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Firefox 3.5 Now the Most Popular Browser Worldwide 422

gQuigs notes a graph up at StatCounter Global Statistics, which shows that in the last few days Firefox 3.5 became the most used browser version worldwide, edging ahead of IE7. IE8 is rising fast (along with Windows 7), but over the last few months the slope of Firefox's worldwide curve has been steeper. (In the US, IE8 has always been ahead of Firefox 3.5; in Europe Firefox has led since late summer.) The submitter suggests using the time when Firefox rules the roost, globally speaking, to put the final nail in the coffin of IE6, which still has a 14% global share (5%-7% in the US and EU; China and Korea are holding up IE6's numbers).
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Firefox 3.5 Now the Most Popular Browser Worldwide

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  • by binarylarry ( 1338699 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @08:40PM (#30508148)

    OS next.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Mammon slept. And the beast reborn spread over the earth and its numbers grew legion. And they proclaimed the times and sacrificed crops unto the fire, with the cunning of foxes. And they built a new world in their own image as promised by the sacred words, and spoke of the beast with their children. Mammon awoke, and lo! it was naught but a follower.

    • by flydpnkrtn ( 114575 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @08:48PM (#30508182)

      Mammon slept. And the beast reborn spread over the earth and its numbers grew legion. And they proclaimed the times and sacrificed crops unto the fire, with the cunning of foxes. And they built a new world in their own image as promised by the sacred words [mozilla.org] , and spoke [mozilla.org] of the beast with their children. Mammon awoke, and lo! it was naught but a follower.

      from The Book of Mozilla, 11:9
      (10th Edition)

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Hurricane78 ( 562437 )

        What’s omitted is what happens next.

        If Mammon awakes, it (MS) will try to catch up, if it means anything to it.
        And this will be the actual ugly fight, where one of them never comes out again.

  • Why MS failed. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by w0mprat ( 1317953 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @08:46PM (#30508164)
    IE has been diluted by three different versions. IE6 is only really held on to by organisations that developed everything for IE6, and subsequently had everything break when testing IE7. This despite IE6 barely working on half the internet now. Ironically Mircosoft's attempt at lock-in in the past has backfired, few outfits have updated to IE7, less to IE8.
    • Re:Why MS failed. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by MemoryDragon ( 544441 ) on Monday December 21, 2009 @03:12AM (#30509910)

      Actually IE8 might be soon the king of IEs even corporations now have a serious upgrade look.
      I expect that IE7 wont really have the impact IE6 had and frankly spoken IE8 while not being really that good is good enough for now.
      Still I applaud the rise of firefox, this will open enough pressure on M$ to finally support SVG and raise their ACID compliancy from 20% up to decent levels without lying that ACID tested unfinished standards (which it does not)

  • by Old Flatulent 1 ( 1692076 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @08:49PM (#30508184) Homepage
    Seems to me IE6 having any market share at all is because of the huge number of XP non registered copies floating around in places like China and even the US. Besides how would bot nets survive without Windows warez! Hopefully as HTML5 becomes more developed it will kill it once and for all.
  • StatCounter? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gzipped_tar ( 1151931 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @08:50PM (#30508190) Journal

    Considering most Firefox users are more tech savvy than average and many of them are likely to have already blocked StatCounter altogether, this is impressive.

    • Re:StatCounter? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Trepidity ( 597 ) <[delirium-slashdot] [at] [hackish.org]> on Sunday December 20, 2009 @09:04PM (#30508266)

      I'm not sure "many" of them are. It's hard to estimate, but most estimates for the proportion of users using some form of ad-blocking software are only in the 3-5% range. Even if every one of those is a Firefox 3.5 user, that would only nudge up the 21% market share to the mid-20%s, not totally rearrange the curve or anything.

    • by Belial6 ( 794905 )
      Are you saying that over half of the web browser users are more tech savvy than average? You might want to rethink that statement in the future.
    • Re:StatCounter? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Machtyn ( 759119 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @09:53PM (#30508542) Homepage Journal
      I wouldn't say most FF users are more tech savvy. I would say that most FF users know at least one tech savvy person. Also, I don't think I've blocked StatCounter. I don't know why I should.
    • Re:StatCounter? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by dakameleon ( 1126377 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @11:18PM (#30508948)

      Considering most Firefox users are more tech savvy than average and many of them are likely to have already blocked StatCounter altogether, this is impressive.

