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Firefox Breaks 25 Million Downloads
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.
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.
25,241,830 and counting to be precise ;)
Damn, knew I'd pressed it a few times too many on getfirefox.com
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!
I read that the wrong way.
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?
"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.
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.
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
Firefox thinks about usability.
You wouldn't associate Open Source with usability even if forced to.
Ok, Firefox fans, you can stop the auto-download bots now you've made your point !!
No mention of SFP or the guys behind it.
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?
That's fixed in the trunk build, and will be fixed in FF 1.1.
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
To paraphrase into hilarity:
... Wang."
Bill Gates: "No, in fact that's one thing I like about the Microsoft culture -- is that we wake up every day thinking about
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
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
a ster.php#comments
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_f
"#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."
here they are:
Adblock
Session Saver
Web Developer
IE View
Target Alert
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
That's exactly what OpenOffice.org has been advocating for months, but nobody seems to listen.
Jay | http://oldos.org
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...
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.
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
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?
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?
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.