Firefox on fire -- in Iran!

Shorts
by Shorts
19-Jun-2008
 

Here's a little fact about Iran that really surprised me: Check:

//www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord

It is interesting to note that Iran had a huge number of Firefox 3 downloads in the 24hr-record attempt of Mozilla (more than many richer and/or bigger nations such as Canada, Russia, Italy, China, etc). Somehow Iran had significantly more downloads of Firefox 3 than the entire Middle East combined.

The closest countries (in geographical terms) that had more downloads than Iran were as far as Germany and France! Now you might say this is not really something important but I was thinking about what this number could possibly imply.

I'm still not exactly sure what this all means, but it might suggest that despite the restrictions, sanctions, economic problems and everything else that you know, Iran is still somehow a surprisingly well-connected and computer-savvy country with a large and curious on-line population that follows all sorts of things going on outside, including something as nerdy as this software release record.

Cheers,

Kaveh Hosseini

Balatarin
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FIREFOX3 is crap

by frustrated (not verified) on Fri Jun 20, 2008 07:12 AM PDT

I am so regretting the download and install of firefox3:
it's corrupted my IE and hangs up my PC

FireFox3 is very aggressive and changes all your web settings making IE useless and if you try to change default to IE, your PC does weird things and opens and closes internet windows on its own!

Don't install the crap!!!!


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Islam

by Iva (not verified) on Thu Jun 19, 2008 09:00 PM PDT

Reza,these discussion forums are for us to express opionions. My opinion in regards to original comment about "good internet connection" in Iran was the fact it is not true and then my reasons for my comment. You said, my reason was not correct, so be it. However, I am interested to learn your thoughts about why IRI officials who are, as they say, devotees of islam, refuse to bring high speed access to internet to masses/public.

If you have time, I also would like to learn what do you think about the fact that islamists kill anyone who speaks against islam teachings, mohmmad, ali, hussain and other imaginary islamic folks?!


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so much time in their hand..

by Live From Tehran (not verified) on Thu Jun 19, 2008 04:27 PM PDT

why are you guys making so much fuss about it.. it as a disaster..it means unemployment. It means that every iranian young man has so much time in their hand to sit front of computer and despite of slow connection still download their stupid browser..this is the embarrassment not a achievement..


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Fighting over firefox Iva-Reza

by Aziz (not verified) on Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:55 AM PDT

Glad to hear the net community is well and active in Iran.
I recall as early as 1970's both Pahlavi U. and Aryamehr U. had started agressive computer teaching programs. In 1975 I saw the digital table tennis game in a San Diego hotel for the 1st time, that same year my friends were assembling their own circuit boards in Tehran creating similar computer games. anyway:

Reza:What did poor Iva say to merit such an attack??
Iva: Give Islam a break: You mean IRI not Islam. Did you forget what Vatican did to Galileo and Giverdano Bruno.?? Algebra??Alcohol?Aldabaran?Almagest?Arabic numerals?


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Iva, I agree with you that

by Fenix (not verified) on Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:41 AM PDT

Iva, I agree with you that the IRI does everything in its power to prevent people from being properly connected and this is one of the reasons why this download number is even more astonishing. I was in Iran a few months ago and I know exactly how difficult and slow Internet connections are, plus the IRI indeed filters many sites. Despite that, people are so eager to connect that they come up with all sorts of "filter-shekan" to circumvent the filters. I think that the Iranian youth is very resourceful and inventive when it comes to fight the IRI's attempts to restrict their lives.


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Iva

by reza5555 (not verified) on Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:01 AM PDT

Aren't you getting tired of bashing Islam at EVERY single occasion you get? What the hell does Islam have to do with fast Internet connection? Why do you people twist everything to get at Islam? How the hell did you come up with this "Islam means taslim and taslim means no knowledge" BS?

Why can't you think outside that little box of yours? It looks like some people cannot produce any sort of analysis without going through bashing the religion first.

And for your information, there are DSL and fast internet connection in Iran. Many people and companies have access to it. If it's not widespread, it's because we still lack the necessary infrastructure for it. Go on a trip to Iran for God sake.

And had you lived in Iran for a couple of months, you would have realized that the whole media machinery is constantly promoting education and learning as mandatory requirements of Islam. They promote education and "amoozandeh" activities so much that it's becoming boring. So, once again, how the hell do you come up with these cliche conclusions of yours?


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surprisingly well-connected

by Iva (not verified) on Thu Jun 19, 2008 06:02 AM PDT

NOT.

Get hold of a few of your friends in Iran and asked them how do they connect to Internet and with what speed.

IRI officials DO NOT allow fast and reliable connection to internet in fear of "information". You ask why, because KNOWLEDGE is in contrast with islamic doctrine. islam means "taslim" as in take my words and shut up .. knowledge means question everything and understand what is in front of you.


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that's right

by Anonymoush (not verified) on Thu Jun 19, 2008 05:48 AM PDT

it means that Iranians despite the government restrictions, sanctions, high prices and high inflation rate can still be more computer literate and even more educated than all their neighbors combined and even more than European nations.
it could also mean that a free download is more popular in Iran where nothing is free and readily available but jooneh aadamizad...

was there a contest for most downloads of the version 3 firefox yesterday?


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