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."
Obligatory UserFriendly comic (Score:5, Funny)
Speaking of obligatory webcomic references (Score:5, Funny)
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Of course the record is for number of manually initiated downloads...
Arbitrary but impressive (Score:5, Insightful)
It appears that this is the first recorded record by Guinness Book, so it's kind of arbitrary, however shuttling 62TB of data is pretty impressive. Now that the gauntlet has been thrown down, it'll be interesting to see if other software companies will try to compete. If nothing else, this gave Firefox some much-needed press.
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That's 722 MB/s.
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Probably the next Microsoft service pack will blow it out of the water by a factor of 10.
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Theres a few references to Adobe Flash being downloaded 10 million times on an average tuesday.
Its a gold medal when you are the only one competing.
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The record was for the number of manually initiated downloads.
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62 million megabytes, 62 thousand gigabytes, 62 terabytes (approximately - it's not base 10). Your counting is off...
Congrats on breaking the non-existent record (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Congrats on breaking the non-existent record (Score:5, Funny)
Protip: Africa is not a country.
Re:Congrats on breaking the non-existent record (Score:5, Funny)
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Yes it is! Take a look at the map! [msxnet.org]
duh - idiot.
Re:Congrats on breaking the non-existent record (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think the map below the entry charts just the downloads on download day, given that simply adding Canada (at 790,624 actually comprising more per capita than the US) puts it far over their record count.
Re:Congrats on breaking the non-existent record (Score:4, Insightful)
Some random (a bit biased) selection of countries with downloads per capita (x1000). Data comes from the Spread Firefox webpage [spreadfirefox.com] and population from wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
Canada 23.74
US 25.40
Germany 30.00
UK 19.79
France 15.19
Spain 17.90
Luxembourg 36.72
Now, this tells me more than just downloads per country. Now Luxembourg looks better
Re: (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.
Re:Congrats on breaking the non-existent record (Score:4, Informative)
2 Iceland 49.5
3 Luxembourg 38.02
4 Switzerland 37.52
5 Norway 36.37
6 Slovenia 35.57
7 Finland 33.96
8 Faeroe 33.84
9 Estonia 33.67
10 Liechtenstein 31.92
11 Germany 30.77
12 Singapore 29.43
13 Netherlands 27.7
14 Sweden 27.55
15 Austria 27.19
16 Denmark 26.11
17 USA 25.99
18 Hong Kong 25.04
19 Canada 24.43
20 Ireland 23.16
21 Hungary 22.99
22 Bulgaria 22.46
23 Australia 22.19
24 Poland 21.54
25 Bermuda 20.71
26 Belgium 20.53
27 UK 20.32
28 Latvia 19.66
29 Israel 19.58
30 New Zealand 19.19
31 Spain 18.33
32 Czech 18.11
33 Malta 17.87
34 Antigua & Barbuda 17.86
35 Romania 15.78
36 Andorra 15.69
37 France 15.67
38 Barbados 15.31
39 Qatar 15.17
40 Slovakia 15.05
41 Aruba 14.58
42 Greece 13.77
43 Anguilla 13.54
44 Maldives 13.35
45 Croatia 13.31
46 Italy 13.16
47 Chile 12.8
48 Portugal 12.68
49 Cyprus 12.1
50 Taiwan 11.3
51 Japan 10.77
52 UAE 10.52
53
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http://boese-ban.de/~anton/downloadsPerCapita.php [boese-ban.de]
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Re:Congrats on breaking the non-existent record (Score:5, Informative)
No, 7.7m is the current figure. The US downloaded 2.5m [amiworks.co.in] of the 8m on Download Day.
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"Also, 7.7 million of the total came from the US. It would be great to see a larger overseas distribution, especially considering the pledges that were signed in places like Africa.
"
Indeed, there were a few hundred pledges from North-Korea. Anyone who knows anything about the state of the NK internet knows that it is a closed circuit.
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Also, 7.7 million of the total came from the US.
No. 7.7 million of some other total came from the US. Adding up the numbers on the map gets a much higher result than the 8.0 million total mentioned, so the fraction of those that came from the US is likely quite a bit lower than 7.7 million.
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I look to see this record broken with subsequent launches, as more and more people have access to the internet, and as Mozilla gains more share.
