For starters, all users get a redesigned tabs-on-top interface that is being compared to Chrome but is actually more similar to recent Opera releases – in Windows, the tabs are all above the address bar, and a large button in the upper-left corner of the screen provides access to browser settings.
Those reports were wrong. It turns out, Firefox 4 was downloaded 7.1 million times in its first day. In fact, in the first 48 hours of release, Mozilla racked up more than 15.85 million downloads.Over at the Mozilla blog, the team put together an infographic detailing the first 48 hours of activity. Downloads peaked at 10,200 per minute and averaged 91.7 downloads per second.
Although the web browser has only increased in importance since Firefox 1.0 was released in 2004, many users and our readers have expressed indifference or even disinterest in Firefox 4. The desktop browser wars are still going strong; however, most of us would agree the real battle is on mobile devices and tablets. It’s an issue I discussed at length with Dan Benjamin on a recent segment our podcast, Briefly Awesome. The number of people who downloaded Firefox 4 in the last 24 hours, however, indicates to me that the desktop is still an area of great importance for the web and its ecosystems.
