Asa Dotzler: Firefox and more

It's also interesting to compare this to the initial IE7 download stats you cited the other day. Going by downloads alone (2M/day vs. 0.5M/day), one would expect Firefox to be more popular.

I'd guess there are three reasons:

1. Firefox users tend to be more... opinionated about their browser than IE users seem to be. "It works" is about as enthusiastic as most IE users seem to get. This is the target audience for automatic updates next month.
2. Firefox probably has a higher concentration of technical/power users than IE, making them both more comfortable upgrading and more interested in upgrading.
3. Since IE is so tied into the operating system, there's a greater risk of breaking something. Caution is warranted, especially since there are actual Microsoft products that don't work well with IE7 (older versions of Visual Studio, for instance), so there's probably a big "wait and see" crowd. Come to think of it, this is the target audience for the IE7 blocker kit.

Are those stats the reason we can't get the upgrade from the browser or an official torrent?

That reminds me; bittorrent.mozilla.org is looking horribly outdated. I guess it was only slapped together quickly for the 1.5 release and then forgotten. An official regularly-updated mozilla.com BitTorrent link would be nice to have in the future if it were found to be useful.

tekumse, automated updates are always enabled (at Mozilla's end) a little while after the initial release (assuming they ever come *cough* localised nightlies *cough*) to reduce the strain on the server immediately after the release.

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/10/24/ie7-hits-the-street.aspx

" we released IE7 last Wednesday. In the first four days over three million of you have already downloaded the final release. "

Looks like you're beating IE7!

What about automatic updates Are these released yet? I Have not received any offers to update, even with manual "check for updates".

Firefox 2 update eh

This has to be a myth right?

I use Firefox's check for updates function, and it finds nothing! I do a google search for Firefox 2 and all i get are new reports on the subject, I go the mozilla website and again there's nothing

When the hell is this thing gonna happen? Cos you'd think mozilla would be savvy enough to inplement this thing

It says it was "officially" released on tuesday, there appears to be no evidence of this thus far

Why such concern about automatic updates? They're convenient, but if you're reading this page you should know that the new version has been released... so stop reading this and get it!

the person complaining does raise the good point that check for updates wasn't responding to the new release

john, I am not concerned about computers I service, but millions of users who are using Firefox 1.5 and earlier versions. I immagined that I would receive upgrade option even before I open my RSS reader and read the news about new version.

It's my understanding that the update to 2.0 requires you to download and install the new version, it's not available as an update.

Ah, my reply was mostly in response to the post by "a firefox user."

As I understand it, there is no update for 1.5 to 2.0 at this time because it is a major upgrade, and at this point the 1.5 branch doesn't have the facilities to properly decline an upgrade if the user sees a reason to. The 1.5.0.8 update is supposed to have the ability to do so.

we're not going to automatically update every Firefox 1.5 user to 2. Automatic update is for security and stability releases and this is not a security and stability release.

We will use our update mechanism to alert 1.5 users of the new Firefox 2 browser and offer a download and install through our update system, but it will not be like our security and stability updates where you are essentially forced to upgrade because previous versions have known security flaws.

- A

I'm a little disappointed with FF2. Running 1.5 and 2 side by side on different machines, 2 is slower than 1.5.
1.5 is using 39MB of memory and 2 90MB. Both have 2 tabs open with same URLs.

I've had problems with IE7. Two of the forums I visit regularly asked me to login each time I changed pages. It was a configuration (?) problem at their end but shows that 6 and 7 function differently.

Anybody having issues with Java on FX 2? I was running some speed tests over @ dslreports.com & FX2 froze up multiple times when loading the java. Anybody else have issues running speed tests using the link below?
http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest

Hmmm now @ work the speed test seems to work without any issues. Both PCs have FX2 ... maybe @ home I had too many tabs open? Will try it once I get home. So any plans for the weekend? Whose picking up the keg?

Firefox 1.5 users will first have to wait for Firefox 1.5.0.8 (not currently released) to have the ability to to a major update (to 2.0). Even then, Mozilla might wait for firefox 2.0.0.1 to be released before turning on the 1.5->2.0 auto-update system.

Love Firefox 2! I have it on everything, Mac & Windows, laptop & cell! But the best thing about this version is now, you can right-click, and not only correct your spelling, cut & paste without reaching for the drop-down menu, you can now ADD IT TO THE DICTIONARY!!

How many times have we all wished for that & finally, someone put it out for us to use!!

Amen to Firefox!!

I Love firefox.Its world's #1 web browser.

i think ff2 is better compared with ff1.5.. it uses less memory than ff1.5, and the tab function seems to be faster.

30 per second is sound, 30Hz. Note. Next release - new note. Many notes is music, Mozilla Music :)

希望 firefox 2 的安全性更加优越。:)

哈哈`~
终于看见个中国人

lol im thinking the same thing, lets jump to Firefox 10. I've downloaded FF2 and seriously love it cos some of my problems with the browser is fixed.

# Firefox 1.0 had 1 million downloads in the first 24 hours
# Firefox 1.5 had 1.5 million downloads in the first 24 hours
# Firefox 2.0 had 2 million downloads in the first 24 hours.

Now we know how the Firefox team choose version numbers.

Very good! Keep up the good work!

Already looking forward to see if next release breaks this record or not :-)

Sin problema en la instalacion asi como en el funcionamiento del mismo. EXCELENTE !! Se recomienda actualizar en el mismo idioma ( escuche que puede presentar problemas si no se asi )

EXELENTE !! Pas� del Explorer 6 a esta versi�n 2 y es mucho mas agil y agradable en su funcionamiento.Me parece incluso a nivel seguridad que poder manejar las cookies por sesi�n es un paso muy importante. El �nico inconveniente es que el windows xp sp2 no me reconoce el �cono de Firefox para los archivos htm y html.

我也是中国人。

我也是

Here, Firefox 2 seems to let go of memory much better than previous versions. After using Firefox for a day, versions 1 and 1.5 would build up to about 200-300 MB. Firefox 2 seems to stay well below 100 MB all the time.

But I'm wondering, how many millions did Firefox 2 clock up in four days? We all know the download rate is far from linear, so right now the claim of 2 million in 24 hours sounds like a cheap attempt to "win" over the IE7 number of "3 million in four days".

(See, Firefox 2 was downloaded at 2 million per day, while IE7 was only downloaded at 3/4 million per day!)

well done, firefox!
俺也是

Why is it in Firefox 1.5 that when you go Help > Check for Update is says that there are no new update available.

Firefox 2 is out and there is no mention of it at all.

I know you can download it from the website, but not every Firefox users will know that.

speaking of bad site designs i think the new firefox addons needs an overhaul, the old layout before comments switched to only registered users.. that design was great the new design reminds me of a city without roadsigns and no traffic dividers.. web 2.0 is all hype.

i guess the webmasters email is full with similar comments.

oops i posted in wrong part of the blog.. at any rate i guess i'll wait for web 3.0 to come out. :P