Firefox 4 flies out download door at full throttle

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 24 March 2011 02:07

Your IT - Home IT

Microsoft boasted of 2.3 million downloads for its new IE 9 browser within the first 24 hours, while the cunning Firefox 4 put four to the floor with a report of at least 6.5 million downloads of FF4 within 24 hours.

Although Microsoft's latest IE 9 browser will be offered to users of Windows Vista and 7 as an update at some point, when it comes to first day interest, Firefox is winning the day one download bonanza against Microsoft.

Microsoft said that 2.3 million copies of IE 9 were downloaded in the first day, and undoubtedly, there are been millions more since.

Still, Firefox 4, which launched on March 22, has already clocked up 6.5 million downloads, according to the Mozilla Foundation in an interview with The Inquirer, with potentially more to be added to the final tally.

A download 'glow' stats page for Firefox 4 is available to view here, where over 7.6m downloads are already listed at the time of publication.

Mozilla itself celebrates the launch of Firefox 4 on its blog.

Promising a 'fast, sleek and customisable browsing experience' to more than 400 million of its existing users worldwide, Firefox 4 does bear a resemblance to the simplified interfaces of IE 9 and Google Chrome, as the web itself and all the content within are presented with less clutter.

Well, at least until some users find all manner of toolbars on their browsers, often signifying that adware if nothing else is on the computer.

Beyond that, Firefox 4 has predictably received a 'streamlined user interface, fun new features, a boost in speed and support for modern Web technologies'.

More details on page two, please read on!