Browsers: Firefox fixing the bugs

The Mozilla developers have announced the availability of the first release candidate (RC1) for what will become version 3.6 of their open source Firefox web browser, code-named Namoroka. As with the previous development releases, Firefox 3.6 RC1 is based on version 1.9.2 of Mozilla's Gecko web rendering platform.  The RC1 release includes over 70 bug fixes made since the preceding beta, with three known issues affecting all platforms concerning tracing and web worker performance, crashes in FIPS mode and problems with Hotmail scroll arrows. A known issue also exists for Linux where some distributions will have trouble playing system sounds and another exists for Mac OS X where there is a problem opening local files with a space in the name.

For more: Mozilla releases Firefox 3.6 RC1 - The H Open Source: News and Features

TelecomTV: Firefox's fifth birthday warning - "Don't take Internet freedoms for granted" - by Martijn Warwick

Forthe complete report from TelecomTV kon this link

Mozilla wrote and provided its free, collaborative, open-source, not-for-profit software as an alternative to Microsoft's very-much-for-profit Internet Explorer. At the time of Mozilla's emergence on the market Microsoft was haughtily dismissive of the tiny upstart company's attempt to loosen the stranglehold it held over web access (five years ago Mozilla had just 12 employees) and opined that its would-be rival wouldn't last a year. Indeed, back in 2004, Steve Vamos, then head of Microsoft's Australian arm said, " Firefox is no threat to us and there is no significant demand for the feature set of Firefox among Microsoft's users." Since then the prescient Mr. Vamos has vamoosed. He resigned from Microsoft in September 2008 and Firefox is now the second most used browser software on earth. Indeed even Bill Gates himself has admitted to using Firefox but couldn't resist a dig and said "So much software gets downloaded all the time, but do people actually use it?" The answer is , "Yes Bill, they do."

So five years on, Firefox is still very much with us, is gaining in popularity every day and has put a severe dent in Microsoft's hegemony over browser technology for the masses. Firefox is now the Internet access methodology of choice for 24.7 per cent of the world's web surfers. The latest figures show that over the past two months more than 30 million new users opted for Firefox rather than the Microsoft browser.

CnetNews: Firefox 3 downloads clear 8 million mark - by Stephen Shankland

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Firefox 3 downloads clear 8 million mark - by Stephen Shanklan

Take this statistic with a grain of salt, but Mozilla said more than 8 million copies of Firefox 3 were downloaded in its first 24 hours online. Mozilla, which is behind the open-source Web browser, was trying to set a download record for the software. The 24-hour period lasted from 11:16 a.m. PDT Tuesday to the same time Wednesday, and Mozilla said it's waiting for the Guinness Book of World Records to review the results.The download rate, which peaked at 14,000 per minute Tuesday, was still going strong at more than 6,000 per minute Wednesday morning.

Computer World: Firefox nears 30% market share in Europe - by Gregg Keizer

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Firefox nears 30% market share in Europe - by Gregg Keizer

Europe is a fortress for Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox browser, which enjoys a market share nearly 50% higher than in the U.S., a French Web-measuring company reported today. According to July data from XiTiMonitor, Firefox accounted for 27.8% of browsers used in Europe, an increase of 3.6 percentage points from the March measurement. XiTiMonitor's survey of almost 96,000 sites in 32 European countries -- from Ireland to Ukraine, Finland to Greece -- also said Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer held a 66.5% market share, with Opera, Safari and Netscape rounding out the top five with 3.5%, 1.7% and 0.3%, respectively.

Slovenia, Finland and Slovakia had the greatest Firefox penetration, with the open-source browser accounting for 47.9%, 45.4% and 40.4%, respectively, during a weeklong stretch from July 2 to July 8. Other Firefox strongholds include Germany (38%), Poland (39.6%) and Ireland (38.6%).

Computing.co..uk: Firefox use in Europe nears 25 per cent - Iain Thomson

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Firefox use in Europe nears 25 per cent - Iain Thomson

Use of the open source Firefox browser in Europe has grown five per cent in the past 12 months, and is approaching 50 per cent in some countries. French web analyst firm XiTi reported that European use of the browser has risen to 24.1 per cent, up from 19.4 per cent last year. In Finland the rate is over 41 per cent. Overall, eastern Europe is leading Firefox use in the West.

The launch of Firefox 2.0 provided a big boost, according to the analysts, which Microsoft failed to match with Internet Explorer 7.