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Firefox continues to gain ground
ZDNet ^ | May 16, 2006 | Tom Espiner

Posted on 05/16/2006 2:20:31 PM PDT by N3WBI3

The Mozilla browser is attracting more users every day, but some experts feel it may have reached its peak

The Firefox and Safari Web browsers are gradually becoming more popular, while Internet Explorer (IE) may be starting to lose some of its lead, according to experts.

Web analysis firm OneStat.com on Monday released statistics showing that while IE continues to dominate Web browser use with 85.17 percent of total global usage in May, the browser has fallen in popularity by 0.65 percent since January. In contrast, Firefox use has increased by 0.56 percent since January, and now stands at 11.79 percent of global use, according to OneStat.

Apple's Safari is also becoming more popular, up from 1.88 percent in January to 2.02 percent. "It is interesting to see that global usage share of Mozilla is higher in the USA and Canada than in other countries in the world and that the global usage share of Apple's Safari is still growing," said Niels Brinkman, co-founder of OneStat.com, in a statement.

Firefox is most popular in Canada, with 16 percent of total browser usage there, compared to 12.81 percent in the US and 9.95 percent in the UK. The browser has made steady gains in all of these countries since January, while IE has continued to decline.

Some experts claim the growth in popularity of Firefox is a direct result of the security problems that have afflicted IE, including two serious vulnerabilities disclosed earlier this month.

But security company Sophos claims Firefox uptake will soon slow, since most of those interested in security have already switched browsers. "Because our audience is probably more security-aware than the average guy on the street, we see a greater usage of Firefox than the global average," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.

Sophos statistics for May show 72 percent of visitors are using Internet Explorer, 15 percent are using Firefox, and 13 percent are using other browsers."What's interesting is that the Firefox usage globally appears to only be creeping up very slowly, unlike the early days of its adoption," said Cluley.

Mozilla and Microsoft will release updated versions of their browsers later this year. Firefox 2.0 is currently in Alpha 2, codenamed Bon Echo, with a final release expected in the third quarter of this year. IE 7 is currently in Beta 2, and the final release version will be bundled with the delayed Microsoft Vista operating system.

Microsoft and Mozilla are aware that security is a growing concern for many browser users, and that it is high on their agenda for future versions of their software.

"With IE 7 and Firefox 2.0 approaching later this year, it will be interesting to see if Microsoft manages to claw back some of its market share. Whichever products wins the war of the Web browsers, it's likely that the hackers will target it as a means of making money," Cluley said.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: firefox; opensource
With more than 11% of the market hopefully we will start to see some sites which were traditionally *ie only* start to become more complient to other browsers
1 posted on 05/16/2006 2:20:34 PM PDT by N3WBI3
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To: N3WBI3; ShadowAce; Tribune7; frogjerk; Salo; LTCJ; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; amigatec; Fractal Trader; ..

OSS PING

If you are interested in the OSS ping list please mail me

2 posted on 05/16/2006 2:21:22 PM PDT by N3WBI3 ("I can kill you with my brain" - River Tam)
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To: N3WBI3

IBGE


3 posted on 05/16/2006 2:22:57 PM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: N3WBI3; FLAMING DEATH; rzeznikj at stout; Prime Choice

IN B4 GE


4 posted on 05/16/2006 2:23:30 PM PDT by MikefromOhio (aka MikeinIraq - Rob Schnieder is a Carrot)
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To: N3WBI3
I have become a Firefox convert. I need to find a good ad blocker (The once-free AdShield is pure sweetness on IE) for it to rate "perfect". :-)

Tried Opera for a while, but it's so buggy it made IE look good!

5 posted on 05/16/2006 2:25:21 PM PDT by TChris ("Wake up, America. This is serious." - Ben Stein)
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To: MikefromOhio
IN B4 GE

IN B4 BB!   LOL!

6 posted on 05/16/2006 2:28:04 PM PDT by Prime Choice (We are RepubliCANs, not RepubliCAN'Ts.)
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To: TChris
Here ya go

And get FilterG to go with it.

You won't see another ad again.

7 posted on 05/16/2006 2:29:13 PM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: N3WBI3
The Firefox and Safari Web browsers are gradually becoming more popular, while Internet Explorer (IE) may be starting to lose some of its lead, according to experts.

