I can attest to that! While I never reached the upper echelons of virality that other browsers in recent memory have, I had much the same experience with Waterfox. Right place, right time gave it its initial user base: posting about a 64-bit build of Firefox on the Overclock.net forums. It hit the right time as people were starting to switch to 64-bit Windows and upgrading their hardware to match
I think that first week the project got 50k downloads! I was of course only 16 so had no concept of what to do but just keep getting new builds out - after all I made the builds because I couldn’t find anyone who would consistently and regularly do so.
This is similar to what Malcolm Gladwell mentioned in Outliers (I think). He identified a certain group of people as connectors, people that if you don't know directly then you will know someone who does. And reaching these connectors are often vital for certain trends to take off
I can attest to that! While I never reached the upper echelons of virality that other browsers in recent memory have, I had much the same experience with Waterfox. Right place, right time gave it its initial user base: posting about a 64-bit build of Firefox on the Overclock.net forums. It hit the right time as people were starting to switch to 64-bit Windows and upgrading their hardware to match
I think that first week the project got 50k downloads! I was of course only 16 so had no concept of what to do but just keep getting new builds out - after all I made the builds because I couldn’t find anyone who would consistently and regularly do so.
This is similar to what Malcolm Gladwell mentioned in Outliers (I think). He identified a certain group of people as connectors, people that if you don't know directly then you will know someone who does. And reaching these connectors are often vital for certain trends to take off