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Firefox Breaks 50,000,000 Barrier

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the get-up-get-on-up dept.

MrDrBob writes "Today at 16:59 GMT (8:58 AM PST) Mozilla Firefox received its 50,000,000th download. To celebrate, SpreadFirefox.com has created a special page, where you can watch the downloads continue to climb in real time. Three cheers for Firefox! May it go on swiftly to 100,000,000!"

20 of 359 comments (clear)

  1. To be fair.... by ActionJesus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have downloaded firefox like 30 times. Due to installs, re-installs, upgrades, downgrades, and just for the hell of it, it mounts up. Not to say this isnt an achievement... one of my progects is currently on about 50 downloads, after 3 years. But still, I'd like to see more concrete numbers than downloads. Gratz, ffox :)

    1. Re:To be fair.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Yeah, but you don't exactly see any other company "qualify" their claims either.

      For example, if 80% of polled people choose product X, did they tell you that they only interview 5 people? You get my point.

      In other words, just because you are a non-profit org, it doesn't mean that you should be held up to a higher standard.

      Sure, it would be morally correct to do, but that standard also applies to for-profits too.

      Personally, I'm glad that they are telling people they have 50 M downloads - let the professional marketers get a taste of their own medicine, otherwise known as truth in advertising.

  2. Just remember by computerme · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have download it 3 times for the same machine.

    (1.0. - 1.0.3)

    I am sure others have done the same.

    I got a cold splash in the face last week when i told my client they should be using firefox. They responed "what's firefox"

    Its a little too early to break out the "IE is dead" champagne...

    I hope it will happen someday but there is much more work to be done.

  3. Opera has 49 million or so to go to catch up. by elcid73 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I can't wait for them to do it :)

    1. Re:Opera has 49 million or so to go to catch up. by PaxTech · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's not over til the fat lady sings.

      --
      All movements for social change begin as missions, evolve into businesses, and end up as rackets.
  4. Good and bad. by Future+Man+3000 · · Score: 1, Insightful
    It's good that a quality piece of open source software is getting the recognition it deserves, improving the experience of millions of users and increasing the likelihood of HTML-compatible webpages being developed and published.

    It's bad that a quality piece of open source software is getting the recognition it deserves, because it will fall even faster than IE to surreptitious purveyors of spyware and virii taking advantage of the source to discover new ways to subvert our web browsers without our knowledge.

    --

    I never vote for anyone. I always vote against.
    -- W.C. Fields

    1. Re:Good and bad. by ssj_195 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      It's bad that a quality piece of open source software is getting the recognition it deserves, because it will fall even faster than IE to surreptitious purveyors of spyware and virii taking advantage of the source to discover new ways to subvert our web browsers without our knowledge.
      Good - I say "bring it". Because whereas spyware developers have to spend *weeks* poring over the massive, already heavily-audited code-base looking for exploits, and then days to weeks tailoring a piece of code to exploit it and distributing the malicious code, the Firefox developers who actually have intimate knowledge of how Firefox works will probably have a fix within hours. With the upcoming trouble-free patching in Firefox 1.1, a fix will probably be distributed within days of an exploit hitting. And so the arms-race continues, but the Firefox team (who are more dedicated to their product than Microsoft were to IE) will always have the upper hand as the majority of vulnerabilites are far easier to patch than they are to craft and distribute an exploit for.
    2. Re:Good and bad. by Changa_MC · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Then why is Apache (open source) the most secure and the most popular webserver?

      Maybe (gasp) because OSS works!!!

      Back off Billy, your sily jedi mind tricks have no effect on me.

      --
      Changa hates change.
  5. Harder #s? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Who's got real webserver stats with % FireFox vs IE, Safari, Mozilla, Netscape et al?

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  6. Does this include yesterday by stoolpigeon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yesterday I ran the little 'check for updates now' deal and apparently there were some for firefox itself as it downloaded the whole installer, ran through the whole thing and reset my home page.

    Do these downloads count? If so-- then every time there is an update you are really ramping up your numbers due to current users getting it.

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
  7. Re:Small nit to pick... by geeber · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I also like how the counter increments at constant regular intervals. Seems like firefox is being downloaded precisely once every second.