      Statcounter uses an image as a fallback for getting stats where the cookie is blocked or Javascript cannot be run, so unless you've blocked all third party images (how's the text web going for you, tinfoil hat man?) it still shows up.

  • by Wrath0fb0b ( 302444 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @08:54PM (#30508214)

    I have another way -- Firefox (all versions) at 32%, Internet Explorer (all versions) at 55%. The fact that the IE market is split between 6.X, 7.X and 8.X doesn't not detract from the (regrettable) fact that Internet Explorer is the most popular browser, worldwide. Different versions do not a different browser make.

    In hindsight, this distribution is rather predictable -- FF nags you to update (rightly so) whereas IE can't even update itself, let along notify you about it.

    Here's a plot (thankfully, they give out the raw CSV data) with the "all versions" included. Firefox has a ways to go. http://yfrog.com/j5temptlp [yfrog.com]

    • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 20, 2009 @08:59PM (#30508244)
      Different versions do not a different browser make.

      Clearly you have never been involved with web development. "aieee" has wildly different bugs and proprietary features between major versions.
    • Here's a plot (thankfully, they give out the raw CSV data) with the "all versions" included. Firefox has a ways to go. http://yfrog.com/j5temptlp [yfrog.com]

      Statcounter also plots that [statcounter.com], fwiw. (Click on the dropdown box after "Statistic:" at the bottom-left of the graph to get other views and data sets as well.)

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by welcher ( 850511 )
      that is the ugliest plot i have seen in a long, long time.
    • The real story here is in the trends of each version. IE7 and IE6 are in decline. For Internet Explorer, only IE8 is still growing, but its rate of growth is significantly slower than Firefox's. The headline may be misleading, but the the summary is right on the money. If these trends keep up, the headline may well become true a lot sooner than you seem to think.

    • by shird ( 566377 )

      And once Firefox 3.6 is out, that line for Firefox 3.5 will drop by half and IE 7 will become more popular than Firefox 3.5 overnight (according to the submitter's logic).

    • by quickOnTheUptake ( 1450889 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @09:34PM (#30508428)
      Total marketshare isn't the most interesting metric, the rate of change is. Right now FF 3.5 is gaining users faster than IE8. The question (which the graph doesn't readily answer) is whether the net FF adoption rate is faster than the net IE adoption rate. I.e, is the total number of FF users going up faster than the total number of IE users? Is FF3.5 going up fast just because FF3 users are upgrading more quickly than IE7 users?
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        The question (which the graph doesn't readily answer) is whether the net FF adoption rate is faster than the net IE adoption rate.

        Well, that chart didn't but this one [statcounter.com] does.
        And yes, IE (all versions) is in a rapid decline, while FF is slowly climbing.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by dakameleon ( 1126377 )

          Well, that chart didn't but this one [statcounter.com] does.

          And yes, IE (all versions) is in a rapid decline, while FF is slowly climbing.

          if by "slowly climbing" you mean "flatlining", sure... Chrome's the only one with a reasonable uptick recently.

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by nyctopterus ( 717502 )

            And that fine too. I don't see why any browser should have more than 20-25% share. Looks like we're heading somewhere even better than replacing IE with Firefox.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Idiomatick ( 976696 )

          Recent months it looks like FF is holding its own while chrome steals users from IE. But likely it is mostly FF users trying chrome and FF gaining more recruits from IE.

          When chrome looses it's shiny appeal unless chrome seriously holds it's own in the browser battle they will lose users quick, and almost all to FF. So the real test is to come there over the next year.

          IE however will likely gain users as people get windows 7 (taking from the rest). Many people will be upgrading from xp having been longtime

      • if you look at the graph, you can answer that question quite easily...

        Both IE6 and IE7 are in decline. While there's still nutters using IE5 and earlier, those browsers are all listed under "other" which is also in decline. IE8 is the only IE browser with an increasing market share at this time. And judging from the slopes, most of the new IE8 users are old IE6 and IE7 users... IE7's decline has been very sharp, easily the same slope as IE8's rise.

