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Prompt's TechBlog

Let's all help set a world record!

02 June 2008

Posted by James Gerber

Mozilla is asking people to pledge to download Firefox 3 on the date of its launch. The goal: to set a new world record (one that doesn't exist yet), certified by Guinness World Records.

This is a noble endeavor for several reasons. First, it would mean a world record for open source software. And what better way to have one than for everyone to come together as a community within a 24 hour period to set it? This is a great idea and I'm excited to see what it will mean for open source.

You wouldn't see this happening for a Microsoft product. Firefox is the best browser out there, and Firefox 3 is poised to be nine times faster than Internet Explorer 7. Nine times!

Fun trivia fact: The US leads in the amount of download pledges at present. The country in the #2 spot? Poland. Firefox must go good with kielbasas.


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# posted by James Gerber at 4:09 PM

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# posted by Blogger Duncan Heaney : Wednesday, June 04, 2008 4:26:00 PM
 

I am always very sceptical about downloading this kind of software on day of release.

It is my understanding that the beta was not without its problems and I'd much prefer to wait to see if these wrinkles are ironed out and if any new ones emerge.

I like Firefox a lot and it is my preferred browser, but still I'm going to be cautious.

# posted by Blogger Duncan Heaney : Wednesday, June 04, 2008 4:28:00 PM
 

I agree, I've been hearing a lot of reports of bugs in the betas, although I'd hope most of them would be resolved by the stable version.

I'm only downloading it on the day to be a part of the world record (2nd one I've been a part of, along with the largest Facebook group). I'll probably switch back to FF2 right after and wait a few months to see what people are saying about FF3.

# posted by Blogger James Gerber : Wednesday, June 04, 2008 5:28:00 PM
 

By nature I'm an early adopting, beta-testing kind of guy. I sign up for any betas that seem interesting to me.

However I quite purposefully passed on the option to download FF3's beta because a browser is just far too critical a tool for day to day work. I can't tolerate bugs in something I use that often (which is why IE doesn't cut it for me ...)

Having said that, I'm eager to download FF3 because I can only assume that if Mozilla is finally releasing it then the bugs must be gone (relatively).

Unlike Microsoft, who pushes products out to make money, Mozilla has no real reason to push this out before being thoroughly tested.

It's been in beta for a while now, so we have to think it's ready to go. I'm signed up for the world record download day- count me in.

# posted by Blogger Zach Hofer-Shall : Wednesday, June 04, 2008 5:37:00 PM
 
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