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Firefox Breaks 50,000,000 Barrier 359

Posted by Zonk
from the get-up-get-on-up dept.
MrDrBob writes "Today at 16:59 GMT (8:58 AM PST) Mozilla Firefox received its 50,000,000th download. To celebrate, SpreadFirefox.com has created a special page, where you can watch the downloads continue to climb in real time. Three cheers for Firefox! May it go on swiftly to 100,000,000!"
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Firefox Breaks 50,000,000 Barrier More

Firefox Breaks 50,000,000 Barrier

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  • Rumor has it (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 29 2005, @01:20PM (#12385970)
    That if they reach 100 million downloads in the next four days, Blake Ross will fly to the moon under his own power.

  • Time zones (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 29 2005, @01:21PM (#12385977)
    "Today at 16:59 GMT (8:58 AM PST) ..."

    *blink*

  • Downloads per user (Score:5, Interesting)

    by r_glen (679664) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:21PM (#12385980)
    So how many unique users does that translate to? Anyone with a reasonable estimate?
    • It depends on how many people install it and how many people have downloaded versions 1.0, 1.0.1, etc.

      I don't download from there anyway. At work I use Portable Firefox [johnhaller.com], and at home I use the MOOX builds [www.moox.ws].

      I'd say you could safely estimate 60% of those are unique with about 35% of them keeping it installed and in use. [No flames, please; I'm just guessing.]
    • So how many unique users does that translate to? Anyone with a reasonable estimate?

      Well, seeing as how I've downloaded it at least 10 times (multiple versions, multiple computers), that might knock it down to 5 million. However, given that I distribute the ones I have downloaded to other people (takes less time for a LAN transfer than a dload), that might average out to 5 times per person. 10 million maybe? Then again, I haven't been using FireFox that long and other people have had more/less repeat d
    • So how many unique users does that translate to? Anyone with a reasonable estimate?

      I know I've downloaded it about 15 times for about 4 unique users. Upgrades and redownloading for convienience instead of carrying around a disk are both big culprits.

      I have no idea how I stack up with everyone else, but that's roughly a 4-1 download to usage ratio for me.

      TW

    • Re:Downloads per user (Score:5, Informative)

      by MarkByers (770551) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:38PM (#12386208) Homepage Journal
      Seeing as I am downloading it directly from portage, this will not be counted by their download counter. I guess that many of the other posters have forgotten this and have probably underestimated the number of unique users by excluding most Linux users.

      • Re:Downloads per user (Score:4, Informative)

        by Given M. Sur (870067) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:57PM (#12386428)
        Why do so many Gentoo users get this confused.

        Gentoo does not host the packages that you download. They host the ebuilds and the ebuilds tell portage where to download the packages from.

        So, you downloaded it directly from mozilla. Check the ebuild yourself if you don't believe me.
        • OK, I checked and you are right. From the ebuild:

          SRC_URI="http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/ fi refox/releases/${MY_PV}/source/firefox-${MY_PV}-so urce.tar.bz2"

          Sorry! But I bet some distros host their own copies?
          • Indeed, they do. Most of the Debian-based distros use a Debian build hosted by either the Debian Foundation or the distro's supporting company (for example, Ubuntu's version of the .deb and the Ubuntu Backports project's .deb for Firefox are both hosted on their own respective servers).

            Also, if you want an RPM build, you've got to get that yourself, unless things have changed since the last time I ran an RPM-based distro. I'm not sure about Autopackage's hosting, but it's probably on Mozilla's servers.

            G
    • estimate the percentage of windows boxes that have downloaded firefox, say X% multiply X% times the number of downloads X%*N, now here comes the tricky part. Estimate the % of types of windows boxes. This will tell you approximately how many times a user has installed due to crashes. in other words, lets say we get 60% * N. which would be 30,000,000 on windows. ok lets say 30% of those are Windows XP, it's pretty stable so lets say a factor of 1.8 (due to unpatched boxen, bootlegs, etc). so we get 9,00

    • Re:Downloads per user (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Finsterwald P Ogleth (759715) on Friday April 29 2005, @04:28PM (#12388008)
      I think Asa had a blog entry on this...

      The download counter only counts "foreign" browsers (like IE, or Opera), or Versions before 1.0.

      If you download a new installer with a current (1.0 or >) version, it won't count.

      There goes most of the theories about counts surmised above...

      We're probably seeing a realistic download count for unique users for non-current versions...

