Jun 17 2008
Firefox 3 Download Day
It’s Firefox 3 Download Day today. It is effectively marketing hype and a viral campaign, although the less cynical among you may call it Mozilla’s attempt to create a world record. The idea being that after 3 years of development, the “new and improved” (oxymoron?) browser will not only revolutionise the browser market but will set a Guinness World Record for the most number of downloads of an application in one day.
Three (how apt) problems so far:
- Their download day notification e-mail contained a link to download Firefox 2
- The only working site I can find with a Firefox 3 download keeps timing out due to stupidly high server load
- Thousands of people across the world downloaded Firefox 3 after midnight only to discover that Mozilla, in their infinite wisdom, set the record start time for 10am (PDT)
Still, hopefully I’ll be able to get my Firefox 3 before the 24 hours is up and help to set a new record.
Update (19:21 GMT): Melissa just posted a link to a Mozilla blog entry on the subject. Apparently their servers were overwhelmed… no shit! :P
Update (20:12 GMT): the download link is now working, although a tad slow to respond as to be expected.
47 Responses so far
-
I just downloaded mine from the FTP. I don’t have time to deal with craziness. :P
-
But Aisling, how do we know if that counts towards the world record?!
-
I didn’t get that oxymoron, but I have heard of all the problems and it makes my lolz.
-
I didn’t get that oxymoron
How can something be new and improved — surely if it’s new, there’s nothing to improve from?
-
Jenny: If it’s new… how can it be improved? Improved implies that it existed before, thus not new.
I’ll wait to see how things evolve. For me it’s much more entertaining seeing people run around like crazy… as if it were a national holiday. Nope don’t care about setting any record. I just want a good browser.
-
Nope don’t care about setting any record.
Aw Vera, you spoilsport :P
-
… I still don’t get it. :(
-
Download Day made me all confused. When I first heard about it, I couldn’t figure out when, and today I spent five minutes banging my head in hopes of enlightenment. I was hoping my email would link to a nice friendly page saying, “CONGRATULATIONS! You have selected yourself to be a member of an epic moment in browser history…click here to download.”
Stop confusing me, Firefox. -.-
-
You know what an oxymoron is, don’t you Jenny? It’s like a word or statement that contradicts itself.. yes? (Or something along those lines.) Well, if something is improved, that means it existed so that the current form could be worked on to make that better version.. yes? However, if something is NEW, it never existed, so couldn’t have been worked on to come up with an improved version. Therefore the phrase “new and improved” is contradictory, and thus an oxymoron.
-
English lecturer and PHP Ninja. Gee, Jem, don’t you ever stop?
Not to mention extortionist extraordinaire… :P
Heard the graphics blow. Get Safari… and a Mac. ;)
-
I downloaded Firefox 3 from Softpedia, but also downloaded it from Mozilla to help their cause. We got there in the end. It only took 2 hours. :P
-
I’ve been trying since noon to download it and, two hours later, I’m just now able to download it! I already had RC3, so there’s really no point, but I like being a statistic. :3
-
-
The crazily eerie thing is, I was wondering this afternoon when Firefox 3 would come out. Then, hitting the web, I realised that today is the day!
It’s a recipe for server crashes, really. I can’t believe that they didn’t beef up their computing power network grid thingy.
-
Ah.
I’m used to seeing “feather of lead” and “cold fire” et cetera as oxymorons.
However, it is a new version and it is improved so in that sense it sort of makes sense? Isn’t it a popular saying? o.O
-
Finally got it! :) Which is probably the most exciting thing that will happen to me today.
-
Setting the Guinness world record may be the stated goal of all this activity, but in the end that’s only a novelty. The real show is the online mass mobilization that’s taking place.
-
Lawl. Poor Mozilla. EPIC FAIL in my opinion. XD
Firefox still pwns the universe though, so yay.
-
Got it! … but haven’t installed it yet. One of my vital extensions, LJLogin, doesn’t work with Firefox 3 yet, and I can’t even imagine going back to RPing on LJ without it *shudders*
-
I finally got through as well. I love how all the people on the forum were going bonkers because it was already the 17th on their time and they didn’t know about the release time.
