A recent check of my web hosting statistics shows quite an interesting ‘percentage’ range when it comes to preferred browser amongst the ‘forces readers.
- Firefox 57.7 %
- MS Internet Explorer 7.4 %
- Safari 4.5 %
- Mozilla 2.3 %
- Konqueror 1.2 %
- Opera 1 %
Obviously there are a few percentiles missing - however I’m going to exclude anything below 1% as it’s likely to be below any ‘browser identification code’ margin of error..
IE weighs in at a paltry 7.4% versus Firefox’s 57.7%. Well over half of the ‘forces reader base alone uses Firefox. In fact, it (IE) is only marginally ahead of Safari - which perhaps shows the increase in interest in the Mac platform of late.
Another interesting snippet one can draw from the stats - Linux distributions sporting KDE weigh in at a higher percentage over Opera. I never could get my head around why anyone would take an interest in a browser such as Opera that uses the ‘adware’ model.
Still, it is a small, if not pleasing feeling to note that FireFox is making serious inroads into Microsoft’s old stomping ground. There was a time not so long ago, where folk would spend hours developing websites to suit IE, forcing non IE users to view badly rendered sub-standard code.. and now? IE is the poor cousin no one admits exists and everyone hopes they don’t ruin the party again.
Chalk one up for the good guys..
≡ This is a journal entry relating to the topics of rants.
Brendan Borlase is a Systems and Network Administrator living in Adelaide, Australia, having lived, worked and breathed Information Technology for over 12 years. Learn more.
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May 11th, 2005 at 9:06 am
Of course, the problem with Firefox picking up more users is that it will (has?) become the target of more spammers/hackers/whatever, thus exposing more flaws. Now, I firmly believe that there will be fewer flaws than IE (kind of hard to have more, y’know), but this “Golden Age” of FF infallibility is over.
As far as your stats are concerned, I’m not really surprised. I suspect your audience (and many Wordpress users in general) are “enlightened” enough to avoid IE at all costs. ;) That’s not a good sample for a broad generalization, but it’s always good to see that Firefox is doing well.
May 11th, 2005 at 9:56 am
True. FireFox isn’t perfect - it’s likely to be an increasing target for malware. The difference for me (and this is the clincher) is the attitude difference between FF developers and Microsoft.
I’ll use a browser that gets patched in a matter of days versus software that is still a kitchen sink of vulnerability, with a massive corporate that has zero interest in keeping the thing safe any day.
I know my stats aren’t a real cross-section. I just found them interesting (if not predictable).