to the 'Fox.

    And I quote "My internet explorer just stopped working about a month ago.. it wasnt worth the trouble, and those damn popup windows are annoying too.."

    I think average Joe is starting to understand. (Incidentially, one of my friend's names is Joe)

  27. Pimpzilla by RasendeRutje · · Score: 4, Funny

    Firefox is great, but only after installing Pimpzilla, my internet life is complete!
    http://people.zeelandnet.nl/marco/pimpzilla//

    --

    If Microsoft was mass, stupidity would be gravity.
  28. Count me out of the FireFox craze.. by JohnBob73 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I really do not care for microsoft, but I'll definitely sitck with IE because I'd rather be safe than sorry later on and here is why: http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/02/08/spoof/inde x.php

    1. Re:Count me out of the FireFox craze.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      1) type about:config in URL bar
      2) search on IDN
      3) double-click on network.enableIDN
      4) set to false
      5) hit OK
      6) Problem solved!

    2. Re:Count me out of the FireFox craze.. by I+confirm+I'm+not+a · · Score: 3, Informative

      I guess if you're dumb enough to fall for the phishing lures, IE is probably an ok idea.

      I'm replying to you, partly because I disagree with the "IE is probably an OK idea" (even for dumb people ;) , but mainly because I don't want to draw attention to the troll you're replying to.

      The Macworld article is refering to the recent IDN exploit that affects many browsers, but not IE. Macworld presumably considered this newsworthy because the exploit (a) affected Safari, and (b) didn't affect IE. However, IE had already suffered similar exploits, covered here on Slashdot and elsewhere. I had a quick peek on Secunia to see if I could find it, but got sidetracked by the pretty colours on the graphs:
      IE
      Firefox

      Bottom line: IE is still horendously insecure, while Firefox has very few issues, and what few issues it does have are patched quickly.

      The sad thing is: I use IE. Apart from the security issues (I don't use it enough to be affected - I use Firefox normally, naturally ;) it's not a bad browser. Trolls like the GP don't help its case. The really sad thing is: one day soon there'll be trolls like this evangelizing (or trying to...) Firefox.

      --
      This is where the serious fun begins.
  29. alternatives by john_uy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    i think other open source applications should be promoted together with firefox. people now find out that there is a better alternative. more promotion should be made to applications such as open office, and of course, linux. i hope this is a start of something better for everyone.

    --
    Live your life each day as if it was your last.
  30. Yay competition, rah rah rah! by porcupine8 · · Score: 2, Funny
    A summary of just about all of his answers:

    There's room for everyone! Competition is great! I love competition! C'mon, compete with me right now, I'll enjoy every minute of it! I'm born to compete! With competition. Whom I adore.

    --
    Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
  31. Re:This does not mean 25 million users. by Jason+O'Neil · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I see what you mean, I have downloaded firefox a couple of times myself. But on the other hand, I have also downloaded a single install file and then proceeded it to install it on my computer, my brother's computer, and my Dad's laptop.

    Schools, universities and businesses that are using firefox will be adding even more users that are not included in the download count on the website. I think the number of users who have not been registered on the download count will balance or even outweigh the number of users who have registered multiple times on the count.

  32. It's fantastic by Electric+Eye · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've downloaded it for my work PC, many of my freelance clients and several family members as well. Since then (at least for me) there has not been ONE case of spyware infecting my computer. Viva la Firefox, baby.

  33. Sounds familiar... by oldosadmin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's exactly what OpenOffice.org has been advocating for months, but nobody seems to listen.

    --
    Jay | http://oldos.org
    1. Re:Sounds familiar... by oldosadmin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I greatly disagree. With 2.0 coming out, we have an Access killer app, OOo Base, which should round out the suite. I think given all considerations -- open standards, feature completeness, cost -- that OOo comes out on top everytime.

      --
      Jay | http://oldos.org
  34. Re:And it still doesn't... by buro9 · · Score: 2, Informative

    about:config

    browser.xul.error_pages.enabled

    Set that to true

  35. Firefox and Open Source by Inkieminstrel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder how many of those users were actually made aware of open source by Firefox, and how many still remain in the dark about open source. My fiancee was using it for months before she finally got around asking about how it was free and where it came from.

  36. Commemorative Image scares me... by thepseudogenie · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is a vectorized fox with flames shooting out of his ass burning the world to a crisp really the image we want for firefox...? I would say that image is apt for Micr... oh nevermind...

