Firefox Usage Climbing 443
kbox writes "According to the Amsterdam analytics firm onestat The Firefox browser has jumped from a global market share of 8.7% to a whopping 13% since April 2005. The national usage of Firefox make some interesting reading, too, with Firefox making up 16% in the USA, 24% in Australia and a huge 39% in Germany."
Unsurprisingly, on Slashdot we skew the averages somewhat, with Firefox weighing in at 65% of our traffic... but sadly 18% of our Firefox users need to upgrade to the latest version ;) Go do that now.
What about Opera, Safari and Konq. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm doing my part (Score:4, Interesting)
More Data (Score:5, Interesting)
Interestingly, Adtech [adtech.info] found similar results (~12% in Europe [adtech.info]) while The Counter [thecounter.com] put Firefox at more around ~9-10% for those months. Net Applications [hitslink.com] placed Firefox at around 10% also. Of course, Wikipiedia [wikipedia.org] has a decent article on this with combined data at the bottom.
I guess 13% seems like kind of a stretch and 10% seems a bit more realistic. I don't know what makes any one source more reliable than the other though as none of them really talk about their strategy for attaining these statistics.
The big question shouldn't be "where is Firefox's percentage" but instead "how do we make Firefox more appealing to non-technical users?" Because it's clear that the technically savvy people have adopted Firefox but you'll never make it past 15% of the population with that attitude. I hate to say it, but introducing some functionality that Internet Explorer doesn't have might be the only way to accomplish that. And when you do that, you lose the stability and security that made it so popular in the first place. Solution? Perhaps a MySpace plug-in in light of recent news?
Operating systems? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What about Opera, Safari and Konq. (Score:3, Interesting)
Please include the OS as well. My guess is that Windows is dominating,
contrary to what the posts indicate
Re:Upgrade? (Score:3, Interesting)
I do use 1.5 on my home machine, and one thing I've noticed is that managing bookmarks in 1.0.7 is easier - I can drag and drop items as necessary, whereas 1.5 makes me use a "move up" button.
Sorry, /. editors, I will NOT be upgrading any time soon.
Here are some (Score:5, Interesting)
Fire who? (Score:2, Interesting)
So, if you want Firefox to flourish, stop fixing friends PCs for free
Safari Adventure Club (Score:5, Interesting)
Safari pisses me off though because lack of design mode [google.com] is a major flaw, but one that is obviously fixable. I'm an ardent mac supporter, but the long and slow response to this makes me feel like Apple is sticking it to us (the mac faithful) because they can -- they know they've got a captive audience.
I've taken the Writely path now -- we (my company) no longer support Safari on our web applications -- we just can't. And I don't see us ever going back to that when we can code to one standard -- Firefox -- and have it work everywhere.
So I agree with you -- thanks Mozilla, and thanks OSS for having projects in which the developers are responsive to the customers needs. If I need something I can sponser someone to make an extension or tweak. We've done that several times with Thunderbird, we have some custom work we paid for in a few other OSS projects that went back to the community.
So I'm in the weird position of being a mac lover and an apple hater. Which is weird, but I think some people will know what I'm saying. Apple has contributed back where they've been required, but with the promotion of DRMs, ITunes, etc, they're not really an ally of Open Source, except in that they see OSS as an ally of convenience against MSFT. If there were now Microsoft, Apple would be doing exactly the same things MSFT has done.Re:More Distribution (Score:3, Interesting)
No, the hard part is that people don't care. Valid technical reasons for doing something don't encumber the mind of most people. They just look for their bottom line, and in the realm of browsing the internet, that bottom line is getting to a web page with the least effort.
If you got Firefox installed on hard drives as they shipped from manufacturers, usage would increase dramatically. Hand out free install CD's? Not so much.
Fine! (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, I still miss Firebird. Birds are way better than Foxes. Especially when they're on fire. And 16% use in the US counts as being on fire.
50% of people will always use IE, because they're too dumb to use IE to download Firefox. Makes you wish MS would just give it up and adopt Firefox, huh? It would save a boatload of cash.
Anyhow ... my browser is gonna be better than both!!!
I prefer Mozilla, not Firefox (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Fire who? (Score:2, Interesting)
Help me ! - with my work situation and IE (Score:3, Interesting)
"At work, there is one system that requires IE _on windows_, and we had to get a new computer, with windows just to view one website, and I had a word or two with them. And guess what? They told me that they are now targeting Firefox as the target browser, and for that to be cross platform."
Some advice please? my university work place has an expenses system which required me to use IE if I want to claim for travel expenses etc. Doesn't work on Firefox or other browsers. I have to keep IE on my computer solely for this purpose. Can you (or any other slashdotters) advise on some well chosen arguments that I could use in an email to try and persuade the management (and I guess the central organisation techies) to modify the system so I can use firefox instead? cheers in advance...
Re:Fire who? (Score:2, Interesting)
So spread the word . . . help out your friends.
Many people still don't know Firefox exists. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Fire who? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:One problem... (Score:5, Interesting)
That's not true any more -- OEM manufacturers can build firefox (or any other software they want) into their windows builds without fearing retribution from MSFT. That's what the anti-trust thing was all about.
