so you are arguing the numbers are not right, because not everybody who downloaded the new version of IE is actually using it. has it actually occurred to you that not everybody who's downloaded firefox and opera is actually using those moron browsers? I've got them, but only to test my code, because nothing ever works right in those damn browsers. So if you want to modify the numbers as given above, why don't you modify the user numbers of other browsers too? well, I guess that wouldn't be such a good thing, would it? cause right at the moment firefox is at 10 per cent of the market share, but if we only consider those people who are really using it as their standard browser, the number would be 0.10. while IE would still stay above 80%. hehehe.

and besides, the line above goes "3 Million IE7 Downloads". you know what "downloads" means?

anyway, wait till Nov. 1 when MS starts to deliver the browser via MS automatic update. Let's see how firefox is going to compete with that. I am looking forward to seeing the percentage of damn firefox and opera drop overnight. yeah, call it schadenfreude, I don't care

To WRFan,
Actually I was arguing that all the numbers for actual browser usage are questionable - which you so ably pointed out.

Also, I admit to being fickle. I used IE exclusively for many years. Then I found Opera and used it. Lately I have used Firefox - mainly for the plug-ins.

3 stand out: ReminderFox lets me stay within my browser and still have all my TODO and schedule info immediately available, the built in spell checker saves me many potential embarrassments and Performancing allows me to write my blogs in the Firefox and then post directly.

I have no doubt that I will change again sometime. We'll see what IE7 becomes.

good and logical post, but a bit angry. Don't let the less than bright people upset you though...the world is full of them :)

EVEN MS IE haters know that IE is preferred, and EVEN they know they actually prefer IE over whatever they are using. They just don't want to admit it...hehe

The only way IE7 would not be used by the majority of users is if it becomes unprofessional like it's competition (eventhough I don't think this genre of apps should consider themselves as such). But, it is by nature a professional application, meant to function and appear so, without the need for a gazillion plug ins to make it effective.

your the moron, and ignorant...

Don't let the less than bright people upset you though...the world is full of them :)

Like the one who wrote the post above this one, for example.

I hope that I was not being angry. I was, in fact, rather amused.

I don't hate MS or MS IE and should IE7 prove itself - time will tell - to be as bullet proof as it claims, then I will consider it to be, indeed, professional.

As further proof of my not hating MS, I have 4 machines all running XP and all pass the "Genuine Advantage" test. I have my own legal copy of MS Office, Visual Studio.NET and at least 20 items on my start menu are from MS.

Having said that, however, a few more reasons why I mostly use something other than MS IE include:
(1) competition; how long did we need to use an add-on before we had tabbed browsing in IE7? How long would it have been without competition???

(2) I use the Internet a lot. I am on most of the time. I like to be a small target to the bad guys. I used Opera while MS was coming up with fixes for IE holes. This is another reason why I use alternate browsers. What bad guy will waste time going after the other browsers - especially since ones using the other browsers are most likely much better protected.

OK, I've wasted enough time today on this.

your the moron

I love it when people make statements like this and simultaneously misspell "you're."

EVEN MS IE haters know that IE is preferred, and EVEN they know they actually prefer IE over whatever they are using. They just don't want to admit it...hehe

The only way IE7 would not be used by the majority of users is if it becomes unprofessional like it's competition...

Wow... How's life under that rock?

Interesting numbers, but, just because I downloaded it - which I did - does not mean that I use it. I still use Firefox 99% of the time.

I wonder how this applies to others?

Question: Why is it that in this article, the majority of posts imply that we are objective, while in the new article (http://www.betanews.com/...ta_How_Close/1161811250) it seems the majority are not? The word FireFox, perhaps? More FF fanboys?

Maybe not, who knows?

I really like many things about IE7. I have howeve, run into many compatibility issues. I am an online student with DeVry. I am unable to access the programs that I have to use for class. I have an eMachines computer, which apparently found a compatibility issue through BigFix(which won't display). If the compatibility issues are not figured out, I will be forced into going back to IE6 and using the blocker download at microsoft.com so I won't be forced to get IE7 again.

Any suggestions for a browser similar to IE6 that I might be able to use for class? Time is of the essence here, it's finals week.

It's called bug devry about being lazy and not updating their site. They knew ie7 was coming for a few years now its all about lack of customer service and waiting till the last minute to fix their crap. along with all the other lazy companies out there that won't get their web masters of their arse.

