Firefox cracks 20% of Market Share

[the_marq]

This was just on FARK and I knew there would be a ton of peoplel interested here on the TFP where Firefox is king.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Not much of an article to cut and paste so just go look at the chart.

This is awesome, I love my Firefox browser

[thecoldone33]

Just need one word to describe this.


Good.

[Redlemon]

Isn't that just 20% of the hits on that particular website? I'm a huge Firefox fan, been using nightlies since it was Phoenix 0.4, but I really doubt they are at 20% overall already.

There are some tech-based, but non-Firefox specific, websites that I've heard receive over 50% Firefox hits!

[the_marq]

On closer inspection Redlemon I think you may be right. I've fallen for it.

I'm so ashamed. Oh well, live and learn.

[Redlemon]

The FARK discussion seems to have some actual content in it (gasp! say it isn't so!). According to more general statistics, IE has just fallen below 90% overall.

[soccerchamp76]

Either way, this certainly helps.

Go Firefox!
Spread it to your friends and families -- preach it!

[jonjon42]

yes push firefox...it makes the web more fun for everyone.
this browser has matured alot since I started using...the only thing I wish they didn't get rid of was the old name (pheonix, well even firebird was better then firefox)
anyway to quote the book of mozilla (hint: go to url bar and do a "about:mozilla" no quotes )

And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror.

from The Book of Mozilla, 7:15

[Mephisto2]

20%?

I don't believe it.


I prefer Opera to Firefox anyway. The download manager in FF sucks.


Mr Mephisto

[skaven]

The last realistic stat I heard about was 10% market share, which is still awesome. I've been pushing Firefox since 1.0 came out (my family/friends tend to be leery about using beta software). The big shift I'm looking for is when Firefox has enough market share that major websites begin actually following W3C standards instead of using IE-centric commands. Long live open standards!!

[moduke67]

I only use IE if I "have" to. Started with Moz and switched to FF at 0.7. The only negative I've found with FF is that it takes time for some of my favorite extensions to catch up with the newest releases sometimes.

[tropple]

Originally Posted by Mr Mephisto

20%?
I don't believe it.
I prefer Opera to Firefox anyway. The download manager in FF sucks.
Mr Mephisto

I don't really understand what was so special about Opera's DL manager. It was no great shakes, either. I added "downTHEMall!" and have more than Opera gave me. I used Opera for many years. No more.


Extensions I use:
FlashGot - Interface to 20 or so download managers
Spellbound - Spell checker for textarea boxes (like this one)
RefSpoof - "Referer" header spoofer
Mouse Gestures - use mouse gestures to control the browser
SpoofX - More spoofing
Gmail Notifier -
User Agent Switcher - Changes the user agent header to the browser I want a site to see.
Javascript Debugger
DOM Inspector

The functionality I have with Firefox totally eclipses Opera. And it's free.

[welshbyte]

I think those stats are based on the mozilla suite browser added to the mozilla firefox browser. The Mozilla suite has been around for a while and has lots of users so firefox + mozilla is always going to give a statistic that tells us not much about how firefox is growing in popularity.

I'd like to see some accurate stats on firefox though because i'm really hoping it'll do well since i like using it so much.

[billege]

Careful, firefox has giant gleaming bugs, you might lose all your bookmarks. Kinda small problem there...

[irseg]

The websites I run target a pretty general audience, and Firefox accounts for about 6-11% of browser traffic.

Personally I've found that since SP2, IE has been secure enough that it's not really a problem anymore. I use Firefox for web development because it's popular enough that I want to make sure my stuff renders properly in it, plus it has some very nice plugins that help for diagnosing HTML problems, web apps, etc.

[bendsley]

Originally Posted by irseg

.....that since SP2, IE has been secure enough that it's not really a problem anymore.

I call bullshit

[irseg]

Originally Posted by bendsley

I call bullshit

Based on what?

Before SP2, I had to use Firefox when I browsed astalavista and other shady sites because IE would become infected with spyware. This has not been a problem since SP2 came out. There was a nasty hole that allowed files to be created without any user intervention, but it's since been fixed.

[bacon_masta]

I'm not sure of the technical details, but there's a spam email going around claiming it's from symantec, something about smtp protection. If you're using ie, and you click the link in the email, a virus or spyware is downloaded onto your machine. No "windows has blocked active content". No "would you like to install". It just installs. The vulnerability may have been patched by now, but it was discovered long after sp2 was released. The original article on the vulnerability (i can't find it, i just looked) was on http://insecure.org.

[Halx]

TFP is at 35% Firefox

[the_marq]

Originally Posted by Halx

TFP is at 35% Firefox

man I was just about to ask you that... GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

[Jrock]

Once you try tabbed browsing, you'll never go back. I tell everyone I know about firefox. I only use IE when Firefox doesn't work, which as of the latest version hasn't been at all. I don't understand why people always tell me to back up my bookmarks, I've been using Firefox since it came out, and previous versions of Mozilla for a long time before that, and never had any problems with loosing my bookmarks. The only problems I've had is it usually takes a few tries to successfully download the new versions of flash or shockwave and things like that.

[Redlemon]

Originally Posted by Jrock

I don't understand why people always tell me to back up my bookmarks, I've been using Firefox since it came out, and previous versions of Mozilla for a long time before that, and never had any problems with loosing my bookmarks.

Two reasons: (1) Some people have had their bookmark files delete themselves (billage, for one, who is on this board; and (2) Everything electronic is subject to being randomly destroyed. If it would be painful to recreate, back it up. Always.

[zhevek]

I actually don't like tabs for everything. I actually like being able to alt tab through all my windows quickly. Is there such a thing for tabs?

[Shizukana]

CTRL-TAB in Firefox lets you cycle through your open tabs.

[Redlemon]

Originally Posted by zhevek

I actually don't like tabs for everything. I actually like being able to alt tab through all my windows quickly. Is there such a thing for tabs?

In addition to what Shizukana said, Ctrl-PageUp and Ctrl-PageDown. Plus, if you install the extension MiniT, you can use the scrollwheel to switch tabs if the pointer is over the tab bar.

[Fearless_Hyena]

I'm disappointed to see that Google Zeitgeist http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist.html stopped posting it's browser graph. If website is the definitive gauge of browser usage, it's got to be Google.

[Lasereth]

I'll keep using IE until Firefox runs as smooth. It just doesn't feel right. IE is perfectly fine if you're not a complete moron on the Internet. I agree if you're new to the Internet then Firefox is the way to go, but IE works just as good as FF to seasoned veterans. My IE is actually slimmer and more attractive than Firefox...and it doesn't do the annoying image load either! I run Ad-Aware and Spybot once a week and haven't got a single instance of spyware in months. I do think IE has been strengthened with SP2. Moreso, who cares if FF is getting more popular than IE? What if everyone chooses FF and no one uses IE anymore? It's not like Microsoft loses money or popularity. People make a much bigger deal about switching to FF than is really necessary. A full, total switch of every user on the Internet wouldn't affect Mozilla or Microsoft in any way.

-Lasereth

[Redlemon]

Originally Posted by Lasereth

...and it doesn't do the annoying image load either!

Feel free to keep using IE, but you can change the image load options with about:config. The settings you would be interested in are:
browser.display.show_image_placeholders
images.dither
network.image.imageBehavior