Let's Get the Facts Straight

I rgistered here just to prove that Opera is far better than firefox.

Did anyone notice that O is at version 8.0 and FF at 1.5?

Did anyone notice the speed and features that O offers in the basic package (3.5Mb) to FF's (4.5MB, only browser?)

Did anyone notice that O was the first browser with multi-window (cascaded) browsing?

Did anyone compare the advrtisment provided to FF and that to O?

NO
Because most FF users have never ever used another browser than IE. While Opera users are people who left IE long ago on their own will, FF users are those who left IE because FF was just like it, did not have any flaws as of then and a wee bit better.

FF is riding high on its success. I agree that it is much better than IE, but i think it will soon become like it...

Hackers and terrorists target that which is used the most.

Oh yeah. I'm not coming here again.

Who's Doing The Math?
description

Long before a couple of bloggers were feeding us bs, journalists, advertisers, experts and politicians were doing a mighty fine job of feeding us innumerative bs. According to a recent survey conducted by Jay Leno with the "Jaywalkers" from this year’s "Top Jaywalking Thinkers", they found that 51% of people make shit up, 105% are afraid to look dumb, 67% try too hard to impress others, and 39% belive that 41% of bloggers have hemorrhoids from sitting on their asses. read more

Just saw this tidbit at WebProNews. Not sure on Steve's stance on it... he simply closes with "Blogs are the new letters to the editor."

--
Click here for Firefox in the press

CNet news.com has corrected this article. The corrected paragraph reads:

The Mozilla Foundation's free Firefox browser, which was launched late last year, saw an estimated 2.5 million downloads in just two days. Two months earlier, the first preview release had reached the 1 million mark within five days.

The full article can be read at: http://news.com.com/Big+splash+for+Opera/2100-1032_3-5681184.html

Kudos to CNet for correcting it.

The german IT-News site heise.de reports that Firefox Preview has had 1 million downloads in the first 4 days and by comparing this to Opera 8's download stats draws the conclusion that Opera "closes up" to Firefox.

German-speaking users can read the article here (others too, of course):
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/58964

While they explicitly state that they are using the stats from the FF-preview, the comparison is really unfair and I have no idea why the don't take the count from the FF-stable.
If they want to take the numbers from the FF-preview, they should compare them to Opera's beta releases *lol*

They have an attached forum, so you can point out the "straight facts" there.

I think its not so importend how many people download a browser. It MUCH more importend how many USE them. So if anyone tell wrong facts, take it cool, relax and watch the stats*.
Don't waste your energy for noop-fights, use it for building a gooood browser!

*For Example (Deutsch):

I found this article on LinuxInsider.com

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/1120077EAX1C.xhtml

He mostly talks about Opera and what it does but at the very end of the article he states,

"If IE were the only option, then Opera would be a strong candidate. But Firefox handles all the basics well. For free. And on the Mac."

Thought that it might be of interest to all of us.

Sharky

"and alone and without his nest, shall the eagle fly across the sun"

Although it does not make up for C|net's bad information, I believe they were using the stats from the preview release download (which was 1 million in 5 days). They weren't lying, they were just misled.

I downloaded it so i could compare the competition to firefox. I'm still using firefox

this months on my site until April 21

3 252073 14.65% Mozilla / Firefox
69 858 0.05% Opera/7.54u1 (Windows NT 5.1)
and a few other listings in my stats totaling less than 5000 for all opera browser

firefox is steadily gaining shares and IE steadily losing shares

that says more than thousand words !
i have never met a person / internet professional using opera - but i see daily professionals using firefox in past weeks

but instead of wasting time for mental war - just focus on further improving - there is still lots to do and to improve in future years - numbers and stats will speak on their own in the future.

hans

Solutions of Love |
Secrets of Love

I have mailed them saying that they should fix up the bit where they it says that FF CLAIMED to have more downloads. I think this should be "FF DID have more downloads that Opera, and therefore is far more popular, and from that we can tell that is is a better browser that Opera so you should go with FF not Opera" lol.

Well after sending feedback into the company I also like lightdarkness
got the same type of response....however as you noticed I just didn't email the feedback I went straight for the throat. It seems to be a pretty "cookiecutter" response so I assume we all provided enough feedback to warrent a template for responses.

Dear Mr. Christopher,

After review, we made some changes to provide a more apples to apples
comparison in the download numbers.

You can find those changes here:
http://www.techweb.com/wire/software/161501050

Thank you for contacting TechWeb.

_________________________
Fredric Paul
Editor in Chief, TechWeb.com
CMP Media LLC

________________________________________________
I't does exist, I will have to ask the developer
...oh wait I am the developer...um...

Press: Cite this comment

It's an outrage! /sarcasm

Such a strongly worded report on such a small mistake seems unnecessary. Yes, journalists should do all that they can do get correct statistics, but I don't think the sfx community reacted well, or took the right aproach.

