Once Mozilla releases settle down a few months later and many "fixes", they are great - BUT first day releases, NO WAY! I think they studied at the Apple Safari Coders School of Spaztics. Don't be an early adopter!!

Is that a joke?

God help us! Just when I was about to switch to Linux too.

Taking a leaf out the MS book, eh?

I really doubt the final release would be ready in official repos for Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat, SuSE etc. on that day. Those downloads wouldn't be counted toward this number anyway, right? Unless anybody knows about plans to help out this effort on GNU/Linux machines?

Mozilla wants to set a new record in a category that has no record. So, they get 25 downloads and it's a new record. Talk about setting the bar low!

If I find a new category for which there is no record can I have free publicity too???

Bunch of tossers.

What we want is good software, not hype. The fact that they have failed to notice that doesn't bode well.

Book me in for a download a few months after the first release.

and not had a single problem (running XP). It's just that little bit slicker than 2.x and it looks nicer as well.

Lets do something to give firefox some publicity... its a good browser. ill take part ... altho, not that many ppl have registered on the website...

I'd bet that Gentoo has it in Portage within a hour or two.

You can always download and run it without waiting for the offical package.

Or just down load it and not run it, but you'll still be counted :-)

From what I've seen of Firefox 3 beta the differences are pretty minimal. This is just a well timed publicity stunt jump from 2 to 3. Nicely between IE7 & 8.

Whilst I'm sinical I will still promote the day a bit because it's a great browser and a lot of people would be happier using it over IE.

Paris because she uses Firefox :)

First why the fuck am I on 2.0.0.14 - what the fuck is wrong with just 2.14? Why the fuck go from 2.0.0.14 to 3.0? What is the fucking point of the two middle zeros? How many wasted zeros have been sent across my Virgin Media line every time I click on a website? This stuff has contributed to my trigger capping.

Secondly - meh. Maybe there is something in the latest .14 release that will grab version 3 as soon as it's released? Firefox is installed on every single Linux PC and 99% of Windows XP machines. Okay it's not installed on Vista as it's probably not compatible but this is still a serious number of computers.

Anyway, what the fuck is a Guinness world record, usually I hand over a fiver for a pint of it (and get a glare if I expect change these days with oil at fifty euros a tin)

I use Opera nowadays, but I'll support them in their quest if not just to bring down the abomination that is IE...

"Mozilla decided to release a second release candidate for Firefox 3.0 at a meeting on Tuesday, in response to the discovery of 10 performance and stability bugs."

"Skip forward six months and we're at the point where the browser is in fine-tuning to eliminate the last few high-priority bugs."

No moron's, it's not releasing with the bugs, but no doubt it will have some, like any other software product.

What they are going for is a record that will be hard to beat, so 25 downloads is pointless, think IE8 and the "statistics" Microsoft will reel off when it's released.

I for one am all for it.

Get RC2 and try it. It seems (to me) to be more stable than 2.x, seems to run quicker, etc. I am yet to find any bugs with general use, apart from the occasional website that still insists you have to upgrade your version of Netscape to 4.x before you can use it.

And Mathew, x.y style version numbers are a curse from MS. Almost every other serious vendor uses at least x.y.z, and x.y.z.n are quite common too. They've jumped to 3 because it's a new major version (they re-wrote from scratch or very close to it). 2 never had anything beyond minor fixes, so they never created a 2.0.1.0 or such.

Eh, you forget- Debian had a fallout with the Mozilla corp over licensing. They don't use Firefox, they use IceWeasel :P

Firefox gets plenty of publicity. Its devotees seem bent on bringing it up anywhere they can regardless of whether people are interested. Just like Linux and openoffice zealots. It's well past the point where you guys are as annoying as popup ads, but unfortunately normal people in real life have no equivalent of AdBlocker except something like sticking knitting needles through their eardrums. I bet sharing an office with you guys is really fun. How did Steve Martin put it in 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'? "You're like those Chatty Kathy dolls, except noone has to pull your string because you do it yourself!"

"Don't be an early adopter"

Wise advice indeed. I'm a FF fanboy but I'm buggered if I'm going to substitute something that works tolerably well for something that *might* work well just to catapult Mozilla into a book founded by a duo of crypto fascists (Google the odious McWhirter twins).

Paris because she also shows a penchant for stupid publicity stunts

I have been using Firefox for over 2 years. Downloaded 3 and totally fucked up my computer, icons went crazy, several crashes. Just like IE was when I stopped using it. So after upgrade to 3 escapade I had to use IE for a couple of days. What a difference. Fast and responsive. Going back to IE, so long Firefox. Deduct 1 from the record.

