If Microsoft were to post the quantity of downloads they would probably include updates and all, so yes, mozilla is corect to include everything.

I think Microsoft is being a whinny little kid ^_^

I think it's possible to have a billion downloads when you consider every single update, and some people download multiple times for whatever reason.

I've downloaded Mozilla several times for clean installs...

I don't think Firefox would even need to include updates to get that number. I personally have installed it on my home computer (1), my laptop with 3 separate OS's on two drives (3), and on my workstation at work (1), as well as doing updates on all of them and including it as part of an image for no less than 150 staff workstations and 25 checkout laptops.

So I personally have installed it at least 5 times and 175 times by association. That does not count updates.

Considering all the updates as of late... yes I fully agree with this number. Either way, I've always been a Firefox fan. Microsoft on the other hand... well... save that one for another topic.

Lol, MS talking fuzzy numbers.... do I believe Firefox has been downloaded 1 billion times? Absolutely. We're not talking unique, individual users/computers here. I'm just one person and I've probably downloaded Firefox hundreds of times (counting updates, etc).

Yes, Firefox could easily have 1 billion downloads. On our campus there is easily 1000 computers(not including students), each one has Firefox. It's included on all of our images and we always update it. I bet our campus alone accounts for at least 10,000 downloads.

1 billion "downloads". Not "users". Where is the problem with that?

Well I'm sure if Microsoft counted downloads of IE in the same manner, the number would easily be in the tens of billions and likely even hundreds of billions.

But, they didn't think ahead and never started counting. Mozilla's marketing team beat them in that game, just like Apple beat them to the punch with the "I'm a Mac and I'm better than you are PC" tv ads. Now if Microsoft started counting, or just released some numbers that it can at least account for, it would be too late and be like the "I'm a PC" tv ad fiasco.

in my opinion i think they should only account for install base, not all the redownloads (due to reformatting and such) and updates.... but i think that should be for all companies..... i bet the actual install base is closer to 400 million

lately, it seems there is a firefox update being pushed every 2 weeks . . . So, yeah, not surprising they reached that number.

In that they have disclosed that they include updates and its not just single unique users...I think it is fine. Heck I've download the client (not including updates probably 6 or 7 times what with reformating HD's and such...

Including the updates is crooked in my view. If MS would include that in their numbers, they would have like 50 billion downloads if not more. MS releases patches monthly.

Firefox should just add how many people actually download the software as an install, not the automatic updates.

20-30 of those are probably mine. It's probably right for the number of downloads, but should not be confused with the number of users.

is that woman stupid? i myself have downloaded firefox like 5 times to try it from version 2 to 3.5 when IE kept crashing on me before I settled on chrome. man there's always some douche that needs to crash a party. btw IE 8 is SLOW. im forced to use it for netflix. i think i'll download firefox right now and use that for neftflix and nvidia than. sry MS

I must have downloaded Firefox over 10 times myself *without* counting any of the automatic updates. 3 computers at home - on which I re-installed Windows from scratch I dunno how many times and so re-downloaded Firefox each time.

Maybe if I didn't have to re-install Windows so much I wouldn't download Firefox as much... Thinking about it I guess we can thank Microsoft for playing such a big part in Firefox' download counts :-)

Microsoft is only jealous of Mozilla for stealing their browser and ruining their monopoly. With all the updates I've had I'm sure to have done at least 50 downloads. (with uninstalling and re-downloading and the such)

Mozilla doesn't claim it has 1B unique users downloading it once without patches.

They are running on their own track, they decided the rules and now some guy comes in and says, on your track you have to follow rules we decide.

No microsoft. It doesn't work like that. They never claimed something that is probably not true. They never claimed unique users. You just want to get in the news and try discrediting them for an achievement they gotten fair and square.

And yes, MS probably has a lot more downloads. But they never made claims and tried to fuse it with their OS, so their downloads is lower anyway (most people get it from the install cd, only updates).

Mozilla and firefox are just busy with a lot of unique downloads on release day and a lot of downloads total. That's the way for them to do marketing. Let them and play your own game MS. You have been doing fine, no need to drag the competition in the dirt. Guess MS is feeling Firefox getting closer and closer and losing the browser war they had total dominance over.

I'd say it is accurate for total downloads. MS probably would have many times that many if you counted all the times windows gets reinstalled and auto-updated to newer IE versions. Prior to putting Vista on all the computers in the house I used to routinely have to rotate around to different computers and reinstall them then re-download FF, so I have accounted for quite a few myself.

Since switching to Vista I do have to admit I've only had to reinstall three times on four computers so far since its release. Strangely two of those reinstalls were the result of installing OneCare on the systems when they expanded it to work on Vista and it leaving the systems totally fubar, couldn't do anything to restore or repair them at all.

The capaign gives the impression that there's 1 bilion users. It's deceiving. Why would anyone care about downloads? - especially updates? I'm not dumping on Mozilla, MS probably uses the same advertising & propmotional tacticts. IT SHOULD BE ILLEGAL.

Microsoft is just jealous that Mozilla has a MUCH BETTER browser than they do

I would agree. With all the Fire Fox fanboys out there, I'm sure they had a hand in the amount of downloads. No doubt.

why should I pay for something that is completely free. Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are 10 times better then well things that you need to pay for. hence Linux. Linux is free and mostly virus free. well enough said. you can use internet explorer and get script virus auto downloaded. hmm up to you. free or pay. I think that must user will go with free...

They said downloads, not users, so they are 100% correct. Apparently MS doesn't like the fact that Mozilla catches up to them more everyday. Of the 10billion IE users, very few actually choose to use it, most use it out of apathy. There's probably less than a million people who consciously choose IE, the rest use it because it comes with Windows.

When you can't compare on the wealth of features, all that's left is to attack a meaningless number, I suppose?

Also does this include FireFox portable? If so I own 10+ Flash drives/portable HDDs each with FF Portable loaded. So does that count too... if so it could easily be over 1 billion with updates.

Well considering I probably downloaded Firefox about 50 times since it came out Id say the number is probably a bit lower.

It says "downloads" which can be multiple ones per user too. I downloaded FF probably 5 - 10 times myself. But it's marketing and every company does it the same way. While Microsoft seems to argue that one download should equate to one user, Firefox never claimed that. It's just the typical trash talk.

I have many computers at home for a small render farm, 13 in all. I downloaded Firefox to each one.

In 2 years I've downloaded Firefox a good 30+ times for myself and friends. My mother, who is 67 years old, purchased a computer for the first time last week. I downloaded Firefox for her.

Yes, I can see Firefox reaching 1 billion downloads..