20 Percent of You Are Using Firefox

Considering PC World's slogan is "Technology advice you can trust", you should be recommending Firefox, aka "The browser you can trust", to your readers since it is more secure and less susceptible to viruses and spyware. Firefox has fewer security flaws, less critical flaws, and those flaws that are found are fixed much faster than Internet Explorer.

According to the security firm Secunia (http://secunia.com/product/11/), at this very moment, "Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x with all vendor patches installed and all vendor workarounds applied, is currently affected by one or more Secunia advisories rated Highly critical". And that's only counting the ones that Secunia has found.

If you want to add a message to your site that tells people to use Firefox, but only tells IE users, and only once per session, you can use this script (put it in the section):

<script>
<!--
//"use firefox" script, once per session
function confirmexitSubmit()
{
//the message box:
var agree=confirm("You should use Firefox!.\n Press OK to see more information.");

if (agree)
location="getfirefox.html";
else
return null ;
}

//Alert only once per browser session (0=no, 1=yes)
var once_per_session=1

Here's the rest:
//cookie stuff
function get_cookie(Name) {
var search = Name + "="
var returnvalue = "";
if (document.cookie.length > 0) {
offset = document.cookie.indexOf(search)
if (offset != -1) { // if cookie exists
offset += search.length
// set index of beginning of value
end = document.cookie.indexOf(";", offset);
// set index of end of cookie value
if (end == -1)
end = document.cookie.length;

returnvalue=unescape(document.cookie.substring(offset, end))
}
}
return returnvalue;
}

function alertornot(){
if (get_cookie('alerted')==''){
loadalert()
document.cookie="alerted=yes"
}
}

function loadalert(){
confirmexitSubmit()
}

//check browser
var n=navigator.appName
var ns=(n=="Netscape")
var ie=(n=="Microsoft Internet Explorer")
if (ns)
//do nothing
document.write("")
else if (ie)
alertornot()
//-->
</script>

I prefer Opera rather than Firefox. Although, i do use Firefox as a backup for url's that opera won't run.

I'm not dead keen on Firefox, but I did stick a copy of Portable Firefox on a USB key (if only to have my Favorites in a browser I can take with me), but I'll stick with Maxthon for my daily use.

So if I initially tested Portable Firefox by visiting PC World, does that mean I count as part of the 20%.

I have been using Firefox for quite awhile now. I can say that it beats IE hands down in every way. It doesn't lock up, like IE does. I don't see any pop-ups like I did when I used IE. Being someone that maintains many personal computers, I recommend it to everyone.

"So if I initially tested Portable Firefox by visiting PC World, does that mean I count as part of the 20%."

Yes, if you went last week. You would (probably) be counted again if you used maxxthon. Maxthon probably shows up as IE.

Zealotry just sickens me.

I'm using firefox on both my home PCs and I've persuaded 2 of friends to use it. I was tired of either deleting all the spyware or formatting their PCs every 2 months. Now I hardly get any "help me!" calls from those two. So yup, firefox wins hands down and I'll be persuading more people to use it in future. I hope the firefox share goes up fast. It'll save me a lot of headache if nothing else.

In response to the person who was testing FF when they hit the site implying that they are skewing the results... I happened to hit the site w/Mozilla when typically I use FF. So that goes both ways. That's what surveys like this are all about. There's a margin of error that needs to be considered.

However, I know from years of personal experience that FF is better than IE. I'm sorry if that seems to be zealotry. In fact, it's simply a 'real-world' assessment not just an emotional response. Anyone who feels IE is a better browser hasn't taken the time to really compare the two.

Further, it's also a fact that at one time IE was the best browser, but M$ has chosen not to upgrade it for some time now. During that time, newer approaches to browser development and design have been introduced giving way to better features and performance. That doesn't mean that IE can't be the best one again, but Bill's and Steve's track record shows that they don't spend any more than they have to on product development. They DEPEND on people being timid about trying something new. And it's been working quite well for them.

Anyhow, it's not like anybody is asking you to abandon Windohs. But for all my friends that happen to use the M$ kludge for an OS, I recommnd they switch to FF and TBird. And in every case, their lives (and mine) have been made easier. So THANK YOU Mozilla.org.

20%?? not bad for a windows oriented site.

@Rob Harwood: Going with your logic, the browser people should use is either Opera or Safari, since those two don't have any unpatched Secunia advisories. Sure, Firefox has fewer than IE, but, come on, where's the achievement in that? Opera has none at all and Safari has none that are unpatched.

Another thing to consider with these stats is that browsers like Opera can be set to completely hide its id and appear as IE or Mozilla - sadly, this feature has become necessary to avoid being fed crummy style-sheets/scripts/etc.

Still generally positive to see market share being taken away from IE.

"Posted by Jeff Schiller on Wednesday, June 01, 2005, 07:22 PM (PST)

Zealotry just sickens me."

Wow, you aren't passionate about something?

I'm passionate about many things. Firefox is actually my main browser, but I also use Internet Explorer on occasion because I design for the web. I just don't think people should be embedding scripts in their web pages that popup an annoying window that tries to convince them to switch to Firefox and that writes a cookie to the user's system. That is zealotry.

Noboby else is using Maxthon (formerly MyIE2)? I'm no browser fanatic, but I've tried all that I know of at least quickly and Maxthon is my browser of choice.
Anyways, that's my 2 cents.
By the way: Any need a gmail invite still? email me.

I have provided network installation and 'Internet Enabled' many small offices over the years. As a precaution, I also provide an Internet Safety luncheon for employees and a suggested Internet Use policy for the companies. Even with safe-guards, I spend much support time, re-imaging infested computers.

Recently, I began installing Firefox as the primary browser and tutored users in its Use. Support time and headaches have plummetted. Regular maintanance is spent on upgrades and enhancements, rather than de-lousing.

I highly recommend Firefox. I am able to achieve more for these companies at less overall cost. Which makes my services shine like a star.

I love Firefox.
I have recommended to everyone I know. I think it beats IE hands down. You can't beat the extensions. My favorite extension is foxy tunes. Can't control your jukebox from IE and i love tab browsing. Moreover, i haven't had one piece of spyware in six months. I even pipelined Firefox on a friend dial up machine and its much faster. Love Firefox and won't change even if Microsoft comes out with IE7.

lets be impartial now. what if IE7 kicks everyone's arse since right now M$ are scared silly? but seriously, firefox is much faster like he said on dialup it really makes a difference. but opera is the fastest but I prefer firefox for its customizability, or else I would have switched to opera8 a long time ago, since v8 removed all the crappy page rendering of v7. and by the way, safari is decent but its mac only and it also is owned by a propriety type company. and i really hate apple's "buy everything from us" strategy, at least now they're using intel procs. actually, opera8 is good but the thing is I support open-source initiatives almost fanatically (well not that much since i still run windows) and the fact that opera expects you to pay $39 to remove the ad banner is just ridiculous.

I love Firefox! Since the first release of the 1.0 version, I heard about Firefox, and tested it, and after 5 minutes, I never used IE again!
Opera is also great, but to quote 'Ib', "the fact that opera expects you to pay $39 to remove the ad banner is just ridiculous."

Opera is almost as great as FF, but FF is free and open-source, so:
Firefox ROCKS!