Firefox 3 Download Day - Setting A Guinness World Record?
June 18th, 2008 | This article was viewed 890 times so far...
Ushering the arrival of Mozilla’s latest browser, the Firefox Download Day was set and word was spread as if it was the resurrection of Elvis Presley.
This article is not a review of the browser though but do read on and understand WHY I decide to write something about this initiative.
Here’s the quote from the Spread Firefox Official Website
Sounds like a good deal, right? All you have to do to help us set the record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours is get Firefox 3 now – it’s that easy. We’re not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome.
Please download Firefox 3 by 11:16 a.m. PDT (18:16 UTC) on June 18, 2008. That’s 11:16 a.m. in Mountain View, 2:16 p.m. in Toronto, 3:16 p.m. in Rio de Janeiro, 8:16 p.m. in Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Rome and Warsaw, 10:16 p.m. in Moscow, and June 19, 2008 at 2:16 a.m. in Beijing and 3:16 a.m. in Tokyo.
Happy I signed up for the pledge when the Firefox 3 Download Day was announced - I’ve been waiting for this browser for a little over half a year now. Here’s the E-mail notification I received…..
But heck I was skimming through my list of E-mails and I missed that one, fortunately a friend of mine reminded me of this via forum. 
What’s So Great About Firefox?
This is NOT a FIREFOX RAWKS article, ok? So I’m not going to be listing my praises for this browser here.
Well who’s to say Firefox isn’t a great browser in the first place? Anyone here remembers Netscape Navigator? I was killed by Microsoft, and how did Firefox - a stranger to the browser universe took the world by storm? By being a greater browser!
Have a look at the stats from W3Schools, this was a screen cap taken today
What got me excited over Firefox 3 was the long awaited improvement over Firefox 2 when it comes to rendering web pages based on web standards.
While Firefox 2 was ahead of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browsers, it wasn’t getting perfect score like Opera and Safari when it comes to rendering web pages.
Did Firefox 3 Pass ACID2 Test?
Yes it did - but firstly, what is the ACID2 test?
Acid2 is a test page for web browsers published by The Web Standards Project (WaSP). It has been written to help browser vendors make sure their products correctly support features that web designers would like to use. These features are part of existing standards but haven’t been interoperably supported by major browsers. Acid2 tries to change this by challenging browsers to render Acid2 correctly before shipping.
Let your browser take the test! | Acid2: The Guided Tour
So there ya have it, and Firefox 3 passed it!
Parting Thoughts
While this is not a Firefox 3 application review, there are a few things I wish to point out.
Firstly, the browser worked great - my history and bookmarks are in place and even my extensions and they’re all working fine!
The buttons were some what changed, the Address bar’s was changed a little but you’ll get use to it.
As for me, the first site I loaded was goldfries.com and I was surprised to see all my fonts were not as what it was. I tested out the options, nothing helped. Later I found out that it was the interpretation of CSS attributes where I use EM instead of PX for my fonts.
So after a little time spent on re-adjusting the fonts, it’s all fine now. Well I was so distracted by the distortion on my site that I forgot to do a screenie of it. And no, I didn’t like it so much I didn’t keep a copy of the previous CSS file.
So now, do yourself a favor and DOWNLOAD FIREFOX if you’re still on that lousy Microsoft Internet Explorer that’s a real failure when it comes to XHTML / CSS rendering.
If Firefox is not your cup of tea, try Opera or Safari instead and support browsers who actually give you the PROPER rendering of web-pages. Internet Explorer’s terrible compliance has been a headache for many web designers, forums are always filled with questions on how to create a work-around for Internet Explorer’s flaws.
So it’s like choosing a restaurant, both cook the same dish and the dish looked and tastes similar - but wouldn’t you settle for the restaurant that provide you better service?
Updates
- How many have been downloaded? You can check it out right here!
- Want a certificate for your participation? Use this link (Just copy the Link address, change the word ‘goldfries’ to whatever your name is)
July 1st, 2008 at 3:01 am
from the survey i’ve seen, IE7 is much better than FF2 in term of security.
that’s why FF2 they have a lot of updates and it’s very frequent.
July 1st, 2008 at 3:41 am
if you are truly paranoid about the security, please dont upgrade to FF3. There are also some Addon that dont work on FF3 anymore, waiting for the developer to add….fast
July 1st, 2008 at 4:05 am
I’ve stopped using FF after Safari is available for Windows. It’s cool. You should try it too
July 1st, 2008 at 6:26 am
I’m still on lousy IE variant-maxthon but dislike IE 7. But I like FF because its got too many add-on..as a secondary browser though.
July 1st, 2008 at 9:43 am
you mean you like FF or you don’t like FF? your statement is kinda confusing.. lol
IE6 their security is sux but in IE7 they improved a lot.
July 1st, 2008 at 10:40 am
using both IE7 and FF, they both have different functionalities for me
as of FF3, i haven’t tried it yet. is it recommended?
