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Firefox Download Day To Start At 1 p.m. EST

Posted by timothy on Tue Jun 17, 2008 10:28 AM
from the there's-no-pleasing-some-people dept.
Mozilla Software The Internet
boustrophedon writes "Starting at midnight in their local timezones, downloaders have been asking when Firefox 3 will be ready for Firefox Download Day, June 17, 2008. Mary announced on the Spread Firefox Forum that downloads will commence at 10 AM PST." That means 1 p.m. East Coast time, and, in Justin Mason's view, some pretty annoying times of day for many parts of the world. Reader CorinneI supplies a link to PC Magazine's (very positive) overview of the new version's features, which praises the "speedy performance, thrifty memory usage, and, in particular, the address bar that now predicts where you want to go when you start typing (what Mozilla insiders refer to as the Awesome Bar)." FF3, even in Beta and RC form, and even with the extension incompatibilities I've run into, has quickly replaced FF2 as my preferred browser — for me, the improved drop-down autocomplete behavior alone is enough to justify the switch.
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Submission: Firefox Download Day to Start at Mid-Day by boustrophedon (139901)
[+] A Few Firefox 3 Followups 407 comments
An anonymous reader writes "Using data generated by the Mozilla Firefox download pledge page, the map on this blog post ranks countries, not by absolute number of pledges made, but rather on a per capita basis. This analysis yields some interesting conclusions about where open source is strongest and weakest." Anonymous Warthog writes "That didn't take long. In a blog posting from the TippingPoint DVLabs security team (of Kraken and CanSecWest hacking contest fame), they confirmed that they reported a vulnerability in Firefox 3.0 to Mozilla a mere five hours after it was released. Additionally, there was a posting on the Full Disclosure security mailing list from someone that purports to have another vulnerability in the works as well. In the grand scheme of things, this probably means nothing to the general security of Firefox, but you can be sure the browser zealots on all sides will be watching carefully." Finally, from reader Toreo asesino: "Microsoft have congratulated the Mozilla team by sending them their second cake (minus recipe) to Mozilla's Mountain View headquarters to congratulate them on shipping FireFox 3, which went live right on time last night." Congratulations are indeed due on both the browser and the release process — looks like the Firefox fever (despite some seriously taxed servers) resulted in more than 8 million downloads in 24 hours.
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Firefox Download Day To Start At 1 p.m. EST 50 Comments More /

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  • Download (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:31AM (#23823801)
    Download [mozilla.org]

  • I will not.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:32AM (#23823811)
    be downloading FF!

    IE 5 is good enough for me!

    • Re:I will not.... (Score:5, Funny)

      by kvezach (1199717) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:39AM (#23823971)
      IE 5 is good enough for me!

      I know, but did you have to advertise it? I had just finished owning your computer; now all the other slashdotters will get on and kick me off with their own kits!

    • Re:I will not.... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 17 2008, @11:54AM (#23825181)
      me neither. Opera 9.5 is good enough for me.

      Actually, that's a lie - I'll definitely install it and try it out, though unless it's particularly awesome I doubt I'll be using it much.

      EDIT: fanboy tirade about unjest treatment of Opera on slashdot and why you should try Opera follows. I could delete the following section, but I'll leave it up to the moderators to mod me fanboy or troll.

      Is the "awesome bar" really as awesome as Opera's full history search from the title bar that lets you search for any phrase in any page in the cache... for instance, I could find slashdot again by typing "anonymous coward" if I forgot the url or title, or maybe just something from the post I was reading like "firefox download".

      Also, though Opera still lacks extensions, it does seem to have caught up with regard to add blocking, and it's had really easy options to disable sound, plugins (like flash), java or javascript, identify as other browsers, change encoding, full zoom on all page elements, etc. for ages.

      Even if you think the fact Opera being closed source is shit, it's pretty impressive that it's so packed with features whilst still being small and fast. Firefox 2 always felt a bit clunky to me, though I've heard 3 is a lot better, so that's something I'm looking forward to testing.

      I'm only posting this because I'm a bit annoyed that the post about the release of Opera 9.5, which is a pretty major Opera release got attached to a fucking post announcing the release of Firefox 3 this Tuesday after there have already been tons of posts about betas and mozilla marketting schemes. I know not as many people use Opera as use FF, but it is a nice piece of free software which easily competes with FF on many levels and should be of interest to many /. readers.

