What is Digg?Warning: The Content in this Article May be Inaccurate
Readers have reported that this story contains information that may not be accurate.Sponsored by Sony Pictures
Do you believe the 2012 Mayan Prophecy? view!
whowillsurvive2012.com - The Mayan Calendar predicts the end of time: 2012. See the trailer for 2012, opening November 13.
122 Comments
- masamunexs, on 10/12/2007, -13/+104Yes, and Linux will overtake Windows in June-2008
- GeekyGirl, on 10/12/2007, -1/+45There are a bunch of flaws in this analysis. First, it assumes that traffic on one site (The Humor Archives) is representative of the entire Internet. Since most market share calculations show Firefox at somewhere around 8% - 10%, the 25% share on The Humor Archives is clearly not indicative of overall usage. Second, Internet Explorer has not released a major update in a long time. When Microsoft does release an update, the current trend line is likely to change.
I am a Firefox user and an open source evangelist; however, this is just pure manipulation of data, and does not draw valid conclusions. - koweja, on 10/12/2007, -1/+43That assumes that the rate of change is going to be constant for the next 21+ months, which it won't. Markets become saturated, campaigns (Spread Firefox) end or begin to become less successful, competitors release new products, etc. etc. Now, Firefox may eventually overtake IE, but you can't determine that just from present day trends.
- ubergmr, on 10/12/2007, -11/+48firefox will never overtake Internet explorer, the reason for this is that it is included in windows and over 50 percent of Internet "users" so not have reason or knowledge to switch. Also with the new IE, it will be harder to convince someone to change because of features, and as far a security is concerned the closer firefox gets to the majority of the marketshare, the more exploits we are going to see.
- kabewm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21@mikm
FreeBSD is an "ussecure [sic] piece of *****"? Unless I'm sadly mistaken, OSX has BSD (read: Unix derivative) underpinnings.
Every OS is an insecure piece of ***** if it isn't kept up to date. Even old versions of OpenBSD have remote exploits.
OSX may have FreeBSD userland, but if Apple doesn't keep that part up to date then they are an insecure piece of *****. I've seen this allegation, that OSX isn't keeping the BSD userland secure and up to date but so far there has been no proof demonstrated either way.
That's like saying that Windows has a great tcp/ip stack because it used the BSD stack when Windows was first tcp/ip enabled (i know Windows has long since retired that tcp/ip stack, just pulling together a strawman similar to the parent posters!).
Things change with time, and if Apple is truly not keeping the BSD userland up to date, then it WILL come back to bite them in the ass. Once again that is all unsubstantiated accusations with no proof thus far.
FreeBSD on the other hand does a great job with security. - noahhoward, on 10/12/2007, -9/+28Internet Explorer is no longer bundled with Dells in Europe, Firefox is. I don't knwo what people have to smoke to think IE is impervious but heres the facts.
IE has remained mostly unchanged.
IE is a security risk.
FireFox is cleaner and easier to use.
FireFox supports web standards.
IE uses proprietary stuff.
The clincher and the ultimate downfall. With IE 7 MS had a chance to make it all better. They could catch up with modern browsers. Fix thier standards lose the proprietary stuff. They didn't now they are paying for it. IE7 is useless. It will be run on a useless platform Vista. And the development world is tired of their crap.
Good-bye IE it wasn't soon enough. - szelij, on 10/12/2007, -10/+26Stop modding down ubergmr, he speaks the truth. Firefox isn't going to overtake I.E simply because I.E is bundled with Windows. Unless firefox is distributed free on CD's ala AOL through the retail computer stores and by mail, most people won't bother to download it.
Yes i know it's blasphemy for bringing up that AOL tactic but hey it worked for AOL didn't it? - tony23, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14I did a bit of a study on this matter (it's directly related to my job) - I took browser statistics for about 20 different sites, of all types, and averaged them. The lowest FF usage was around 4%, the highest was close to 25%. The average came out around 15%. Not as low as GeekyGirl states, but certainly not as high as Humor Archives 25%, either.
There is definitely a migration, but I'd be surprised if it gets much higher than 30-35%. - mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11no. completely unrealistic. this is based on stats instead of reality. in reality, the majority of computer users have never heard of firefox, and IE might as well be called The Internet.
- mikm, on 10/12/2007, -12/+20bieber:
FreeBSD is an "ussecure [sic] piece of *****"? Unless I'm sadly mistaken, OSX has BSD (read: Unix derivative) underpinnings. - PKO17, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I don't think Firefox will ever overtake IE in terms of market share but, if you ask me, Firefox has already beaten them.
