I'm not sure how much I agree with this. I work with a large number of developers and IT people. There is a VERY large age spread. Everything from young people in their 20's getting their first job, to people that have retired and are working again. There isn't a big difference in browser usage across that spread. The vast majority just don't care. The browser that is there does everything they want/ need it to do. This does support the concept that being pre-installed and default is a HUGE factor though.
Our company pushed IE8 to us a long time ago and I see very, very few people use tabs or the favorites bar, let alone the advanced things you can do with those like sets and dropdowns. I've made several attempts to show people the tabs and how they work, but there is no interest "it's just a stupid browser". Keep in mind that these are programmers (c, java, psql etc..), router/firewall techns and network administrators. A few are Linux nuts. But, even there the only reason they use Firefox is because everything MS = Evil. My opinion is that the vast majority of internet users don't need/care about the differences because in their usage, there really isn't much. Although, I prefer Chrome for general browsing, I use Firefox because of a few add-ons like Greasemonkey or Firebugs. However, I still use IE at work because it just doesn't make that much difference. In other words, the things that make FF a better browser are only important to .00001 % of the user space. A few side notes....One common thread for me when I show FF to folks is that (like almost all things Linux) it's UGLY. It's almost always the first comment. Even skinned it is not very attractive. On Dec 26, 7:41 pm, Robert Casto <[email protected]> wrote: > Well, there are a lot of people out there of the older generation who use a > browse and see the one already installed on their desktop and use it. You > have to make a special effort to download and use Firefox. For those with > little computer knowledge, they will use what is already installed. Until > Firefox can get the manufacturers to install their browser as well, it will > always be this way. Because of Windows OS licensing, IE will always be > installed and setup as the default. > > Seems like FF is not going to win unless they can get equal footing on the > desktop to begin with. > > > > > > On Sat, Dec 26, 2009 at 5:57 PM, Joe Sondow <[email protected]> wrote: > > That's one way to look at it. Here's another. > > > Of the traffic measured by statcounter.com, about 30% consists of > > Firefox versions (22% + 8%) and about 56% consists of IE versions (21% > > + 20% + 14%). Since most sites probably don't use statcounter.com, > > these numbers are pretty arbitrary. However, a 2-to-1 win for IE over > > Firefox is what I've seen in other recent comparisons as well. That's > > why I still run Selenium tests on a Windows box, for the sake of > > native IE testing. > > > There's certainly some progress for Firefox in growing their slice of > > the pie recently. It's no longer enough to target IE alone if you need > > 90% perceived correctness in your web site. My hunch is that this > > trend is partly due to gradual cultural changes towards a more > > computer-savvy population. The effect may plateau when the remaining > > IE users are the ones who will never care about any of the reasons to > > switch from Windows or from IE. > > > Cheers, > > Joe Sondow > > > On Dec 21, 12:34 pm, vogella <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > this stat is interesting, seems like Firefox 3.5 is now the most used > > > browser. > > > >http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww-weekly-200827-200951 > > > > Best regards, Lars > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "The Java Posse" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected]<javaposse%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > > . > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. > > -- > Robert Castowww.IWantFreeShipping.com > Find Amazon Filler Items easily!- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
