Firefox 3 Reaches 20 Million downloads in 7 Days, Opera – 4.5 Million Downloads in 5 Days

Wow that’s great news for Opera. They must be doing something right. I for one thought firefox would kill opera. Compare their approach of just asking opera’s community to spread the word to that of firefox giving people a chance to become part of a wr. Just show how firmly people stand behind opera. That’s what you get if you care and listen to your user base. Two thumbs up from a former firefox man.

Opera also get downloaded by torrents the browser itself can download torrents by default. And a lot of people just downloaded firefox for the record and i’m pretty sure more than a few firefox users faked downloads. All your arguments can apply to both browsers. I really thing this is a major achievement by opera by all accounts. But what does faking user agents have to do with browser downloads? It’s not a traffic count it’s a download count?

Scratch the part about people trying to set a record explaining the number of downloads for Opera rather than FF, if you can. I’m sure it’s about the same ratio. The rest still stands though.

In Opera there is a user friendly dropdown to identify as Internet Explorer or Firefox. People may be using this option due to bad browser detection on websites so they can see the sites, (skewing stats…) Opera is great and I set the option to Opera to represent except when necessary, but I assume that most people leave it on IE or FIrefox for convenience.

Euux? Did you read the previous article? Opera is still faster than firefox.

No it is not… and i was able to sense it after installing add-ons on Firefox (those that make it work more like Opera – sidebar, context menu, quick proxy, browser user agent id changer, adblock, session manager..)

But, upon search, i’ve found some numbers and FF is ~30% faster – because of is new engine … feature that Opera hasn’t changed for a while (the one that was faster than FF2.x). In that same test FF3.0 still used more memory than Opera.

What’s happening is that a lot of people got pulled into the hype of FireFox 3.0 and downloaded it right away… and then realized that they were duped. FireFox 3.0 does not have any major enhancements (that work) and those that do work seem to be pretty much crap. So – after about an hour of trying to tweak it, they gave up, uninstalled it and downloaded the better browser – Opera.

Yup, I dowloaded opera to try it out and do some benchmarks. I never for a second thought I’d give my Firefox 3 + 80+ extensions up…

HAHA I don’t know about everyone else but the reason I switched to opera after this firefox release is because firefox keeps on crashing on a BUNCH of websites and forums and on both of my computers. I can’t even view my favorite forum with firefox anymore so I had to switch.

As a web developer I have already started to do CSS3 stuff, which mostly work in Opera but some not in Firefox. Add User CSS and UserJS to that and you’ve got a powerful application.

You are not comparing the same numers.

For the official firefox download count you are referring to, only unique ip’s are counted of people that signed a petition that they would download firefox. This is because of the rules governing the guinness book of records.

I’m pretty sure a lot more people downloaded firefox without getting involved in the petition and record-attempt.

Also, FF3 is the default browser in Ubuntu Hardy. Those downloads definately were not counted. So, that’s another 20 million _right there_. It is also the default browser in a lot of other distrobutions, but I don’t know the estimated install base of those distrobutions.

Likewise Opera is not in the repositories, so we have to go to the site to get it, so the linux users of Opera _do get counted_. Finally, all web developers alone need to have opera installed. Considering there are about 100 million web-developers out there, 4.5 million seems shockingly low.

The first I do when a new browser (beta, alpha) comes out, is _test drive_ all thel live sites I maintain.

Finally, a lot of people, _upgraded_ firefox from within. Those were also not counted. Perhaps Opera supports something simelar? All in all, i don’t think the numbers mean anything.

I’m more concerned with the actual market share. Which browser do people end up using to visit _this_ site for example?

Finally, when it’s about compatibility, there are a lot of browsers out there that are using the gecko engine (like Epiphany) but which do not claim to be Firefox. About half of the ‘other’ category is also gecko rendering engine. The other half likely webkit/khtml.

Lol. Let me tell you rhy i’m an electronic engineer mastering in computer science. I’ve done a lot of research and work in open source and would never use an open source web browser. Someone thinking that using firefox is safer rather than a closed source browser is rather silly. I can give you some scary research on this subject. Personally i use opera but i know everybody has their own preference.

I love ff3 and use it all the time but i’m an opera person. The reason I don’t use opera that much because there are less add-ons, sites break in it even thought it is the most compliant browser out there. FF3 is great but Opera is still my favorite and my preferred browser. FF3 had a bigger marketing budget than opera and that is why it won in downloads.

Opera is still the only browser for the wii.

@rhY

“Why all the Opera fans? It being a closed source browser almost guarantees that at some point your safety, freedom, and reliability will be severely compromised.”

You’ve been sucked in.

The financial backers of Mozilla own and control Firefox as much as Microsoft controls IE. Having access to the source code doesn’t make the slightest difference in practical terms.

Open source doesn’t actually achieve anything in the real world. It’s a marketing gimmick and a means of squeezing out the competition.

Firefox – Its leap to success and hunger to strive for more and get more, is very much appreciated. Even being a late enterant in the market, it is giving a tough time to the BIG GIANTS like IE- Microsoft.
Firefox has made life easier for the browsers as well as the developers (web application). Its user friendly features are well thought of. It compels the developers to follow the W3 standards and adhere to its rule, then only it renders the pages, which itself helps reducing caos in future.
Hats off to its Success in short time and also to the efforts they have out in to make this possible.

Standards are worthless if they are to be monopolized.

As I see it OpenSource is not just a marketing gimmick (albeit i’m glad it also is).

And above all it’s not just way to squeezing out the competition.

Consumers choose. Outcast competitors can always grab the successful (open) source code, improve it and sell it.
I can be wrong… but that seems to be what happened with the much praised MacOSX.

This gives merit to the ideas and to good code without allowing the enforcement of bad ideas. Its a Plus-Plus game to developers and consumers.

So Opera is very much in the bad on this subject.
What this says is that Opera team get comfort in the idea that: when (and if) they get market share they’ll be able to use that power to minimize market losses due to future incompetent products. (a la microsoft)
But their contribution to present marked is welcomed.

About the standards… diversity off html/javascript/etc interpreters always benefit the standards… even if they don’t fully comply with then – so thanks to opera and firefox, and…

Hi,

Im not a developer… jus a user, that loves the fact that there’s choices and ps I hate Microsoft dominance.

I used Firefox for years, and think its fantastic, its not only a gr8 browser but the contributions to its development from its users, makes me proud to support.

But… for the last couple of years… I turned to Opera with my fav skin (meguiddo).. Looks are important to me… a streamlined browser, that has what you need at ur fingertips. Without being insulting to Firefox. To me its the difference between a supped up car, tuned, with bodykits and tons of ‘add on’s’ and a Porsche allready sleek, with very little to change… Id take the Porsche… Its a matter of choice though I respect that.. Opera whilst lacking choice for user led enhancement… is just simply too perfect and smooth… it’s looks all the way.

People suprised here, that so many would be out in support of opera, should remember… IE is the enemy… Thumbs up to choice… ;)