  • Download DAY, Justin (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bertie (87778) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:32AM (#23823821)
    Why's he moaning about what time it starts at when people have a whole twenty-four hours to find a suitable time to download the thing? It's not like we all have to sprint to our computers and start it on the minute.

    • Re:Download DAY, Justin (Score:5, Funny)

      by penguin_dance (536599) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @11:13AM (#23824537)
      But if he waits too long, they might run out. ;-)

    • Re:Download DAY, Justin (Score:5, Funny)

      by Sabz5150 (1230938) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @11:17AM (#23824581)

      Why's he moaning about what time it starts at when people have a whole twenty-four hours to find a suitable time to download the thing? It's not like we all have to sprint to our computers and start it on the minute.
      We are Slashdot! Turning servers into slag is what we do best!

      • Re:Download DAY, Justin (Score:5, Informative)

        by Pvt_Ryan (1102363) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @11:06AM (#23824439)
        Because the Dowload DAY starts at 10am PST on the 17th..

        Which to SOME people is the 18th of June, yes there is a world out side of the US shock/horror.

        If you are going to have a world wide "DAY" then you should either start at 00:00 UTC OR specify the start time in UTC OR Have a count down time so people can work out when it starts.

        The main agro from all this is that:
        a) They said the 17th but never specifed the Time zone
        b) The Never specified a time (so people logically thought midnight)
        c) They never specified a Timezone full stop.

        TBPFH I am rather annoyed, As I assumed the start would be at 00:00 UTC and was looking forward to the massive rush to download it being over and me being able to download it @ 0930 in work.

        Instead after much fafing about I finally discover ON THE FORUMS the time is 1000 PST, IT WASN'T EVEN NOTED ON THE FRONT PAGE!

        Don't get me wrong I love FF but after this I wouldn't trust mozilla to organize a piss up in a brewery!

  • Don't you mean 1pm EDT? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by holden caufield (111364) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:34AM (#23823849)
    I thought we were in Daylight Saving Time until November?

  • I hate the awesome bar (Score:5, Informative)

    by kill-1 (36256) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:35AM (#23823873)
    Here is how to get more or less the old behavior. Go to about:config and set browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped to true and browser.urlbar.richResults to false. Then restart.

    • Re:I hate the awesome bar (Score:5, Informative)

      by daranz (914716) <daranz@gmail.com> on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:45AM (#23824073)
      There's also the Oldbar [mozilla.org] extension.

      Seems like the awesome bar is something that people either love or hate. Personally, I don't like it. I prefer my URL bar to do straight autocompletion, rather than search through my history and bookmarks for matches. I use the URL bar to type in URLs, and while the awesome bar adds some nifty functionality it breaks that basic feature.

      • Re:I hate the awesome bar (Score:5, Informative)

        by abaddononion (1004472) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:53AM (#23824201)
        It's important to note this, from the oldbar site:

        Note that the underlying autocomplete algorithm is the Firefox 3 algorithm, not the Firefox 2 algorithm. oldbar only affects the presentation of the results.

        Oldbar, while nice, only changes appearance, not functionality.

        Im with you guys, though. I despise the awesome bar, and dont understand why there isnt an easier/obvious way to get the old, URL based behavior. A URL bar that works based on URLs?! Blasphemy!

    • Correction to the GPs post (Score:5, Informative)

      by macdaddy (38372) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @12:03PM (#23825411) Homepage Journal
      I would have modded you down as being inaccurate but doing so would mean that I couldn't correct the inaccuracy. So I'm passing up on the opportunity to mod you and am instead going to fix the mistake.

      As of FireFox 3.0b3 browser.urlbar.richResults no longer works [google.com]. The ability to chose your own search results style was removed by the Mozilla developers as part of bug #407836 [mozilla.org]. They're illogical viewpoint is explained in bug #403159 [mozilla.org].

      And, for the record, Oldbar does not fix the problem. It does not disable the searching style introduced by FF 3.0. It only makes the results look a little more like 2.0.

      According to this [zacgarrett.com] article browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped no longer works either. The value of browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped is now ignored.

      It's not the GP's fault either. Dozens of articles have been published in the past few months that have old, outdated information. Even Redhat put it in their Knowledgebase [redhat.com] on 6/4. The sheer number of articles attempting to help people disable the "awesome bar" should make the developers realize that this is not a "feature" that everyone wants. I agree with the GP. I too HATE the awesome bar. It's a shame too because I would love to have the fixes for the memory leaks in FF 2.0 that don't exist but FF 3.0 addresses anyway.

