Firefox hits 400m download milestone
Found on The Register on Tuesday, 11 September 2007
After its launch in 2004 the open source browser took around a year to reach 100m downloads in February 2005 before hitting the 200m milestone in July 2006. The number, of course, does not represent the actual number of Firefox users. Even disregarding failed downloads, many users have downloaded multiple copies of the open source browser.
However, it is generally agreed that Firefox is obtaining a steadily increasing share of the browser market, which remains dominated by Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser. Firefox represents 17.4 per cent of the browser market, up 5.6 percentage points from 11.8 per cent in September 2006, according to figures from US consultancy firm Janco and the IT Productivity Center.
I wish they would just make a lightweight browser that does what it's supposed to: render HTML. Instead, more and more is stuffed into the default version although a plugin system exists. In the end, this results in a bloated slow browser with more and more problems. But it is possible to concentrate on the basics and make something great; just look at µTorrent.