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February 22, 2008 6:12 AM PST

Firefox crosses 500 million download mark

Posted by Stephen Shankland

Sometime last night, Firefox downloads crossed the 500 million threshold.

Mozilla congratulated itself on attaining 500 million downloads of the Firefox Web browser.

(Credit: Mozilla)

It's an arbitrary but interesting milestone for the open-source Web browser, whose development is overseen by Mozilla but that's also developed and extended by a large number of outside programmers. In September 2007, Firefox crossed the 400 million download mark, indicating an average rate a bit shy of 20 million per month at present.

According to the Spread Firefox site, there had been 500,168,448 downloads as of 6:15 a.m. PST. About 12 hours earlier, there had been more than 499,900,000.

Firefox has spread widely in the years since its release. The project originally was named Phoenix to symbolize a rising from the ashes of the Netscape open-source browser project that began in 1998 but languished for many years as Microsoft's Internet Explorer solidified its lead.

Now Firefox programmers are working on version 3, which brings performance improvements and interface changes, and Mozilla also is working on a mobile version of the browser for handheld devices.

A sister subsidiary of Mozilla, Mozilla Messaging, is working to reproduce the successes of Firefox with the open-source Thunderbird e-mail software.

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Add a Comment (Log in or register) 30 comments (Page 1 of 2)
Wow!
by Commander_Spock February 22, 2008 7:24 AM PST
"According to the Spread Firefox site, there had been 500,168,448 downloads as of 6:15 a.m. PST. About 12 hours earlier, there had been more than 499,900,000..." How we wish this was happening with OS/2. Perhaps, following "Microsoft's API and Protocol announcement Thursday" http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/022108-microsoft-open-api.html?netht=rn_022208&nladname=022208dailynewsamal IBM may see some value in offering OS/2 "for free" like it is doing with Lotus Symphony and this might just rock the Microsoft Empire like an earthquake. ;-) !
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I love it
by ittesi259 February 22, 2008 7:48 AM PST
Its solid, runs well and I think performs better, thats why it is my primary browser on both my Windows XP notebook and my iMac.
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Downloaded doesn't mean used...
by john55440 February 22, 2008 8:01 AM PST
Just because someone downloads Firefox doesn't mean that they actually use it. I downloaded/tried FF2, but prefer/use IE7. That said, I will try FF3 when it is released. If nothing else, FF2 is useful as an "emergency backup browser".
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Agreed
by pj_mouse February 22, 2008 8:41 AM PST
I've always found it to work better. I also installed it on my sister's computer where IE7 does nothing but crash all the time. I do hope the world is coming to realize the superior product open source provides.
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FF is the only browser for me!
by Dalkorian February 22, 2008 10:48 AM PST
Whenever I'm dealing with a PC, if FireFox isn't already installed it's one of the first things I do. I won't even use IE, I consider it trashware for retards. The second thing I do after getting FF installed on a PC is to hide IE so it's difficult to use. I rarely run into one of those nasty "IE only" websites, but when I do I just move along. I don't need anything out there that forces me into servitude and slavery. The only exception to this is when I'm on a Mac, I actually like the Safari browser (although I do tend to keep a copy of FireFox for the rare occasion when a site doesn't render properly in Safari). But for winblows and Linux, it's FireFox or no internet at all.
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FF outstripping IE?
by Penguinisto February 22, 2008 10:53 AM PST
...FF has 20 million downloads per month. What was Vista's sales rate again? I'm thinking that (very probably) Firefox is perhaps outstripping IE in install rates... /P
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How many bugs?
by chash360 February 22, 2008 11:04 AM PST
I am curious, has anyone tallied the amount of FF vunerabilities and security holes against IE's (version 6 or 7)?
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Hard to count users...
by chash360 February 22, 2008 11:11 AM PST
I would suspect that even those who intend to use FF exclusively, still end up touching and using IE in the background in some cases, thanks to M$ making such tight integrations with the OS. I also suspect that these may be some of the remaining appearent sources of error in FF, because the OS want FF to do something that only IE will do, (that you probably don't want it doing anyway), that gives rise to some of the errors.
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Firefox
by robinaire February 22, 2008 11:51 AM PST
I have Firefox on my system,and everybody seems to rave about it, but it is TERRIBLE to use!! Is there a site that explains how to use it?? When I call it up, I get a start page with 3 items on it, one of which is email, and the others don't seem to do anything! HELP!!
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FF
by captphill February 23, 2008 6:26 PM PST
When I bought my first PC many years ago. My DL was Firefox.
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  • This blog sheds light on digital photography, science and open-source software--Stephen Shankland's eclectic beat. Shankland joined CNET News.com in 1998 after a five-year stint as a science writer. He's a lab rat who grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and graduated from Harvard.

    Contact Stephen at Stephen.Shankland@cnet.com

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