Firefox gains 30 million users in eight weeks

Mozilla's open-source Firefox browser has gained 30 million users over the past eight weeks, as it continues to gain on Internet Explorer.

Chief Executive John Lilly revealed the increase in user adoption in a Twitter post on Monday, and Tristan Nitot, president of Mozilla Europe, confirmed it to ZDNet UK on Tuesday.

"We've seen a significant increase in the number of users for Firefox," Nitot said. "Firefox checks for new versions every 24 hours, when it's running, and when it checks, it pings the Mozilla server. We count the number of pings."

Read more of "Firefox gains 30m users in eight weeks" at ZDNet UK.

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

FF is great but one needs add-ons in order to make the most of it. Otherwise safari on mac runs well.

[lazycat202]

IE runs good on my Win7. But I use mostly 'cause it's faster and less pop-ups.

[Dalkorian]

IE is vile excrement-ware and needs to be banished from the internet for all eternity. Use ANYTHING else.

[danielkza]

@lazycat202
The only situation where that holds is when comparing IE7/8 with IE6.

[t8]

When IE8 locks up all the time, you are forced to switch. I thought I was the only one who IE8 locked up on and thought it was because I use XP. But a friend of mine who's primary browser was IE on Vista has now switched to Firefox because IE8 freezes on him too. He then went one step further and bought an iPhone and loves it that much, he is now considering a Mac.

It was Microsoft's market to lose as they are the default. Just proves how bad they are. Even having that huge advantage and they are losing market share.

Time for a new paradigm Microsoft.

[supoman]

There was a time when IE was the corporate desktop standard but I think those days are over. Brought on by it's susceptibility to malware and spyware. I work for a very conservative company and they are now installing Firefox and Safari!!!

[lightningrob]

Why both?

[cbscowards]

Great news for the WWW! The sooner IE is gone, the easier life will be for web developers, and the cost of creating web software will drop considerably.

[nashville2]

Agreed.

[Random_Walk]

...and not just cost in money - the time savings will be pretty astounding.

[dennisheadley]

I stopped using IE8 on Vista due to that same issue. I installed the latest of Opera, Firefox, Safari and Chrome and tried them all out for a week each. What I found was that none of the browsers actually work correctly all of the time. I switch between Chrome and Safari mostly now. Chrome for general surfing and Safari for the times when parts of the website don't work in Chrome which turns out to be quite often. Kind of a works great when it works thing. Firefox worked well, but it was noticeably slower on most sites and gave me the impression that they are trying to do too much in one program, like it was bloated and slower because of it. I guess it all comes down to preference, you can make Firefox do anything with the proper plug-ins, but some people prefer a scalpel to a swiss army knife.

[SteveW928]

Yea, pretty much the only people running IE are people who don't know any better or people who are forced to (of course, that is a LOT of people). A lot of home users just use what comes on the computer as default and never really think about other options. The forced people are those who have to utilize services which were designed to only work with IE. Of course, it is no longer really an Internet app at that point, but there are a lot of stupid developers who were conned into doing their development that way.

If all Internet sites were based on Internet standards, and people actually tried the various browsers available, IE would have next to zero market-share rather quickly.

[codynews]

Speak for yourself tuff guy. I run IE and it runs just fine. I normally use Chrome though but I don't have the same beefs with IE that you seem to.

[SteveW928]

@ codynews - I guess I'd put that under the first category. I should have been more careful how I stated that. Maybe some people will try alternatives, but still not realize how bad IE is and keep using it. I'd recommend you try Firefox or Safari one of these days.

Just fyi... here are a few of my 'beefs' with IE:
1) It's SLOW.... really slow.
2) It's ugly, both the UI and how it renders web pages.
3) It doesn't properly display HTML and CSS standards.
4) It SCREWS up web sites for the rest of us because some idiot developers only develop for it using M$'s tools. (see point #3)
5) Did I mention it is slow and ugly?

The biggest thing people can do to help the Internet advance is to stop using IE and foil M$'s plan to either destroy the Internet or make it theirs.

[yaobin]

Microsoft makes many great products such as Office, .Net and more. I would rank Windows 7 & IE8 on bottom among it's competitors.

Mac OSX + Safari bundle is the best, but I can not afford a Mac yet.