      FPO
  • Seems you need a swimmer now to cross some large body of water
    • No, this is a community project. We all need to swim a lap. (Which, face it, is more exercise than most slashdotters get...)

    • Update: Opera (Score:3, Informative)

      by ggvaidya (747058)
      According to the website [opera.com], Jon had to turn back. He was swimming with his PR manager who was in a raft, but after the raft sprung a leak Jon had to rescue him, sadly ending his Atlantic crossing in the meantime.

      Quite a funny writeup, my favourite:
      "As much as I don't want to talk behind a colleague's back, there is no doubt that we would never have let Eskil assist Jon in the raft had we known he can neither swim nor read maps," says an embarrassed Tor Odland, Opera's Communications Director.

  • Small nit to pick... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pegr (46683) * on Friday April 29 2005, @01:21PM (#12385988) Homepage Journal
    On four different machines sitting in front of me, the counter is off by about 500 between the lowest and the highest. \

    While the counter is cute, I'd call it a bogometer. :)

  • Swim... (Score:5, Funny)

    by nacturation (646836) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <noitarutcan>> on Friday April 29 2005, @01:22PM (#12386002) Journal
    Does this mean Stallman will swim across the Atlantic 50 times?

  • Now (Score:5, Funny)

    by jb.hl.com (782137) <joe@@@joe-baldwin...net> on Friday April 29 2005, @01:22PM (#12386006) Homepage Journal
    Swim that fucking ocean, bitch!

    Erm, wrong browser. Whoops.

  • God bless 'em... that is all.

    I expected to hear this after the email update this morning. :)

  • To be fair.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ActionJesus (803475) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:23PM (#12386013)
    I have downloaded firefox like 30 times. Due to installs, re-installs, upgrades, downgrades, and just for the hell of it, it mounts up. Not to say this isnt an achievement... one of my progects is currently on about 50 downloads, after 3 years. But still, I'd like to see more concrete numbers than downloads. Gratz, ffox :)

  • Just remember (Score:5, Insightful)

    by computerme (655703) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:23PM (#12386016)
    I have download it 3 times for the same machine.

    (1.0. - 1.0.3)

    I am sure others have done the same.

    I got a cold splash in the face last week when i told my client they should be using firefox. They responed "what's firefox"

    Its a little too early to break out the "IE is dead" champagne...

    I hope it will happen someday but there is much more work to be done.

    • I make up for it with my 3 machines in front of me that have it but was downloaded with apt-get install firefox.

    • Re:Just remember (Score:3, Informative)

      by rainman_bc (735332)
      AFAIK FF updates itself now... At least on Windowz.... FC gets its updates from YUM / up2date, so that shouldn't register either.

      In fact, many distros include FF so that doesn't even count on the download numbers.

      • Firefox does not 'auto update' (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Yankel (770174) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:32PM (#12386144) Homepage
        I've updated FireFox on my in-law's Window's box three times now. Each time, the 'upgrade' consisted of downloading the new install executable to the desktop and running it.

        The new installation overwrites the old one, keeping your various settings (history, bookmarks, etc.) in tact.

        It would be interesting to find out how many of those downloads were resulting from the upgrade prompt (red arrow). Hopefully, that's already been factored in.
      • i use OSX. i download it from versiontracker then just drag it to my applications folder...
    • I got a cold splash in the face last week when i told my client they should be using firefox. They responed "what's firefox"

      You say that like they should have a clue. The same person probably would also ask "What's Internet Explorer?"

    • I have download it 3 times for the same machine.

      And I have downloaded it 0 times (from mozilla.org, that is) for ~20 machines, thanks to the Debian archive and apt-proxy.

    • They responed "what's firefox"

      You can say: "It's a 3rd party Internet Explorer. And virus-proof!"
    • I hope it will happen someday but there is much more work to be done.

      And much more advertising money to spend. They could even do TV ads that feature jokes about Firefox's obscurity vis-a-vis IE. I'm serious; the humor might get people's attention.

      Here's another idea. Show an ad with a computer screen covered in popup ads, with an offscreen voice fairly sputtering with rage as a mouse pointer impotently clicks on one after another in an effort to clear the screen...

      *click* *click* *clickclickclick*

    • I also know a fair few magazines in Germany that have had it on a cover-CD.
      Not to mention a fair ammount of linux distros which have it / debian repositry versions which have been downloaded.
      It kind of balances out in the long run , though the number is totaly up for debate as to real world users .
    • True, true.

