Comments on: Firefox beats IE in Europe: A duopoly to come?

Microsoft's IE7 just fell behind Firefox in Europe, hinting at a looming battle between the proprietary software giant and a host of open-source competitors.

[NewsReader_]

... and the EU is currently suing Microsoft because they have a competitive advantage with bundling IE with Windows.

EU regulators, WAKE UP!!! The browser market is highly competitive.

[Inconnux]

If it wasn't for the EU making such a big deal over IE bundling, then there wouldn't be such competition. Good move EU.

[James7777777]

From the article: "The move is partly explained by a small switch from Internet Explorer 7 usage to Internet Explorer 8"

I don't plan to celebrate until Firefox market share is higher then the combined market share of ie6, ie7, and ie8. Splitting IE by version number, but grouping all Firefox versions together shows skewed statistics.

[8301]

The original article, as well as this one, refer to the market share of Firefox 3 only, not all versions.

[zephyros9]

Apparently none of you ever look at the web site that's been the standard for listing Browser Stats for the past 10 years. I know many web developers who refer to this site as well as quite a number of Web Development instructors I've had over the years.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

The fact is, the Firefox browser is used more in the US than IE6, IE7 and IE8 put together. Which is a gift from the gods for us web designer and developers who have had to gnash teeth and pull hair whenever we deal with ANY application from Microsoft that involves HTML... including Outlook 7 which set back the rendering of HTML in emails by a good 5-7 years. Thank god people are finally realizing just how poorly made so many microsoft products are.

[rapier1]

So its doing better than IE7. Thats great. What about IE6 and IE8? Should we be looking at this by version or by family?

[pentest]

Few use the clunky, can't conform to the simplest standards browser known as IE6. Not many more than that use the dog slow, still a massive security hole IE8.

[rapier1]

I'd have to disagree - IE usage share is still pretty high. Usually between 10 and 20% depending on the geograophical area.

[kojacked]

So the EU scared people into using FireFox? Scared MS into marketing FireFox (or not marketing IE). The IE case with the EU is a work-in-progress and has changed nothing. FireFox's success is based on its own merits. Give credit where credit is due. The EU certainly deserves none of it. More FUD from Matt...

[JeromeLapointe]

I love that you fail to mention that IE is in a transition period between IE7 and IE8...
This version only view reaks of bias.
Will you be announcing how IE8 is taking the lead on FF3 in a few months?

[pentest]

I doubt it will. Sure it will get lots of downloads, but few will use it over the vastly superior FF.

[tm_anon]

I love how you fail to mention that FF is also in a transition period between FF 3.0.x to FF 3.5.

When FF 3.5 is still leading the European Market over IE 8, will you still be commenting that the results are skewed?

Pretty sure you will.

[kelmon]

"I love that you fail to mention that IE is in a transition period between IE7 and IE8..."

Sorry but how is this relevant to the overall numbers? In the same way that IE6 is still widely used despite being 2-versions behind there is no reason to think that those using IE7 definitely will transition to IE8. Further, this does not change the fact that usage of IE in general continues to decline; users are not transitioning to Firefox or other browsers only to come back to IE.

The likelihood that IE8 usage is going to outstrip Firefox is, let's be honest, pretty much zero.

[bradkoch2007]

A few things that should be pointed out:

* It's not fair to compare versions of browsers; they should be looking at the aggregate usage across versions. IE 6 still has strong market share.
* Sun is currently in the process of being bought by IBM; we'll never see that MySQL/DB2 competition the article is referring to.
* On that note, you'd think OpenOffice.org would have been brought up as well.
* Novell somehow fell off the face of the earth in this article; OpenSUSE gets more hits than Fedora according to distro watch and yet Red Hat is the ordained Microsoft competitor.

Just my thoughts on a few huge points I would have made.

[eudefender]

The IE is an inferiour product with an unfair advantage. In Brussels everyone knows what Microsoft lobbies for to obstruct interoperability. An intervention in the inner affairs of a foreign entity by the way but this does not seems to bother the arogant software manufacturer from Seattle.

Oh, and don't forget the TomTom case. A company that targets the European automotive industry with US trivial patents deserves no remorse. The grace period is over.

[theopensourcerer]

MS is a dinosaur. A BIG dinosaur yes, but they are nearing the end of their relevance if they can't change their business model.

The World is moving on - MS isn't

[StevieD377]

I disagree...from what I've heard about Ballmer's performance since Bill has left it's that he's done a fantastic job and has increased a lot of their profit. IE 8 may not be the greatest browser, but compare it to IE 7 or 6. It's come quite a long way. You have to remember, Microsoft had pretty much no competition in the browser market for a while, leaving little incentive to improve. With the introduction of Firefox, Safari, and now Chrome (sorry I really don't see Opera as a competitor) Microsoft is focusing on their browser as well.

On top of that add the surprisingly positive reviews of Windows 7 and I think your theory of Microsoft not moving on is pretty much false.