Firefox nears 50 Million Downloads 314
bluephone writes "Firefox hit 49,000,000 downloads last night. Today, as we approach 50,000,000, SpreadFirefox is offering prizes for photographic proof of your most amazing spectacles to celebrate. To quote: 'We have a handful of unique prizes that you won't find anywhere else,
and we're asking you to do one simple thing to claim one: impress us.
As we drive toward 50 million downloads, do something so cool, so
unusual and so spectacular to spread Firefox that we can't help but scurry around the Mozilla Foundation to tell every one.' But you don't have long. The Infocraft Firefox Counter shows just over 800,000 downloads left at the time of this submission!"
Swimming? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Swimming? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Swimming? (Score:4, Funny)
Ah, now I get the joke on this link: [spreadfirefox.com]
"Should we lower Mitchell, our fearless president, into an erupting volcano?"
It's a parody of the Opera Atlantic swim, Firefox style!
BTM
Needs to be 50 times better than that! (Score:3, Funny)
Firefox and the Slashdot set (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Firefox and the Slashdot set (Score:3, Insightful)
This is really a great day for open source and Firefox. Hopefully, most of those downloads are being used and not just sitting around (although I suspect that a few people are downloading FF several times).
Re:Firefox and the Slashdot set (Score:2)
My stats show those whom the marketeers classify as early adopters.
Re:Firefox and the Slashdot set (Score:2)
FWIW
http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?
Re:Firefox and the Slashdot set (Score:5, Interesting)
75.72% Mozilla
22.50% Microsoft Internet Explorer
0.22% Opera/8.0 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en)
0.13% Opera/7.54 (X11; Linux i686; U) [en]
0.12% Opera/7.54 (Windows NT 5.1; U) [en]
0.10% Opera/8.0 (X11; Linux i686; U; en)
0.09% Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.google.com/bot.html)
0.09% Opera/7.54 (Windows NT 5.0; U) [en]
0.07% Googlebot-Image/1.0
0.04% Opera/8.0 (Windows NT 5.0; U; en)
0.03% Opera/7.54 (Windows NT 5.1; U) [nb]
0.03% Opera/8.00 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en)
0.03% Opera/7.23 (Windows NT 5.1; U) [en]
0.03% Schmozilla/v9.14 Platinum
0.03% Mediapartners-Google/2.1
Re:Firefox and the Slashdot set (Score:2, Informative)
Interesting there there is 8.00 and 8.0. BTW I think Opera still appends 'Opera' to the user-agent when set to identify as IE or Firefox/Mozilla.
Re:Firefox and the Slashdot set (Score:2, Informative)
"Identify as opera": Opera/8.0 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en)
"Identify as MSIE 6": Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; en) Opera 8.0
Thats neat, I thought it would have not advertised itself as Opera at all.
takes an .ini change to fix that... (Score:2)
Re:Firefox and the Slashdot set (Score:2)
What's 'Schmozilla' anyway?
Re:Firefox and the Slashdot set (Score:2)
Re:Firefox and the Slashdot set (Score:2)
Re:Firefox and the Slashdot set (Score:3, Informative)
Seems a bit of a puzzle, have a look at
http://www.trilithium.com/johan/2004/12/wizard.ye l lowbrick.oz/ [trilithium.com]
or
http://www.cleverhack.com/blog/archives/000887.htm l [cleverhack.com]
Whoever's doing this has obviously been around for a while, since the second link is from 2003
Re:Firefox and the Slashdot set (Score:2)
I'll bet not many people do that unless it's necessary, and same with Opera users.
Truth be told, I recon your the weight of Opera users masquerading would probably be pretty low, possibly so low as to not skew the numbers.
Re:Firefox and the Slashdot set (Score:2, Informative)
The default setting in Opera is to pretend to be MSIE6.0
Hmmm. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hmmm. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes. In Redmond.
is this a riddle? (Score:2, Troll)
None, of course, they blue-screen themselves.
Unlike the Xbox... (Score:2)
> > How many Windows in Redmond can *you* blue-screen ;)
> None, of course, they blue-screen themselves.
Nintendo [google.com] does not blue-screen. Flashing gray and black, on the other hand...
Re:Hmmm. (Score:3, Funny)
GNU is a virus = X rated photos? (Score:4, Funny)
Of course, they may have trouble posting the pictures on spreadfirefox!
--LWM
Re:GNU is a virus = X rated photos? (Score:5, Funny)
Infecting your hand doesn't count as "spreading it".
Re:GNU is a virus = X rated photos? (Score:2)
Like this? (Score:5, Funny)
Besides, real men use Opera.
Re:Like this? (Score:3, Funny)
Real man use telnet to port 80 or lynx, they don't eat quiche either...
Re:Like this? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Like this? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Like this? (Score:2)
Re:Like this? (Score:3, Informative)
The calculations are from bouncer. That means clicks from the webpage, or grabs of that URI. Getting files off the FTP is not counted at all towards the goal. Thenceforth, all your script would do is waste bandwidth.
