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Firefox 3.5 Now the Most Popular Browser Worldwide
gQuigs notes a graph up at StatCounter Global Statistics, which shows that in the last few days Firefox 3.5 became the most used browser version worldwide, edging ahead of IE7. IE8 is rising fast (along with Windows 7), but over the last few months the slope of Firefox's worldwide curve has been steeper. (In the US, IE8 has always been ahead of Firefox 3.5; in Europe Firefox has led since late summer.) The submitter suggests using the time when Firefox rules the roost, globally speaking, to put the final nail in the coffin of IE6, which still has a 14% global share (5%-7% in the US and EU; China and Korea are holding up IE6's numbers).
Its not really that surprising. You have some users who saw what "upgrading" to Vista did to XP, and won't upgrade any software, especially if it switches to a totally different look. You have lots of corporate users, you also have people on pre-XP systems which IE 6 is the latest version of IE for them. Even Windows 2000 only has IE 6 as the most recent version of IE.
And while IE 6 may be archaic, if you have an intranet based on people using IE 6 that IE 7+, Firefox or another browser breaks, you either have to upgrade the entire intranet or keep IE 6 around.
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If you put all the firefox's (1-3.5) vs. the IE's (5-8) what do you get? The winner for now is still IE. Now, Firefox is getting more blot, and IE getting better. What will Firefox do to fight back? Add even more blot? I have moved to using IE, Firefox, and chrome for now. If firefox keeps down this path, I will stop using it.
Statcounter also plots that, fwiw. (Click on the dropdown box after "Statistic:" at the bottom-left of the graph to get other views and data sets as well.)
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I helped a family friend setup their new computer (which had Windows 7 on it) and the first thing I did was download Firefox 3.5, installed the IE Aero theme and removed any references to IE I could find. The nice thing with this theme is very few non-technical users notice a difference other than their browser seems to load pages faster.
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When I first saw the option on Slashdot's main page to turn off ads I was a tad croggled. I'd been using Firefox with AdBlock + for so long I'd forgotten that there were ads on Slashdot.
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If you can change the icons and the theme they will really never know the difference.
Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
The question (which the graph doesn't readily answer) is whether the net FF adoption rate is faster than the net IE adoption rate.
Well, that chart didn't but this one does.
And yes, IE (all versions) is in a rapid decline, while FF is slowly climbing.
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I can confirm. It will not wash your dishes, vacuum your rug or become your Evil EMACS Robotic Overlord.
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The other source of IE6 is non tech-saavy people still using it on their Windows XP PCs that have never considered or don't know how to upgrade. Working for an ISP helpdesk, I can say this is a common scenario.
Except that IE8 is perfectly capable of emulating both IE6's and IE7's standards-noncompliance modes, in addition to rendering in a proper (albeit lacking some newer features) standards-compliant mode.
There's no excuse. There's less than 250 hours left in this DECADE, so Win2k isn't a valid argument in my books.
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FYI the last day of this decade is December 31, 2010, which is a few more than 250 hours. Remember, our calendar uses 1-based math, not 0-based.
That being said, Win2k is still ancient history, as is IE6.
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I work for a large company with 130k employees and EVERYBODY uses IE6 because it's what the IT department mandates. To get an exception to this you have to go through so much hassle and have a business provable reason for the request.
I wish I could use a better browser, IE6 really sucks in many many ways. It's slooww, has memory leaks like you wouldn't believe and doesn't even render slashdot correctly.
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I fail to see all good news for Firefox on that page. Or, should I say that I don't see all good news for consumers.
Together, IE6, IE7 and IE8 still dominate the market. I'm afraid that will remain true for a couple more years, no matter how much pressure the rest of the world puts on the market. Separating the versions of the various browsers just clutters the picture.
If I may, I'll point out that I'm partly color blind. It's tough to see that chart. It's hard to see the "real picture". What is literally true for me, is figuratively true for those who are working so hard to track browser usage.
Is there a page that tracks usage, which lumps IE (all versions), Firefox (all versions) Opera (all versions) etc?
Ahhhhh, here we go: http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-weekly-200827-200951
Yes indeed. Global domination by Firefox is indeed getting closer - but not this year, and probably not next year. Let's give it between 3 and 5 years, alright?
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how is this odd.
let's take a look at some FACTS.
1. Windows XP, as originally shipped, does not have automatic updates turned on as a default, and most people would not turn it on in the original setup screen.
2. MOST computer users are idiots when it comes to security and maintenance of their systems. Thus they would NEVER go to the windows update site unless explicitly instructed to do so by someone.
3. Combine 1 and 2 and you can easily see how their are many people that would fail to understand that there is a NEW version of Internet Explorer let alone security updates.
I have spent more hours than i care to think about simply updating machines when they are brought to me for reasons of "non-operation".
hell, i had a friend come over last night whose laptop was running XP SP1, as shipped to him by the manufacturer.
When i pointed out that he should update this using the Windows Update site, his response was "how often should i do that?"
he was awestruck when i answered "monthly would be a good idea".
Except that IE8 is perfectly capable of emulating both IE6's and IE7's standards-noncompliance modes.
Nope, IE8 does not emulate IE6, which is the chief problem here. (It does emulate IE5, however.)
In fact, CSS2 that "works" in IE6 is almost guaranteed to break in IE8 or any other modern browser.
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The only reason this has happened, is because people are migrating from IE7 to IE8, if you look at the graph, firefox is a little over half the combined marketshare of ie 7 & 8, this will change in a month or two as more and more people migrate to ie8.
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Using the same method as the poster, you can say that ie6 has more market share then Firefox 3
IE still has over 50% of the market, so firefox isn't exactly the most popular browser. Firefox is at 30% and Chrome is already at 5% and its still an infant.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad IE's share is getting smaller and smaller, but Firefox still isn't the most popular browser out there, lets actually accomplish it before we tell everyone we've accomplished it by messaging the data.
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Some Googling suggests it's a recent update with Firefox others suggest it's a Firefox / Flash issue.
A userspace application cannot cause a BSOD (kernel panic). This is strictly a driver issue, video most likely. Of course it can be triggered by Firefox/Flash/whatever combo, but the bug is still in the driver.
Not true - I know from personal experience that a lot of big businesses (in the UK at least) use IE6 because of at least one of
a) Internal IT not allowing use of anything else
b) Requiring to use systems that don't work on anything else
The NHS, for example, use some systems that were developed specifically for them and that do not work on anything that is not IE6. That causes us problems because it means our product must work on IE6 as well as the other browsers.