        So yes, FF3.5 is gaining users and FF's proportional market

    • by styrotech ( 136124 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @10:12PM (#30508628)

      The fact that the IE market is split between 6.X, 7.X and 8.X doesn't not detract from the (regrettable) fact that Internet Explorer is the most popular browser, worldwide. Different versions do not a different browser make.

      Sure, if you are just a spectator cheering for your team from the sidelines.

      But not if you are a web developer/designer, the different versions are very different browsers. In terms of making a modern website work there is much more difference between IE8 and IE6 than there is between IE8 and FF/Safari/Chrome/Opera etc.

  • by AbRASiON ( 589899 ) * on Sunday December 20, 2009 @08:55PM (#30508220) Journal

    You're going to see IE8 be absolutely huge over the next 5 years - even if firefox is preferred by geeks and the somewhat tech savvy.
    As the huge 32/64bit transition begins (next 12 to 36 months my guess) business's finally can roll out 64bit Windows 7, avoiding Vista entirely and finally retiring Windows XP.
    This is going to continue to increase IE8 marketshare much like IE6's was boosted from XP, so what we can only hope is that IE8 isn't garbage (me, I don't know? I use Firefox also)

    For what it's worth, I work for one of the state govt's of Australia and one of our departments has just switched from Win2k to XP :/ so I'm guessing we won't be moving to Windows 7 for at least 2 years.

    • by jonwil ( 467024 )

      IE8 is much better than IE6 and the sooner we can kill off IE6 in favor of IE7 and IE8, the better.
      Now, I am not saying that IE8 is better than alternatives like Firefox (I use SeaMonkey myself) but its better than IE6 (in fact, the only browsers I know of that were worse than IE6 were IE5.x and Netscape 4.x)

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by sheriff_p ( 138609 )

      As someone has said elsewhere, the more important issue here is here:

      http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-weekly-200827-200951 [statcounter.com]

      The previous graph shows something we already know: that people happily flit between versions of the same browser, especially home users. This graph shows browser-family usage. And it shows a steady decline of IE against FF and Chrome.

      But again, actually, that's not the important issue here. Here's what matters: the browser war was won when IE's monopoly was broken. Developing for j

  • Separating out versions of different browsers is just plain silly.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      You know it's not once you've tried to write (and maintain!) different CSS fuckups for different IE versions.
  • so....? (Score:2, Informative)

    If you put all the firefox's (1-3.5) vs. the IE's (5-8) what do you get? The winner for now is still IE. Now, Firefox is getting more blot, and IE getting better. What will Firefox do to fight back? Add even more blot? I have moved to using IE, Firefox, and chrome for now. If firefox keeps down this path, I will stop using it.
  • One word: adblock (Score:4, Insightful)

    by seifried ( 12921 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @09:01PM (#30508254) Homepage
    Everyone I know whom I have shown Firefox with Adblock Plus switches and stays with it. The Internet with ads is just horrid (sorry Slashdot!).
    • Re:One word: adblock (Score:5, Informative)

      by techno-vampire ( 666512 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @09:15PM (#30508332) Homepage
      (sorry Slashdot!)

      When I first saw the option on Slashdot's main page to turn off ads I was a tad croggled. I'd been using Firefox with AdBlock + for so long I'd forgotten that there were ads on Slashdot.

  • by palmerj3 ( 900866 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @09:05PM (#30508276) Homepage
    Reenactment - relative has problem with computer

    1. Remove shortcuts to Internet Explorer
    2. Rename Firefox shortcuts to "Internet"

    Firefox 3.5 - My Idea
  • A more accurate graph for the "Most Popular Browser Worldwide" would be given by:
    http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-weekly-200827-200951 [statcounter.com]
    Here you see a more representative picture - IE's decline and Firefox's rise, but still IE's total share is 55% to Firefox's 32%

    Just because we're in the midst of an IE upgrade from 7-8 doesn't make Firefox now the most popular browser. Sure, this version is currently a little ahead of each of IE7 and IE8, but to me what this really indicates is that Firefox users upgrad

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by MtViewGuy ( 197597 )

      However, with the success of Windows 7, expect a major spike in IE usage, especially with IE 8.0 being part of Windows 7 itself in most versions.