[thydavidcome]

I run IE sometimes for MS websites and other things that use ActiveX. Sure its not really fast (Firefox is slow as hell too) but I have no problems with it.

For 90% of my browsing I stick to Chrome.

[danielkza]

@thydavidcome

Firefox used to feel much slower than Chrome, but on 3.6, I really can't feel the difference. I save more time with useful extensions than with faster rendering. Maybe it's because actually loading content takes much longer for me, compared to the rest of the process (2Mbps)

[fwbroke]

IE8 is just fine in my experience (personal and work) in fact it has some nice features (like the blank tab, accelerators, etc). CH is what I prefer, but this 'standards' bashing of IE is an old argument, search the archives here at news.com and you will find an article that says IE7 was more standards complaint than FF3 (I think those versions are right). FF was originally never viable for enterprise b/c it wasn't auto updating.

[cbscowards]

Try a quick web search for "IE hacks". This will show you the scope of the problem. Granted, IE has been getting better with every release, but my personal experience has been that I run into several times more IE bugs than all the other browsers combined. Even with IE8. I work developing a large commercial website. We're especially looking forward to the day where our IE6 traffic falls to the point where we can drop support.

If IE8 is working well for you, that is because the developers took the time to make it work right by inserting hacks and avoiding features that are buggy.

[pentest]

No version of IE has better standards compliance than FF.

[ZetaRho62]

Oh wow! I didn't realize everyone was having problems with IE like me. I use Firefox almost exclusively now because of IE lockups, slow loading pages, crashes, etc. M$ will continue to lose out to Firefox until it fixes IE. Only problem is, I probably won't know when a fix is available because I'll be on Firefox.

[thydavidcome]

Firefox is very slow, unstable and constantly locks up.

If you want a REAL speed gain use Google Chrome.

[danielkza]

Firefox locks up if you have crappy add-ons/plugins. I only had a couple of crashes ever, and I began to use Firefox in the last 1.0 betas: they were all caused by overclocking or Flash.

[pentest]

Use Chrome if you don't care that Google is using it for data mining.

[ZetaRho62]

Oh wow! I didn't realize everyone was having problems with IE like me. I use Firefox almost exclusively now because of IE lockups, slow loading pages, crashes, etc. M$ will continue to lose out to Firefox until it fixes IE. Only problem is, I probably won't know when a fix is available because I'll be on Firefox.

[sparrowhyperion]

MS has a great track record for adding new features to every release of IE. The problem is that they seldom get the old features working correctly first. As a result, IE is a mass of bug ridden overbloated code that is about as reliable as a 1974 Ford Pinto.

[myles taylor]

Hey, you didn't need to insult the Pinto like that! ;)

[bdhillon]

I've yet to experience an IE8 freeze. Just curious... those who claim it froze on them, did you skip the compatibility view part when installing it?

[Maclover1]

Yes I skipped it and the other 8 screens of crap it wants to run. IE7 runs way better, if you have to run IE.

[myles taylor]

"Hey, it works great for me when you do everything exactly right." That's what I hear a lot. How about something that works for the people who aren't experts?

[thydavidcome]

"How about something that works for the people who aren't experts?"

Bro seriously? A menu pops up in your fing face with 8 steps that help you set it up explaining what each does step by step. My 6 year old cousin figured it out I guess your either a fanboy or an idiot.

[Dalkorian]

by thydavidcome October 28, 2009 5:52 AM PDT
A menu pops up in your fing face with 8 steps that help you set it up explaining what each does step by step. My 6 year old cousin figured it out I guess your either a fanboy or an idiot.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why does IE need 8 steps to do the same thing (install an application) that all others can do in one? The argument that your 6 years old was indoctrinated into slavery to the M$ plantation isn't something to brag about and the person you're responding to isn't a fanboy or an idiot. I'm guessing you are though, maybe both.

[Greg465]

Chome is better

[tektaktyks]

as much as i love ff it aint perfect,there are issues here and there,but we need ie just like we need apple,competition is good for the consumer.

[V2Blast]

I wouldn't necessarily say IE is much of a competitor to Firefox. Chrome and Safari might provide decent competition, though. So I'd rather just have IE cease to exist.

