Mozilla’s big plan on Tuesday to set a world record for downloads with the newly released Firefox 3 browser hit a snag when its Web site would not work properly. The Mozilla Dev Blog reports that the site, when restored, was receiving over 13 gigabits per second of traffic! In addition, PCWorld is offering a brief Firefox 3 FAQ for new and existing users.
Firefox 3 ‘Download Day’ Cripples Mozilla Site
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Adam Scheinberg
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Seems I ran into a bug already, firefox immediatly found an update… v2.x? (after a fresh install of 3.0) and it auto installed when I closed and re opened firefox, promptly crashing afterwards. Other than that after a quick re install of 3.0 its working great so far, good job!
Edited 2008-06-18 15:14 UTC
This accords with my experience; and I wasn’t surprised.
What did surprise me was trying again, a few hours later, and getting a full bore download. For that they get my respect.
The switch to FF3 is a good moment to revisit the add-ons; many of which are excellent.
It works well and looks good – excellent production and a big thank you to the developers and helpers.
Edited 2008-06-18 15:11 UTC
When did the download day actually start ?
They get an accurate count of the downloads that have started and completed, but how can we believe any figures that they put out ?
Download day started 1 PM ET/10 AM PT.
How can we believe the figures Microsoft pulls out for sales of Office? Windows? You think they account for any of the ‘Windows Refunds’ in those numbers?
You make it sound as if Windows refunds are a common occurrence? The majority of computer users just use their computers. The ones who are aware of an OS other than Windows will usually build their own machine anyway.
Easy. Microsoft must publish its financial details, including sales figures, as it is a public trading company. It can’t lie about its sales figures, as that would certainly result in a massive fine and justice investigation. It’s illegal to do so, you see.
Few companies are that stupid.
Yeah, but Sales vs. Ownership of Microsoft products is what we can’t really judge, especially since Microsoft doesn’t make many sales that are direct to the customer, they make all there money from selling to distributors.
And not everyone who uses alternative OSs build their own machines, or may even want to. A lot of times you’re in a bind and need a quick box, so you just order an eMachine, Dell, HP etc.
Too bad that silly rule about requiring the major computer manufacturers to sell a PC with an operating System, although at least Dell for awhile was selling PCs with just FreeDOS.
Er, no. They make the bulk of their money from license and contract sales to commercial customers. Everything else, including OEM licensing for consumer systems, is just icing.
What silly rules? If you’ve got an issue, take it up with the manufacturer you’re buying from. Very few jurisdictions require an OS to be sold with a new PC, certainly none in North America or the EU.
Windows dominates OEM PCs because customers expect Windows on their PCs. That’s all. It’s up to the manufacturers, and the alternative OS vendors (if so inclined), to break that mindset. You’re kidding yourself if you think that, at least at this point in time, there is a significant market for systems that don’t have Windows pre-installed. Certainly Asus and others are starting to make strides in an area Microsoft completely unanticipated, but let’s keep things in context.
I’m not an MS apologist by any means, but let’s keep the arguments rational.
Must be a Microsoft sabotage!!
Heh.
These “world records” that consist of nothing more than large numbers of people performing a single innocuous action are pointless and are just sad attempts at publicity. All the people who care will download it regardless.
fast download and easy to update