I'm so sick of all these companies that wont make their stuff compatible with Win Vista. It's RC2 already and these pay for programs wont even offer simple support to get it to run on Vista. I had one problem where all I needed to do was make the app run as administrator, but call after call they would not tell me that, yet vista has been publicly open for a year now?

Its called Windows Compatibility Wizard. I have been running Win 95/98/2000 programs in vista with out any problems. Do your research before you post. It could mak a difference!!!

The best browser!

That is pretty sad, after 5 years of having the same version of browser only 3 million people, which is less then the amount of vista beta testers downloaded it in 4 days? Naturally once they do a forced push via the auto updater the numbers will skyrocket, why is that news? Now why they have to buy up radio spots when cnn, local news and tech websites have free advertising for them already, wtf?

wow, only 3 Million users have Windows Genuine Advantage working for them... Didn't work for me inspite of a legit OS... oh well, just have to stick with my trusty Opera/Firefox combo.

The joys of WGA and its miserable existance..

or you can call ms and complain so they fix your issue.

or Microsoft can burn in hades.

yeah, i only got it to see what it was as i hadn't tested it. want my opinion?

'meh'

yeah, i only got it to see what it was as i hadn't tested it

huh?

3 Million downloads != 3 million users.

I downloaded IE7 to update my XP, on the rare occasion that Opera does'nt work on a site, and the fact it's huge improvement over IE6. Does it mean it's my everyday browser.

Yeah. And let's b**** about the fact that all those who have downloaded IE7 already had IE6 on their computer, so they're not switching!

on the rare occasion that Opera does work on a site

LOL - I think you meant "doesn't work." You accidentally made a truer statement. =p

(Yes I realize I'm generalizing and exaggerating. Just let me. It's late, and I don't care right now.)

"3 Million downloads != 3 million users."

Your right, but it could also mean more, as people at companies usually download one copy and install it across the lan for all their users...

We know.

It's stated in *every* damn thread stating download statistics.

Where's the -1 Redundant mod?

As I do at our shop. I have downloaded it only once, yet I have probably installed it on more than 50 PCs since then from my USB drive, and put it on various customers' shared drives on their servers... not to mention the 15 PCs at our shop and my 3 at home.

I'm not shoving it down anyone's throat... Microsoft has already taken care of that years ago. I've been evangelizing alternate browsers for more than 2 years to all my customers, but from my experience most users in the small business and corporate environments that we service prefer IE, mostly because they don't like change... ironic, since IE now looks radically different from previous versions. Doesn't matter, because it still uses that familiar little blue 'e' that they know as 'The Internet'.

As I said before, if IE is necessary (or a necessary evil) on current Windows platforms regardless of whether or not it's actually used, I might as well do my part to make sure it's an updated, more secure release (that is, until automatic updates takes over).

doh..

So let me get this straight. 3 mill downloads are worth heralding? Surely if they were delivered from Microsoft servers ;)

A lot of people needed the update. It's not like they had a choice. Other browser users can get by easily on olcer version, something I would never recommend my IE users to do.

well IE does have add-ons so eventually I think it'll have extensions similar to firefox

Keep that autoupdate POS away from my computer...

After using all the betas and removing them from my machine in disgust, I hope there is a way to keep this POS from being installed on my computer. Auto update my butt

I'm a die hard Firefox user. I've been using Firefox since it was Firebird and Phoenix.

I love the extensions that I can use with Firefox.

I will however say that I am not here to bash Microsoft and IE7. I have been using it for about 3 days now. I ran Beta 2 and Beta 3 of IE7 and they were flaky at best.

This final release of IE7 is a good build. I really like it and I have no complaints about it at all.

About the only Firefox extension I cannot live without is Adblock Plus. If I could find an ad blocking add-on for IE7 I may switch for good.

Damn good job Microsoft.

Joe, Since you raise the subject, I use AdMuncher and really swear by it. It completely transforms being on the internet. No popups, no banners. Well worth paying for.

I agree as far as extensions go... one of the biggest reasons why it would be extremely hard for me to use IE exclusively. I'm using both Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7 (giving it a fair chance), and I do miss Adblock Plus the most when using IE. I've gotten so used to surfing without pop-ups and banner ads that every time I surf with IE (or FF w/out Adblock), I'm almost startled by how differently the pages look with all that junk taking up so much space and making a jumbled mess of the page layouts, scattering the content all over creation.

