Firefox Breaks 8 Million, Gets Into Guinness 199
Punkster812 writes "Mozilla has gotten the results back from the Guinness World Records and the official number that will be set as the record is 8,002,530 downloads. The day started out a little rough for them, with server troubles during the initial launch, but once they got everything going, they were able to transfer 62,419,734 MB in 24 hours.
You can get more information, including a breakdown of how many downloads each country did from around the world, by visiting spreadfirefox.com.
Congratulations, Mozilla, on the new record."
North Korea (Score:4, Interesting)
Windows Update? (Score:2, Interesting)
I wonder how downloads Windows Update gets every patch Tuesday? Automated downloads, but downloads none the less.
Re:Good work! (Score:4, Interesting)
It has been several years since there was a justifiable, logical reason to stick with Internet Explorer (this isn't flamebait, oh holy Microsoft defenders, but the truth is that Microsoft just stopped caring about the browser market, and innovation dried up. IE 7 was a groaner, and IE 8 thus far is shaping up to be more of the same), so aside from pushing Firefox into people's awareness via gimmicks like this Guinness Record, it isn't like they just need to add that one last feature for it to be compelling.
If people are still using Internet Explorer, it can only be explained as ignorance or complacency.
While I hate to go there, at this point I think we need to see some apps that require Firefox (which isn't so onerous. Unlike demanding Internet Explorer, which intrinsically also demands Windows, usually at a contemporary version, Firefox runs on just about everything, and installing it doesn't change or screw with a properly running system). Offline app support, the canvas element, alongside numerous other web app bits and pieces, it really is the platform that Marc Andreesson [yafla.com] was promising a decade+ prematurely.
It is not a sign of success, really. (Score:5, Interesting)
Imagine what preloading FireFox could do to the brand-differentiation of Dell or HP. Why do they not try this obvious move but insist on fighting on price? What really is in the undisclosed agreements between the big name PC vendors and MSFT? What it would take for them to break out?
Brilliance (Score:3, Interesting)
And it is not just that the Firefox programmers are brilliant and creative.
In its own way one should acknowledge the strategic brilliance of the way the record was planned. By being US centric (as in, failing to recognise that there is something like human beings abroad), the 24 hour period was set to start such that people in countries like NZ, AU and JP were frustrated in not seeing the new version when the due date arrived, (or downloaded old stuff, ha ha). For those who waited, they were joined by hoards of Europeans and Brits (I'm sure they appreciate this gesture) who had to wait until the evening before they could join the Americans to swamp the servers. Those Europeans who gave up before local 12 PM and didn't realise that they could still help to set the record by downloading it in the morning, also failed to add to the number of copies downloaded. So, in short, the Mozilla organisation has made it easy for themselves to beat their own record, provided they are brilliant enough to recognise the rude brilliance of the first record attempt.
Bert
Re:Thanks for the arrogance (Score:3, Interesting)
I certainly didn't intend any holy war (though I got a chuckle out of the other poster calling me an "OSS blowhard": I'm the guy that has been called a Microsoft shill / astroturfer so many times on here that I started wearing it as a badge. I suppose zealots on either side attempt to strengthen their argument by exaggerating the positions they disagree with)
Honda and Toyota? In the browser market, that analogy works better with a Firefox / Opera / Safari battle: All top tier browsers, each having compelling attributes.
Internet Explorer is not a top tier browser. It is akin to buying a unreliable, poor mileage, quickly depreciating car just because that's the brand that Pappy liked back when it was good, and you're too complacent and comfortable to change.
Re:Download Stats (Score:3, Interesting)
Hmmm (Score:1, Interesting)
Looking at that map on SpreadFirefox, the patriarchal hegemony that is Western Sahara hates Firefox (and probably, by association, the ideals of the Free Software Movement), with no downloads there at all. For shame, for shame! Even Chad has managed 34!
Re:Congrats on breaking the non-existent record (Score:3, Interesting)
Per capita means nothing when less than 10% of a country has access to high-speed internet.
What I'd really like to see is how many people downloaded the Windows version, compared to the installed Windows base, per country.