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Mozilla The Internet IT

Firefox Breaks 25 Million Downloads 392

Posted by Zonk from the thats-a-lot-of-firefoxen dept.
certron wrote to alert us that earlier this week, Mozilla passed the milestone of 25 million downloads. From the official site: "With a minimal set of tools--an affiliate system, a small donations fundraising system, blogs, galleries, forums, and the good old human larynx--you all are spreading Firefox to a quarter of a million people a day. More than 500,000 sites now link to Firefox according to Google--a fivefold increase from six months ago. What was just a small flame 100 days ago has since exploded into a phenomenal demonstration of the power of open source. Tens of thousands of devoted users and fans are a powerful and capable force of change. We have created a special commemorative image if you would like to mark this milestone on your own site." Reader asa also wrote to mention an interview with Bill Gates from this week where the mogul was asked directly what he thought of Firefox.
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Firefox Breaks 25 Million Downloads More

Firefox Breaks 25 Million Downloads

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  • More = Better? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by samtihen ( 798412 ) * on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:49AM (#11698540) Homepage

    25 Million Agree - IE SUCKS!

    Although, the 25 million downloads doesn't actually equate to 25 million users. How many times have you downloaded Firefox? I'm over 10, that's for sure. And how many people got it from others, rather than downloading it?

    I mean, it really doesn't matter, it really shouldn't be a competition anyway. If it is a good product, it will do well. Who really cares if it competes with IE? All more users really do is bring attention (very possibly malicious) to the project.

    • Re:More = Better? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by tehshen ( 794722 ) <tehshen@gmail.com> on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:00AM (#11698643)
      That is true; but for every person like you who has downloaded it ten times, there's a school or college or organisation that has only downloaded it once, but uses it a hundred times per day. It all tends to balance out in the end.

      • Re:More = Better? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by rbarreira ( 836272 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:09AM (#11698710) Homepage
        It all tends to balance out in the end


        More like - it all makes it too difficult to know how many people use firefox.

        • Re:More = Better? (Score:2, Insightful)

          by tehshen ( 794722 ) <tehshen@gmail.com> on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:13AM (#11698739)
          Why do we need to know how many people use Firefox? Yes, there are multiple downloads, networks, and so on, but the user count is going to be somewhere between 22 and 28 million, which is good whichever way you look at it. And as long as we can reach a nice number with six zeroes on the end we'll be happy.

      • Re:More = Better? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by sepluv ( 641107 ) <blakesley.gmail@com> on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:53AM (#11699132)
        Not to mention all the people who:
        1. get it from a friend
        2. use the official bittorrent (or another P2P system)
        3. download it from another FTP or WWW site (or from within a LAN)
        4. download a different build (optimised, more free, different options, added features, &c)
        5. get it with their OS distro (or through their distro's installation FTP/rsync/WWW/jigdo site)
        6. order the CD
        7. have a copy on a software compilation CD (e.g.: from the front of a magazine)

        The you have to consider, that most people download it to try it. Some might actually decide they prefer their current WWW browser (especially if they don't use IE) and stop using it.

        Basically these statistics, if anything, only give an indication of trends (i.e.: acceleration/deceleration) in use as opposed to the actual number of users.

    • Re:More = Better? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by pbranes ( 565105 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:01AM (#11698647)
      Perhaps 25 million can imply - 25 million computers. You probably only download it to 1 machine at a time. So, 1 machine at home, 1 at work, that leaves about 12.5 million distinct users. Still not a bad number. That's more downloads than the latest album of William Shatner singing. :-)

      • Re:More = Better? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Phisbut ( 761268 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @11:06AM (#11699280)
        Perhaps 25 million can imply - 25 million computers.

        Almost... I, for one, have 3 of them on my home machine... one in English, one in French and one in German. I'm developping extensions, and using the different languages to test the localization.