I think that's what I find amusing most of the time... I keep thinking to myself "has it gotten this bad?", when it probably has been that way for the past couple of years, and I simply haven't noticed because of that extension.

They get more intrusive as more people leech off sites by blocking their revenue.

privoxy.org

it's free and configurable.

Try Ad Muncher - best ad-cure ever. It acts as a local proxy and enhances IE in other matters as well. Perfect companion to IE and worth every Cent

I too think the final release was very stable, fast and easy to use. Microsoft did a good job on this release.

Am I the only one to get a very alpha-ish behaviour when right-clicking the navigation bar?

(Here that brings up the window menu, which usually appears when hitting alt+space.)

Well, I'm glad I have adblock+ then... :)

Amen to that - can't live without AdBlock. Not leaving Firefox until someone shows me a better browser with that capability. :)

Why pay for an add-on to IE that's already free in Firefox?

Haha - it's great, but well beyond the capabilities of your average user. ;)

I would probably classify most that frequent this site as average power users... there's a difference. They're not afraid to at least try. :)

Because the Firefox extension is not available for IE?

That makes no sense.

Both browsers are free. The *only* reason he said he doesn't use IE is because of the ad-blocking.

Why would he pay for that if there's nothing else backing his desire to move?

Well worth paying for.

That depends on how badly you want to be running a browser that doesn't either have the functionality built-in or freely available, doesn't it?

> Why would he pay for that if there's nothing else backing his desire to move?

He didn't say there is nothing else backing his desire to move. He said nothing but the Adblock plugin for Firefix is holding him back. Whether he wants to pay for the IE Add-on or not is speculation.

Some people are ready to make compromises when that saves them $20. Others are not.

Lol @ using a browswer described as a compromise. Dude, people use what they want to. Period.

Say what you will about IE7 (and I'm sure most will, as I always encourage), but Microsoft has definitely appeared to have listened to a lot of people's complaints and recommendations, and pointed IE toward what seems to be a bright future. Time will tell on that one.

A few years ago I adopted Opera then Firefox for their features and security, and have had no regrets. Due to the daily battle that wages on against malware at my job, I have come to loathe IE6. It would have to be a very good reason for me to switch back to IE, but I'm always willing to give the benefit of the doubt. I have to say, though... what I've seen so far with IE7 is impressive in terms of speed, features, and the interface (which took quite a while to get used to, having IE look the same almost since inception until now).

If IE is going to be integrated so tightly into the OS anyway, why not have a "better" (subjective, I know) version installed? I say bring on automatic updates, if for nothing more than the hopes of making my job at the shop less frustrating in the long run.

I installed ie7 'just because' it is a component of windows, I just like being patched and all, meh. Don't really use it though, I prefer Firefox.

Same here. Also use it for occasional testing.

I noticed they didn't even fix max-width...

What???
3 Million???
4 Days????

edit-deleted. Thanks for editing yours...

Please, MS and Mozilla fanboys alike--try not to make this into anything other than what it is. The "which one's better?" question will always be a subjective one, and this does not change the answer one bit.

Having said that, I am a little surprised so many people have downloaded this. I knew some would have, even hundreds of thousands, but I didn't expect 3 million.

Note that for previous beta and RC1 users of IE7 this was a critical update already, but IE6 and FF users have not been "forced" into downloading this yet. The numbers are impressive thus far I think--they speak for themselves.

it would be nice to know how many of them are still using it after downloading it ;)

I for one have downloaded it for the security advances but don't use it. Nice new icon, though.

A feature I've grown to love is the Quick Tabs button when multiple tabs are open. I like the way the pages are presented in that layout. It makes it easier to pick the one you want at a glance when you have an absurd number of tabs open.

and how many of those 3 million are actually "unique" users ....
of course we have to consider as well, how many installed it successfully (owners of a legit xp key)

i don't see how that's different for any other browser though. take all numbers on browsers with a grain of salt.

Who cares?

All browsers make these claims.

They're not spot-on, they're not incredibly accurate.

Take 'em with a grain of salt.

damn IE fanboys ....
yes, both of you ....

LOL ....

I'm a firefox and opera user and I downloaded IE7 to see what the fuzz was about. Well, after using it for the last few days I have to say that I like IE7 very much. I've been using IE7 to go to all my favorite websites 100% of the time. I guess it's time to put firefox and opera in the back burner.

Both of you?

You on the pipe again, man?

FYI: I use firefox.

...just sayin'.