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In Indonesia, a Winner For Now In the Browser Wars

Posted by timothy on from the no-longer-beginner's-luck dept.

angry tapir writes "Mozilla is building an army of volunteers in Indonesia to help customize Firefox and recommend add-ons. Mozilla wants that input so it can retain the high market share that Firefox already has in the country. Web statistics company StatCounter puts the share at 75 to 80 percent, the browser's highest in Asia. The worldwide share of Firefox, which competes with Internet Explorer and Google Chrome, is just over 30 percent."

6 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. I live in Indonesia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I live in Indonesia and has been using their browsers for several years now. I first used their Netscape 7 several years ago, because at that time Internet Explorer 6 (running under Windows 98 SE) was a real resource hog, eating up SYSTEM and USER resources. I also liked its pop-up blocker. Now I am happily using Firefox 4.0, primarily because it has AdBlock Plus (note that bandwidth is expensive in Indonesia), it still supports Windows XP SP3, and it is, in my opinion, faster than Internet Explorer 8 (with my computer full of ActiveX components installed by legitimate programs).

    1. Re:I live in Indonesia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      I live in Indonesia and has been using their browsers for several years now. I first used their Netscape 7 several years ago, because at that time Internet Explorer 6 (running under Windows 98 SE) was a real resource hog, eating up SYSTEM and USER resources. I also liked its pop-up blocker. Now I am happily using Firefox 4.0, primarily because it has AdBlock Plus (note that bandwidth is expensive in Indonesia), it still supports Windows XP SP3, and it is, in my opinion, faster than Internet Explorer 8 (with my computer full of ActiveX components installed by legitimate programs).

      To keep your bandwidth usage low, you want Opera Turbo.

  2. There is no winner by 91degrees · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's a constant battle for supremacy. Firefox hasn't won anything. It's simply the leader at the moment.

    Microsoft realise this. Mozilla's advocates would be well advised to keep this in mind and not get complacent.

    1. Re:There is no winner by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Mozilla has won the most important battle by getting Microsoft off of its ass and actually developing a browser again. While Microsoft had a virtual monopoly on browsers, innovation stalled and security issues exploded. Compare today and 5 years ago and you will see that consumer has gained many things, among them are options to pick another browser while still being able to use most websites.

    2. Re:There is no winner by Tuqui · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's a constant battle for supremacy. Firefox hasn't won anything.It's simply the leader at the moment.

      Firefox already won !
      In the days mozilla started, there where sites requiring VBscript and ActiveX to display.
      If mozilla failed your servers would be running IIS, and .Net, and Silverlight would already destroyed Flash.

  3. Re:Who would have thought... by koinu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not really. The last virus infections I found have been on business servers in Indonesia and the Blackberry phones they use, when I was in Indonesia last year. I don't call this "tech savvy", when you don't have an idea how to keep your servers up-to-date with latest security patches and everything runs on deprecated Windows XP installations with old service packs. Running Firefox there does not give them bonus points.