414304 - Firefox should use IEC standard prefix or native local language

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 106618

(Toolkit :: Downloads API, enhancement)

Description

[Damian Shaw [Quan]]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.2; en-US; rv:1.9b2) Gecko/2007121120 Firefox/3.0b2
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.2; en-US; rv:1.9b2) Gecko/2007121120 Firefox/3.0b2

Given plurals have landed ( http://ed.agadak.net/2008/01/plurals-downloads-statuses-for-yous ) I think it's about time Firefox moved away from the horrific:

KB meaning kibiBytes when KB actually means Kelvin Bytes
MB meaning MibiBytes when MB actually means MegaBytes
GB meaning GibiBytes when GB actually means GigaBytes

Also we should not use sec, the SI unit for seconds is s, ISO dictates we use mathematical notation or language, not to mix them up.

We should either use the given local language e.g kibi, mibi etc.. or kilo, mega etc.. and actually mean them.

Or if we stick with just using units which should switch to the IEC standard prefix and use KiB, MiB, GiB etc.. As that's what Firefox is actually calculating at the moment.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Find something to download
2. Look at the download manager statistics
Actual Results:  
Many ISO rules broken

Expected Results:  
Firefox should support standards

Comment 2

[Zipdox]

People keep reporting this and it keeps getting marked as a "duplicate" of a bug reported 20 years ago when Firefox didn't even exist, mind you. Times have changed and the KiB/KB difference is pretty well-known. Choosing to ignore the issue because changing it would be "confusing" is stupid as hell, and only contributes to the misconception.