        But then, there might not be a lot of people in my situation... we'd have way too many extensions if there were ;-)

      • Re:More = Better? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Eraser_ ( 101354 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @04:01PM (#11703659)
        Of course, I downloaded it once, put it on a fileserver, and put it on about 300+ work computers (and growing). I also downloaded it once at home and loaded it on 4 seperate computers, who have four seperate users. It is included as the default browser on any lab cloning images I make for students, along with hiding IE as much as possible. Shockingly, between that and restricting executables, these computers are spyware free now. If only we had Group Policy.

        Even people who know nothing about computers want that mozilla thing!

    • what makes it better are the plugins, my top 5 (Score:5, Informative)

      by Steve_Jobs_HNIC ( 513769 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:09AM (#11698714) Journal
      here they are:

      Adblock [mozdev.org]
      Session Saver [extensionsmirror.nl]
      Web Developer [mozdev.org]
      IE View [mozdev.org]
      Target Alert [bolinfest.com]

    • Re:More = Better? (Score:2)

      by ImaLamer ( 260199 ) <john.lamar@gmai l . c om> on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:10AM (#11698716) Homepage Journal
      Truthfully I've downloaded Firefox several times but at separate workstations (where it is still being used).

      The thing we have to think about is that we are counting version 1.0 only [mozillazine.org]. It isn't like they are counting milestone (nightly) releases either, so we are pretty much counting people who entered the Mozilla.org homepage (or www.getfirefox.com [getfirefox.com]) and downloaded Firefox. It may be pretty close.

      Think about it though. Software companies who want to charge for software, charge "per seat" (at minimum). I mean, if I dual-boot and run Firefox in both operating systems I think it should count twice. No matter we all know that Gecko [mozilla.org] is the future.

    • Re:More = Better? (Score:2)

      by GweeDo ( 127172 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:17AM (#11698772) Homepage
      While I had downloaded Firefox 1.0 more than 10 times I have installed it far more times than that. I downloaded it once at my work, it is now on 50 workstations here. I downloaded it once at home...that was 3 computers. I downloaded it another time and threw it on my thumbdrive...that has found its way onto atleast 10-15 machines. 25 Million downloads...I would say a good number more machines using it!

    • Re:More = Better? (Score:2)

      by m50d ( 797211 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:34AM (#11698895) Homepage Journal
      I'm about 10. And not one of them has been direct from mozilla. They've all been from my distro's mirrors.

    • Re:More = Better? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Yolegoman ( 762615 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:36AM (#11698917) Homepage
      Who really cares if it competes with IE?

      I care. When we finally wipe IEs damned non-standard display of HTML and CSS from the internet, I won't have to spend hours and days attempting to get my websites rendering properly in Microsofts piece of crap they call a browser.

      That's the main reason I root for FireFox. Sure, no spyware is nice, but for me it's a bonus. That IE thinks they are so l33t as to rewrite the W3 standards makes me angry to the core.

      - Yolego

    • Re:More = Better? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by podmf ( 736634 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:42AM (#11698997)
      "Who really cares if it competes with IE?"

      Anyone who is interested in improving the web or merely keeping the web open.

      So long as 90 percent of users see the web through IE, it will remain crippled and vulnerable to desktop client-based lock-in.

      All of Microsoft's published plans and statements about IE and Longhorn confirm their intention to engineer the maximum tie-in between the web and .Net.

      The Apache webserver enables the technical possibility of an open web, but dominance of the desktop client is required to guarrantee it's practical likelihood.

      Only by taking share off IE is it possible to build sites which demonstrate the practical benefits of standards-based web design to non-technical users.

      Right now, up to 90 percent of the effort in standards-based design goes into accomodating IE's crippled CSS ... which is why many web designers can't be bothered.

