Firefox 3 to set download record on June 17?
Correction on June 13: The spelling of Johnathan Nightingale has been fixed.
On Wednesday, Mozilla announced next Tuesday, June 17, as "Download Day" for Firefox 3. The company also released Firefox 3 release candidate 3 as a final step toward full release.
With Firefox 3, Mozilla is attempting to set a Guinness Book of World Records for the largest number of software downloads within a 24-hour period. There is currently no Guinness Book record for that accomplishment.
Firefox 3 includes a new rendering engine, so pages load faster. It also uses fewer system resources, addressing a complaint in earlier versions.
On this week's Security Bites podcast, I spoke with Johnathan Nightingale, Mozilla's "human shield," about the security features within Firefox 3, including its antimalware protection and support for Extended Verification SSL.
The current Firefox 3 release candidate, version 3, can be downloaded for Windows, Portable, Mac, and Linux systems.
As CNET's resident security expert, Robert Vamosi has been interviewed on the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and other outlets to share his knowledge about the latest online threats and to offer advice on personal and corporate security. Listen to his podcast at securitybites.cnet.com or e-mail Robert with your questions and comments. 
Why use alternative browsers? They support open standards, for one thing. They drive innovation, just about every snazzy "new" feature in IE7 came from Opera, FireFox and Safari. And browser diversity improves security and slows virus proliferation.
And I'll say the exact same thing about email clients and operating systems if you ask.
Why use alternative browsers? They support open standards, for one thing. They drive innovation, just about every snazzy "new" feature in IE7 came from Opera, FireFox and Safari. And browser diversity improves security and slows virus proliferation.
And I'll say the exact same thing about email clients and operating systems if you ask.
Almost all browsers other than IE are built on open standards. IE insists on MS proprietary standards. Site designers wanting to add complex features often have to design their site so it works both with Open Standards and with Microsoft's proprietary standards. Some designers only bother to design for Microsoft IE, thus causing compatibility issues for the other 20% or so of Firefox users, Mac users, and other browsers.
Firefox is better than Safari at more-or-less gracefully keeping it together on a site designed only for IE. But the fact that some designers choose to use the MS proprietary standards is not Safari's fault.
Personally, when I hit a site designed only for IE, it's often an older site that hasn't been updated in fve years, but if not, I'll happily take my clicks elsewhere if they aren't going to design for everybody.
Should Adobe submit their server logs to Guinness Book of World Records for the record and resubmit it any time there is a spike? Would Microsoft be able to beat that 25 million number with any of their new applications rolled out with their automatic updates?
Either way, it's doubtful that Mozilla will break any records, they will just be the first to submit a record to Guinness Book of World Records.
- by DADSGETNDOWN June 18, 2008 11:45 PM PDT
- (There is currently no Guinness Book record for that accomplishment.)
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(18 Comments)Haha! I found this weird and funny.
Guess it wasn't hard to do.
Whoever the first person to download FF3 was, set a Guinness Book Record.