Mozilla Firefox gains 30mn users in 8 weeks; updates to v3.5.4 to fix critical flaws

By Mihir Patkar | Updated on 28-Oct-2009

28-Oct-2009

Chalk up another point for the open-source community! Mozilla’s CEO John Lily, in a Twitter post on Monday, said that the company has gained 30 million Firefox users in the last eight weeks alone.

Also, on Tuesday, Firefox received an update to version 3.5.4 in an attempt to fix 16 flaws, 11 of which were deemed critical.

GAINING GROUND

The Firefox browser is set to check in with the Mozilla server every 24 hours for any updates. Tristan Nitot, president of Mozilla Europe, told ZDNet UK that the company estimated its users by counting these scheduled pings on its servers, and multiplying it by three to adjust for days when people are not browsing.

Over the past eight weeks, Mozilla has seen an average increase of 10 million daily users, from approximately 103 million to 113 million. That translates to a total of approximately 330 million monthly users.

“It’s amazing to have 330 million users,” said Nitot. “That’s the size of the population of the USA.”

The reason for this could be that people are coming back to school and work after summer breaks in the northern hemisphere.

Firefox already has over 30 per cent of the Indian browser market, according to StatCounter.

FIX YOUR FOX

Meanwhile, Firefox has been updated to v3.5.4, with Mozilla authorities imploring users to grab the latest version as it patches 16 vulnerabilities in the browser.

Of the 16, 11 were deemed ‘critical’, located in a variety of components such as Web worker calls, a trio of third-party media libraries, and both the JavaScript and browser engines.

Of the remaining five vulnerabilities, three were deemed ‘moderate’, while the other two received a ‘low’ security risk warning.

If your Firefox browser has not prompted you to update yet, you can grab the latest v3.5.4 of the browser here.