And the last time I was at MicroCenter (a large computer chain) in Boston, a local entrepeneur (kid had to be 14) was distributing for free a CD with FireFox, Open Office, SpyBot, Gimp and Trillian (I told him Trillian wasn't open) on it -- as well as html document that had a link in it to his Amazon donation page, where he was asking for $2.50 which seemed pretty reasonable to me. I asked him about his traffic, and he said he passes out about 200 CD's a day on Saturday and Sunday. Obviously he must have access to a multiple image burner to crank out volume like that (or he was pulling my leg), but seems like a good way to make a bit of $$$ for a kid, and at the same time help spread the love
Re:Here are some (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:More Distribution (Score:3, Interesting)
It's all a matter of timing. I've made a nice bit of pocket change cleaning spyware and viruses for my non-technical friends. A friend whose computer has just been saved from uselessness can be very open to the idea of trying Firefox...
Re:One problem... (Score:5, Interesting)
When I get stuck doing tech support for family, the first thing I do is delete all the IE links, install FF, and import their bookmarks. Normally when I talk to them later, the first thing they mention is how few popups they see.
Which latest version? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm Hoping Opera Gains Ground (Score:4, Interesting)
Recently I downloaded a copy of Opera, and I find it far more to my liking than Firefox. It's well-behaved, fast, and everything feels intuitive, which is something I never got from Firefox. I'm very happy with it, and I use it about half-and-half with IE.
I de-installed Firefox last night, after realizing I'd probably never start it again.
Unfair (Score:3, Interesting)
Hopefully larger companies will begin to make the switch, and people will then adopt what they learn at work, to their home environment as well.
Most people i know, have adopted Firefox at home, but that is because the know me, and i did it for them, or told them to make the switch.
Re:Fire who? (Score:3, Interesting)
No - but after repeatedly bashing my head against the wall trying to teach some basic security concepts to the windows-using side of my family (siblings, etc.), I declined to repair their machine last time and instead made them take it to a local repair shop to have all the crap cleaned out. 300 bucks later and they now seem to listen to me
Alternative browsers (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Help me ! - with my work situation and IE (Score:3, Interesting)
Tom
Re:Upgrade? (Score:3, Interesting)
I would only recommend that people switch to Firefox when the memory (heap) management issues are addressed. Netscape 4.72 was a *much* better browser from this perspective. It worked fine on a Pentium Pro with much less memory under Windows 2000 before I made the mistake of deciding to try Firefox under Linux.
I would also suggest that the Linux paging system needs work. If one has what should be a "memory thrashing" situation (95+% of RAM used, mostly by Firefox) one should not see minimal CPU (20%) and minimal disk (20%) activity.
Just because its "open source" (and I am a strong proponent of open source) doesn't mean its *better*!
Re:Work (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Fire who? (Score:2, Interesting)
Her "This site isn't working."
Me "Maybe it only works in IE."
Her "IE is garbage, why would they make a site that only uses that?"
Me "???"
So the conversion of, lets say, the not so technically competent (she got e-mail at work about 2 years ago and not long before that would say "A typewriter is perfectly fine for what I do.") isn't impossible, it's just a matter of comfort and maybe some gentle nudges.
I never did manage to convert my ex, although that's because I refused to support her POS from Futureshop, if you don't ask me prior to purchase, don't expect to ask me after.
Re:One problem... (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyhow, I installed firefox, then installed the firefoxie theme [firefoxie.net] that skins ff to look like IE, and changed the FF icon to the IE one. He didn't know the difference, except he thought his anti-popup software was working better than ever. When I told him he'd been using Mozilla he was surprised, pleased and stuck with FF (but ditched the IE theme).
Re:One problem... (Score:5, Interesting)
Pretty much all the MS websites out there now support Firefox, including their ajax enabled sites such as live.com. The only site that doesn't as as far as I'm aware, is windowsupdate, and Vista won't be using that, as it has its own program for doing updates.
This all gives firefox a major opportunity to take market share from ie.
Re:Work (Score:1, Interesting)
I sincerely doubt they know how to log things like that. They really don't sound like the clueful types
As for my workplace, I'm allowed FireFox only because I'm IT. For everyone else, they're stuck with the "standard"
As for firewalls, here we have one that works by inserting a request for HTTP basic authentication into all your browser's requests man-in-the-middle style (and a message about needing to authenticate if you use anything but a web browser, e.g. telnet). My solution was to modify LWP::UserAgent to deal with the ever-changing realm it requests and create a script that automagically logs me in when necessary.
Re:One problem... (Score:1, Interesting)
I got into an argument today about whether Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was any good. He said that 77% of viewers gave it a good rating, while only 50% of the critics did. I countered that his statistic was skewed because the critics had been forced ot see it (more or less), and the movie had only been out for three days meaning the only public to see it were those with a pent-up demand for the product (people with a natural bias towards liking it). That the 77% of the public liked it was only because its frontloaded with fanboys.