Re:Like this? (Score:2)
Did you read the shell script in the OP? He's getting files off the http host, not over ftp...
Re:Like this? (Score:3, Informative)
When you click the "Download Firefox" link, you are sent here:
http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-1. 0
Please note download (not www) is taking this, and a script is activated to pick a mirror. This script, Bouncer [mozilla.org], pic
Re:Like this? (Score:2)
Re:Like this? (Score:2)
"#!/bin/bash" -OP
Um...?
quick.. someone pull this off (Score:5, Funny)
Does it have to be legal and ethical? (Score:2)
flaming foxes (Score:5, Funny)
Re:flaming foxes (Score:2)
Over on... (Score:5, Interesting)
OT: hello (Score:2)
I was just skimming, saw your nick, and thought "I'll bet that has something to do with Ruby!"
--MarkusQ
Weird... (Score:5, Interesting)
Sad... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sad... (Score:2)
I tested your hypothesis by running IE under Crossover Office which does appear to render the page correctly, while Moz, Firefox, Konq, and Epiphany all show overlapping text. Very sad indeed.
Re:Weird... (Score:2)
I got it! (Score:5, Funny)
And to really turn it in to a spectacle, I will call PITA and give them advanced warning of the event, so they can round up whoever they can find to try to stop me... and then I'll do it an hour earlier than I said I would.
MWwaaah-hahahahaha!!!
Re:I got it! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I got it! (Score:2)
(Besides, are there even 50,000,000 foxes in the world? Not counting the cast of "Vegas"?)
Re:I got it! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I got it! (Score:5, Funny)
FOXES SET ON FIRE
Man sets entire population of foxes on fire in the woods of California, as he was arrested and taken away by the authorities, he was heard saying "spreadfirefox.com fools, now where's my prize?" The deluded man was promptly beaten with a night stick several times, as he made his way to his new home, the state penitentiary, according to several eye witness reports. PITA arrived on scene, and was outraged by the incident, declaring war on the man. The United States government quickly rose the terror alert level to red, and President Bush later commented "The quick brown fox jumped over the.. uh... damn I forgot it again" confusing the press, and consequently creating havoc on TV stations world wide.
Details developing.
Re:I got it! (Score:2)
Re:obligatory (Score:3, Funny)
(Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.)
Flamebait! (Score:3, Funny)
That's just plain flamebait!
Re:I got it! (Score:2)
No actually foxes were harmed in the making of this picture. Well, less than two.
Re:I got it! (Score:3, Funny)
And here I thought it was People Eating Tasty Animals
Not wanting to be pessimist... (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, often a download my indicate more than one install: at my parents, I downloaded the program once and installed it on all machines (4 in total)
So, we cannot say much from download numbers about the spread of the program. We still have the risk that we geeks/nerds download it for people and those people stick to IE. Case in point: I'm a teacher and all my pupils use IE. Even though, I always tell them to use Firefox. Why? Don't ask me... I'm only doing this job since january.
Re:Not wanting to be pessimist... (Score:3, Informative)
Also, the numbers could just as well be skewed in the opposite direction, since some people might only have 'switched' when their distribution was updated. Perhaps a small number for sure, but definitely a realistic possiblity.
Re:Not wanting to be pessimist... (Score:2)
Re:Not wanting to be pessimist... (Score:5, Interesting)
Usage is the best metric of Firefox's success; however, you can't measure it, as different sites have different hit rates, no doubt many have already been mentioned. Downloads is the best count we have because it's actually measurable.
Re:Not wanting to be pessimist... (Score:2)
I downloaded ("deployed") Firefox on at least 20 systems and all but one (my notebook) were test machines.
D/L is but one benckmark (Score:2)
Let's let Firefox celebrate this one without worrying that it might not be the 'perfect' benchmark.
How about 2^26? (Score:2, Funny)
No contest... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hmmm... (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks for the /.ing (Score:4, Funny)
And it looks like every
As if this wasn't expected.
Re:Thanks for the /.ing (Score:2)
Well, I really doubt you mean kilobits per second (download meters usually measure in kB/s -- kilobytes per second). 6.7kbps would be reeeally slow.
Meanwhile, lots of people in the world reading your post at 56kbps can only wish they could download software at 6.7kB/s...
The Opera CEO challenge... (Score:2)
Accordingly, perhaps Firefox users could tell Microsoft to take a hive dive into a shallow pool.
Spectacular way to spread Firefox? (Score:2, Funny)
Add a couple of bits of code from Bagle and Netsky... check
Compiles... check
Crack the server, upload the new release...
Welcome to 100 million Firefoxes overnight!
Too bad that doesn't translate to users (Score:2)
Conversely, I put the Windoze installer on the server at work and everyone at work installs it from there (and it's the preferred browser of everyone at the office, even Windoze users).
So downloads != users.
