As already reported by Asa, after only 2 days the estimated download of Firefox 1.0 preview release is at half a million! The aim is to get 1 million downloads in 10 days, so things are looking good! Whether this will now tail off - who can say? Keep an eye on SpreadFirefox.com which has a live totaliser to keep you updated.
Also, a peek at the latest Browser Statistics from W3C schools is showing Mozilla more than doubling its share since January! OK, a site like that is more likely to attract the kind of people who would use Firefox, but it still shows growth in one audience. 17.7%! Incredible!
I firmly believe that our only hope of making life better for us as designers, is to promote Firefox. I would like to promote Safari and Omniweb, but I have to face it, Mac only browsers aren’t going to be denting anyone’s market share.
We may never get more than 30%, but that would be enough to make clients take notice, and care how their sites look in a decent browser, as well as the ubiquitous IE. There will always be the people who don’t even know that there is a thing called a ‘browser’, let alone that there are alternatives, but that’s OK. Headway is being made at rate that I wouldn’t have thought possible a few months ago.
Update 18.9.04: They did it - in only 4 days! The goal is now 2 million!
Further reading: The Fight Has Just Begun