What? only Mozilla related products can break the record?
WinAmp, has probably beaten this record, possibly more than once. I bet MSN Live beat it (when they forced the upgrade over MSN 7.5) iTunes, probably has, and probably a lot of other software that has notifications for new versions. The problem is, you have to actually participate, and get the Guiness people to come watch, and set up special shit on your servers, so I dont really see that many companies clamoring to beat the record, it was just a publ
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Yes I did... WinAmp and MSN dont "automatically" update, they just inform you of new versions (until Vista anyways) and you have the option of downloading which isnt an upgrade, but a replacement, im not sure about iTunes, as I avoid it with a 10^10 foot pole, just added it because of its popularity.
I dont really see how thats different from what Mozilla/Firefox did, as it advertised beforehand for about a month or more with the "I will participate" sorta nonsense aswell, and then for almost 2 weeks about e
Rebel without a clue^Wcause. (Score:2)
"...im not sure about iTunes, as I avoid it with a 10^10 foot pole, just added it because of its popularity."
Because of its popularity?
And another one:
"...they were "going for the world record" which, I don't really seem fair... because unlike 99.9% of the other records where advertising just means people will watch, advertising this actually effects the outcome of the record, it should have been a secret, until after."
Hmmm....so, advertising does not work? Ah, I see. Advertising works so you have to be aga
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Ooh, ooh, I can do that too!
"Because of its popularity?"
Yes, I included it in my example, because its fairly popular, and relatively small (ie: similar to Firefox)
"Advertising works so you have to be against it. Gotcha."
Did I say to abolish all advertising? No, what i said was, when you are attempting to add a new record (or break an existing one) that you shouldn't be able to advertise, if said advertising can effect the outcome of the record, in this case there is a direct correlation between advertising,
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Also, 7.7 million of the total came from the US.
Not true! The US is showing a current total of 7.7 million downloads, but that's out of a current world total of 29 million. I couldn't find a figure for how many out of the original 8 million were in the US, but it seems unlikely that all the US users did their download in the first 24 hours and then nobody in the US has downloaded it since.
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Wrong. 7.7 million are the _current_ downloads from the US, not the downloads on that day. If you look, the current total is over 29 million.
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Also, 7.7 million of the total came from the US.
I assume you just looked at spreadfirefox.com. That 7.7 million is the *current* total.
Good work! (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Thanks for the arrogance (Score:5, Insightful)
If people are still using Internet Explorer, it can only be explained as ignorance or complacency.
Or personal preference. I downloaded Firefox about a year ago, tried it alongside IE for several weeks, determined there were parts I liked, parts I didn't, and ultimately made the decision that I preferred IE. It's nice to have a choice, and I have made my pick. Others picked something else, whether it be Firefox, Opera, or something entirely different. Fine. Good for them. I don't care because I have my browsing experience the way I want it and that's all I really care about.
If Firefox works for you, hurrah. I'm not so smug and condescending that I'm going to start calling you names. Just let me have what I prefer and we're all happy. I don't care if you think I made a poor or even stupid decision, in much the same way as I don't care if a Honda driver thinks I shouldn't be driving a Toyota. Isn't that the whole point: for people to have choices and be able to choose what they prefer?
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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)
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Allow me to give you something else to chew on: if you're still using Internet Explorer, you are willfully placing a lot of burden on web developers across the globe. That can be seen as ignorant, arrogant or complacent as well. Assuming you're techno-literate, we can scratch the ignorant excuse. Especially if you put statements like this in your response:
I don't care because I have my browsing experience the way I want it and that's all I really care about.
Other than that, freedom of choice is a wonderful thing...
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Well, my extension is pretty much an application, and runs on Firefox (among others): http://msnmsgr.mozdev.org/ [mozdev.org] /shamelessplug
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No, I say complacency like it's a real consumer motivator, which it is.
Complacency is the reason that inferior products can succeed if they're cleverly bundled. There is endless inefficiency in the market, where people are overcharged or provided inferior products or services for their money (for instance so long as the audience is complacent, movies will continue inserting more and more ads), because they are complacent about it, not wanting to be bothered t
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"Personally, (though I'm being a bit idealistic here), the creators of web browsers should standardize ..."
What do you think WC3 is about?