Re:Too bad that doesn't translate to users (Score:2)
So, this miscount works both ways.
Samson for the win (Score:2, Funny)
Now make it easier to deploy in LAN (Score:2, Interesting)
FF could be made much easier and practical for administrators to deploy.
There is FFDeploy [dbltree.com], but I would hope for something better and easier.
A possibility would be to allow some
- profile location (with the possibility to leave out that stupid random directory name in the profile path),
- a cache directory separate from the profile fo
Re:Now make it easier to deploy in LAN (Score:2, Interesting)
A consulting group with which I'm associated just completed a half-day product integration demo for one of our clients using Firefox, as this was the specified preference of the client. Of course, this is an elightened client, which is exactly the kind we prefer.
If you are deploying FF on your network, have you found a way to do it without going to every machine and setting it up
bluephone wins. (Score:2)
okay... (Score:3, Insightful)
This article isn't news, and it doesn't really matter. Most /. articles fall into at least one of those categories. Its not like Firefox released a new version, or was offering new services. This article is advertisement encouraging people to visit the website and brand themselves for some 'secret prizes'.
The real reason Firefox is succeding (Score:2)
*cough*
Re:The real reason Firefox is succeding (Score:2)
Downloads All Updates? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Downloads All Updates? (Score:2)
Re:Downloads All Updates? (Score:4, Informative)
Slashdot comment #12352325 [slashdot.org]
No, they don't count updates from FF as downloads in spreadfirefox.com counter.
a-la-Golden-Palace (Score:2, Funny)
Step 1: Paint SPREADFIREFOX.com on chest
Step 2: Wear baby-blue tutu under clothes
Step 3: Attend Olympic sporting event
Step 4: Remove clothes
Step 5: Dive from Olympic diving board
Step 6: uh... profit?
I know what I'll do! (Score:2)
What if I put a link to mozilla.org in my Slashdot sig! Then Millions of Nerds (who have already DL'ed Firefox) will see it!
FireTalk or FireFriends extension idea (Score:3, Interesting)
My idea is to have a IM/IRC panel that automatically shows other Firefox users with their windows open to the same page or maybe site. Just think how cool it would be if you read some comment on Slashdot and it says the author is online; you can chat and followup a discussion without having to post lots of +0 Noise posts that nobody else really cares about anyway. Or maybe you're reading some technical article and see a few other Firefox users on the same page -- you can ask them some question specific to that page (one might be the author with the page open in firefox to answer questions, ask readers what they think of the wroiting, etc).
If done right this could be pretty darn cool IMO. It has to be done with the browser because basically it should be a system that applies to all websites. This would also be a great social aspect to help build the Firefox community. The server load could be balanced by hashing the site or URL and thereby dividing the load on the browser end.
Re:FireTalk or FireFriends extension idea (Score:2, Interesting)
Site-related chat rooms could, of course, be implemented server-side and independent from an IM client.
That should be pretty easy to do.
Re:Did they calculate the 49.000.000 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Did they calculate the 49.000.000 (Score:2, Informative)
Firefox Update? (Score:2)
Including repeated downloads of 1.01, 1.02, and 1.03 through the update mechanism, I'm assuming, right?
Re:Counter (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Counter (Score:3, Informative)
Re:misleading? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:misleading? (Score:5, Informative)
We're not counting those users who updated via our application update mechanism.
- A
Re:misleading? (Score:2)
Re:so what - skype got much more downloads... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:50 million downloads (Score:2)
i don't need a 900K photo slideshow in gif on every message board. no thanks
Re:If you need another reason to download Firefox. (Score:2)
Re:you're the perfect Microsoft fanboy. (Score:2)
Microsoft just donates money to whoever happens to be in power at the time (see opensecrets.org). Your original post was totally off-topic and inflammatory, and is being modded as such by secular, leftist Slashdotters like yourself. Kind of ironic.
political newbie? (Score:2)
The only question Ralph Reed can answer for MS are:
Would anybody in his right mind pay $240,000 for the answers to those questions? Even if Reed threw in the answer to "How can I spread bubonic plague at 1 Microsoft Way?" in for free, it's still a ba
Re:When it gets more stable... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh yeah, that sounds like an objective web page. How much more stable do you need? I only rarely experience problems with firefox, and those typically are attributed to crappy plugin implementations (such as Adobe's PDF Reader - which I've since stopped using, the resource hog it is).
Further, regarding the il rendering of slashdot, maybe if the site code maintainers would update the template to something that actually validates, everything would Just Work. As of now, Slashdot doesn't even validate at HTML 3.2. It includes no character encoding information and the SGML parser on W3 comes up with 114 errors. Maybe they could follow some advice and Retool Slashdot with web standards [alistapart.com].
Re:When it gets more stable... (Score:2)
As for Firefox stability in general, did you follow the installation instructions? There are some pitfalls associated with the installation process, especially if you are upgrading from a previous version. The MozillaZine Knowledge Base [mozillazine.org] is a goo