Internet Explorer Below 70% Market Share
Internet Explorer is losing increasing numbers of users to Firefox. Google has added another blow by announcing the end of official support for IE 6.
According to statistics released by Net Applications market shares of Internet Explorer for December 2008 were 68%, a first time fall to under 70%. 21% of surfers used Firefox and Safari 8%.
Compared with November, this marks a drop of 2% for the IE browser, which a year ago had secured an 80% share of the browser market. Reasons for the drop are numerous: For one, a lot of users find it difficult to make friends with the new IE version and then there's the repeated appearance of security leaks in the MS browser. Microsoft has also lost points in the OS market. Current estimates label 89% of PC users as Windows users. In 2007, it was 92%, with Apple Mac OS X attracting for the first time 10% of users. (up from 6.5% last year). Net Application statistics put the growth of Linux users up from 0.45% to 0.85%.
With Google's announcement regarding the end of official support for IE 6, the drop in Microsoft's browser market shares is likely to continue over the next few months. Google is advising users to change to Firefox or Google Chrome. Experience shows that in similar cases, half of users migrate to Firefox without even considering the IE update.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.