One of my hobby horses is open source software – not because it’s “free” but because it’s simply better quality than anything available from proprietary software vendors who keep their source code to themselves. Think about it: for an open source programmer every new application is another page in their CV. But I digress.
Recent research by XiTi Monitor indicates that the use of Mozilla’s Firefox web browser is now almost 25% across Europe. In fact, in some countries it’s rapidly approaching the 50% mark. Similar figures can be found in the Far East but in deepest darkest Africa Firefox penetration is lagging at a paltry 13.1% – see the full report more here.
Interestingly users in the US are still predominately locked into Microsoft with Firefox users there making up just 15.1% of the web browsing public. This is supported by Janco Associates research published here. However, it should be noted that Janco’s CEO, M Victor Janulaitis, doesn’t agree that his figure of 13% represents US market share for Firefox. Indeed, he reckons his figures are the global average.
You make up your own mind.
Ivo Vegter said
Welcome to the blogosphere
I’ve been puzzled by stats that show Firefox (and by extension, I guess, open source software in general) is less popular in poor countries (Latin America, Africa and Asia) than in the US or especially Europe. Have you seen any good explanation for this? I haven’t.
brian said
I think it’s all about awareness, or the lack thereof: Open source, being mostly free doesn’t have the marketing muscle of a Microsoft and vendors like IBM and Novell aren’t interested in marketing to consumers. Neither are the OEMs because providing and supporting Linux increases their costs and lower Windows volumes would reduce the discount they can get from Microsoft Besides, it has been all too easy to pirate Microsoft software – just ask the BSA – until now. Hopefully, Vista will change all that and get people looking for alternatives.