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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
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Firefox 3.5: World's most popular browser

By | December 21, 2009, 1:52pm PST

Summary: Data released by StatCounter indicates that Firefox 3.5 is the world’s most popular browser, having edged ahead of Internet Explorer 7.

Data released by StatCounter indicates that Firefox 3.5 is the world’s most popular browser, having edged ahead of Internet Explorer 7.

Looking at the data, it’s quite possible that Firefox 3.5 won’t retain the top spot for long as Internet Explorer 8 is catching up fast, and will get a further push from Windows 7 sales. That said, Firefox has a fair bit of momentum, so it could very well increase the lead it has over IE. Time will tell …

No matter what browser you happen to be a fan of, you have to admit that that Mozilla’s dethroning of Microsoft’s iron grip on the browser chart is very impressive and quite an achievement.

Well done Mozilla!

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Topics

Mozilla Firefox, Web Browser, Mozilla Corp., Web Browsers, Internet, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

Talkback Most Recent of 233 Talkback(s)

  • And they did it...
    Without complaining to the EU as well! Imagine that!

    Firefox 3.5 is an extraordinary browser that I recommend to everyone I know, along with Adblock Plus.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Cylon Centurion
    21st Dec 2009
  • Exactly!
    And they did it without complaining to the EU as well! Imagine that!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    ye
    21st Dec 2009
  • Although
    they did not initiate the legal action, they did however support the claim. I'd say that still qualifies as complaining whether that helped or not. (I don't think it did, though since most focus on Opera as the initiator, FF did not seem to be hurt by complaining either)
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Viva la crank dodo
    21st Dec 2009
  • Yeah, sadly.
    I was a little upset that they followed suit. They were able to do what others have tried (and failed), with little more than word of mouth.

    Still, it has proven to me over time to be the better browser. I feel safer using it. Although I still use IE 8, FF 3.5 is up 99.9999999% of the time and have no quarrel with recommending it to others.

    Opera OTOH, leaves something to be desired. No one uses it... Ok, well maybe one person, but the fact that FF managed to grab so much ms from IE proves that complaining because your product is poo and no one wants it only damages the market place and doesn't improve it. And since they had to do what they did, it made me toss out all respect I had for Opera.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Cylon Centurion
    21st Dec 2009
  • Can you expand upon this?
    I feel safer using it.

    Given IE 7 and 8 have fewer vulnerabilities and Protected Mode what makes you feel this way?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    ye
    22nd Dec 2009
  • Adblock
    Blocks all that malware serving bull from pages. And personally, I think it has better privacy settings.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Cylon Centurion
    22nd Dec 2009
  • Thanks. nt
    .
    ZDNet Gravatar
    ye
    22nd Dec 2009
  • RE: Adblock
    Like you, I use Firefox 3.5 and Ad Block Plus, but I have also installed No Script.

    No Script is not for everyone as it does break pages that use scripts for functionality. But, over time, I have "trained" No Script into allowing those scripts that need to run, and block the rest.

    The cross platform aspect to Firefox is also desirable. I recently said "sayonara" to Windoze. Moving my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles was nowhere as much of a hassle as I was led to believe.

    Now, if the owners of web sites that rely on IE 6 would only clean up; as it is about time for IE 6 to go away; even M$ has said so!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    fatman65535
    22nd Dec 2009
  • NoScript
    It can be a bit of a pain initially.

    Since I started using FF, Adblock and NoScript, the number of malware attacks has dropped-off massively.

    In fact, I am shocked when I see a bit of malware in my virus vault.

    lehnerus2000
    ZDNet Gravatar
    lehnerus2000
    26th Dec 2009
  • yeah... right...
    90% of all vulnerabilities lie on the ActiveX framework, which still is plagued with problems and hasn't been properly sandboxed...

    Also, Firefox is cross platform, so there is no way to create a universal binary exploit as can be done with IE (6,7 and 8). So that leaves problems to JavaScript (easily catched by Antivirus software) and internal components, which normally run using a restricted user, whereas IE needs Administrative rights and will invoke UAC if necessary. (Any other browser will never invoke UAC in Vista/7).
    ZDNet Gravatar
    cosuna
    22nd Dec 2009
  • What does it leave to be desired?
    In my experience, opera 10.1 outperforms both IE and Firefox, and does so without compromising any of the visual quality. I might agree about complaining about the top dog because you suck having a detrimental impact on the market as a whole, but I think you're waaaaay of base with opera being useless.

    As far as standalone usability in a development environment, nothing beats it. It has the best compliance and implementation of javascript, css and the best set of in browser development tools. Firebug stole the idea from them to begin with, and as of 10.0, the dragonfly utility was still significantly better.

    The *only* site I've ever seen it not work well on was the microsoft partner website, and firefox doesn't work there either. I figure that's largely on purpose.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Spiritusindomit@...
    22nd Dec 2009
  • Ur not talkin' 'bout AT&T here. RU?
    complaining because your product is poo and no one wants it only damages the market place and doesn't improve it.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    junquemail
    22nd Dec 2009
  • Maybe they had no choice but to complain
    without Mozzilla's input who know, the EU may have said "well it's only Opera complaining, so lets just force MS to install Opera along side of IE"

    That would have screwed Mozzilla a bit
    ZDNet Gravatar
    John Zern
    22nd Dec 2009
  • Possibly
    but I doubt it. If there was any doubt (which apparently there is MUCH doubt) as to EU's neutrality as far as product preference, this would blow away any appearance of it by only propping up one underdog to be competitive from an options perspective. The question would arise, "is the EU interested in educating users as to options or simply boosting one option (Opera) above all others.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Viva la crank dodo
    22nd Dec 2009
  • Miselading Headline / Article - IE Still Top Browser
    If you expand the chart and look at it, it appears that IE (all verisons) has roughly 57% of this survey, while Firefox has about 32%.

    More specifically, while Firefox 3.5 has edged just ahead of IE 7, it is also just barely ahead of IE 8, while IE 6 holds down fourth place. So 3 out of the 4 top browsers are a variant of IE.

    While the headline is technically correct, it, like many others on ZDNet, misleads to get greater effect.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    NameRedacted
    22nd Dec 2009
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