Firefox 3 to set download record on June 17?

Correction on June 13: The spelling of Johnathan Nightingale has been fixed.

On Wednesday, Mozilla announced next Tuesday, June 17, as "Download Day" for Firefox 3. The company also released Firefox 3 release candidate 3 as a final step toward full release.

With Firefox 3, Mozilla is attempting to set a Guinness Book of World Records for the largest number of software downloads within a 24-hour period. There is currently no Guinness Book record for that accomplishment.

Firefox 3 includes a new rendering engine, so pages load faster. It also uses fewer system resources, addressing a complaint in earlier versions.

On this week's Security Bites podcast, I spoke with Johnathan Nightingale, Mozilla's "human shield," about the security features within Firefox 3, including its antimalware protection and support for Extended Verification SSL.

The current Firefox 3 release candidate, version 3, can be downloaded for Windows, Portable, Mac, and Linux systems.

[thedreaming]

It's a great strategy. Get everyone excited about breaking a record and at the same time get people to download their browser, but just because they downloaded the browser, doesn't mean they intend on using it.

[coryschulz]

Still won't be as good as Safari.

[bobcode]

Safari for Windows doesn't try to fit in with Windows. It messes with the muscle memory. Is FireFox trying to match the host environment? Better specs is good.

[kwhsy82]

Safari? Argh, so incompatible. Stuff I use (like Sportsline) always takes 3 weeks to adapt to a Safari release.

[Michael Grogan]

I've been using beta versions of firefox 3 for a couple months now and it is, without a doubt, the best browse I've ever used! When I have to use IE7 I cringe at the useless searches and the sloooow load times.

[slimpunk]

How ironic would it be if their servers crashed that day?

[MatthewFabb]

In a recent interview Kevin Lynch from Adobe mentions (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Adobe-Floating-on-AIR/) that Flash is currently being installed at 12 million times a day. Ted Patrick once again from Adobe points out (http://www.onflex.org/ted/2008/05/mozilla-world-record-problems.php) that there's spikes as high as 25 million a day.

Should Adobe submit their server logs to Guinness Book of World Records for the record and resubmit it any time there is a spike? Would Microsoft be able to beat that 25 million number with any of their new applications rolled out with their automatic updates?

Either way, it's doubtful that Mozilla will break any records, they will just be the first to submit a record to Guinness Book of World Records.

[Seaspray0]

Great post, MatthewFabb. The info you provide is an eye opener. Maybe the companies you mention are not interested in being published in a book full the oddities.

[DoohanOK]

No way will they break the "record". Adobe's Flash Player is downloaded a massive number each and every day for a "penetration rate" of 98.8% of all internet-enabled desktop clients.

[DADSGETNDOWN]

(There is currently no Guinness Book record for that accomplishment.)

Haha! I found this weird and funny.
Guess it wasn't hard to do.
Whoever the first person to download FF3 was, set a Guinness Book Record.