Posting while pissed old chap?

I'll be sticking with FF2 and Opera until the fix the RetardedBar or default to safe and sane setting for it. Which another example of how Mozilla has been taken over by PR drones.

I'll probably download it if I don't forget about the release date, but I won't install it, not until all add-ons are compatible with it, it's the same reason why I'm not installing RC1

You're lucky. I'm also running XP and RC2 was so slow for graphic-heavy sites that I had to go back to 2.0.0.14. Pages of thumbnails appear to be hanging, because it doesn't render the page until the entire thing has been downloaded. Sometimes it seems to continue loading when the page has already finished loading. The earlier beta releases were much faster.

There's some way to go yet, I think .

The address bar history/bookmark searching thing is a massive plus in FF3 - instead of having to remember the name of a website you've previously visited or trawl your bookmarks, just type in some characters from the URL or page title and off you go. An excellent feature that I now really miss when I have to use FF2 or IE fer instance.

It's a bit like the search box on Vista's start menu (ooh, Vista - how controversial) which coincidentally is probably the nearest thing to Vista's killer usability feature in my book.

The Article doesn't say, when is it released ?

Never been impressed with Firefox, even the 3RC, it's still bloated, and very lite on features, for which you have to bloat it further with extensions.

The seemingly weekly security fixes that come out for 2.x release put me off too.

Since moving to Opera, I have never looked back. Opera 9.27 is rock solid, fast and has most of Firefox's best extensions built in. Opera 9.5 Beta is even better, even faster, and some new cool stuff like Bookmark, Notes and Speed Dial syncing between mobiles and other Opera installs.

"This encourages people to organise Download Day parties, to run around collecting sign-up pledges at their university or place of work, and to place Download Day buttons on their websites"

i can only imagine the geekiness of doing this! you might as well wear a t-shirt saying 'im a virgin and i live with my mum'

"Secondly - meh. Maybe there is something in the latest .14 release that will grab version 3 as soon as it's released? Firefox is installed on every single Linux PC and 99% of Windows XP machines. Okay it's not installed on Vista as it's probably not compatible but this is still a serious number of computers." ??? wtf? 99% of windows my ass... i would bet less than 20%!

I would consider sticking with 2.0.0.0.0.0.14.0.0.0.0.0 for at least a gay, sorry, day longer. It's on a par with "World's Biggest Bottom Burp" being "Rick, England".

Angelic Bill - because he's far above these world records ;-)

<blockquote>Lets do something to give firefox some publicity... its a good browser. ill take part ... altho, not that many ppl have registered on the website...</blockquote>

Lt's js hp th cn spk.

I wonder what happened to all the real browsers that Linux used to have before this dork en machina.

I don't know too many people running linux that actually use Firefox anyways. I use firefox on all Windows computers only.

Yep, that's what is important to most people these days.

Look at virtually any advert. Buy this product because you want, everyone else has it and it will make you happy. Bugger the facts.

To be fair with the Moz team, they need to generate this hype and publicity or people won't bother. Unless it's a big brand name and the 'in thing' people won't use it (not us, 'THEM' - the faceless mass).

I am a little scared that they jump from 2.0.0.14 to 3. As one chap has said already 'WTF?' But, hey it's all politics in the end.

Just download it and then trash the file. Wait until your distro ships it before actually using it.

OT: I wonder if the distros etc, will ever sort out the 'menu' structure for launching apps. I forever get lost in half of them. I know KDE and GNOME etc make a good stab at it, but there should be a standardised one which users can easily edit without breaking the standard system format.

I found my IE3 'I downloaded' t-shirt the other day. It will make a good duster.

Why does Mozilla Corp/Firefox get such an easy ride usually, when it's just another for-profit company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation) using IP laws (http://www.linux.com/feature/57675) to control what people can do with 'their' browser?

... on all 3 of my machines that run FF. It's not only inaccurate to say that 99% of XP boxes have FF, but to say all Linux boxes have it is also wrong by the way - why would you install it on a server? Or an embedded system?

"I have been using Firefox for over 2 years. Downloaded 3 and totally fucked up my computer, icons went crazy, several crashes. Just like IE was when I stopped using it. So after upgrade to 3 escapade I had to use IE for a couple of days. What a difference. Fast and responsive. Going back to IE, so long Firefox. Deduct 1 from the record."

omfg eye lol'd in RL @ that...fast and responsive? who you tryign to kid?

