Firefox: The problems ahead

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Considering that it only launched its web browser officially back in November 2004, the Mozilla Foundation has every reason to pat itself on the back over the news that Firefox has now been downloaded for the 400 millionth time. Whichever way you spin it, that's some number.

A tangible, deserving champion of the open source movement, Firefox has been widely credited with achieving something many thought doubtful: not only has it delivered a product that instantly showed up the failings of existing alternatives, it's seriously hit its Microsoft competitor. Whereas the web sector was once Microsoft dominated to a level of over 90 per cent, it's the giant of Redmond that has been on the back foot in this sector for much of the last three years.

Domination

Pre-Firefox, of course, the world was pretty much Internet Explorer-dominated when it came to web browsers, with alternatives such as the enduring Opera failing to break through to a meaningful level. Since Firefox emerged, there's an increased confidence in the free software movement that's seen closed-source program producers frantically adding Powerpoint slides to their strategic presentations as they seek to defend their positions and fight back. From office suites and graphics tools, through to operating systems and media applications, open source's reach and power is very much in the ascendancy.

And not only does the most popular of them all, Firefox, continue to grow market share, its numbers are showing just how far its come in its short life. According to numbers from web survey institute XiTi Monitor, at the start of July, Firefox accounted for 27.8 per cent of web browser use in Europe, even soaring up to 47.9 per cent in Slovenia and 45 per cent in Finland. The crucial barometer though is the rate of growth, with a 6.9 per cent increase across Europe in Firefox use over the past twelve months, and indicators suggesting no end yet to the browser's mounting take-up.

Issues

Yet among the virtual champagne cork-popping comes a problem that goes hand in hand with big success. And that's that a growing number of people are expressing discontent with Firefox as a software tool, more specifically that recent versions have got themselves too mixed up with the hunt for new features, at a cost of stability and bloat.

And in a further consideration, it's worth stopping to consider the figure that's being openly discussed by Mozilla on its wiki, where it openly admits a need to improve its retention rate.

Currently, of the people who actually download the Firefox software, it's only around a half who get round to installing it (although, to be fair, that's a figure that's likely to contrast well with other download-only applications). Another widely-reported statistic is that 75 per cent of those who download Firefox fail to become active users. While one in four isn't a bad hit-rate, there's obvious room for growth.

As Mozilla acknowledges, there are some big challenges facing Firefox.

The road ahead

The initial hurdle to be negotiated is, though, surely the rising group of people who are simply unimpressed with the stability of recent versions of Firefox. Considering that Firefox effectively become the poster child for critical mass open source software models it's enjoyed a richly-deserved honeymoon period. But as the main proposition inevitably becomes a little more ambitious, there's a number who wonder whether it's straying too far from its roots of being a slimline, efficient and stable alternative browser.

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