digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover and share the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

See the original image at arstechnica.com

Firefox share up over 20% in Europe, mostly at expense of IE

arstechnica.com — The open source Firefox web browser continues to gain market share in Europe at Internet Explorer's expense. It's the browser of choice for over one-quarter of European web surfers, according to French metrics firm XiTi.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • luchid, on 01/30/2008, -18/+75I think the most worrying interpretation of this article is that around 80% of their population is STILL using IE, the worst browser ever known to mankind.
    • Topher06, on 01/30/2008, -33/+13And a browser that leaks memory and crashes every 5 mintues is the worlds greatest browser? That argument made sense about 10 years ago, but since then IE 7 has become fast and stable and Firefox has become slow and bloated.
      • Audacitor, on 01/30/2008, -5/+18I get the memory leaks part, but I don't know where you're pulling this crashing business from. I've running 20+ extensions and on average, I experience one crash per three weeks.
      • ausfahrt, on 01/30/2008, -4/+9FF never crashes ever and the memory issue is being fixed in 3 which is already beta 2. When is IE 8 coming out, or any significant patches to it? Oh right in a million years have fun waiting. Also when FF3 is out it will be 100% W3C compliant which puts it about 90% in front of IE. Not that they needed much seeing as it was already 20 times more compatible. You know nothing good work.
        • DavX, on 01/31/2008, -1/+5Please learn to convey your thoughts in a logical way, perhaps with a little bit of punctuation. Thanks! Those of us that use IE have trouble reading these FOSS comments.
      • chingy1788, on 01/31/2008, -0/+6For me, firefox some times just freezes :S
        but i still use it cause when it does freeze, and i restart it, all my open tabs can be recovered

        iceweasel on the other hand, crashes every 5 seconds
        • Tarl, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5MS will copycat the recovered tabs feature in...3...2...1...
          • chingy1788, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2IE slowly becoming slightly more better
            it is getting better, just a tiny bit better

            just not as good as the jump from IE to FF
    • colonelbuckshot, on 01/30/2008, -2/+2366%
    • quarando, on 01/30/2008, -14/+2Has it already been 10 years since IE 7 came out? Hmmm, I guess I just haven't been paying attention.
    • Schmich, on 01/30/2008, -1/+31It increases by 20%, it's not at 20%. I wonder who even bothered looking at the article...
    • MrLlama, on 01/31/2008, -9/+6IE7 isnt awful. I still prefer firefox/opera anyday but IE7 is defenetly a big improvement over IE6 and now a respectable browser.
      • Jerky1312, on 01/31/2008, -0/+7Mainly because of Firefox and Opera forcing their hand. If it weren't for solid browsers like Firefox and Opera, Microsoft would not have felt a major need to upgrade IE. Competition is good.
    • misterS, on 01/31/2008, -2/+180% (== 100% - 20%) because there's only two browsers out there?
      sure, the share of IE is still high, but ffs at least try to get your math right...
  • Privil3g3, on 01/30/2008, -28/+42IE can't be any worse than Safari on windows? Digg me down apple fanbois!
    • ophello, on 01/30/2008, -7/+51first of all, spelling fanboy as fanboi makes you look like an idiot.

      second of all, it is worse.
      • grovest4life, on 01/30/2008, -11/+3Have you even tried using Safari for windows it leaks memory worse than Firefox and when you open a dialog box or menu it doesn't even display right and leave's a black hole behind
      • MacSuxWindozSux, on 01/31/2008, -1/+6Safari for windows is still new. IE has been with windows since 1995, and has had more dollars and hours put into it than any other browser by far.

        IE sucks, it's mostly the design that sucks.
        From UI (getting better) to Web Standards.