(I'm an Opera user just for the record) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Sure, and doesn't everyone just LOVE AOL!!!
- TripinVA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7You say that, but I know a number of teens who think that MSN Explorer and AOL Explorer are lightyears superior to Internet Explorer, despite being almost identical. An attempt to switch them to Firefox failed because of how wonderful the MSN/AOL solutions are (their words, not mine).
I showed off my lack of spyware worries and viruses from my use of Linux, and they shrugged it off without a thought because Windows is "better." I asked why, seeing as how they knew nothing about Linux whatsoever, and they said "because it is."
This next generation is in no better shape than the current generation. - junk92, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9First of all this is too optimistic, and second you are forgetting IE7. Firefox will never surpass IE ( although I hope it will )
- HackWithRamzi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Oh really. In his book "The Road Ahead", Gates said that the internet is a fad and will die! That was 1997. At that same time, NeXT was on the forefront of networking.
Keep on drinkin' the kool aid buddy. - eklitzke, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11Agreed; I reported this story as inaccurate.
- gamekid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Hooray for the third party.
I hate the old IE-Fx fighting. Opera is the browser I use whenever I'm pissed off at the world (or at 'fox fans). - Irfit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6most of people dont even know that internet explorer its a browser, they think that internet explorer= internet.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6You seem to be eating it though!
Since I started installing FF on all my client's PCs, the number of spyware related service calls I make has dropped by well over 3/4. - wshalo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Firefox will never overtake internet explorer. This will only happen if all computer makers install firefox instead of internet explorer which is not going to happen. You have to understand that most computer users are not the nerds you see hanging around the forums. These are newbies who's only intention is to surf the web and find pictures or find information. These people could care less about which browser is more secure. They only use what is there for them which is interent explorer. Sorry to break the news to the firefox fans boys but it will never happen.
Firefox is becoming too bulky and blame all their flaws on extensions. - dtfinch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Sure, if Firefox's share today is 25% like they claim.
- Wang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Whilst I am a Firefox user/fan - this is inaccurate, and highly unlikely as long as IE comes with Windows XP/Vista.
- elpepe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5As a 12-year old with severe Downs' syndrome, I take offense to your statement as I read it on my Macbook Pro
- BlindIrishman, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Flock sucks ass, everything it does is done better on firefox
- WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"Unless firefox is distributed free on CD's ala AOL through the retail computer stores and by mail, most people won't bother to download it."
What a great idea. ...if the MozDev folks on the Firefox project would just ask all us Firefox users to make one disc, and give it to one friend...
Or even if all us Firefox fanboys on digg did that... ;-)
'Cause IE is in need of a little help....like some nice 'hospice care', for its last days! - The_Decryptor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"OSX may have FreeBSD userland"
It does, apparently at every major release (10.*), they sync with FreeBSD, so Tiger has version 5 code in it.
Or so i have read, on many pages on many sites. - ciaocibai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3you mean to tell me there was a single visit from safari? and 12,000 from konqueror? i doubt there would be more visits from Ie 2.x than safari, no matter how windows oriented a website is
- jasqwerty, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6What business do you work at that requires surfing questionable porn sites? Most on the browser job use is for interfacing with intranet deployed software.
- skunkman62, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3also how many firefox users, like myself, still have to use IE once on a while?
- skunkman62, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4oh great, list percentages. how many people visit your site? 10? well at myspace, my site has 100% IE user(s), because i only have 1 friend...i'm lonely
- cquilliam, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I don't see how this is possible, seeing that Microsoft just invented tabbed browsing and rss feeds in IE7. Who can compete with this innovation?
- crackSquirrel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I was a Mozilla Suite user, and then a Firefox user after that (well, actually the first use of "Firefox" that I remember was Firebird 0.6, but I may have used it before then, and until recently, I had my Firebird 0.6 installer somewhere on my hard drive).
At the time, I used Mozilla because it had TABS! Which I learned about from the GREATEST SHOW ON TV! The Screen Savers!) I used Firebird on and off (switching with Mozilla Suite) until Firebird 0.8 (which I think was when they renamed it to Firefox), because it was buggy and early release software, but it was very cool nonetheless. - mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"not to mention those that are so disjoint from the tech community that they'll just never hear about Firefox if it doesn't come pre-installed with Windows."
that's the majority of computer users. especially in america. - danielson, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4@jsqwerty
I'm a computer engineering student at a university of over 15,000 students and a few thousand employees. I do IT work on the side here (as well as being a computer tech for a little over 2 years prior to college). For the students, firefox is encouraged for obvious reasons. There are no restricted websites on the network, therefore a lot of the students will get spyware/adware (it isn't all from porn, but for the students, most of it proably is). For most of the people I know, those who use firefox are way less likely to get spyware/adware. The employees are encouraged to use firefox as well. Normally those who have problems are the ones who use IE. - Cerebral, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Not only that but I thought that the Firefox numbers were not correct. Yes the number of downloads are correct but I thought there was something with the fact that people were downloading multiple copies and they were counting updates in with the number.