It was highly marketed, but in terms of giving out a date, Mozilla could have done a better job. I didn’t know about the release time until this morning and I knew of the day just a few days ago.
There are a few nitpicky things I’m not too happy with in the “new and improved” version, but hopefully they’ll fix that.
-
I can sympathise with their downtime to be honest – they’re -currently- dealing with approx. 250 downloads PER SECOND. That’s around 88GB of bandwidth every minute. Their CDN must be glowing red hot.
I managed to get it tonight after coming home from work – the download wasn’t ready until 10am PDT, which is pretty late for most of us, but what the heck. It’s installed, it’s working great and it’s significantly faster than v2.
-
Anyone else got their funky monkey certificate? :P
-
But Aisling, how do we know if that counts towards the world record?!
It doesn’t. :D
I don’t care!!! :D :D :D :P
-
Dude, I failed Quote School. :(
-
I saw a blurb about Firefox 3 in the little tv thinger in the elevator at my job a couple weeks ago. I’m not gonna lie, I fangirled about it a tiny bit.
-
[...] reading what Jem had to say about the Firefox 3.0 release I made sure to download it and check it [...]
-
@Jem: Perhaps I should have mentioned the get safari/mac thing was not necessarily in that order… Get the mac, use Safari, be happy.
Yay for everyone :)
-
Downloaded it, installed it… and then wept as I lost a few of my favourite addons. :(
But I found a few better ones, so I am good. Now to get used to the new features.
-
Poor Mozilla. :O I think I’ll wait till long after the hype before I download – Or until my FF2 addons are updated. :D
-
I just downloaded it. It’s pretty cool. : D My only add on was my del.icio.us thing and they already updated it so I’m fine with that..
-
I am using it right now :D I like it.
-
I just downloaded version 3 a few minutes ago, and I really like it. I was a little worried while installing because it informed me that my FireFTP add-on wasn’t compatible. :( Luckily, they found the newest version that is. :) That was all I was really worried about.
-
And somehow I didn’t know anything about it till 4 hours ago. N I don’t really use Firefox anymore but I’ll get round to trying v3 eventually.
-
But Aisling, how do we know if that counts towards the world record?!
But Jem, how do we give a shit about whether it counts towards a world record?!
:P
-
I did hear somewhere that they were going to do a big release day.. .but silly me missed it!! lol.
So am downloading it a day late.Love updates though :D
-
Duly noted, downloaded from your link and installed :)
*Pats herself on the head for being a good mummy* -
I don’t think thats n oxymoron, ‘new’ would contradict with ‘old’ or something similiar.
A new version of Mozilla Firefox which is improved.
–
oh and about that safari in one of your comments, can we really trust Microsoft to point out a flaw in one of there rival companies (Apple). In my opinion Microsoft are trying to increase there downloads and reduce Safari’s. Still, I could be wrong :P -
*an
-
But Jem, how do we give a shit about whether it counts towards a world record?!
No party poopers here – GTFO.
In my opinion Microsoft are trying to increase there downloads and reduce Safari’s.
…and you’re not biased in the slightest. :P I’ll leave you to google the proof of concept for the exploit.
-
5.5 million downloads and rising. we will prevail.
-
Downloaded it at approx 9pm GMT, onyl took 10 mins with no problems :P I lost FireFTP though -.-
-
I heard something vague about Firefox 3 over the last few weeks, but paid no mind. I swear I live under a rock in a cave about three galaxies over…
*feels infinitely out of the loop*
However, at least I didn’t feel stupid for downloading at midnight, which I would have. (And they really should have started the counter at midnight GMT.
-
Downloaded mine hours ago. =) Works well.
-
I can’t believe I didn’t hear about the release until the day it was released when Melly told me.
-
omg i lost all my fav addons that i uses liek color picker and meserit and my book mark icon thing :( googlles tool bar dotn work i lost my myspace bar :( i want my old fire fox back :(
-
[...] been using the new browser for nearly 48 hours now, so I thought it about time I share my [...]
-
[...] most of you will likely remember, I upgraded to Firefox 3 on download day and was “quite happy” with it. The excitement was fairly short-lived, [...]