        Safari for Mac would be better than IE7 for Windows.
    • fartbuttes, on 01/30/2008, -14/+9webkit rocks, suck a dick
      • prophetpimp, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2Now. Thats a right reserved exclusively for Mactards.
    • Schmich, on 01/30/2008, -11/+9I of course use Firefox but I must say that IE7 is not that bad. Every now and then it happens that I switch to IE because FF caused problems.
      • quarando, on 01/30/2008, -0/+13Unfortunately, 'Not that bad' is an apt description of most Microsoft products
      • tba2287, on 01/31/2008, -0/+0Blame that on web developers who code with websites better for IE due to its market share alone.
    • xXMetalJesusXx, on 01/30/2008, -1/+18I don't mind Safari for Windows...but why would I download one crappy Browser to replace another crappy browser...Apple Fanboys, Windows Fanboys, and linux fanboys all use Firefox...dumbass
    • thebrawl, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5IE is so bad that they can't even maintain browser coverage within their own monopoly market.
    • mindsnare, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5IE is MUCH worse than Safari for the pure reason that you don't need to mess around for hours when developing websites just to get the damn things to display properly. I will say that IE7 was a fairly significant improvement on that, but I still have to put those if IE conditional comments in everywhere, or even make an entirely different stylesheet for it.
    • blackjack75, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1I wonder if it'd have gottent the same reaction if you said this about Konqueror on Linux (which is basically the same engine).
  • ophello, on 01/30/2008, -6/+88Why wont IE just die already?
    • Audacitor, on 01/30/2008, -2/+57Microsoft prays on stupid people who think the Internet is IE, and don't know about alternatives.
      • benguild, on 01/30/2008, -1/+9Lmfao yeah, I try explain that to a lot of my friends buuuut...
      • salvadorwii, on 01/30/2008, -1/+29delete IE= Omg you deleted the internet!!!1!
        • haveacigar, on 01/31/2008, -0/+10Al Gore will be pissed..
          • 1timeuser, on 01/31/2008, -1/+2Whenever Ted Stevens installs windows he instantly renames the IE desktop Icon "The Tubes"
    • dorkslayer, on 01/30/2008, -3/+13Replace "IE" with "Microsoft".
      • darklights, on 01/30/2008, -17/+1Mainly because almost the entire world uses their products. Wait, they are all wrong, and your right, right?
        • fanas, on 01/30/2008, -0/+15Well ...... yes
        • 1timeuser, on 01/31/2008, -0/+7Yes, he's correct.
        • KibibyteBrain, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4My dear Copernicus, I find it absurd that you deny the opinion unchallenged by your peers that the Earth is indeed at the center of the universe.
    • ricky125, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3You have to remove the head, but I get the teeth.
    • Moses27, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1It doesn't help matters that most PC systems come standard with IE either, as Ricky125 said "You have to remove the head..." With Microsoft still producing IE many people will have to continue to suffer till they find something better. (Personal preference FireFox ;-) )
  • DarkSamus, on 01/30/2008, -16/+4sorry, obligatory firefox link
    http://lolcat.com/pics/pcfirefoxcat.jpg
  • i4mt3hwin, on 01/30/2008, -6/+1Anyone else notice the new versions of minefield have a different button scheme? One day I just looked up and it was different.
  • lalanis, on 01/30/2008, -6/+15What is IE?
    • bingobongony, on 01/30/2008, -8/+5What is Google Search? What is an iPod? (HINT: IE has a higher market share than either of thhe two things I mentioned.)
      • Syphon8, on 01/31/2008, -0/+6I don't think so.
      • init100, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Maybe in the United States, where Firefox had a market share of around 10% about one year ago.
    • Jeffler, on 01/30/2008, -4/+7Internet Exploder.
    • trollick, on 01/30/2008, -4/+2Ha-ha-ha. You're so funny because you pretend that you don't know what IE is, even though everybody of course knows it. Ha-ha-ha.
    • chingy1788, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4ie, which is short hand for "that is"
    • aussieNickuss, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3The big blue E is THE Internet. (Well, according to the luddites I deal with everyday).
  • lcmatt, on 01/30/2008, -3/+29IE will always be a dominate force until Windows is no longer shipped pre-installed. Even so to take 20% from IE is still a great achievement by Mozilla.
    • bingobongony, on 01/30/2008, -7/+8Except it isn't 20%
    • niceyuk, on 01/30/2008, -1/+17its almost 30%
    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4Microsoft has to include a web browser with windows.
      They already have Internet Explorer. So at this point they won't just drop it.
  • vvortex3, on 01/30/2008, -13/+28***** Microsoft in the ass with rusty farm equipment
    • ScottoGato, on 01/30/2008, -3/+22Can you be more specific?
      • nastajus, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Well considering a corporation is considered a legal "person", the phrasing is OK.
      • LegendarySock, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2Preferably, a rake.
  • bingobongony, on 01/30/2008, -5/+2"XiTi's breakdown of monthly Firefox market share gains for the past year show that the browser climbed from about 20 percent two years ago to 23.1 percent in December 2006 to a record 28 percent in December 2007. Firefox market share hit a plateau and hovered around 27.7 percent between June and September before taking a 0.7 percent drop in October, but then recovered prior to reaching 28 percent last month. "
    This part shows how meaningless this analysis is. Or is it suggesting that in October people stopped using it, but then started using it again last month?
    • gudnbluts, on 01/30/2008, -0/+7" Or is it suggesting that in October people stopped using it, but then started using it again last month?"

