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Firefox Breaks 8 Million, Gets Into Guinness
Punkster812 writes "Mozilla has gotten the results back from the Guinness World Records and the official number that will be set as the record is 8,002,530 downloads. The day started out a little rough for them, with server troubles during the initial launch, but once they got everything going, they were able to transfer 62,419,734 MB in 24 hours.
You can get more information, including a breakdown of how many downloads each country did from around the world, by visiting spreadfirefox.com.
Congratulations, Mozilla, on the new record."
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20080623
If you haven't been down-modded lately, you aren't trying.
Sacred cows make the best hamburger.
It appears that this is the first recorded record by Guinness Book, so it's kind of arbitrary, however shuttling 62TB of data is pretty impressive. Now that the gauntlet has been thrown down, it'll be interesting to see if other software companies will try to compete. If nothing else, this gave Firefox some much-needed press.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
Seriously, this is a great thing. But considering that no record existed previously, it's not exactly earth-shattering. I look to see this record broken with subsequent launches, as more and more people have access to the internet, and as Mozilla gains more share. Also, 7.7 million of the total came from the US. It would be great to see a larger overseas distribution, especially considering the pledges that were signed in places like Africa.
Funny... nobody from North Korea downloaded Firefox 3.
http://xkcd.com/198/
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Its amazing that over 300k people downloaded firefox from russia, despite the fact that in soviet russia, firefox downloads you. /groan
"Give someone a program, frustrate them for a day... Teach someone to program, frustrate them for a lifetime."
It has been several years since there was a justifiable, logical reason to stick with Internet Explorer (this isn't flamebait, oh holy Microsoft defenders, but the truth is that Microsoft just stopped caring about the browser market, and innovation dried up. IE 7 was a groaner, and IE 8 thus far is shaping up to be more of the same), so aside from pushing Firefox into people's awareness via gimmicks like this Guinness Record, it isn't like they just need to add that one last feature for it to be compelling.
If people are still using Internet Explorer, it can only be explained as ignorance or complacency.
While I hate to go there, at this point I think we need to see some apps that require Firefox (which isn't so onerous. Unlike demanding Internet Explorer, which intrinsically also demands Windows, usually at a contemporary version, Firefox runs on just about everything, and installing it doesn't change or screw with a properly running system). Offline app support, the canvas element, alongside numerous other web app bits and pieces, it really is the platform that Marc Andreesson was promising a decade+ prematurely.
Imagine what preloading FireFox could do to the brand-differentiation of Dell or HP. Why do they not try this obvious move but insist on fighting on price? What really is in the undisclosed agreements between the big name PC vendors and MSFT? What it would take for them to break out?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
If people are still using Internet Explorer, it can only be explained as ignorance or complacency.
Or personal preference. I downloaded Firefox about a year ago, tried it alongside IE for several weeks, determined there were parts I liked, parts I didn't, and ultimately made the decision that I preferred IE. It's nice to have a choice, and I have made my pick. Others picked something else, whether it be Firefox, Opera, or something entirely different. Fine. Good for them. I don't care because I have my browsing experience the way I want it and that's all I really care about.
If Firefox works for you, hurrah. I'm not so smug and condescending that I'm going to start calling you names. Just let me have what I prefer and we're all happy. I don't care if you think I made a poor or even stupid decision, in much the same way as I don't care if a Honda driver thinks I shouldn't be driving a Toyota. Isn't that the whole point: for people to have choices and be able to choose what they prefer?
The SpearFirefox FAQ clearly states that the download count does not include duplicate downloads, incomplete downloads or downloads done through Firefox updates.