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I went to Mozilla presentations at the last FISL (Forum Internacional de Software Livre / Free Software International Forum) here in Brazil. They explained clea

by steiger 17y ago

I went to Mozilla presentations at the last FISL (Forum Internacional de Software Livre / Free Software International Forum) here in Brazil. They explained clearly that one billion downloads don't mean one billion users. And, honestly, I don't see nothing wrong in this kind of marketing. Even though the download counter isn't a reliable source for the exact number of users, it's still reasonable to estimate a software's growth based on the growth in number of downloads between versions. I can't think of a better, marketable way to promote Firefox based on it's growth.

mike_organon 17y ago
But saying a billion isn't the same as giving an estimation of growth. It just seems like a misleading (even if true) statistic.
- Herring 17y ago
  It's probably meant the same way as McDonalds saying so many billion served. A lot of people come in more than once.
- steiger 17y ago
  If a billion downloads today is much larger than what it used to be, then yes, I would see it as an estimation of growth. I see easily how can it mislead people, but, really, I don't see it as enough reason to not promote the software that way. 1 billion downloads is really something to celebrate, and I would celebrate it even if it has a potential to mislead some people.