Maybe we should add a new wikipage that lists news organizations and tech analyist who have attempted to smear Firefox or distort facts against Mozilla.

This is the title of an article found here on informationweek.com:

"Rush For Opera 8 Bigger Than Firefox's"

and this is what they say in the article:

In the first 48 hours since its Tuesday release, Opera 8 was downloaded more than 600,000 times. By comparison, rival Firefox claimed 1,000,000 copies grabbed in the opening 24 hours after its 1.0 version went final in early November 2004.

hmm, this I don't understand. Isn't the title wrong? Well, do they know that 1,000,000 > 600,000 and 24

Well, let's hope that telling them to be at least consistent between articles will help :) I sent them this:

In this article by Munir Kotadia you claim that Firefox took 5 days to reach 1 million downloads.
If you read this article by Stefanie Olsen, you can immediately see, that this can not be correct. How would anyone need 5 days to hit 1 million downloads, if they already had 2.5 million after only 2 days?

Comparing any two competing products would best be based on REAL numbers. Or at least, two articles in the same source for news (in this case being C|Net) should at least be consistent, and not be conflicting with eachother.
You may have quoted some mis-informed source. Please do yourself and your readers a favor and correct this obvious error.

Who knows...

FreeBee

They have written an article which has the following near the start:

The Firefox open source browser is full of bugs, some of which are rather serious.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4472219.stm

Now its fixed :

"In the first 48 hours since its Tuesday release, Opera 8 was downloaded more than 600,000 times. By comparison, rival Firefox claimed 1,000,000 copies grabbed in the opening 24 hours after its 1.0 version went final in early November 2004."

You know why Mitchell Baker, President of the Mozilla Foundation, which develops the Firefox web browser didn't lower herself into a volcano when Firefox 1.0 was downloaded over 1 million times in the first 24 hours (NOT in 5 days as you suggest)? Because she didn't need to. People were already excited about firefox as evidenced by spreadfirefox.com. Firefox downloads speak for themselves except when you misquote them.

You forget one thing Microsoft and they are putting out the word to make Firefox look bad. You have net statistics on Firefox in the last two months. If they show the growth is still strong Microsoft will go after them. Your counter is doing the job that couldn't stop and this is a driving force in showing growth. Get use to it anything that shows Firefox good will not be printed and can show negative they will. Remember if Firefox moves to mainstream then Longhorn is basically dead on arrival. This is the fact of life and there is no changing the facts. They have to kill Firefox fast or they will be dead.

it's good that we got htme to correct themselves. What do you guys make of this article? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4472219.stm it seems positive, yet opens with a bunch of questionable negative statements. Bizzaire =)

--
robertwiblin AT hotmail DOT com

I sent both editor's messages that they should "review the article for accuracy of content". I thought that was a high brow way to put it.

"and alone and without his nest, shall the eagle fly across the sun"

Response:

Dear Mr. MacLean,

After review, we made some changes to provide a more apples to apples comparison in the download numbers.

You can find those changes here: http://www.techweb.com/wire/software/161501050

Thank you for contacting TechWeb.

Stuart Glascock
News Editor, TechWeb
CMP Media LLC

I have reported previous text from this author which was much more malicious, though you can't say that it misrepresented the facts, it was just that facts were written in such way that most people would understand them wrongly. But it was much more serious issue concerning security, than this "I count numbers better", as downpalying Firefox wasn't the real intention of the article that you have quoted, but rather it was Opera promotion.

I have written the mail, and I have mentioned both texts, and I hope that others will do.

--

Microsoft has never won a war in development against anyone. But it proved to be master of marketing. Don't repeat the history. Don't downplay the marketing.

This is flat out scary how information for public consumption can be so horribly wrong. It's absolutely inexcusable.

"Bring me my monocle, I want to look rich." - Space Ghost
www.somerandomdude.net

I'm suprised the Opera CEO would go swimming. Read the update at the top of the article.

Dear Mr. Glascock,

Your article located here: http://www.techweb.com/wire/software/161501050 Has some blatant lies printed in it.

" In the first 48 hours since its Tuesday release, Opera 8 was downloaded more than 600,000 times, bettering the record set by rival -- and media darling -- Firefox, which claimed 1,000,000 copies grabbed in the opening 100 hours."

Firefox had well over 1,000,000 downloads within the first 24 hours. Over 10 million in the first month, and 25 million in the first 100 days.

Next time you print an article, make sure you do your research. Your flat out lies, and failure to do simple research, has made me and I would assume many others to not take any of your articles as a credible source of tech news.

Please fix this error, and appoligize to the Firefox community. I'm sure we would all appreciate it.

Jay MacLean
lightdarkness