Firefox is most popular browser
Firefox 3.5 is now the most popular internet browser, according to StatCounter.
As reported over on The Next Web, Firefox 3.5 has finally overtaken Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 as the most widely used browser on the world wide web.
The world-wide figures show a trend which started in Germany back in March, when the Mozilla Foundation's popular open-source cross-platform browser beat all others - but now that is reflected world-wide. Although individual countries may be bucking the trend - with the US favouring Internet Explorer 8 with a 26 percent share of the market - overall Firefox 3.5 is a clear winner.
While the 3.5 version of Firefox is specifically the most popular browser, the figures change somewhat if you look at browser branding: Internet Explorer remains, by far, the most widely-used browser worldwide with a whopping 56 percent of the market. However, this figure is declining, having dropped from just over 65 percent at the start of the year.
Internet Explorer's loss is Firefox's gain, with Mozilla's browser having gone from a 27 percent share back in February to 32 percent of the market at the start of December - a steady nibbling of Microsoft's browser monopoly, despite some bumps along the way.
Other browsers remain in the minority, with Google's open-source Chrome browser remaining on top of the competition with a minuscule 5 percent market share - but still greater than Apple's Safari, which only manages 3.5 percent despite being the default browser on the company's computers, and Opera which remains at the bottom of the league with just 2 percent of the market.
Are you surprised to see something as bloated as Firefox take the lead, or is the flexibility offered by the wonderful extension support where the open-source browser really shines through? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Previous Article
40 Comments
Discuss in the forums Replyatm i use Chrome, why? best speed, nd in the latest beta it even has extensions support
I've never really used IE. Back in the day I used Netscape 4. Eventually I moved onto Mozilla then Firefox when it came along.
Well, I better go change my browser to Chrome now so I can still be cool. :p
The 'bloated' comment is a bit of a loaded statement. Firefox is memory-hungry, but it could hardly be called 'bloated' after the years of IE-dominance that we've put up with.
In truth though, NoScript and Adblock are the deal-clinchers for me. If IE were more standards-compliant and had NoScript & Adblock I'd used that instead - The same goes for any browser, I'm mercenary like that.
That is, except for Opera.
I refuse to install Opera on principle, after they tossed their toys out of the pram over Microsoft's inclusion of IE with Windows. Seriously Opera, get a grip.
(I know it wasn't just Opera, but they struck me as the worst whiners out of the lot and Opera evangelists on the whole have annoyed me more than even the Apple fanboys with Safari.)
"Firefox" is not the most popular browser. "Firefox 3.5" is the most popular browser. If you ignore specific versions, then IE is by far the most popular when you tot up the versions.
Firefox is full of win for getting people to upgrade by making it such an easy (and often unintended!) upgrade
And rightly so, hackers are always finding holes that then need to be patched.
Chrome for me, it's faster, and uses less screen space :)
Firefox supports xmarks sir: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2410
Very true, I suppose I was assuming that they would at least have a look to find out what it was, and maybe find it better than IE. (I haven't personally had to use Safari)
One complaint about the article (guess what it's about ;)) though... Firefox is free software (obligatory explanatory link), not open-source. The only restricted portion is the artwork, which (software-wise) is both neglectable and understandable to say the least.
Open-source and free software are very, very different and it's upto users, coders (Mozilla, unfortunately, doesn't make much effort to say they're free and not just open-source) and publications to stress this difference; as at the end of the day it's the end-user who's affected by the license.
FF doesn't offer anything that i would actually use as opposed to safari or IE8 on my PC.
also anyone tech savvy would avoid the questionable sites which cause the problems
Bloated compared to what?
If you say that something is bloated then you must compare to something that has the same usefulness and is not bloated. Is there anything like that?
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2879/ffui.jpg
The left button is the Menu, the Star button is the Favorites.
Courtesy of Compact Menu 2 and Toolbar Buttons extensions.
I tried other browsers but Firefox is like those old shoes that fit just right. The other shoes may be prettier, newer, fashionable but is with Firefox that I feel most confortable with.
I love to talk to people who think that Firefox is the end-all-be-all of browsers and if you use it you will never have a problem with âthat there interwebsâ. This simply isn't true. It isn't the browser that makes your computer more secure. Similarly it isnât the writing utensil that you use to spell words correctly. One can have different features from the other but to claim (like Mozilla does) that theirs is better in every way simply isn't true.
The truth of the matter is no browser or antivirus will ever protect a computer against a malicious or ignorant user. I have been using Internet Explorer ever since the days of its first release and have never had problems with it, been attacked through it or had any adverse feelings about recommending its use as an IT professional. There is one disclaimer to this and it applies to any piece of software or browser on your computer; YOU MUST KEEP IT UPDATED. Again I must repeat: It is not the browser that you use to make your computer more secure or your âinterwebsâ faster but how you use it.
Beyond that it is all just personal preference and any person touting otherwise should be rightly called an idiot.
FF 3.5 has more market share than any other specific version of browser, not just the older versions of IE et al.
Its only when you count all versions of IE against all versions of FF combined that IE is still top.
Also, don't forget that IE is bundled with Windows and for FF to get any kind of market share, savvy users have got to go out and download it and install it specifically.
So this is a very relevant milestone IMO.
The issue I have with IE is that it is integral to the OS and by compromising the browser, you often gain full access to the PC.
I also feel Mozilla moves quicker in fixing vulnerabilities and does a better job in pushing them to users, thus limiting exposure for users to malicious activity.
Combine this with the amount of historical security issues and I feel FF comes out ahead (though how much this is influenced by IE's market share making it a bigger target remains to be seen).
FF's biggest issue with me is the initial load time, it is far slower than IE.