The Mozilla Foundation's open-source Firefox browser passed the one billion download mark on Friday. That includes the latest 3.5 version back to the first release in 2004.
About 11 a.m. Eastern time, a counter maintained by Otto de Voogd estimated the number of downloads at 1.0033 billion while spreadfirefox.com pegged the number at 1.004 billion. That is based on an average of 1.6 million downloads a day over the past 15 days. At the rollover point, the browser was being downloaded 24 times a second.
Celebration planned
Mozilla is preparing to celebrate the milestone at the onebillionplusyou.com Web site, which is expected to go live Monday.
In tests by PC World, Mozilla ranked as the second-fastest browser in download times, about two-tenths of a second behind the fastest browser, Google's Chrome. Firefox is estimated to have 31 percent of the browser market, behind Microsoft  's dominant Internet Explorer with 60 percent. The Chrome, Apple Safari, and Opera browsers have less than five percent.
Actions by the European Commission could give these alternatives to Internet Explorer a chance to gain even more market share by forcing Microsoft to provide its competitors with a more level playing field. Microsoft originally planned to install only Internet Explorer with Windows 7, but has since agreed to provide a "ballot" that would let European users choose a browser when installing Windows 7.
Firefox 4.0 in Development
The EC has not yet ruled on the concession. Until it does, Microsoft says it still plans to ship a special version of Windows 7 to Europe with no browser. That could create major problems for users, who would have to find another way to obtain a browser.
Automatic updates are not included in the one billion total for Firefox downloads, but manual updates and multiple downloads by a single user are included.
Meantime, Mozilla's developers are working on the next version, Firefox 4.0, which is said to have a user interface similar to Google's Chrome.
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