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Firefox Hits 80,000,000 Downloads

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the thats-a-lotta-bits-and-bytes dept.

asa writes "It's been nine months since the release of Firefox 1.0 and with tens of millions of users we most certainly are taking back the web. Today our Firefox web browser hit the 80,000,000 downloads mark. You can see the live counter over at SpreadFirefox.com."

2 of 329 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Obvious question by CarlinWithers · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This topic has been discussed a good dozen times already on slashdot. The same conclusion is reached every time.

    The long and the short of it is that nobody knows for sure. The point isn't exactly what the number means (80 000 000 unique downloads vs. 80 000 000 downloads by a crazed fan), but that the number is increasing, and therefore so much Firefox use to some extent.

    Personally I've been installing it on customer's systems for a few weeks now as a way to beat spyware. Some of them adopt it, some of them don't. But those who do adopt constitute an increase in Firefox use.

  2. Re:In other news.... by Dolda2000 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Firefox is just way too dumbed down for my taste, last time I looked.
    Of course, you're free to use the Mozilla Suite however much you may want, but what has happened to Firefox isn't that it has been "dumbed down". It has simply been made a web browser, which I think is A Good Thing.

    Seamonkey (the Mozilla Suite), however useful, isn't exactly "well designed" in that it's too monolithical. If you want the web browser, you get the e-mail client, calendar, Usenet client and fries on the side with it, whether you want to or not. For those of us using other programs for mailing/Usenet posting/calendaring/whatever-else, that's just a waste of resources.

    The same thing goes for the plug-in architecture of Firefox. Those who don't want/need mouse gestures don't have to waste resources on them, for example. The plug-ins also allow for a more distributed development model, since people can contribute Firefox functionality as a plug-in, without having to contribute the code to the Mozilla Foundation.

    As for Firefox going submarine, that's not going to happen. The Firefox/Thunderbird/Sunbird suite is the official replacement of Seamonkey, which will stop being developed after a certain point (I don't remember when, however). And then there's the issue if why they'd actaully want to do that...