      I myself would like to go to Chrome 4.0 full-time, since Chrome does a masterful job of handling tabs and Chromes uses the ultra-fast WebKit page layout engine.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        I'm not sure whether this is blatant astorturfing, parody astoturfing, fanboyism, or something else.
        Please MtViewGuy, gimme a hint.
  • by WebmasterNeal ( 1163683 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @09:13PM (#30508320) Homepage
    I helped a family friend setup their new computer (which had Windows 7 on it) and the first thing I did was download Firefox 3.5, installed the IE Aero theme and removed any references to IE I could find. The nice thing with this theme is very few non-technical users notice a difference other than their browser seems to load pages faster.
  • by zill ( 1690130 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @09:32PM (#30508410)
    http://xkcd.com/198/ [xkcd.com]

    Unless you're a web browser developer, keeping track of global browser market-shares is just plain nerdy. But then again, this is /..
  • They are blocked in all ad blockers and some firewall software (those with built-in malware filters).
    This is because of their web beacons that they integrate into sites, and that invade your privacy by tracking you across sites.

    I had to turn off my ad blocker, to be able to open their site.

    So you can guess in what direction the statistics are biased.

  • If you look at the browsers, independent of the version:
    http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-weekly-200827-200951 [statcounter.com]
    you see that IE is clearly far on top.

    BUT, as I previously said, Statcounter does not count anyone with an ad blocker, in browser, in the firewall, etc.
    Because they are blocked for tracking users across sites with their web beacon.

    So not only are the numbers strongly biased in one direction. No TFS biases them back in the other direction.

    That is, all in all, a truly epic fail. And I’m not

  • Who is using IE6: (Score:3, Informative)

    by 7-Vodka ( 195504 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @10:40PM (#30508756) Journal

    I work for a large company with 130k employees and EVERYBODY uses IE6 because it's what the IT department mandates. To get an exception to this you have to go through so much hassle and have a business provable reason for the request.

    I wish I could use a better browser, IE6 really sucks in many many ways. It's slooww, has memory leaks like you wouldn't believe and doesn't even render slashdot correctly.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by thue ( 121682 )

      Perhaps you could try requesting an exception by saying that you need Firefox to read Slashdot?

  • by zlel ( 736107 ) on Sunday December 20, 2009 @11:15PM (#30508932) Homepage
    I live in Japan and adoption seems really conservative. Let's first take version numbers away to get a better view.
    Japan
    Firefox has been having a 21-23% share for the 2 years, with IE still leading though dropping from 70 to 65%
    Growth in conservative. UK seems to have a similar trend.

    Singapore
    About 30% share and growth is conservative.

    Malaysia
    Growth from 30% up to 40%, with an equal drop in IE share.
    This looks like a market where Firefox can overtake IE?

    France
    very interesting trend. W38 2008 and W26 2009 had a short period where IE use was displaced by Firefox, but IE use was resumed in a few weeks.
    Does that mean users in France are open to the idea, but still don't deem Firefox a good replacement yet?
    Interestingly Vietnam seems to have a similar trend.

    China
    IE has 95% share all the way, with a drop recently, giving way not to Firefox, but to Maxthon.

    Poland / Finland
    Firefox is the most popular browser!

    North Korea
    Nobody really wins. Only IE, once in a while.

    Antartica
    Go figure. But firefox seems to be winning?

    It would be nice if we could have a world map of the most popular browsers in each country
    so we can adjust our expectations when talking to overseas partners...
  • by powerspike ( 729889 ) on Monday December 21, 2009 @12:27AM (#30509308)
    The only reason this has happened, is because people are migrating from IE7 to IE8, if you look at the graph, firefox is a little over half the combined marketshare of ie 7 & 8, this will change in a month or two as more and more people migrate to ie8.

    Using the same method as the poster, you can say that ie6 has more market share then Firefox 3 ....
  • by BitZtream ( 692029 ) on Monday December 21, 2009 @12:44AM (#30509372)

    IE still has over 50% of the market, so firefox isn't exactly the most popular browser. Firefox is at 30% and Chrome is already at 5% and its still an infant.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm glad IE's share is getting smaller and smaller, but Firefox still isn't the most popular browser out there, lets actually accomplish it before we tell everyone we've accomplished it by messaging the data.

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