As for the stunt...meh who cares as long as the damn thing works as well as past versions have.

Paris cos... no i can't top that "paris loves a publicity stunt" one :) GJ

"Join us in our mission to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours!" - from the firefox site...

Is it me or is there something wrong with that?

Quite frankly, it's over-hyped, over-marketed, and it's starting to become pretty annoying like Harry Pothead, err Potter: a big fuss about something that really doesn't have much to it, something not much more than bug ridden with too many security flaws being patched much too often, making it have more holes than a close up view than the Moon on Google (www.google.com/moon).

Seriously, the most software downloaded within 24 hours? Are they gonna check it and fiilter it for bot-downloads?

No? Then how about comparing it to stats by other major software releases? Who cares about which software was downloaded the most? Quite frankly, I'd say Adobe Flash Player therefore will win every time with firefox a little smidgeon far behind.

Paris because I'm sure if her video was software, it'll trash all records.

And everyone else having a little cry about long version numbers: it's a pretty standard practice:

major.minor.maintenance.build

Open IE and check your version number ( help->about ). You'll see it probably has 4 numbers as well.

Its not there for you to look at or care about, it's there for the developers to keep track of the versions. So sorry if it caused you to get a bit confused. Nasty Mozilla transparently exposing you to the exact version. You best go have a lie down after the strain of reading four numbers.

Define "software downloads". No seriously. On patch Tuesday, I reckon Microsoft chuck out that much software in an hour!

Some of the comments here, particularly "Back to IE" & anything by Webster

"I want Bill's babies" Phreaky smack of astroturfing at its finest - I'm nobody's fanboy, but Firefox plus extensions beats the crap out of IE. Its the extensions that make the big difference - its obvious that many commenters have no idea of the huge choice of plugins, extensions and themes available, including "greasemonkey" for example, which allows you to run scripts(there are hundreds of them) that run on specified pages to modify them.

I couldn't stand having to use IE & I think its only fear of the unknown thats stops most changing from it.

Is that version going to have Phorm (or phorm like goings on)?

I am not even happy that they now include the Google Toolbar.

They are obviously not as good and secure and 'different' as they claim to be. Maybe they ought to go and think things through instead of trying to get famous.

Yes, that's partially because they automatically roll patches out across most of their install base. People will actually have to go out and bother to get FF3.

As for my own personal experience of it? FF3 has been fast, easy to use and with a bunch of handy new features. Nothing broke when I installed it (in fact in my case I had more hassle when I tried out Opera). Add to the fact that I have now got used to how FF makes pages look as opposed to Opera and the likes I don't think I'll be switching away from it in the near future.

As for the general rhetoric being thrown about, all I'll say is that I have yet to meet a Saint.

"Secondly - meh. Maybe there is something in the latest .14 release that will grab version 3 as soon as it's released? Firefox is installed on every single Linux PC and 99% of Windows XP machines. Okay it's not installed on Vista as it's probably not compatible but this is still a serious number of computers."

I think you're confusing Mozilla Corp with the chap in the picture to my right, there. They didn't push FF 2.0 out to 1.5 users via automatic updating (well, 2.0.0.7 or thereabouts when the time came) until over a year after its launch. There were at least half-a-dozen bugfix releases of 1.5 during that time (though in almost every case these were just backports of fixes from the latest 2.0.0.x release).

From what I've seen it is perfectly compatible with Vista; those programs that aren't, in my own experience, have been those that were written (badly) for Windows 95/98 and have never bothered to get to grips with the concept of a multi-user OS. Only half of the preceding statement holds true for Firefox ;)

My copy of IE has the following version number:

6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254

How is that for confusing?

It even includes part of my WinXP version, although not all of it.

- I'm still confused as to what exactly my internet web browser has to do with my operating system. The one should run under the other, not be part of it!

No, I prefer my browser to open when i click the icon not sit there for a f***in month.

You lot can go download this pile of crap and sing kumbya all you want, I'll be using IE8 with shit standards mode turned off.

I went to version 3 and it's been fast and stable for a couple of weeks now. Yeah, OK, I don't like the hype.

Of course if they should implement tracking in version 4 I'll be going elsewhere (unless it's an option you have to turn on).

The OSS pin-up has been taken down. Opera or IE7 for me. I couldn't give a phlying phuck about your extensions my friend - I want a quick and easy to use browser to look at pages.

I don't really want toolbars to be included. I don't want my information to be piped out to Mozilla Corp. and I don't want to have 50 extensions just to browse the web.