    • Re:More = Better? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @01:46PM (#11701815) Homepage Journal
      25 Million Agree - IE SUCKS!
      That pretty much summarizes the reason for Firefox's recent surge in popularity.
      Although, the 25 million downloads doesn't actually equate to 25 million users. How many times have you downloaded Firefox? I'm over 10, that's for sure. And how many people got it from others, rather than downloading it?
      You've downloaded it 10 times? You're obviously an early adopter, which makes you pretty unrepresentative. On the other hand, many downloads never get past the evaluation phase. I myself tried Firefox 2 or 3 times, but resisted changing until a nonbuggy Googlebar became available.

      Oh yeah, and don't forget upgrades.

      Anyway, the download number is just another gee-whiz statistic [usga.org], unconnected with any real measure of Firefox's progress. I'd be much happer to see evidence that its user share has grown out of the single digits. Pity Google stopped tracking browsers [google.com].

      Slightly offtopic: I have to put in a word to Firefox extension developers, which seem to be legion these days. (I have 13 extensions installed, everying from a RSS browser to a simple tweak that prevents right-click from being disabled.) Extension are easily Firefox's coolest feature. But they're also its biggest potential problem, because nobody bothers to sign their extension. Please start doing so, before the malware bozos decide that your extension is something they can steal and modify to their own ends.

  • Update! (Score:5, Funny)

    by RobertTaylor ( 444958 ) <roberttaylor1234 ... m minus caffeine> on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:50AM (#11698547) Homepage Journal
    25,241,830 and counting to be precise ;)

    • Re:Update! (Score:2)

      by bigtallmofo ( 695287 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:05AM (#11698684)
      >25,241,830 and counting to be precise ;)

      WRONG! It's 25,241,837

      Wait... It's 25,241,842...

      No, wait... 25,241,857

      Uh, never mind.

  • Refresh button (Score:5, Funny)

    by madaxe42 ( 690151 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:50AM (#11698548) Homepage
    Damn, knew I'd pressed it a few times too many on getfirefox.com

  • Breaking downloads (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:50AM (#11698558)
    Someone better file a bug. CRC errors are a pain in the butt.

  • Interview with Bill Gates (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Walkiry ( 698192 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:51AM (#11698559) Homepage
    Problem is, he doesn't really say much other than "we have competition in many places, we'll keep working to be the best". Typical marketdroid stuff. The funny thing is that one of the things he mentions is that they'll be trying to be #1 in "Security". Heh. One can only hope...

  • Firefox *breaks* downloads? (Score:5, Funny)

    by thiophene ( 216836 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:51AM (#11698566)
    I read that the wrong way.

  • I guess he's talking about the 1.0 version (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cflorio ( 604840 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:51AM (#11698568) Homepage
    "What was just a small flame 100 days ago has since exploded into a phenomenal demonstration of the power of open source."

    I know I've been using firefox for over 100 days (I think i jumped on the bandwagon around the .4 release)

  • Power of open source? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by suso ( 153703 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:52AM (#11698572) Journal
    has since exploded into a phenomenal demonstration of the power of open source.

    I see what you're trying to say, but I don't know whether you can call this newfound popularity due to open source. When I think of firefox, It doesn't even occur to me at first that its open source. I mean, I know that it is, but thats not the first thing I think of. When I think of something like Gnome, I think of it as open source. Mozilla and friends just have a different feeling. Does anyone else think that too?

    • The difference is simple :) (Score:5, Insightful)

      by KZigurs ( 638781 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:55AM (#11698595)
      Firefox thinks about usability.

      You wouldn't associate Open Source with usability even if forced to.

      • Re:The difference is simple :) (Score:5, Interesting)

        by suso ( 153703 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:01AM (#11698649) Journal
        Hmmmm, this is interesting. You might think that the parent comment is flamebait or a troll, but I think this person has a point. As an open source community, I think we can learn a lot from how firefox has succeeded so well and so quickly, analyze it and apply it to a lot of other projects. Much like how the FSF originally redid all the unix applications before rewriting the kernel, maybe the goal could be to redo all windows applications and then subplant the underlying OS.