Makes sense. Microsoft Internet Exploder isn't a browser...it's a 38-megabyte virus.

8 posted on 05/16/2006 2:29:24 PM PDT by Prime Choice (We are RepubliCANs, not RepubliCAN'Ts.)
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To: Prime Choice; rzeznikj at stout
LOL

Let's not forgot those damned

**COPYLEFTISTS**

9 posted on 05/16/2006 2:29:27 PM PDT by MikefromOhio (aka MikeinIraq - Rob Schnieder is a Carrot)
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To: TChris
Ignore my last post. Adblock Plus is better. You can still use the FilterG set with it, though.
10 posted on 05/16/2006 2:51:50 PM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: N3WBI3
while IE continues to dominate Web browser use with 85.17 percent of total global usage in May, the browser has fallen in popularity by 0.65 percent since January

LOL

11 posted on 05/16/2006 3:05:55 PM PDT by Golden Eagle (Buy American. While you still can.)
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To: N3WBI3
Firefox is a nice browser, especially with the various extensions.

However, it becomes a memory hog. Even sitting idle, it can lock a good chuck of RAM. I've had it hoard nearly 500 meg of RAM.

Firefox should find a way to fix that. It seems to be a problem that goes back several versions.
12 posted on 05/16/2006 3:08:02 PM PDT by TomGuy
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To: N3WBI3
I switched all of the workstations in my network to gecko based browsers because of continuing IE security issues (there's a backlog of over 20 unresolved security holes in IE). Once my users had it, they couldn't live without tabbed browsing, and a spyware-free google search box built right into the browser.

Firefox is Exhibit A in why competition is a good thing for Microsoft. After it took off, Redmond finally got off of its ass and starting working on a new version of IE. IE 6 code was untouched by human hands for months at a time.
13 posted on 05/16/2006 4:00:04 PM PDT by DesScorp
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To: MikefromOhio

LOL

Er, I still have the original code...


14 posted on 05/16/2006 5:13:49 PM PDT by rzeznikj at stout (ASCII and ye shall receive... (Computers 3:14))
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To: rzeznikj at stout

hehe I do too somewhere, but in holding with the concept of Open Source, I change it around a bit hehe :)


15 posted on 05/16/2006 5:19:02 PM PDT by MikefromOhio (aka MikeinIraq - Woohoo!! I'm on A List!!! yay!!!!)
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To: MikefromOhio

Same here...

Which license should we use--the GPL...8^)


16 posted on 05/16/2006 5:20:51 PM PDT by rzeznikj at stout (ASCII and ye shall receive... (Computers 3:14))
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To: ShadowAce

Drats, now you know my game! (IB4GE)


17 posted on 05/16/2006 5:22:38 PM PDT by twntaipan (John McCain: Your 15 minutes of fame were up long, long ago.)
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To: TomGuy
However, it becomes a memory hog. Even sitting idle, it can lock a good chuck of RAM. I've had it hoard nearly 500 meg of RAM.

Firefox is very zealous about holding memory to make your experience faster. For example, going through several pages on each of a lot of tabs can have Firefox caching a lot of pages in case you decide to hit the back/history button.

There are settings to make Firefox give up the cache and use virtual memory more, but I can't remember them now. Searching for Firefox on FR should pull up an article about it.

18 posted on 05/16/2006 6:00:11 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: N3WBI3

I switched completely to Firefox because in order to make IE secure enough for my taste I had to set the settings so restricted that half of all pages didn't work right.


19 posted on 05/17/2006 4:29:27 AM PDT by ko_kyi
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To: N3WBI3
I am a recent Firefox convert. For years I used Netscape, but as they merged with AOL I got more and more fed up with all the overhead in their browsers. I resisted changing to Firefox for a long time because of compatibility issues. I finally had enough of IE's stupidity though. I began to see how clunky the interface was and as a programmer, I got sick of the debugging tools for javascript.

At work, I now use Firefox for everything I can (there are still things at work that are IE only). At home, I still use IE, but I'm sure that will change soon!

20 posted on 05/17/2006 8:22:00 AM PDT by Kaylee Frye
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