      Some people try it, decide they don't like it, and uninstall it. Not many, but some. Then other people start using it. That month more people may have stopped using it than started. Also, a surge in computer buying could account for it, as people would be buying computers with IE preinstalled.
      • johnnysaucepn, on 01/31/2008, -1/+1That does happen, but shouldn't show up in any given month - it should be spread out over the year. The point is that month-by-month figures are still too inaccurate. Given the measuring techniques used, 0.7% variance should be buried well inside the statistical error margin.
  • Tuto, on 01/30/2008, -3/+29Finland is awesome like always :)
  • SHuisman, on 01/30/2008, -2/+12I feel ashamed, cos i'm from netherlands....
    • Fergy, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Yup, no internet pride in the netherlands :(
      Most people think a Windows computer means Windows+Office+IE+Outlook+Messenger. How can they have 95% market share and still be wrong?
  • Tanktunker, on 01/30/2008, -8/+3Yes, but will it blend?
    • drastik21, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2i don't get it? firefox isn't even tangible.
  • bmson, on 01/30/2008, -4/+10Where the heck is Iceland?
    And the static for England?

    btw. Way to go Finland!
    • ep53, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1It takes the United Kingdom of Great Britain as a whole instead of splitting them up.
    • blackjack75, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1In terms of Firefox usage Iceland is in the margin. Litterally.
  • AlienMushroom, on 02/21/2008, -11/+5It's IE 7 that committed suicide. I can't believe how much memory it actually requires to run properly. Man, I have a laptop with 4GB of DDR2 ram, and that even starves IE7. I spent 2 months to figure out why the drop down menus on random program started to disappear. After switching to FF, everything settled. Although FF doesn't follow the standard sometimes, I still can live with it. I'd love to stick with IE7 anyway possible, but the disappointment kept me away from it.
    • quarando, on 01/30/2008, -4/+10I am no fan of IE, but none of this sounds plausible
      • magus_melchior, on 01/30/2008, -4/+4He could be running a botched upgrade. Hey, most people out there recommend a clean install of Vista over an upgrade.
      • AlienMushroom, on 02/21/2008, -2/+4But it's the truth. It may not be a problem with your IE, but mine does. Surfing with it for a little bit and the text on the drop-down menus start to disappear, and then the dd menus themselves. It's a bit better on Vista, but on XP, it's plain slow.
        • oojamaflip2006, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4I'm glad you brought up the problem with the drop down menus. I've had it too and it is an example of previous bad versions of IE shooting the current version in the foot. The reason is people put too many conditional comments in the css/html to fix the IE6 hover and float rendering problems.
    • Jeffler, on 01/30/2008, -4/+4Dude, I'm totally biased towards Firefox, but its generally the opposite, stop making up stuff. IE7 is actually better with RAM management than FF, thankfully I have plenty of RAM so it doesn't matter.
    • kurtwinter, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3Concerning standards, its IE that breaks them, and idiot web managers who write to a single platform. While Firefox isn't perfect next to standards, its better than IE. That said, why would anyone install IE7? IE6 does the one thing you need it to do well, Microsoft Update.
    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1IE7 doesn't use as much ram as FF.
      Anyone can see that when they check task manager.

      But the extra memory is largely used to cache links on the page, or history.
      There's also extensions. My FF has about 10 extensions. My IE7 is stock.
      Extensions use ram. And some are made by crappy coders.