        • Sounds familiar... (Score:5, Interesting)

          by oldosadmin ( 759103 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:22AM (#11698815) Homepage
          That's exactly what OpenOffice.org has been advocating for months, but nobody seems to listen.

        • Re:The difference is simple :) (Score:3, Insightful)

          by TwistedSquare ( 650445 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:46AM (#11699041) Homepage
          I think this is an interesting and important point. As Linux and Mac OS X gain market share and popularity, especially among developers, more and more applications are being developed cross-platform - a lot, but not all, originating from the Unix side of things. Once all the applications that you use are portable, or similar enough programs are available on each OS, your choice of OS becomes a much easier choice because you can choose on the OS's merits rather than what applications are available for it.

          So for example, my web browser is Firefox and my mail client is Thunderbird. I can handle text editors on both Windows and Linux, which means the only things remaining that bind me to Windows are games and IM clients. If I didn't use them, I could choose between OSes based on say stability, features (e.g. available filesystems), and so on.

    • Re:Power of open source? (Score:2)

      by Kokuyo ( 549451 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:05AM (#11698678) Journal
      Yes. Firefox feels more like 'alternative', 'more options' and 'better look and feel'.

      I still use IE in certain situations and that's okay. But Firefox is just... well I don't know IE is Pepsi and Firefox is Coke.... you can decide whether you are a coke-person or a pepsi-person yourself ;).

    • Re:Power of open source? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Junks Jerzey ( 54586 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:28AM (#11698851)
      I see what you're trying to say, but I don't know whether you can call this newfound popularity due to open source. When I think of firefox, It doesn't even occur to me at first that its open source.

      Yes, same here. Imagine if the Opera people had decided to make their browser free as in beer without any ads and whatnot. Then it very well could have been as popular as Firefox.

      "Free as in beer" is a big deal in this case. There's no market for browsers you have to pay for.

    • Re:Power of open source? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by LittleKing ( 688048 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:52AM (#11699126) Homepage
      I love Firefox and the community, however, lately I'm starting to have issues with the community. We all talk about how better firefox and open source is and how buggy IE is. We say that OSS, while may have bugs, can be fixed quickly when an exploit is found.

      My problems is since the URL exploit has been brought to light (and some can argue it's not firefox fault) there hasn't been an official update, only the manual hack. This really bothers me. When a security issue like this comes up, I want firefox to automatically update, or at least tell me there's an update.

      While I can do the manual fix I know many users that if using FireFox would not or even know about the problem. Why do we talk about better security and quicker updates when it isn't actually happening. I am not a programmer, but I love the community and support where I can. This issue needs to be addressed before the script kiddies and Hackors start to use the exploits that are found.

      Finally, I want to say thanks to the developers for a great product and congrats for the 25 million downloads.

  • FireFox and IE have something in common... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bigtallmofo ( 695287 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:53AM (#11698582)
    "FireFox Breaks 25 Million Downloads"

    and

    "Internet Explorer Breaks 25 Million Computers"

    Of course, this is just a low estimate on both.

  • Hahaha (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:53AM (#11698583)
    GATES: No, in fact that's one thing I like about the Microsoft culture -- is that we wake up every day thinking about companies like Wang...
    So what you're telling me is the first thing on his mind every morning is wang? Interesting.

  • What bill says (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gowen ( 141411 ) <gwowen@gmail.com> on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:53AM (#11698585) Homepage Journal
    In fact, we just announced that we'll have a new version of the browser so we're innovating very rapidly there
    Wow, a new web browser 4 years after the old, and several years after you've declared that there wasn't even going to be another stand-alone version.

    Four years of stasis.
    Two years of complete disinterest.

    That's some really rapid innovation, there, Bill.

  • Speed up Firefox (Score:5, Informative)

    by BobWeiner ( 83404 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:54AM (#11698589) Homepage Journal
    This may have already been mentioned, but here's a link [freerepublic.com] on tweaking Firefox to make it even faster on a broadband connection. I've applied these settings and notice an immediate performance boost.