I personally love firefox and try to talk people into it but there is no way around some people. They don't understand what the internet is, what a browser is, and how to use any of it. they just think that internet explorer IS the INTERNET... well thinking about it that at least means we have come a long way from AOL IS THE INTERNET. - Tom_Riddle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@skunkman
well obviously to get percentages like that he had to have had a lot more than 10 people. But we can logically deduce that the result may be biased like so:
Digg.com is for the tech literate.
kalphegor is tech literate.
kalphegor probably hosts a site for tech literate people.
tech literate people tend to use firefox.
and thats why there are so high percentages.
now if you go to Microsoft's Windows update page, it will be %100 IE
thats the bias of a webpage and its audience. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5link is broken. digg this comment if you agree
- evilxhwnd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I've had firefox installed since the first public release, before that i used Mozilla.
- slugicide, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's not IE versus Fx. It's IE versus Fx versus Flock versus Opera versus... As more users hear about alternatives, they will start to wonder whether the browser they use is right for them. They will enjoy the experience of "shopping around", taking different browsers for a "test drive". That's how it seems to me, at least.
- markie1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The Web is a fad, the Net is a different story. I read the book.
- volcompimp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Whether or not this is really gonna happen, Firefox has already won the war in my book.
- sremick, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Our corporation owns several dozen locations and employs thousands of people. I head the IT for our site. For the past year or so all new disk images have come out with Firefox included. We have given employees instructions to use Firefox for all browsing unless they come across a site that flat out won't work with Firefox and REQUIRES IE. Only in those circumstances are they to use IE, otherwise they are to use Firefox. Some people are dense and don't listen but for the most part we have good cooperation. We don't have a problem with people visiting porn sites and such but nonetheless with IE people managed to get their machine moderately-infected with 2-3 at our site heavily-infected with some of the nastier malware out there. Peoples' jobs here involve browser use and most of it is NOT intranet, but instead requires poking around on the Big Bad Internet. Employees who switched to Firefox have not have reoccurrances of infections once having their PCs cleaned the first time.
- tidejwe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is misleading. For example, I have downloaded firefox at least 20 times now for my laptop computer between downloading the new versions, and reinstalling/reformatting the computer, etc. I am only one person, but some people will count that as 20 people. Also, I have firefox because sometimes I need it, and for some things it's better.
I USED TO be an avid Firefox user, but it seriously leaks memory, etc, and try as I might, I can't seem to get rid of this annoying box thing at the bottom, and it let me control the size of pict's etc as well as IE lets me scroll. I love IE BETA 2 Preview and basically only use FF when I'm desperate now (the few times IE BETA doesn't work), and yet I guarantee they still consider me to be a "FIREFOX USER" even though I consider myself an IE user. Statistics are all "Interpretation" in situations like this which you warp to your own preferrence....I'm not a FF user in my opinion. - ciaocibai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Its because they were coded for IE you knob, not because ie can help fix incorrect code. Go suck a lemon.
- kalphegor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2on my website for example, Firefox has 44%, Internet Explorer 44%, Opera 6%, Safari 4% and 2% others
- elpepe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3For all of you saying that the majority of casual users don't know what a browser is and don't care to switch -- you are forgetting, the population is changing. Today's young people have grown up with the Web, they are more familiar with technology, they care about it more.
Case in point: Macs have a very low marketshare overall but among my college-age friends, 75% have a Mac. Same for Firefox -- I don't know __anyone__ my age who uses IE. - kalphegor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3it will use google safe browsing extension
http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/safebrowsing/ - monsieurgrand02, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4You know whats sad, is that this whole new internet browser thing with Firefox and Opera and IE is probably going to be an endless cycle. Once Firefox overshadows IE, it will likely become the next IE with its many security holes, etc. (if it already hasn't), then another new internet browser will come along and it'll be the same thing all over again. It will slowly makes its way to the top and finally overshadow Firefox. Endless cycle.
- Rice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Sorry... This isn't going to happen. It can't.
But I hope I'm wrong. -
Show 51 - 100 of 123 discussions
The Digg Toolbar for Firefox lets you Digg, submit content, and keep track of Digg even when you're not on the Digg site. Download the official 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is