14%86%

I think that it was far less malicious than you think, Chris. Most people who have adopted Firefox so far have done so out of necessity (if they run Linux it really is now almost the standard and included in many distros), recommendation (from open-source-aware friends, security sites, etc) or requirement (some businesses have removed IE due to the widely touted security concerns).

Most people falling into those categories are not particularly marketing-savvy, so I think that the primary purpose of the GetFirefox campaign was to prompt people to say how they felt about the browser -- something they might not have thought to do. As Alistair commented, I doubt if they thought it was shit they would have voted positively on CNET!

What is it exactly that you object to so much re Firefox? It seems to upset you greatly!

29%71%

Let just say for arguments sake, that Firefox was an incredible heap of crap. What reason would the people who visited CNET's Download.com website have to register positive votes and comments? Could it possibly be that the vast majority of users are quite happy with their experience when using Firefox? Or are they all in some vast pro-Firefox, anti-Microsoft group delusion? Unable to see the fact that their browser is too busy corrupting its chrome to actually let them visit any sites, because they are so obsessed with "sticking it the man/Microsoft"?

I am genuinely curious for your thoughts on this. If Firefox is really that crap (as you seem to keep suggesting) then how has the Mozilla Foundation managed to stir up so much support?

33%67%

FYI, I surfed in on a google image search for "Firefox" (which showed this image:

on page four)

How is promoting a product one really likes and finds really useful "deceptive, self-serving zealotry"?

When I switched to Firefox from IE it made web surfing a FAR more enjoyable experience.

I used to find stuff every single time I scanned with Ad-Aware or Spybot Search & Destroy. Now its very rare (and only 'tracking cookies' so far).

Never mind the endless parade of patches that need installing for IE (and other MS) vulnerabilities. Do you think that no one looks at Secunia?

http://secunia.com/product/11/
http://secunia.com/product/4227/

I used to get tons of pop ups in IE until I took matters into my own hands and installed Proxomitron. I no longer need it thanks to integrated FF extensions like Adblock and Flashblock. Other extensions help me customize my browser in really neat ways.

I am addicted to tabbed browsing; it really makes surfing individual sites easier.

I would gladly recommend Firefox to anyone online (and have to several people offline as well, including one who had a massive spyware infection, courtesy IE, thank you very much)

I question why you feel the need to defend Microsoft: "As an unaffiliated developer, I'd like to present the case for Microsoft's IE6 SP2 in the face of competitors that use evangelism to dominate the grass-roots media."

If FF were just hype, it would have fizzled out shortly after the 1.0 release. If IE had robust anti-spyware mechanisms (or just lacked the gaping security holes in the first place), there wouldn't be a million downloads of FF every four to five days.

Comparing Firefox to Opera ignores the fact that the latter either has ads or is not free. And AFAIK Konqueror is not for Windows (see here) so neither are really fair comparisons.

You appear to have some sort of grudge against FF; dunno why, but it seems awfully petty.

50%50%

What you refer to as cowboy marketing, is actually called viral marketing and in this case makes a nice companion to the genuine grass roots marketing that is also going on. Viral marketing is quite a legitimate form of marketing these days and most large companies (including Microsoft) use it. Also, in general a community marketing campaign is usually staffed largely by people who do genuinely believe in the product, the crazy IT zealots usually can't be bothered.

71%29%

Don't move your edit war from Internet Exploer for Mozilla Firefox. I've just rewritten the whole section. Satisfy?