    I would hardly seems like it could be the actual number in real time.

    --
    Download my free songs!
  8. Divide 50,000,000 by 3. 1.0 - ... - 1.03 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Given that we've had 3 downloadable releases since launch, 50,000,000 != number of users.

    And if people are smart enough to download Firefox rather than use IE, then they're more likely to grab updates as they become available.

    Lets not hype FireFox stats...Firefox kicks ass well enough without bullshit.

  9. Firefox does not 'auto update' by Yankel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've updated FireFox on my in-law's Window's box three times now. Each time, the 'upgrade' consisted of downloading the new install executable to the desktop and running it.

    The new installation overwrites the old one, keeping your various settings (history, bookmarks, etc.) in tact.

    It would be interesting to find out how many of those downloads were resulting from the upgrade prompt (red arrow). Hopefully, that's already been factored in.

    --
    --- Dan
  10. Re:Small nit to pick... by br0ck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Look at the js source, it increments each second, but it uses XMLHttpRequest to look up and correct to the actual value once per minute.

    http://www.spreadfirefox.com/ffcounter.js

  11. What does it mean ? by Jules+Labrie · · Score: 2, Insightful
    There are millions of Linux users who download or get it from distributions. So the community is actually much greater. What's really important is:

    1. The market share

    2. The community's active participation into the project.

    I don't see what it brings to say there is '50.000.000' downloads, this is just marketing for the average user.

    1. Re:What does it mean ? by asa · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Jules, a big point that you're missing is that this is a celebration for that community of active participants who have helped Firefox achieve these downloads. Are open source projects supposed to discourage their communities from celebrating milestones?

      - A

  12. "May it go on swiftly to 100,000,000!" by TheoGB · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "May it go on swiftly to 100,000,000!"

    Okay, I'll probably get modded out of the place for this but it's just a fucking browser, not the second coming. It doesn't give oral sex and it's not Half-Life fucking 2.

    I've got it installed here and at work. I still end up using IE most of the time, to be honest. I only notice a difference when I'm trying to sort out my Stylesheets so they work on both browsers (and IE really needs to sort its shit out there).

    Long may FireFox continue because IE's quality really began to dip when Nutscrape disappeared. A bit of competition is healthy but for most browsing IE does the same job just as well...

  13. Re:Time zones by Java+Pimp · · Score: 1, Insightful



    That tsunami really fsck'd things up didn't it...

    --
    Ascalante: Your bride is over 3,000 years old.
    Kull: She told me she was 19!
  14. I call B.S. on you by lheal · · Score: 2, Insightful
    it will fall even faster than IE to surreptitious purveyors of spyware and virii taking advantage of the source to discover new ways to subvert our web browsers without our knowledge.

    I don't think that will happen, for several reasons:

    1. One of the design goals of Firefox is preventing viruses and such from using it to attack your computer. IE doesn't have design goals, it has "security features".
    2. The source code for Mozilla has be available for what, 5 years now? Your imagined plague of Mozilla virii and spyware hasn't happened yet.
    3. The source code is available to the good guys, too. That means that bugs can and will be found before anyone ever tries to exploit them.
    4. The source code is available to the good guys, too. That also means that bugs can be fixed more quickly. It's not magic: finding a bug is the time-consuming part. With lots of people looking, identifying the exact nature of the bug becomes much easier. Once the exact nature of the bug is known, coding around it is less painful and happens faster.
    5. Firefox is an application, not part of the OS.
    6. There are lots easier ways to develop and spread viruses than scouring the Firefox source code.
    7. Many of those writing viruses do it for the glory factor - just to think that they did something "important". Yeah, it's stupid, but at least they aren't doing it for greed. Anyway, for some of these folks there will be stronger motivation to do get credit for supplying a patch than there would be to release a virus.
    --
    Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
  15. Microsoft Apologists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It's funny to see the Microsoft Apologists come out of the woodwork, trying to explain away this amazing milestone.

    Meanwhile, Microsoft has been announcing nothing but vapourware on their supposedly fantastic ie 7 browser.

    IE is dead in the water, going nowhere fast.