    • Re:I hate the awesome bar (Score:5, Insightful)

      by De Lemming (227104) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @12:27PM (#23826035) Homepage
      Some people do not like the new URL bar because it gives too much (unwanted) results because it also looks in your bookmarks and the browser history.

      I'd just like to point out that it adaptively learns how to sort the results, so you shouldn't discard it on first use. Give it some time to come up with the most relevant URLs (for you) on top.

  • Firefox Download Day (Score:5, Informative)

    by Volanin (935080) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:38AM (#23823935)
    For those who still don't know, Mozilla is trying to enter GUINNESS
    for most software downloads in a 24-hour period. Check it here:

    http://www.spreadfirefox.com/worldrecord/ [spreadfirefox.com]

    Everybody is asked to participate by downloading one single copy of
    Firefox 3.0 today, June 17th!

    ONLY FULL DOWNLOADS ARE CONSIDERED!
    So, go to the Firefox site and get one FULL COPY!

    http://www.getfirefox.com/ [getfirefox.com]

  • I don't think they're going to meet their goal (Score:5, Informative)

    by alta (1263) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:38AM (#23823939) Homepage Journal
    When I go to the site I get:

    The connection was reset

    The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

    And this was with FF 2.0.0.14, so they can't blame my client.

  • I hope they have an MSI version for windows (Score:5, Insightful)

    by denis-The-menace (471988) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:50AM (#23824141)
    Otherwise all this hype will not convince corps to switch.

    Why MSI?
    -it's a corp standard.(STD switches, behavior)
    -It's customizable without changing the original package
    -It is designed from the ground up to run unattended or silent regardless if it's an upgrade or a new install.

    And Frontmotion (www.frontmotion.com/) != Mozilla
    It's a trust issue. Corps want "warm and fuzzies" and not what they will view as a hack.
    If Mozilla doesn't want to make an MSI package but still wants to entice the Corps to switch, host Frontmotion's MSI from the Mozilla site.

    Having GPO support or preinstalled Addons are gravy at this point.

  • 17th started at GMT (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rescue me (1067874) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:56AM (#23824231)
    1. Why did this not start on GMT so it was the 17th for the whole world at the normal time. 2. Why was it so hard to find a Mozillia definition of the 17th ;-) Smart guys and gals could have made this simpler.

  • Timezone (Score:5, Insightful)

    by erik.martino (997000) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @11:02AM (#23824345)
    Why do slashdot use obscure timezones like PST EST XST when there is a standard UTC?

  • Hmmm (Score:5, Funny)

    by bluie- (1172769) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @12:00PM (#23825319)
    The site seems to be bogged down for some reason...

  • Yo'all Better Hope... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nom du Keyboard (633989) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @12:05PM (#23825447)
    Yo'all better hope that there isn't a Zero Day vulnerability in FF3 that the virus writing scum uncovered when they participated in the testing, as you know they have.

    Personally I'm going to wait for a few days just to ensure that no reported problems surface.

  • 1:04pm (Score:5, Funny)

    by mattwarden (699984) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @12:05PM (#23825455) Homepage
    The servers, the servers, the servers are on fire.
    The servers, the servers, the servers are on fire.
    We don't need to download let the motherf***ers burn.
    Burn motherf***ers, burn.

  • DDOS world record (Score:5, Funny)

    by renrutal (872592) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @12:07PM (#23825503)
    I believe they will attempt the world record for the largest, willing, Distributed Denial of Service Attack.

    Well, what the hell, lets help bury their servers :)

  • Hoax! (Score:5, Funny)

    by birdguy (130777) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @12:35PM (#23826223)
    The idea of having the largest one day download was a Microsoft hoax designed to create a DOS attack on Mozilla.

  • Okay Everyone ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Archangel Michael (180766) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @12:36PM (#23826251) Journal
    Keep hitting that "refresh" button to try and get to the Download site. I'm pretty sure that will help out the slashdot effect!

  • 1:46PM and still no download (Score:5, Insightful)

    by skrowl (100307) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @12:47PM (#23826509) Homepage
    Their web servers are toasted. When you try to do something like set a download record, perhaps you should ensure your IT infrastructure can handle it as well as your PR infrastructure can.