  37. You forgot an important one by bogie · · Score: 2, Informative

    Flashblock
    http://flashblock.mozdev.org/

    It turns all of those flash ads into little buttons you can press if you wish to view what's there. I rarely have to even use it since most flash these days ends up being in ads. And if you visit a site that uses Flash for something important it can be unblocked. Its really the bee's knee's.

    It works so well that I don't use Adblock anymore. Really its the flash ads that slow things down and honestly I think Adblock slows page rendering down anyway although I did used to be a big booster of it. When the ads come down and are then removed it makes it seem like the page is taking longer to load and this in on a 3Mb dsl line. Anyway I highly suggest people use flashblock. Ieview, cutmenus, and of course session saver which is also great.

    --
    If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    1. Re:You forgot an important one by glpierce · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "honestly I think Adblock slows page rendering down anyway"

      If you set Adblock to "Remove ads" rather than "Hide ads", you should notice a significant speed increase on pages that contain ads. Pages that do not contain ads will load slightly slower, but not noticeably so. If you create a very long list of rules or block entire URLs (neither of which should be done), you will notice a larger speed loss.

      --
      G
  38. phenomenal demonstration? by NekoXP · · Score: 3, Informative


    Phenomenal?

    It took them 7 years to get this far.

    Don't get me wrong, I use Firefox every day. But let's remember Firefox was not
    the primary goal of the Mozilla Project, but a fluke messaround of a couple of
    engineers to strip the browser down from an unweildy "suite" to what people want:
    an IE replacement.

    If Mozilla weren't being so contrary in the very beginning and decided to go the
    route diametrically opposite to competing with IE, we'd have been there years ago.

    Neko

  39. They are so far behind, it's funny. by phaxda · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Bill sez: "Also the idea of how the phone and the PC are coming together. Where you will be able to see the calls that you missed, or even when your phone rings see immediately who that is that's calling, or control how that is forwarded, or even set it up so that the screen is part of your interaction. We are seeing that as increasingly important and are putting a lot of research into that."

    I loved this part of the interview. "Will be able to?" Like when, the next time someone calls my Nokia cell phone and their number is displayed on my PowerBook screen via Bluetooth and the Address Book? And then maybe I will even get the option to send the caller to voicemail FROM MY COMPUTER?! WOW!

    Hey, maybe Microsoft will even come up with a program that will pause the music on my computer when someone calls me. Or logs missed calls in my phone's calendar? Now that would be cool. Just like Salling Clicker.

    Microsoft: yesterday's technology, today. Still.

    Really, all I could do is laugh at this one. How do you Windows people deal with it?

  40. Where did you get that???? by heybo · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I'd even venture to say that if Free OS's had the same installed base, the same virus-target-area, as MS today, a new WinXP (SP2) system would be more secure than a new RedHat system. Why? Because if Linux had the same base as MS, it would have the same number of viruses, and RH doesn't come with virus software, and Windows (when you buy from most OEM's) does.

    Where did you get that FUD! The one big thing and the simplest security feature that keeps RedHat more secure over Windows is it is built and configured for users NOT to run as Administrator. This is the biggest screw up of MS. 80% of the spyware anf virus out there will not load unless you are running under and Admin or Root account. Try to install something on a RH box. See if you don't get a window asking for the root password. The default set up of Windows makes the default user an Administrator. Hell some MS programs won't even run unless you are an Administrator. You call that secure????

    If Microsoft's products where the best I would buy them. Why do I use RedHat? It isn't the cost it is the built in security and realibity.

    Did you ever wonder why the NSA used RedHat as its base for SELinux? If Windows is so superior why didn't they use Windows as the base of their in-house secure operation system?

  41. Firefox Benefits Everyone by Goo.cc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Even Windows users who don't ever plan to use Firefox benefit from it because it forces Microsoft to do something instead of letting IE languish. Additionally, Firefox growing popularity will encourage people from coding sites dependent solely on IE.

    I think that it is a win-win situation.

  42. Re:In other news by bcmm · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, several will have come from my sig being displayed in your web browser, another few off them were created by grep and your shell as soon as you typed the command, and, if your machine is like mine, the majority are inexplicable...
    Usernames of other users of the same P2P network that you use maybe? (I had at least one of those)

    Of course in my case it didn't help that I use the word llama at random, for example when I have already used the variable "test"...

    --
    # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i llama
    Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
  43. [OT] From the interview with bill by kryptik_79 · · Score: 2, Funny
    GATES: ... Also the idea of how the phone and the PC are coming together. Where you will be able to see the calls that you missed, or even when your phone rings see immediately who that is that's calling, ...

    Umm, it's called caller-id Bill.