  • Someone please stop the download bots!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17, 2005 @09:59AM (#11698630)
    Ok, Firefox fans, you can stop the auto-download bots now you've made your point !!

  • Nice of Bill to take all the credit (Score:5, Interesting)

    by grandmofftarkin ( 49366 ) * <3b16-ihd3@xemaps.com> on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:00AM (#11698642)
    "There's a new technology that is an industry standard we created called Sender ID"

    No mention of SFP [wikipedia.org] or the guys behind it.

  • Serious Question... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by phunhippy ( 86447 ) <zavoid@gmMONETail.com minus painter> on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:01AM (#11698653) Journal
    I like Firefox.. however its not my browser of choice and here's why..

    I am constantly switching with ctrl-tab between using IE for web based crap and going throough my file system.. ctrl-tab type c:\ and bam.. you get the idea?

    I like the interface explorer gives me for browsing my files. I don't like the interface FIREFOX or any other browser gives me.. Is there any way I can get that interface inside firefox? some plugin maybe?

    Any thoughts?

  • "Reader" Asa... (Score:2, Informative)

    by ronobot ( 739113 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:02AM (#11698656)
    ...is likely Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's chief quality control and testing guy. Congrats to Asa, and the rest of the team. I can't imagine browsing the internet without Mozilla, and especially Firefox.

  • IT WAS NEW (Score:2, Funny)

    by BitwiseX ( 300405 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:06AM (#11698691)
    When I was downloading Firefox this morning on my 2nd machine, I had this funny feeling in my gut. Now I know why.. I WAS the 25millionth person! Or maybe it was just gas....

  • This was too much... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Obiwan Kenobi ( 32807 ) <evan AT misterorange DOT com> on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:07AM (#11698698) Homepage
    To paraphrase into hilarity:

    Bill Gates: "No, in fact that's one thing I like about the Microsoft culture -- is that we wake up every day thinking about ... Wang."

  • What would make it better (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MyLongNickName ( 822545 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:08AM (#11698702) Journal
    The only reason I use IE is because when I am in Windows Explorer, I like to just type in the URL, and go. Otherwise, I use Firefox. You don't know how many times in the day, I hit Ctrl+T to get a new tab, and realize I am in IE (or worse, go to do a search and see the clunky dialog box come up). I then have to switch over.

    Anyone know of a way to integrate firefox without adverse effects? I'd love to ditch ie 100%, but old habits die hard, plus I'd hate to lose the efficiencies...

  • Gates interview is bogus (Score:2)

    by tbone1 ( 309237 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:10AM (#11698715) Homepage
    The first line is:

    • Microsoft Corp. has for decades been on the cutting-edge of technological innovation.

    ..... Riiiiiight.

    So, does anyone else notice that when a journalist gets an idea, he gets it all wrong?

  • Err go Ego (Score:4, Interesting)

    by canuck57 ( 662392 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:10AM (#11698719)

    GATES: We're responsible for the creation of the PC industry.

    With a statement like that, what about TRS-80, Apple II, Commodore PET and others. Steve Jobs would be the man if he wasn't so closed up with his architecture and IBM was not. All Microsoft and Bill did was be in the right place when IBM had 100,000 PCs without an OS. After that they screwed their way to the top of the heap with questionable business practices to ride the wave. It was well under way long before Bill had DOS.

    Microsoft even had interest in SCO to get code and make sure they didn't rival their Windows NT. Oh yes, these two companies have a long relationship more than most know.

    In fact, we just announced that we'll have a new version of the browser so we're innovating very rapidly there and it's our commitment to have the best.

    I guess this hints of a new browser. I wonder how much open source code and ideas it will contain. Most people, including Microsoft seem to forget that Microsoft really hasn't invented anything new. They just use other's ideas.

    In a few years when the biggest market in the world runs Linux (China) we will see Microsoft in second place. It will be a glorious day when Microsoft gets a long needed lesson in humility.