      There's also the huge amount of files and folders IE7 hides away in the user folder, that clutter the hard drive.
    • AlienMushroom, on 02/21/2008, -1/+1For those in doubt, here are some screen shots I just took.
      The right click had no effect at all. Unfortunately, it's impossible to show that on a pic.
      http://i29.tinypic.com/2wplaud.jpg
      http://i31.tinypic.com/2iu2t4x.jpg
      http://i26.tinypic.com/ambprq.jpg
      http://i26.tinypic.com/2m7dqfp.jpg
  • edgeofreason, on 01/30/2008, -1/+30People in United Kingdom apparently don't use the internet.
    • bennovw, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2Maybe the figure on top of Ireland includes England too... That does not take away the fact that the chart is not entirely clear though!
    • bosssmiley, on 01/31/2008, -1/+2That's right. We recline on our chaise longues, smoking opium and send our houseboy scampering up the rickety ladders in our libraries when we need some information. It's simply *too* agreeable.
      http://www.thechap.net/
  • xsquirrel378x, on 01/30/2008, -11/+6sadly there are actually people who prefer IE to any other browsers, they're called girls
    • SteveMax, on 01/31/2008, -1/+2My wife prefers Gecko-based browsers, mainly Mozilla/Seamonkey, and so does almost every woman in my family. Nice try, though.
  • nunquam, on 01/30/2008, -1/+4I wonder why they left the UK out?
  • SoxSweepAgain, on 01/30/2008, -1/+2I may be the only person in the world who had trouble with Firefox (my computer seemed to hate it) and un-installed it. I know nothing but "advanced-layman" about computers, however, and from reading the thread that seems it may be my issue.
    • erkokite, on 01/30/2008, -1/+4If your computer seems to hate it, then you have larger problems with your computer. Have you tried some decent antivirus software? Check out AVG- it's free. Avoid Norton and McAfee. Perhaps you have a virus that doesn't like FF (fewer security holes). Or perhaps you have too many processes running in the background - could be viruses or benign, but annoying stuff like Quicktime and Java.
  • clenyse, on 01/30/2008, -7/+2about time. firefox is just better. cause i said
  • banido, on 01/30/2008, -1/+13Finland loves Conan and Firefox.
  • orangefly, on 01/30/2008, -3/+9no opera love....???....
    • nastajus, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2no. well i liked the zoom thing, but i just happy with ff.
    • Jerky1312, on 01/31/2008, -1/+3If it weren't for Firefox, I'd be using Opera. They are both better than Internet Explorer, but Firefox is Open Source and is has done a better job marketing itself over Opera. Part of the reason its spreads is due to the fact its open source, there are more people pushing it. Opera is a great browser as well.
  • joe8pack, on 01/30/2008, -1/+6As they say in France, "Micrrrrrrrrrrosoft, I faaart in yer jeneral directshunnnn!!!
    LIke Vista, when I saw IE7 - I said to myself, why?

    More crap I don't want that makes my hardware run slower - the new Microsoft slogan.
  • magus_melchior, on 01/30/2008, -0/+1http://www.xitimonitor.com/en-us/browsers-baromete ...
    ^ XiTi's December report has 17.2% for the UK, but no data for Iceland.
    • magus_melchior, on 01/30/2008, -0/+1Also, note that aside from Slovenia and Croatia, the former Yugoslavian republics aren't counted either.
  • SSCrow, on 01/30/2008, -12/+3Wow Firefox Fanboys are intense.
    Why do you hate IE so much? its actually really good for the average user.
    I use Firefox because I love NoScript & AdblockPlus. Not because its the "Superior" Browser.
    • BlueSkyfish, on 01/30/2008, -1/+13Internet Explorer doesn't follow rendering standards, which is hell for web designers. You have to spend hours trying to optimize your CSS code so it shows properly in IE.

      There is something called the Acid2 test that tests a browser's rendering ability. Firefox2 has some issues, but it's still pretty good. Firefox3, Opera, Wii's internet channel, Safari all pass the test. All versions of IE fail. hard.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid2
    • magus_melchior, on 01/30/2008, -0/+2Guess what, that's the reason for many other Firefox users. Maybe it's because IE had an insane advantage over other browsers since it was free?
      • MacSuxWindozSux, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2Netscape cost 70$ back in 1994. I seen it.
  • bitterman316, on 01/30/2008, -8/+7Anyone who still uses IE is a retard microsoft whore, anyone who uses Firefox belongs to the elite of super-cool intellectual people.
  • heystoopid, on 01/30/2008, -0/+8Xenu says IE just plain sucks big time !
  • sfacets, on 01/30/2008, -1/+103/4 of european surfers are technologically impaired.
    • init100, on 01/31/2008, -1/+7Just like 4/5 of North American surfers. :p
  • DiFosfor, on 01/30/2008, -0/+5Wow, sorry to be from the Netherlands.. I do wish Firefox wouldn't leak so bad in OS X though. I've almost switched to Safari if it weren't for the lack of my favorite extension Google Browser Sync.
    • blackjack75, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Agreed. Firefox launches faster in XP in my VMware windows that natively on my mac. I use Safari for my daily browsing and Firefox when I need the plugins.
  • hijstr, on 01/31/2008, -6/+1There isn't a single decent mainstream browser at the moment. IE is IE, Firefox is shocking with memory, and near useless on Linux, *although the beta is looking a bit more promising), Opera is awkward, but probably the best of a bad bunch. I almost prefare browsing in elinks these days.

