Firefox now more popular than Internet Explorer
Mikey 23 comments
After reacting to a tweet from a follower who was reluctant to drop support of IE6, I checked the latest browser stats and found something unexpected.
Firefox is now in use more than all versions of Internet Explorer combined, and by a large margin. This is obviously good news for Mozilla and web designers, but we can't break out the champagne just yet.
While Firefox is at 46.6% market share, Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 combined are at 39.6% combined. But, as more people start dropping IE6 and IE7, you can expect a lot of them to upgrade to the next version of Internet Explorer which will narrow that gap unless Firefox continues to climb.
Another positive consideration though is that the vast majority of Internet Explorer users are using said browser because it came with their computer, whereas the 46.6% of Firefox users represent the percentage of people who made an actual decision to use Firefox. That number is a true representation of popularity.
Anyway, as someone who openly dismisses Internet Explorer and who cares about the future of the web, I thought this was exciting enough news to share.
Long live Firefox.
andrew
Thursday 15th October 2009 | 05:15 PMi am sure there are a lot of people who do not know about firefox, and as you stated if internet explorer comes with a new pc who would know to change, also there are still a lot of novices/people ignorant of it out there who would have no idea about firefox!!
Nate >.>
Thursday 15th October 2009 | 07:49 PMThis is fantastic news!
Go Firefox!
Greg Molyneux
Thursday 15th October 2009 | 09:33 PMBest news I've heard all day.
Marvin the Martian
Friday 16th October 2009 | 05:39 AMI wish this would force MS to make a more concerted effort to make IE standards compliant... you know to compete, but I feel it's a pipe dream.
Hip Hip Hooray
Friday 16th October 2009 | 07:04 AMThis is good news but there is a slight inaccuracy in your story. Ubuntu comes with Firefox pre-installed so those users never made the choice to use it. But in all likelihood you're probably talking about a 1% discrepancy even though the chances are those users would chose Firefox over Explorer any day of the week anyway.
Jake Farr-Wharton
Friday 16th October 2009 | 07:29 AMIf I could coagulate enough negative emotion to say that I hate anything in the world, it may well end up being IE6.
Can'tRememberUsername
Saturday 17th October 2009 | 09:25 PM....... for a specific website.
IE would still dominate the browser market by a decent margin.
(Linux and Firefox user)
Mikey, please sniff around your server logs (all sites, including work) and tell us what you find.
Mikey
Saturday 17th October 2009 | 09:37 PMFor this web site in 2009 so far...
Firefox....62.2 %
MS Internet Explorer....27.2 %
Safari....4 %
Google Chrome....2.3 %
Opera....1.4 %
Unknown....1.2 %
Mozilla ....0.9 %
Can'tRememberUsername
Sunday 18th October 2009 | 05:18 PMAwesome. Thank you, Mikey.
Good to see your site members and visitors are mostly using FireFox.
Aficionado
Monday 19th October 2009 | 08:05 AMInternet explorer is still good if you don't need all the fancy stuff
TVBIZ(BOB)
Monday 19th October 2009 | 09:01 AMWell I must be the only one who has problems with all browsers other than IE!
I've tried them all and yes I find most render much better than IE. But you know - I always find something that doesnt work so I just go back to using IE.
Not as fancy? True!
Not as fast? True!
More stable? Yes!
Does the job that it was designed to do? A big YES!
Being portrayed as the "Evil Doer"? Yes!
Not liked purely because it is a MS product? Well you tell me!
Now that Firefox is being used more than IE is anyone going to sue them for monopolizing the market like they did for MS?
I'm no mind reader but I'll bet ANY MONEY I can guess what you are about to say.............
Mikey
Monday 19th October 2009 | 09:42 AM...in response to this comment by TVBIZ(BOB). Hehe all good points. I'm not sure Mozilla would ever get in trouble for monopolising the browser market because it's free (unlike IE, which has it's cost included with Windows) and because it doesn't come with Windows.
People have to make an informed decision before they get Firefox. They actually have to go and get it (unlike IE which comes with Windows) and that is a true choice made by the user.
If you like Firefox but find yourself coming back to IE (after all there are some developers out there who still only care to make their site work in IE - but I simply won't use their services) you can use the IEtab Firefox add-on. It puts IE inside a new tab in FF.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419
TVBIZ(BOB)
Monday 19th October 2009 | 11:48 AM...in response to this comment by Mikey. Thanks for the tip Mikey.