    • Re:Err go Ego (Score:3, Informative)

      by _Hellfire_ ( 170113 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:46AM (#11699043)
      GATES: We're responsible for the creation of the PC industry.

      For some more information on why this statement is utter bullshit, I recommend Fire in the Valley - The Making of the Personal Computer [fireinthevalley.com] by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine. It is a very in-depth rundown on who did what, when how and why to get the PC where it is today. Hefty book but it's told like a story with interviews and quotes from those that started it - yes including Mr Gates.

    • Re:Err go Ego (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Deacon Jones ( 572246 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:50AM (#11699096)
      further on in the multi-page interview, he states:

      "Well, my success is creating great software... And I think my most important work was the early work -- conceiving of the idea of the PC and how important that would be, and the role software would play, having standards there."

      Amazing, he really does believe he created not only the PC, but even the very idea of the PC.

    • Re:Err go Ego (Score:3, Interesting)

      by marhar ( 66825 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @02:13PM (#11702248) Homepage
      what about TRS-80, Apple II, Commodore PET and others.



      Well, Microsoft wrote Level 2 BASIC which came with the TRS-80 and built the Softcard, which added a Z-80 to the Apple II and ran CP/M. picture [apple2history.org]

      Microsoft even had interest in SCO to get code and make sure they didn't rival their Windows NT.



      Erm, your history is a bit off. Microsoft was a pretty substantial contributor to Xenix for the TRS-80 Model 16, which had a 68000 processor.

      It seemed that Microsoft's strategy at the time was to travel the Xenix route to higher end computing, but AT&T insisted on a $400/CPU royalty payment. This was of course untenable for "cheap" microcomputers, so Microsoft eventually went the route of developing NT.

      It is interesting to think of how things would be if the licensing arrangement had worked out, and Xenix would have been the base for mass computing.

  • Friends (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cyberfunk2 ( 656339 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:12AM (#11698736)
    A lot of my non-technical friends have recently become wise to the 'Fox.

    And I quote "My internet explorer just stopped working about a month ago.. it wasnt worth the trouble, and those damn popup windows are annoying too.."

    I think average Joe is starting to understand. (Incidentially, one of my friend's names is Joe)

  • Pimpzilla (Score:4, Funny)

    by RasendeRutje ( 829555 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:14AM (#11698749)
    Firefox is great, but only after installing Pimpzilla, my internet life is complete!
    http://people.zeelandnet.nl/marco/pimpzilla// [zeelandnet.nl]

  • Count me out of the FireFox craze.. (Score:2, Funny)

    by JohnBob73 ( 860286 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:14AM (#11698753)
    I really do not care for microsoft, but I'll definitely sitck with IE because I'd rather be safe than sorry later on and here is why: http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/02/08/spoof/inde x.php

    • Re:Count me out of the FireFox craze.. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:30AM (#11698868)
      1) type about:config in URL bar
      2) search on IDN
      3) double-click on network.enableIDN
      4) set to false
      5) hit OK
      6) Problem solved!

  • alternatives (Score:4, Interesting)

    by john_uy ( 187459 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:15AM (#11698755)
    i think other open source applications should be promoted together with firefox. people now find out that there is a better alternative. more promotion should be made to applications such as open office, and of course, linux. i hope this is a start of something better for everyone.

  • Yay competition, rah rah rah! (Score:2, Funny)

    by porcupine8 ( 816071 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:19AM (#11698792) Journal
    A summary of just about all of his answers:

    There's room for everyone! Competition is great! I love competition! C'mon, compete with me right now, I'll enjoy every minute of it! I'm born to compete! With competition. Whom I adore.

  • 25 million broken downloads (Score:2)

    by woodhouse ( 625329 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:20AM (#11698796) Homepage
    Yes, the download-breaking bug is annoying. I'm surprised they think this is a good thing.