  • Passive Interest (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jekler (626699) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @12:51PM (#23826623)
    I was sort of interested in helping them boost the download stats, but due to the mismanagement of this event I've mostly lost interest. When I woke up this morning I expected it to be available but it wasn't. By 10am there was still no real official word as to when this whole shindig was supposed to take place. If you're going to have an event, it would be good to give people advance notice as to when it begins. I didn't even know when it starts until 45 minutes after it began. Now trying to download, it's obvious they weren't even prepared for it because the page is down.

    Because I'm using Linux (Ubuntu) it's more convenient for me to wait until the most recent version is in the repositories, I'm not going to sit around and hope their download page starts working.

    • Re:My findings... (Score:5, Funny)

      by ndansmith (582590) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:37AM (#23823917)

      I've been using the RC releases, and while I do like the new browser, the memory footprint is still a monster. Currently, it's using over 175MB of ram for the windows I have open (21 different pages) - and that seems excessive to me.
      You're right, 21 pages seems excessive to me as well.

        • Re:My findings... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Xzzy (111297) <sether@tr[ ].org ['u7h' in gap]> on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:57AM (#23824251) Homepage
          That's a PEBCAK error, not a fault with Firefox.

          Images, html, css, content, media.. all of that takes up space. Firefox has to hold it in memory so it can display it quickly when you click on the tab.

          How much would you be complaining if you had to wait 5 seconds every time you switched tabs so it could swap in from disk?

    • Re:My findings... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by erikina (1112587) <eri.kina@gmail.com> on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:45AM (#23824063) Homepage
      I don't understand this obsession of ram usage, and this is from someone with a laptop with 512MB's, and primary computer of 844MB (as reported by the OS, but 1GB in the official specs). But, I want my RAM to be used (if it's going to make performance better). That's why I have it. So sure, if you have memory problems I can see the concern. But I'm comfortably running VMWare and firefox (using 172MB atm) and I probably have less RAM than you.
      I guess, what's ultimate is a program that can scale its memory usage depending on availability. But I don't have any problems, so I won't complain.

    • Re:My findings... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by hansamurai (907719) <hansamurai@gmail.com> on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:49AM (#23824131) Homepage Journal
      I'm at 150MB with seven tabs which is fine with me. The real kicker is that Firefox has been running for at least a week now. FF2 would have slowly bloated to 400MB right about now and I would have been restarting it. I don't mind that it's using 20MB per tab as long as it's using it wisely and intelligently (for what it's worth I have 2GB at work). It has a lot of info in memory so everything is very snappy. I can reopen up to 10 closed tabs, go back in 15 pages in history on a tab that has been open since FF2 (and it has history from then too), and heck, I even like the so-called Awesome Bar. Typing just one word from the title or url has helped me out tremendously.

    • Re:Time Zones (Score:5, Funny)

      by sm62704 (957197) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @10:57AM (#23824245) Journal
      in Justin Mason's view, some pretty annoying times of day for many parts of the world

      Sure, I can see lining up at my daughter's GameStop store at midnight, considering that whatever game they want may be sold out quickly.

      But a download? Who cares what time of day it's available? If it's available at 1:00 AM your time, then just start the download when you wake up, or when you get home from work.

      They're not going to run out of Firefoxes, you know. Relax.
    • To be fair that's as much Adobe's fault for loading Acrobat with twenty times more extraneous BS than is needed to render a PDF. Mozilla should handle it more gracefully, maybe, but if you've ever tried opening Acrobat by itself, you know it takes bloody ages. And then nags you to update or register or update your registration or register your updates.

      You might want to consider using a PDF reader that sucks less. Foxit is pretty decent for Windows.

    • Downloading from their FTP server won't count (Score:5, Informative)

      by ahijado (961908) on Tuesday June 17 2008, @12:32PM (#23826161)
      Here's what mozilla is saying from their ftp server site: ftp://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.0/mac/index.html [mozilla.org] We're not quite ready yet! We're just as excited as you are for our upcoming release, but we're still putting the finishing touches on Firefox 3: preparing the new mozilla.com website, getting our severs ready for downloads, and doing our final pre-launch checks. You can follow our progress if you'd like! The files in this directory are - for now - only meant to be used by our testers. Downloading them directly can harm our ability to distribute Firefox efficiently, and will also not be counted as part of our attempt to set a Guiness World Record for the most software downloads in a day. If you'd like to be notifed the minute that we launch, please go to sign up for Download Day. Or just head over to getfirefox.com on Tuesday, June 17th after 10am PDT.

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