That's the point parent was trying to make- there IS a standard for web developers and MS chose not to follow it to further their lock in, thus creating pure hell for compliant to standards developers.
Creators of web browsers would LOVE to stick with the already established WC3 standards! But they can't because of MS and IE. Oh, and this is far from the first time this su
Just thing of all... (Score:2, Funny)
North Korea (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:North Korea (Score:5, Funny)
Iran vs Saudi Arabia (Score:2, Funny)
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That doesn't even make any sense (here be a hint: each and every NATO country is a US ally).
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Funny... nobody from North Korea downloaded Firefox 3.
You mean THAT [globalsecurity.org] country? Yeah, really, how surprising. Last time I saw them on TV, they hardly had any teeth, let alone electricity.
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North Korean people are really green, they shut their cities lights at night!
And they don't turn them on during daytime because well.. the sun provides enough light! Wow, these North Koreans are really living in harmony with nature! Let's take them as role models. Maybe after all dictatorship isn't that bad, at least for the environment!
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I don't know about computers, but I know that usage of cell phones is explicitly forbidden. They don't have their own carriers, but near the South Korea borders there is a weak signal.
I'm sure the same thing applies to the Internet, even if they are allowed to have computers.
Re:North Korea (Score:5, Funny)
Minesweeper.
Windows Update? (Score:2, Interesting)
I wonder how downloads Windows Update gets every patch Tuesday? Automated downloads, but downloads none the less.
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Obligitory terrible joke... (Score:5, Funny)
Its amazing that over 300k people downloaded firefox from russia, despite the fact that in soviet russia, firefox downloads you. /groan
Another obligitory terrible joke... (Score:2)
In Soviet Russia, Firefox keeps tabs on YOU.
Re:Obligitory terrible joke... (Score:5, Funny)
You forgot to click on "Other Stats" on the downloads per country page:
People downloaded by Firefox:
United States..... 0
Canada............ 0
France............ 0
Spain............. 0
Soviet Russia..... 8,548,674
Previous Guiness Record (Score:1)
Download Stats (Score:2)
(Downloads)
China? 72,154
South Korea? 148,006
North Korea? 0
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What I found funny was that I got an e-mail in my inbox thanking me for my participation in the download day but the name was already filled out for me [spreadfirefox.com].
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Imagine if their servers were up the entire time? (Score:1)
It took me several hours after the starting time to get a download working. Anyone else have similar trouble?
I wonder how high it would have been with more servers!
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?
Just the facts... (Score:2)
The problem is that most (if not all) OEMs are stricly business. There has been no measurable outcry from their customers (who can download it anyway), and Microsoft pays them to include IE on the desktop.
So, how about Google - I mean Mozilla - pay OEMs too? That's the only way you'll see it pre-installed.
I would call it a sucess.. (Score:3, Insightful)
That the actual end users explicitly seek out a piece of software, rather than settle for a defacto standard. Having users because they are too lazy to replace what the OEM gave them is, in my opinion, not as impressive.
As to the OEMs, there is the possibility of a kickback from MS from using IE exclusively, just like other 'free software', but I would think that would perhaps be too brazen considering the whole anti-trust thing.
Another possibility is a deep seated fear of distributing open-source software
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Imagine what preloading FireFox could do to the brand-differentiation of Dell or HP.
I'm imagining a big white cloud of nothing. Who buys their computer based on what browser is preloaded? Should the computer manufacturers scream in their ads about it? Is that really going to convince the masses to buy Brand X over Brand Y even beyond price, memory, disk space, etc?
They can't (honestly) tout security, considering IE is just as secure as Firefox these days. IE has tabs, which was Firefox's only useful featu
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I disagree. OEM adoption has little to do with the successfulness or merit of software.
Just look at all the crapware that OEMs bundle. Mozilla.org can join with the elite if they pay the requisite bribes.
Asus bundles Firefox with the EeePC. Is that good enough?
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Replying to an AC == bad, but...
Somehow I doubt MSFT is doing that any more. The last time they tried it, a court decided that they were an illegal monopoly and MSFT is STILL dealing with the fallout of that decision.
I suspect the DoJ would have some serious words with MSFT if they were strong-arming their OEMs to prevent them from installing FF.
