Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.

30 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 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

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

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

  3. Refresh button by madaxe42 · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  4. 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!
  5. Firefox *breaks* downloads? by thiophene · · Score: 5, Funny

    I read that the wrong way.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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/

  10. 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
  11. 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.

  12. 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 !!

  13. 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.

  14. 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.
  15. 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."

  16. 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 m50d · · Score: 5, Funny

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

      --
      I am trolling
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.

  20. 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
  21. 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...

  22. 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?

  23. 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?