The Firefox Update Conspiracy?

SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
edited April 2005 in Science & Tech
Andy over at Popular Technology has posted a little article looking at the process that Firefox users have to go through to get updates for their browser and offers a few theories as to why Firefox's developers require you to download the full program to obtain updates.
Whether or not this was intentional remains to be seen but it cannot be ignored that it is having this effect. Now think about it, say you have 10 million adopters of the initial v1.0.0 release, they all upgrade to v1.0.1, your download number now doubles to 20 million, these same users upgrade again to v1.0.2, you now have 30 million downloads. Finally to v1.0.3 with 40 million downloads and still only 10 million users! How much of the super hyped Firefox Download Number is due to the current users just getting the latest version? Much more then you think.
Some interesting points, but as per usual, it wasn't a very balanced evaluation.

Source: Popular Technology

Comments

  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    I've udpated, but never downloaded the whole program. I used the little red arrow that appears, that's all. I figure most people do it that way.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    Yeah, but when you do that, it downloads the entire thing.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    That #&*:rant:$&^ red arrow never works for me. After I try it, I always end up having to uninstall, download the install from getfirefox.com, and then reinstall.
  • NosferatuNosferatu Arizona
    edited April 2005
    This article is from the idiot who posted the "Firefox - A New Religion?" rant on his blog... give me a break. Why feed the fire by posting a link to his biased babble?
  • Jolyon33Jolyon33 Kalamazoo, MI
    edited April 2005
    Yeah, I usually end up having to do a reinstall each time too. Always get some error when I try to update.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    Helps maintain the program's integrity?
  • miseryfetus
    edited April 2005
    honestly...who cares? 10 million users, 40 million users, 400 million users. It doesn't make a bit of difference, firefox is still superior to IE. Blackhawk is right, it helps people feel more secure when they think 40 million other people use it. It really doesnt matter.
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    They don't calculate market share by downloads, anyway.

    /me remembers he needs to update Firefox
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited April 2005
    miseryfetus (Guest) wrote:
    honestly...who cares? 10 million users, 40 million users, 400 million users. It doesn't make a bit of difference, firefox is still superior to IE. Blackhawk is right, it helps people feel more secure when they think 40 million other people use it. It really doesnt matter.

    Agreed.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    Referring to the article, it's a point well-made, however it could have been done less obnoxiously.

    Lying about your popularity is something I would expect an elementary student to do, not a foundation like Mozilla.
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    It's a well known conspiratorial fact that Mozilla is run by a foundation of insecure, obnoxious elementary students.
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited April 2005
    Preacher wrote:
    It's a well known conspiratorial fact that Mozilla is run by a foundation of insecure, obnoxious elementary students.
    If that's the case, then I think they've done pretty well considering. ;)
  • redchiefredchief Santa Barbara Member
    edited April 2005
    RED arrow always works for me. FF works most places I go, except for a secure web interface to a unix database, then I have to use IE.
    If it works it works.
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    All I know is Firefox is a much better piece of software than IE. It's significantly less buggy, noticeably faster, and way more user friendly. I'd download it twice each time to upgrade if I had too
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