  • Pessimists (Score:2, Insightful)

    by skogs ( 628589 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:20AM (#11698797) Journal
    I noticed several individuals saying that they had downloaded Firefox several times, when it only serves one or two actual users. Number of downloads does not equal number of users.

    Remember this also: many responsible individuals, with good file management skills, have downloaded it once or twice, but actually installed and loaded it on several machines. I myself have turned roughly 25 users from the world of IE to Firefox. I have downloaded it twice.

    If everybody did as I have done, then there would be ~65,000,000 users. While I realize not everybody will do this, I think it starts to make up for those that download it several times and only install it once. I think actually the number is probably about right for number of users. Many will download multiple times, many will decide that firefox is not for them, and many will share with friends. It all evens out.

  • It's fantastic (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Electric Eye ( 5518 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:21AM (#11698809)
    I've downloaded it for my work PC, many of my freelance clients and several family members as well. Since then (at least for me) there has not been ONE case of spyware infecting my computer. Viva la Firefox, baby.

  • The difference between IE and Firefox... (Score:2)

    by canfirman ( 697952 ) <pdavi25&yahoo,ca> on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:23AM (#11698818)
    is that Firefox actually works for me. I'm running a Windows 98 machine at home, and I.E. will no longer work for me, even though Microsoft says it will. I downloaded Firefox and I am now a convert. It doesn't screw up the entire operating system, and it's fast, small, and very efficient. Hats off to the Firefox developers.

  • Firefox and Open Source (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Inkieminstrel ( 812132 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:26AM (#11698841) Homepage
    I wonder how many of those users were actually made aware of open source by Firefox, and how many still remain in the dark about open source. My fiancee was using it for months before she finally got around asking about how it was free and where it came from.

  • Commemorative Image scares me... (Score:5, Funny)

    by thepseudogenie ( 752975 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @10:28AM (#11698852)
    Is a vectorized fox with flames shooting out of his ass burning the world to a crisp really the image we want for firefox...? I would say that image is apt for Micr... oh nevermind...

  • phenomenal demonstration? (Score:3, Informative)

    by NekoXP ( 67564 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @11:32AM (#11699628) Homepage

    Phenomenal?

    It took them 7 years to get this far.

    Don't get me wrong, I use Firefox every day. But let's remember Firefox was not
    the primary goal of the Mozilla Project, but a fluke messaround of a couple of
    engineers to strip the browser down from an unweildy "suite" to what people want:
    an IE replacement.

    If Mozilla weren't being so contrary in the very beginning and decided to go the
    route diametrically opposite to competing with IE, we'd have been there years ago.

    Neko

  • They are so far behind, it's funny. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by phaxda ( 104546 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @11:45AM (#11699783) Homepage Journal
    Bill sez: "Also the idea of how the phone and the PC are coming together. Where you will be able to see the calls that you missed, or even when your phone rings see immediately who that is that's calling, or control how that is forwarded, or even set it up so that the screen is part of your interaction. We are seeing that as increasingly important and are putting a lot of research into that."

    I loved this part of the interview. "Will be able to?" Like when, the next time someone calls my Nokia cell phone and their number is displayed on my PowerBook screen via Bluetooth and the Address Book? And then maybe I will even get the option to send the caller to voicemail FROM MY COMPUTER?! WOW!

    Hey, maybe Microsoft will even come up with a program that will pause the music on my computer when someone calls me. Or logs missed calls in my phone's calendar? Now that would be cool. Just like Salling Clicker.

    Microsoft: yesterday's technology, today. Still.

    Really, all I could do is laugh at this one. How do you Windows people deal with it?

  • Firefox Benefits Everyone (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Goo.cc ( 687626 ) on Thursday February 17, 2005 @12:30PM (#11700582)
    Even Windows users who don't ever plan to use Firefox benefit from it because it forces Microsoft to do something instead of letting IE languish. Additionally, Firefox growing popularity will encourage people from coding sites dependent solely on IE.

    I think that it is a win-win situation.

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