      I haven't downloaded Firefox from mozilla.org in a while. It gets updated via yum or apt on my systems.

      So there are a lot more that should be counted. There is no way that these numbers could ever be massaged into a number of Firefox users.

  • Opera has 49 million or so to go to catch up. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by elcid73 (599126) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:23PM (#12386018) Homepage
    I can't wait for them to do it :)
  • or somebody on internet2 keeps clicking reload, for that next firefox update.
  • It's good that a quality piece of open source software is getting the recognition it deserves, improving the experience of millions of users and increasing the likelihood of HTML-compatible webpages being developed and published.

    It's bad that a quality piece of open source software is getting the recognition it deserves, because it will fall even faster than IE to surreptitious purveyors of spyware and virii taking advantage of the source to discover new ways to subvert our web browsers without our knowle

    • Re:Good and bad. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ssj_195 (827847)

      It's bad that a quality piece of open source software is getting the recognition it deserves, because it will fall even faster than IE to surreptitious purveyors of spyware and virii taking advantage of the source to discover new ways to subvert our web browsers without our knowledge.

      Good - I say "bring it". Because whereas spyware developers have to spend *weeks* poring over the massive, already heavily-audited code-base looking for exploits, and then days to weeks tailoring a piece of code to exploit

    • Re:Good and bad. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Changa_MC (827317)
      Then why is Apache (open source) the most secure and the most popular webserver?

      Maybe (gasp) because OSS works!!!

      Back off Billy, your sily jedi mind tricks have no effect on me.

  • Slightly Inflated? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PocketPick (798123) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:25PM (#12386037)
    The large amount of downloads are great, but how many of those downloads simply were the same users downloading updates: v1.0, v1.0.1, v1.0.2 and v1.0.3? I'd be interested in knowing how many of those downloads correspond to unique users. After all, that's really what is most important.

  • Harder #s? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Doc Ruby (173196) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:25PM (#12386042) Homepage Journal
    Who's got real webserver stats with % FireFox vs IE, Safari, Mozilla, Netscape et al?

  • AMAZING (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dingDaShan (818817) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:25PM (#12386044)
    I was wondering what the market share is compared to IE? I am finding that IE is used so much because it is convenient and not because people haven't heard of Firefox. Once I show somebody firefox and what it can do, they realize the error of their ways.

  • Does this include yesterday (Score:3, Insightful)

    by stoolpigeon (454276) * <bittercode@gmail> on Friday April 29 2005, @01:25PM (#12386047) Homepage Journal
    Yesterday I ran the little 'check for updates now' deal and apparently there were some for firefox itself as it downloaded the whole installer, ran through the whole thing and reset my home page.

    Do these downloads count? If so-- then every time there is an update you are really ramping up your numbers due to current users getting it.

    • Re:Does this include yesterday (Score:5, Informative)

      by asa (33102) <asa@mozilla.com> on Friday April 29 2005, @01:34PM (#12386168) Homepage
      We're not counting downloads served by the Firefox update system. Neither are we counting the millions of downloads from download.com (they actually host Firefox as well) or from other download repositories. We're also not counting people who go directly to FTP without going through our "bouncer" tool (the app that directs you to the most appropriate mirror). There's lots we're not counting here. It's not meant to be a count of users. It's just a measure of how many people use our system to download Firefox.

      - A
    • The release notes claim that the latest (1.0.3) improves the update process. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm hoping it means that the next update will not be yet another complete download and reinstall (and yet another attempt to reset my home page in the process.)

      Not that this affects the old numbers, but maybe it'll make new numbers slightly more accurate. Not that they're anything other than a terrible proxy for Firefox adoption in the first place, but they're the easiest ones to count.

  • The 50 millionth person (Score:4, Funny)

    by truthsearch (249536) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:26PM (#12386056) Homepage Journal
    Shouldn't we send the person who did that download some flowers or balloons or something? Imagine being that guy, walking around town, "Yeah, that 50 millionth was me!" and everyone responding "Yeah, sure...". We should make it like the reward you get for being the 1,000th person to buy something in a new supermarket.

  • Celebrate--giving their history.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by FerretFrottage (714136) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:27PM (#12386076)
    I would have expected them to change the name after 50,000,000 downloads.