As soon as FF got popular - say 1.5 (2005?) it sold out. Sold out to Google, done bugger all in terms of developing it for the masses, and is looking at flogging your browser habits.... Security has been nothing great. No better than IE on Vista and Opera still kicks it ass in performance.

Bye bye FF - Opera FTW!

Is some of it's best features are not instantly visible amonst it's array of other tricks.

For example, how many people use "Create Search" in Opera? I find it indespensible, and have a dropdown search box that has all the usual Google and Ebay entries removed, and replaced with their UK counterparts, along with searches on Yell.co.uk and other often used searches. Simply go to a site, find their search field, right click, Create Search...

Another one is the content blocker, not as easy to use as the Firefox extension, but infinitely more powerful, as you can block entire advertising domains, including wlidcards. Right click on a page, and select Block Content...

Never liked FireFox much so won't be getting this version either. I use Opera all the time now and it's just sooo much nicer. And who was that climing that fireFox is on 99% of XP machines now? Don't talk out of your arse old chap, just makes you look a bit dim.

Anyway, why on earth would I want a browser that is thinking about pimping out your browsing habits?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/19/firefox_data_snoop

My Ubuntu 8.04 download came with a beta FF3 which turned out to be bleeding edge - fonts the size of the whole screen, for example. My install hasn't yet auto updated to the RCs.

Speedy Opera is still my first love, even if there are a few sites out there that don't work too well, e.g. one of eBay's seller tools isn't supported. And bloody NatWest wouldn't let me access my bank account with Opera. Stupid bankers.

Actually by the MS standard Firefox blew it, the current version should be 2.0.14.34 or something, its major.minor.release.build where the build only releases would only be seen by people who download nightlies and RC's and such.

Also accompanied by a World record for the number of scrotes trying to compromise and push scumware through the various mirror servers offering it for download and, if the winner's clever enough, an additional record for the most widely exploited zero-day vuln in history.

Maybe I'm a cynic, but it all seems a little too much like Mozilla rebadging their user base as low hanging fruit to me.

Or, you want a download record? Proceed as follows:

1) Build botnet of n machines.

2) Download whatever-it-is n * however many times a machine can do it in a day.

3) Declare record.

Bill, because if it weren't for him I wouldn't have had the opportunity to come up with the first part of this post.

How on earth are they going to define software? A patch? Because essentially you could call a new version of the same software a patch, since it shares a lot in common with the previous versions - like someone said earlier, Microsoft shift a lot of patches that could no doubt compete heavily. Do individual people count? IP addresses? what about NAT? This will be a stupid record to try and prove, I say Mozilla stops this madness now.

So 2.0.0.14 means the 14th build since V2 was released? I'm not convinced. I know that's what it's supposed to mean, but surely it really should be 2.14 as there have been 14 minor updates.

No, having tried the beta versions of 3 I have found that none of my favourite and most useful add-ons are compatible, so I'll be sticking with 2 for the next few months.

Quick list of incompatible features:

advanced cookie management add-on

side tab bar with extra tabbing features

ABP

GSpace

Sidebar thingy

None of the appearence add-ons are compatible meaning aaaargh cluttered screen.

And most important: Download manager

Gees some of you people need to engage your brains before your keyboards...

1. People like Firefox

2. People use Firefox out of choice

3. People need Mozilla Organisation to succeed so they keep developing Firefox (See 1.)

Ergo, they create a "new" record and Journos write about FF3 before IE8

It's this really new and innovative thing called "Marketing".

Not exactly quantum leaps of intellectual ability are they?

Either way, I've Been using FF3 Beta since it was released, it's been significantly faster to shut down and start than 2.x with 8 xtns. I had to use IE the other day - I nearly cried trying to browse normally without the FF3 address bar.

My only gripe is they dropped native SOAP support.

Make with the .RPM, .DEB, and .STFU files for those few of us that really DO use Linux and want the latest without waiting for the dead-dog-slow distributors to catch up.

Been using the Beta 5 version for about 3 weeks... no probs.

Why don't people actually use it before they make a judgment then they can actually make an informed comment....

they/we/you/i should encourage usage of existing local files and try to be more env'tal bout these resources. blah blah blah.. good luck

Will be a much better browser.

@Webster Phreaky: "Once Mozilla releases settle down a few months later and many "fixes", they are great"

Ha, ha, ha. A web browser (ver. 2.0.0.14) with a memory leak that, that the point of crashing, is taking up 550 Mb of RAM is "great". No thanks I'll risk using Safari instead.

They should stop developing version 3 and try, to get just one version of 2 to work properly.