(This bit from 4-29-05)
Yeah, I’ve posted about Firefox before. However, today it reached an amazing milestone. 50 million Downloads. Yeah, can you believe that?
For several years, IE has commanded in excess of 95% share of the web browser market despite the fact it sucks more than a nymphomaniac in heat (this applies across all platforms). All the other browsers combined shared the remaining 5%. Sad and paltry. The sole competition was Netscape which languished after AOL bought it. Mozilla was nice, but it was bloated to the point many people eschewed it.
Now Firefox, (version 1.0.4 is out now) in under a year of official release, is now over 8% of the market share alone and should be at 10% within a month or so. Their logo is “take back the web” and if you haven’t at least tried it, do so. Not only will you be able to have a better browsing experience with far less security holes, but you will have the added side bonus of telling Microsoft to shove it up their collective arses.
Better yet (this edited bit added 5-12-05)
Microsoft’s Share of Browser Market Slips: May 12, 2005 2:21 PM EDT
NEW YORK – Microsoft Corp.’s share of the U.S. browser market has slipped below 90 percent as the Firefox browser continues to grow in popularity, according to independent tracking by WebSideStory. Firefox had a 6.8 percent share as of April 29, an increase from 3.0 percent since WebSideStory began tracking Firefox separately in October. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer share was 89 percent, a drop from 95 percent in June.
The figures are for all operating systems combined. On computers running Microsoft’s Windows, Internet Explorer has a 91 percent share, down from 97 percent in June. Outside the United States, Germany is among the leading adopters of Firefox, with a 23 percent share, compared with 69 percent for Internet Explorer. “They just seem to be averse to Microsoft products and really interested relatively in these open-source products,” said Geoff Johnston, a WebSideStory analyst.
Also (this edited bit from Cnet added 5-13-05)
IBM is encouraging its employees to use Firefox, aiding the open-source Web browser’s quest to chip away at Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.