    Why can't someone make a browser that does what utorrent did to torrent clients?
    • gudnbluts, on 01/31/2008, -1/+4Opera isn't awkward under Windows. I didn't like any of the browsers under Linux though.
      • 1timeuser, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1I have no problems with Opera in linux. I do prefer it over FF (But I support the FF community and Ideology)
        • gudnbluts, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1"I have no problems with Opera in linux"

          I found it would hang once in a while - not crash - it'd sort itself out after a few seconds, but it didn't seem as robust as FF. Also, it has problems with flash videos. It'll play them, but if anything gets too slow, or you leave the page, it'd sometimes just give you a blank with no way to restart it short of refreshing the page.

          "But I support the FF community and Ideology"

          Oh, absolutely. Opera's my personal preference, but I'd never claim it's better than FF. Each has strengths and weaknesses. Opera's quicker at everything and caching is better, Firefox's extensions make it incredibly powerful and flexible.
  • psg188, on 01/31/2008, -1/+7Interesting that the highest market shares are among countries where Germanic people live.
  • ptFoe, on 01/31/2008, -10/+10Europeans are smarter than Americans.
    No coincidence Finland always comes out as the smartest country in high school standard tests.
  • chingy1788, on 01/31/2008, -7/+1Alert, the enemy has captured our users

    please visit my simple unfinished webpage and tell me what you think (im bracing my self for lots of putdown)
    http://www.chingy1788.co.nr
  • silenthunder, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2and you have to say at the expense of of IE
    So what else is new.
  • seenxu, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5our site(stu-cn.de) located in germany, which has 1 million hits at least per day, the firefox share is 28%, Safari is 2%, 35% for IE6, 33% for IE7, statistic according to google analystic.
    • frostw, on 01/31/2008, -1/+2Yes, that's about what I get for my site too. Other than IE and FF, the rest are just noise.
  • awflasher, on 01/31/2008, -2/+3Some guy from India told me that 99% people there were using Firefox.
    I knew he's talking a lie but I still feel happy for it.
  • DarkReign16, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2You know...the firefox share is one of those that if you invest enough, you'll end up becoming one of those super lucky rich people in about 5 or so years. I guarantee it. Buy as many stocks as you can...
  • peeeanuts, on 01/31/2008, -4/+3IE = Epic fail!
  • Subriot, on 01/31/2008, -2/+6Good for Mozilla, Internet Explorer is so stressful to web designers.
  • Ubergoober3, on 01/31/2008, -3/+3adblock plus:
    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/186 ...
    Greatly enhances your internet experience. No more ads, for free, with firefox.
  • Soyea, on 01/31/2008, -2/+6you guys & girls know what is even better? is that more people are moving over to Linux thanks mostly in part to the rubbish that is Vista,
    frankly speaking the best thing that has ever happened to Linux has been vista. Lords only knows why people would use an OS that takes a full kernel and 69%of system recourses do we dare say bloat and DRM up your's micrpshaft.
  • Birdk9dog, on 01/31/2008, -2/+1I would love to know how many people that dugg this story were using ie
    • DestroyFascism, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2Can IE users even Digg?
      Started using Mozilla years ago, switched to FF and never looked back! Work computers often left with IE6 and no upgrade are the worst.....
      • gudnbluts, on 01/31/2008, -0/+0"Can IE users even Digg?"

        At work I can only use IE6. Digg is astoundingly painful. It's a testement to how fun this site is, that I can soldier on with that fingernail-pulling forgetful, crashy, slow hideousness that manages to actually amplify Digg's comment system crapitude.
  • booknow, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Unfortunately not widely used here in the Netherlands... :-S
  • jarvis400, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Finland will soon have at least one Firefox user less. If they (Fx) won't fix the bugs for OS X version, that is. If only there was a Web Developer Toolbar for Safari...
  • acm79, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1yeah! Poland is doin' good :)
  • tringtring, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1what are the stats in the US? I'd imagine it will be similar?
  • motters, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Firefox is clearly the superior choice in web browsers
  • pablort, on 01/31/2008, -0/+0How about Digg's stats ?
  • blackjack75, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1I talked with five soldiers from the Swiss army and they all support Firefox.
  • jabberwolf, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1firefix 3 maybe, I've had no problems with IE 7 but I have had with earlier version of firefox.
  • buggrep, on 02/04/2008, -0/+0Do people still use IE? I haven't used internet explorer for about 2 years. Firefox is way better then IE on every aspect this explains why such a huge spread of firefox all over the world

    www.buggrep.com -->helping others solve their computer errors
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.