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Firefox Momentum Slows
linumax wrote to mention an Information Week story about an apparent slowing of Firefox's usage growth. From the article: "San Diego-based WebSideStory released market share numbers for Firefox, IE, and other browsers that noted Firefox has crept up from April's 6.75 percent to September's 7.86 percent, a single percentage point gain in five months. During the first few months after its November, 2004, release, Firefox was adding another point each month. 'It looks like Firefox has hit the push-back point,' said Geoff Johnston, an analyst with WebSideStory. 'We always knew there was a finite number of early adopters out there and a finite number of Microsoft haters who would switch to something new, but we didn't know what that number was. It looks like we're approaching it.'"
I am shocked (shocked) that people don't get sarcasm. I should have quoted TFA in my post. Here, read this and see if it makes more sense:
from the article:
Geoff Johnston, an analyst with WebSideStory. 'We always knew there was a finite number of early adopters out there and a finite number of Microsoft haters who would switch to something new
So, to paraphrase Mr. Johnston:
The only possible reasons why someone would use firefox are:
1. they are one of those annoying people who think they're cool when they have "the latest thing"
2. they are one of those annoying people who hold an irrational hatred of microsoft.
Firefox was supposed to be more secure than IE. But exploits for both browsers are close in numbers
l
If you compare numbers, please compare them correctly. According to Secunia, IE has much more OPEN security holes than Firefox has.
http://secunia.com/product/4227/
http://secunia.com/product/11/
I also suggest you to read this article about the "Fun with statistics", which is about the security holes in Firefox and IE:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-6333507-1.htm
Sigh... IE isn't integrated into the OS.
It runs just like any other user level process and is restricted as such. You have the same rights to the system running Firefox as you do IE. The real problem is that IE was too trigger happy at installing active-x and other ridiculous security flaws. The same effect as if Open Office suddenly decided to install random extensions from the web. With SP2 things are significantly better. It remains to be seen what we get w/ IE7.
Confusion might lie in the fact that IE is also available as a library so that you can have web browsing through in your own application. But it is still subject to the same security restrictions of the parent process.
Actually, things in Europe are quite different from one can read from the aforementionned report. See http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=node/view/18773 .
Germany is at 24%
Finland is at 34%
Czech Republic is at 23%
Poland is at 22%
France is at 16%
These numbers are measured by independent French firm XitiMonitor, which publishes a monthly report on browser market share.
In a related note, see also http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=node/view/18802 , which demonstrates a steady monthly growth for Firefox in Europe, with a rough estimation of more than 37 millions users in the Old continent.
Disclaimer: I am a Mozilla Europe employee.
Poster was writing informally as one who is listing items. Correct usage, despite not being formal — but then again, this is not a dissertation.
Poster's original positioning of the full stop is correct in formal American English. Reference is available here. I'm not American, I've just come across this often enough to wonder what the deal with that is.
Both assertions are still wrong for the reasons listed above.
iexplore is just a wrapper ;\
can browse the web from explorer.exe just as well as iexplore....or even control panel
There's no reason to. There are much better browsers on every platform. Firefox (on linux especially) is ungodly slow when compared to Opera or other available browsers. Opera is faster on any platform. KDE users have a better browser in Konq. Gnome users in Epiphany. Mac OS X users have Camino and Safari. Windows users have K-Meleon and Opera.
I'm not a Firefox dev, but I can tell you that the upcoming 1.5 version has incremental update support.
I keep hearing about these "IE Only" sites for a long time already. However, I yet have to find one.
How about the FEMA site section for online claims requests, which explicitly requred IE 6.x. Slashdot article here.
This was particularly a problem since the volunteer-provided internet access tended to be donated older computers running free software, often from a "live CD". But not being able to use it to fill out the aid forms massively reduced its usefulness.
The telephone alternative to online signup was even worse: It didn't let you sign up, only triggered the mailing of the form - to your address in the flood zone.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Firefox 1.5 (now in beta) will have auto-update.
f ox-auto-update/
Reference: http://www.techspot.com/staff/38/thoughts-on-fire
I design user interfaces for a free network management application,