  • slashdotted already (article text) (Score:5, Funny)

    by h4ter (717700) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:29PM (#12386097) Homepage
    50,037,604
    50,037,605
    50,037,606
    50,037,607
    50,037,608
    50,037,609
    50,037,610
    50,037,611
    50,037,612
    50,037,613
    50,037,614

  • In Internet Explorer (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bobbis.u (703273) on Friday April 29 2005, @01:30PM (#12386110)
    And it can't be a coincidence that the page doesn't display properly in Internet Explorer!!
  • It was right around that time that i downloaded Firefox onto a customer's machine that i'm removing parasites from. :-D

    Glad to be part of it.
  • I'd like to see stats from the major web properties like Google that show which browsers are hitting them.

    I have firefox on three boxes (probably representing five downloads since I have upgraded once on two boxes).

    I think the download number is a nice indicator, but downloads and usage are different animals and the latter seems more important in the long run.
  • At this rate (about 2 downloads a second) they should reach 100,000,000 downloads by August 2006 or a little less than a year and a half from now.
    Go go firefox!
  • Looking briefly round the source it isn't *exactly* real time; it loads the rss feed at http://www.spreadfirefox.com/download_counter.php? ff=1 [spreadfirefox.com] , parses it, then increments from there in javascript. The automatic increment interval seems to be based on the real interval, so they shouldn't get too far off.

  • We have identified this user ? (Score:5, Funny)

    by thrill12 (711899) * on Friday April 29 2005, @01:39PM (#12386223) Journal
    Uh oh, Firefox has instantaneously tracked down the user that clicked for the 50th million download ?

    Along with coin #1 in the series, we are also awarding a very special prize--the biggest we've ever given out--to the lucky SpreadFirefox affiliate who delivered the golden click that went with the 50 millionth download. We have identified this person and will withhold her information until she accepts the prize. Check back early next week!

    I wonder how they did it...
    ---

    Return-path: 50thmillionfirefox@mpaa.com
    Received: from catchthepirate.mpaa.com
    Received: from mail.mpaa.com
    Received: from some.isp.com

    Subject: Firefox 50th million download

    Hi, we are from spreadfirefox.com and have identified the 50th million firefox downloader as coming from ip UUU.XXX.YYY.ZZZ.
    Please give us his/her name and address so we can contact him/her to give them this prize !

    Thank you in advance,

    Firefox team
  • There are millions of Linux users who download or get it from distributions. So the community is actually much greater. What's really important is:

    1. The market share

    2. The community's active participation into the project.

    I don't see what it brings to say there is '50.000.000' downloads, this is just marketing for the average user.

  • "May it go on swiftly to 100,000,000!"

    Okay, I'll probably get modded out of the place for this but it's just a fucking browser, not the second coming. It doesn't give oral sex and it's not Half-Life fucking 2.

    I've got it installed here and at work. I still end up using IE most of the time, to be honest. I only notice a difference when I'm trying to sort out my Stylesheets so they work on both browsers (and IE really needs to sort its shit out there).

    Long may FireFox continue because IE's quality r
  • Does 50,000,000 include the separate downloads of 1.0.1, 1.0.2, and 1.0.3?
  • That Opera did something memorable too recently...?

    Oh well, can't matter much. Way to overshadow !!! :)

  • Wonder what other gecko browsers would bring it to (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Sark666 (756464) on Friday April 29 2005, @02:44PM (#12386962)
    Since going to Gnome, I've ended up using galeon.
    It has proper session support, it has proper theme support, and it solved my flash slowdown issues with certain sites that I've always had in FF.
    I initially read that that was a gtk2 bug, but later read it was due to an XUL overhead issue.

    The other gnome browser, epiphany, is also an option and the default gnome, I just found galeon more feature complete instead of the minimalist approach of epiphany.

    Anyway, it's all gecko with just different packaging. And there's also that Kmelon one on the windows side. So I wonder what that would bring the downloads with considering all gecko browsers. Obviously pretty hard to keep track of in linux when one rarely downloads from the actual site.

  • Meanwhile, at Opera... (Score:3, Funny)

    by ReadParse (38517) <john@nosPAm.funnycow.com> on Friday April 29 2005, @03:38PM (#12387528) Homepage
    ... CEO Jon S. von Tetzchne continues to prepare to drown a ridiculous and cold death in the north Atlantic Ocean.

    RP

Mundus vult decipi decipiatur ergo. -- Xaviera Hollander [The world wants to be cheated, so cheat.]