Save up to $100 on TomTom GPS!Mozilla blows big Firefox 3 debut? Relax
(Credit: Mozilla)I know things go bump in the night. That's the nature of the beast. Especially when your servers are spitting out 14,000 downloads per minute. So for the hair splitters out there turning purple over a temporary glitch at Mozilla's Web site, have a Coke and take a few minutes to inhale.
Shouldn't it have gone smoothly from the get-go? Natch. But there are worse things in life. The site was flakey for the better part of two hours (depending upon your time zone), but it's working now. Hey, if the engineering Einsteins over at Twitter had that kind of track record, investor Fred Wilson wouldn't have to pump the service so hard on his blog anymore.
I haven't had a chance to get my hands dirty with the new version of Firefox. It got a rave review from PC Magazine. Also, here's a video review from CNET's Seth Rosenblatt.
Meanwhile, News.com's Stephen Shankland has it right. This is a new front in the browser war:
As the Web transforms from a static repository of content into a foundation for applications such as word processors and graphics editors, browsers are growing up from mere gateways into the tool that makes those applications possible. In this new era, it's Firefox--the heir to the Netscape legacy--that's going up against the victor of the last era, Internet Explorer.
Microsoft's response is to wait until the end of the year. That's when IE 8 is slated to debut. Microsoft may get some buzz with the IE 8 beta 2, due in August. But it's never going to generate the sort of buzz the Mozilla folks are enjoying today. Glitch, or no glitch.
Charles is an executive editor with CNET News. He has covered technology and business for more than 25 years. A graduate of Queens College and Columbia University, Cooper began his career in journalism at the Associated Press before moving to technology coverage. Before joining CNET News, he worked at Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet. He received the Excellence in Journalism award from the Northern California branch of the Society for Professional Journalists for column writing. In addition to his blogging and podcast appearances, he is a co-host of the CNET News Daily Debrief. E-mail Charlie.
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Which browser? Webkit. (Safari). I've tried every version of Firefox out there - including ones optimized for G5s. But they never were as good, or had the features I want.
I'll bet I've been on the web longer than you. I was on Genie, CompuServe and the Internet long, long ago. I've used every Windows browser since the very first ones. I used the first NetScape. I've used browsers on OS/2, BeOS, NeXTSTEP, Linux and Solaris.
Webkit is the future.
>>RSM
there's really a significant increase in speed in my browsing experience. i'm using a P4 3.2GHz, 2GB RAM, XP SP3 PC.
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by Starfires
June 23, 2008 12:41 AM PDT
- The perfection of the Firefox experience. I didn't notice such an improvement between 1 and 2 as I have now, but it is much faster and smoother. All the plug-ins I use updated pretty quickly and the 'native' appearence on OSX is a nice touch. Looking at how quickly it's spread this may be one of the fastest adoptions in history, spreading way beyond their original technophile base. So hats off to the Firfox team- they are getting pretty far towards setting a new standard (though I expect IE will still rule the roost for some time to come).
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