Comments on: Could Mac Users Use Some Help Installing Firefox?

By: Jesse Ruderman

Jesse Ruderman — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:05:40 +0000

I think the dmg distribution makes it unnecessarily hard to install Mac Firefox, at least from Safari. Many newer apps are distributed using simple zip files. Can you throw together a “Firefox.app in a zip” download for the next point release and do some A/B testing?

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:39:33 +0000

Alix noted that “…we can’t tell in the Mac case if people didn’t install or if they installed successfully but never launched Firefox.”
I suppose at one level we would really like to know this, on another, it does have the same net effect – non-usage.

I’m curious, is there a reason that we don’t use an installer on the Mac? Perhaps there’s no technical reason to do so, but it would allow us to do two things: 1) give a controlled, pleasant feeling install (so we’re hand-holding and informing/introducing) and 2) start the browser after the install.
I think this would help our adoption rate by improving the overall first run experience and by making sure that the first run actually happens.

By: Gervase Markham

Gervase Markham — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:26:05 +0000

Perhaps before people download on Linux we should be suggesting that they get a package from their distro? After all, installing the .tar.gzs we ship is not exactly trivial.

But then why does anyone download on Linux? Who doesn’t ship Firefox? Could it be that people are missing the in-product update mechanisms? Or are distros slow in providing new versions such that people feel they need to install them over the top?

Or perhaps we should be providing packages for major distros ourselves.

By: Corey Burger

Corey Burger — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:57:23 +0000

Like the download stats of anything that is packaged by a Linux distro, the numbers lie horribly, because the vast majority of Linux users receive their copy of Firefox|OpenOffice.org|etc. from the distro maker, not Mozilla itself.

By: Donnie Berkholz

Donnie Berkholz — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:30:18 +0000

“This distribution should come close to mirroring the overall population of Firefox users and the population of internet users more generally.”

I would expect the Linux numbers wildly underestimate Firefox users on Linux. Perhaps the best estimate of this would be the Firefox upgrade page, which will show up to most Linux users regardless of where they got their Firefox.

I also agree with Lucy’s comment regarding the Linux users who do download it here.

By: Alix Franquet

Alix Franquet — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:01:53 +0000

The experience on Mac is different than on Windows. To install on Windows you need to open the set up wizard and go through the different steps, the last step has a checked box that says “Launch Firefox”. On the Mac, once the download is complete, one has to open it and drag and drop the Firefox icon into the application folder, but Firefox does not launch automatically. So we can’t tell in the Mac case if people didn’t install or if they installed successfully but never launched Firefox.

By: Majken "Lucy" Connor

Majken "Lucy" Connor — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:09:15 +0000

With linux I’d wager that it’s new linux users who know they want Firefox but don’t know how to install apps on linux yet. They come to us, download the file, then when they get help installing Firefox they’re shown how to do it from the package manager.

Would be interesting to see the linux numbers broken down by distro.