[Dalkorian]

"...we need ie just like we need apple,competition is good for the consumer."

We also need drunk drivers because competition between funeral homes is good for the consumer. IE needs to lay down and die already, M$ failed to make the internet their own proprietary design. THAT is good for the consumer!

[SteveW928]

@ tektaktyks -
"competition is good for the consumer"

Well, if it is actually good, fair competition, then I agree. The problem is that IE gained market share by being free at the start, and being bundled with an OS that through unfair business practices became dominant. It didn't get to where it is by being good. Poor, sloppy, dominant competition really does nothing for the consumer.

And to make matters worse, the whole idea behind the Internet is all kinds of different systems all around the world sharing information. IE purposely (and if not purposely, then they have the stupidest coders on the planet) uses non-standard web language and doesn't perform as expected with standard web code. The idea behind this is to force web developers to make a choice and either code for IE (the market share dominant) or other browsers. Most good sites tend to do work-arounds to code for both... which takes a LOT of time, energy, testing, and frustration. This is certainly NOT good for the consumer!

[zzavil-]

I'd been using firefox for 2 consecutive years now however I found it hard to switch between tabs if you have multiple sites opened at the same time. I would prefer to wait for another firefox update or release before giving it another try. For now, Avant browser is what I am currently using and I am satisifed with its speed and stability. I would recommend to be also put in the browser competition (though it is also using IE engine).

[abcd9009]

Although I primarily use FF both on Windows and Mac there is one feature about IE8 I love. If for some reason the site crashes it does not affect the other tabs you have open unlike FF where it crashes the entire browser with all tabs - although it does give you an option to recover them back.

I'll think of using Safari or Chrome when there's an add-on for NoScript and Adblock Plus available. IE I have to use (not by choice) since most of the in-house enterprise apps are built around IE and FF I use it by choice.

[myles taylor]

Yea I agree. I can't seem to find a browser that incorporates everything i want. I never use IE though. I use Chrome, FF, and Safari.

[danielkza]

@myles taylor
Unfortunately, I think we'll never see a browser that excells in all areas: it's not possible to be fast without compromising stability, platform compatibilty, flexibility, etc. Same happens the other way around: Firefox would not be as half as extensible as it is if Mozilla had not made the decision to do the UI code in Javascriptl, for instance.

[queticomn]

Whohoo GO FireFOX!

Taking Back the Web!

[jakeZ2]

I prefer Firefox myself, but after I updated it a couple of months ago, it became so slow, that it was unusable. I tried multiple uninstall, and installs, but it still wouldn't operate propperly, so I had to switch to IE, which works just fine. But again, if given the choice I would use Firefox.

[thydavidcome]

May I suggest using Google Chrome.

[Dalkorian]

Eeewww, don't punish yourself like that. Use ANYTHING ELSE BUT Internet Exploder.

Every time you use Internet Exploder, God kills a puppy.

[pentest]

Chrome is spyware.

[rdwalton]

With FF supposedly gaining so many users every week, we shouldn't have to hear them crying about MS and IE anymore, but I'm sure they'll continue.

[Dalkorian]

As long as the internet is polluted with IE workaround code, the public has the right, no the RESPONSIBILITY to complain about it.

[guid70]

Firefox will always update the latest version unlike IE which is very slowly and hideous just like SteveW928 said so please bear in mind that Firefox is one of the best browser ever...it's more reliable, secure and most importantly, it is really fast. To those who have IE, i wouldn't like it not one bit because one of my main concerns is that cybercrimals can easily target the victims who have IE and make illegal activities such as phishing for personal information etc, unbeknowst to users' knowledge once they have the best firewalls in order to keep out of hackers and other malicious threats. That's just my honest opinion.

[guid70]

Firefox will always update the latest version unlike IE which is very slowly and hideous just like SteveW928 said so please bear in mind that Firefox is one of the best browser ever...it's more reliable, secure and most importantly, it is really fast. To those who have IE, i wouldn't like it not one bit because one of my main concerns is that cybercrimals can easily target the victims who have IE and make illegal activities such as phishing for personal information etc, unbeknowst to users' knowledge once they have the best firewalls in order to keep out of hackers and other malicious threats. That's just my honest opinion.