Don't get me wrong - I am not a lover of anything MS, I'm just annoyed about the amount of negative comments given to any product which happens to be MS related or owned, whether it be bad or good. Take for example the latest attempt of MS with their updated Virus Scanner software. Hardly anyone would touch it when it was first released but now the new version has had millions of downloads with me being one of them. Works well with no complaints and the only reason I can see which makes a difference is the price or lack off. The same goes for all free browser other than IE - if IE was a separate and free of charge would it be better than what it is now? I think it could be and this is the only negative thing I do have against MS. Yes they have been a little lazy with their development of IE and you can simply see this with the comparison. A good thing in the end as it may get them to start thinking beyond the profits and really create of browser that knocks all others over - well lets hope so.
Too be honest I will not use any other browser at this time solely because the latest IE has not done me wrong. I would like to use the 64 bit version which comes with Win 7 but have found that certain 3rd party things do not function so I hope that MS and all other companies come around and make 64bit users more applicable especially when they are now talking of going to 128bit systems.
Thank God for competition!
Cheers
Mikey
Monday 19th October 2009 | 12:12 PM...in response to this comment by TVBIZ(BOB). Agreed. A lot of people think I'm anti-MS but truth be told I use and adore a lot of their products. I've always been an early adopter of Windows OS's and right now won't use anything other than Windows 7.
As a web developer though I have to use the tools that work - and IE is a far cry from being a usable browser when it comes to conforming to web standards and even further away from having any developer tools that come close to those available in Firefox.
As a browser though, it's fine for normal use. But I don't think people understand the heart-ache and frustration that web developers and designers go through just so that IE users can say the words "It works for me, so why should I change?"
It's kind of funny when you think about it, that if every designer and developer suddenly and simultaneously stopped going out of their way to make things work in IE, all those users would be forced to adopt an alternative :-)
Can'tRememberUsername
Monday 19th October 2009 | 03:31 PMMicorsoft needs to get out of the browser game.
I am not a developer by a long shot, but I like to mess around with code. I own several sites; one with 95k members. Not a single member uses IE, none. I simply won't add code short cuts to get my site to display correctly in a single browesr - when it does render perfectly in all other browsers and (decent) portable devices.
It's a worry that so many compaines run their internet and more so their intranet apps through IE; and IE 6 of all things. Amazing.
Vote #1 Standards.
Thanks again, Mikey for the stats.
TVBIZ(BOB)
Tuesday 20th October 2009 | 08:56 AM...in response to this comment by Mikey. I agree with almost everything that you have pointed out Mikey except for one thing - The latest IE now works in two modes - Compatibility (for the old code) and todays compliant standard, so isn't the argument of Web designers having to write code for two standards now outdated?
Yes I know that there are still a lot of non-compliant sites and old IE browsers out there but at least MS (IE) has finally tried to become more standardised? IE having to be part of the norm will only help in making all sited compatible for browsing by all parties.
Refresh my memory Mikey - was Netscape a compliant browser? If yes then IE was surly dragging the chain but if no then maybe the reason for the slow change from MS was because of the amount of their browsers being used and sites developed by their WUSIWYG software (FrontPage etc)?
I know that from now on IE can only get better because the only other choice that MS have is too not be involved with any browser at all. I don't think they will go down that path as they have never shown any weakness when they have been given so much bad and negative press.
Thanks
Mikey
Tuesday 20th October 2009 | 10:14 AM...in response to this comment by TVBIZ(BOB). "The latest IE now works in two modes - Compatibility (for the old code) and todays compliant standard, so isn't the argument of Web designers having to write code for two standards now outdated?"
Yes well aware of that, but people still use IE6 and IE7, and even with IE8 many of them don't know they can switch between compatibility and 'compliant' mode. We still need to develop for all the different IE versions, which kind of says it all. We should be designing to standards, not to specific browsers. Microsoft need to leave the browser game to the people who are good at it.
MS will get better, but until all IE users are using just the one version, our lives will still be hell :-)
Phil H
Sunday 25th October 2009 | 05:40 PMChrome's rising fast too. It's not just IE that Firefox has to worry about. And Microsoft do appear to have raised their game substantially with IE8.
It's all good news - competition is working in this instance, it seems.
Phil H
Sunday 25th October 2009 | 05:43 PMOh, and I forgot to say that perhaps the majority of people using IE6 are not using it on their home computers - their PC would have been nagging them for ages about upgrading, so I'd be surprised if there were many who hadn't caved or got someone to do it for them.
Work computers, on the other hand, on which you need permission to install anything new...
Mark
Monday 26th October 2009 | 11:05 AMI love watching the competition take IE market share, but obviously W3Schools and RL stats will be skewed towards tech ppl and those who have been enlightened by Mikey's anti-IE rants! The trend is definitely still there though which is great.
I'm a web dev and have been using Chrome as my first choice browser for a few months, using Firefox only when particular dev tools are needed. When Chrome gets fully fledged extension support, I think Firefox will become second choice for most of the tech crowd.
Rodney
Thursday 15th October 2009 | 04:05 PMYay!