Firefox Hits 25 Million Download Mark

The milestones keep on coming for the open source Web browser that could. Mozilla developers announced this week that Firefox has been downloaded 25 million times in less than 100 days after its 1.0 launch. Even Microsoft evangelist turned blogger Robert Scoble took the time to applaud Firefox developers for their success.

Since making its debut in early November, Firefox has turned the attention away from Microsoft's ubiquitous Internet Explorer and garnered rave reviews along the way.

In late January, tallies of Web browser usage showed that Firefox has begun to eat away at IE's dominance, and now holds over 5 percent of the market.

"What was just a small flame 100 days ago has since exploded into a phenomenal demonstration of the power of open source. Tens of thousands of devoted users and fans are a powerful and capable force of change," wrote Firefox developers. "More than 500,000 sites now link to Firefox according to Google — a fivefold increase from six months ago."

Microsoft has apparently taken notice of Firefox's success, despite initial doubts about the project. Company chairman Bill Gates this week backed away from a decision to hold off upgrading Internet Explorer until Longhorn; IE 7.0 is now slated to hit beta in June.

"You did what few people have done: you changed the world and got people to download and install your application," said Microsoft's Scoble. "In just a few months your app has become one of the most used Windows applications in the world. My hat's off to you!"