My suspicion is that the real issue is exactly what some of the other respondants have mentioned:
Nobody is paying the computer manufacturers to install Firefox, so
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Sure, but for whatever reason, it appears that Google isn't paying for it.
They are paying billions of dollars for everyone and their uncle to install the Google toolbar and Google desktop search, but apparently Google draws the line at paying to get Firefox on people's machines.
^__^ (Score:3, Insightful)
Someone make a map like that but base it on percentage of population.
Are they counting source-code downloads too? (Score:3, Funny)
Pre-built binaries are for wussies — real women and men build from source [freshports.org].
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Holy shit! (Score:3, Funny)
Russia's huge!
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Yeah, Russia's big, isn't it? It's the second biggest country in the world after the US*.
or
The US* had the first satellite/man/dog in space.
They get quite annoyed, partly, I think, due to the fact they don't know if you're serious, and that all people in the West are unaware of The Great Soviet Achievements. (They also get annoyed if you call the Mendeleev table the Periodic Table)
* PS. I'm not American - it just works best.
french guiana in need of stone (Score:3, Funny)
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
Guinness (Score:2)
When I get into Guiness, the next day I'm hungover and in no position to code. How they managed to achieve eight million downloads is beyond me.
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Stats by countries only? (Score:3, Insightful)
I would've liked to see stats per operating system too.
I'm Impressed.... (Score:2, Insightful)
FireFox stagged a publicity stunt and a bunch of anti-ms fanboys ate it up like candy.
First, FireFox asked/begged people to all download on a particular day to break this record. I've never been 'asked' to download any other piece of software on a particular day to break any record.
Second, what was the existing record? *GASP* you don't mean to tell me there *wasn't* an existing record? Well then....that's not really all that impressive - is it? WoW supposedly has 9 million users, and come patch day they
Looking at the download data by country... (Score:2)
or he gave up eventually. (Score:2)
Anyway, the population is 3000 people.
Gentoo (Score:2)
First impression is that it compiled much, much faster on Gentoo.
I am not much a fan of this theme and no-one has built a 'firefox2' theme for Linux. There is one for Windows and a beta for OSX. The author of both claims that it looks a lot like the old theme already.
I call bullshit. The old theme didn't use the Tango Icon Set... which I am not very fond of. It's free, sure, but just doesn't look right compared to the old version.
I am updating the rest of my system right now so it's a tad slow... we'll see
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I doubt exactly, 8,002,530 people installed it and are using it. You know there were plenty of anti-microsoft nerds who downloaded it 50 times each.
We might as well just stick to bandwidth measurements, in which case YouTube would smash the above record.
I'm happy FF 3.0 is out and all, but I don't really see the big deal in this number.
Re:lame (Score:5, Informative)
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theyre not talking web-counters though, there using an FTP server, which will log unique IPs
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Duh. That was the figure for just 24 hours.
Plenty of people have downloaded it since then, but those don't count towards the record. To date, there have been more than 29 million downloads in total.
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Downloading updates and downloading a full product is two different things. You're not Getting Internet Explorer when you download updates. You're only downloading updates to something you already have. You *are* getting Firefox, then you download Firefox 3.
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"Ahh, I see" said the blind man.
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Which is why I had to turn automatic updates off.
For whatever reason IE7 WILL NOT install after I formatted and installed a fresh legit xp sp2. It downloads, and tells me I have updates to install. I click the little balloon and let it go. Then it constantly pesters me to restart. So I restart, and the process starts all over.
I tried a manual install just so I wouldn't have to deal with that automatic update loop but that turned out just about the same.
It worked just fine BEFORE I went legit which figur
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My install screen said, "Firefox will be installed as the default browser." No checkbox, no question.
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You miss the point. The relative ease of correcting the change isn't a consideration. It should have asked permission before changing any defaults or associations. That's just considerate programming.
Added Bonus!!! (Score:2)
You also get this [blorge.com], and this [techtarget.com]!
Hurray! Get vista + Ei7 and for no extra charge, dozens of exploits and more malware than you can shake a stick at!!
*stupid git*
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Iran is a very technologically advanced country, with a world-class higher education system. They're the number one auto maker in the region and, IIRC, have a growing software industry. They're very, very far from a third-world nation. It's scary how warped an idea we Americans have of Iran.