July 1st, 2008 at 11:04 am
I like the old one compare to new one.. but still using the new one and running fine at the moment..
July 1st, 2008 at 12:33 pm
i only downloaded it the day after the record is set…
July 1st, 2008 at 12:44 pm
@kenji_britney,
It’s advisable that you change your FF2 to FF3 as FF2 has many security issue, even more than IE7.
@sub_noob,
it’s always like that. you will get used to it soon.
@harsher,
I haven’t downloaded it
July 1st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Hm.. Still gonna wait a lil before I download FF3
Gotta prepare myself haha.. But I downloaded the cert o.O
July 1st, 2008 at 4:11 pm
i honestly prefer firefox 2..not quite use to the auto complete url thingy at the address bar.
also i love the recover close tab feature..!
July 1st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
firefox 3 is fast
July 1st, 2008 at 5:27 pm
my Firefox 3 crashed countless time…
July 1st, 2008 at 6:43 pm
it crashes less on my system tho… compare to firefox2
July 1st, 2008 at 6:54 pm
The address bar is quite annoying but bearable.
For example, press M first would usually show my Yahoo Mail but now it’s showing everything with M.
as to those who crashed a lot - what OS are you on? My FF3 crash WAY less than my FF2 and has less hang-ups too.
Overall I’d rate it as an improvement.
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:15 am
I do really like the download option whether to open it or clear.. In FF3 there is no option.. really sad..
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:50 am
my FF3 serves me well, just tat my Google toolbar is gone…
my FF2 ate me 7xxMB memory before, but this situation hasn’t occurred in FF3.. yet…
IE7? installed for the sake of i am a Windows user only.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:14 am
@DAAMIT, you can always remove your IE from control panel>add and remove program>windows component
untick the internet explorer and click next. poof, there goes your IE.
FF2 ate your 7xxMB because you let it idle for long time.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:31 am
@Spammer, ooo, i get it…
i still will let my IE7 lives inside my pc, coz of .Net.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
U wont bother if u have bigger memory.. and space on your computer..
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
i got 4GB, still need bigger?
i din’t notice it until my visual studio hang, and i run task manager to end it… :X
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Owh, visual studio take a lot of memory isnt it..? I remember that my old computer really lag when i open c++ program.. i close everything before using it.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
yes, but its easier to code GUI compared to others.
IE is needed coz i need to test whether my code can be run on different browsers or not…
aisk, the response from IE and FF, sometimes, really different a lot…
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
U using vista..? then nothing can be helped here.. just get a bigger memory :p
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:24 pm
haha… nope, i am using XP SP3.
my memory is enough… at least currently…
but i still dun like a program to eat up too much resources if not necessary…
like, a windows calculator program uses 100MB? haha!
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:26 pm
haha.. y dun u just use IE6? IE7 better to test..?
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:28 pm
never use IE6. IE6’s security is the lowest. To be safe, update your IE to IE7
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:31 pm
He using it only to test out so i dont think there would be any problem..
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
@sub_noob, coz IE7 is the latest IE.
@Spammer, wah! wat browser you use? FF only?
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:34 pm
No, I’m using Safari 3.1.2
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I thought there is a ‘hole’ in safari or fixed already..?
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:40 pm
So far no problem. No crash no virus/malware detected in my com. I guess ok?
but my safari is using 280k memory.. maybe i opened for too long.. time to restart safari
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I also already try the safari.. very fast but crash many times..
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:53 pm
are you sure? no crash for me. keep it updated
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Will try it later.. i like the looks very much..
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
well, it’s apple
really, it loads faster than FF
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
o sh*t, i have to try safari too.
280k memory usage? i gona take out my old school Celeron 500MHz to try it.
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:16 pm
what the heck??
celeron 500? i suggest you go and lie down for a while.
now it’s 353k memory usage xD
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:19 pm
i got 64MB RAM for tat machine, it should be more than enuff rite?
maybe Windows 98 fails me before Safari’s “memory hunger” happens.. it may never happen though..
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:54 pm
lol. thats damn lot of mem usage. how many tabs open?
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:56 pm
@kyLL, did you refer to me?
i think not much tabs only, maybe 3 or 4.
maybe it din clear the resources used by old closed tabs.
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:10 pm
was actually refering to spammer. haha. i mean 300k+ of mem.. thats alot. even my photoshop and illustrator dont really take up that much.
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
well, i open few tabs at the same time about 5, usually i open new tab then close the tab. i don’t use new windows
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
is 300k really tat much? 300k is 300 kilo bytes rite?
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:08 pm
erm. i dont think so. it should be 300,000 K. does anyone know the math to this?
press ctrl+alt+del twice. *cough* i mean press ctrl+alt+del and check the processes tab. thats what im talking about.
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Ussing tab is better than new window right..?
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:40 pm
depends on the user itself i guess. i myself like uncluttered taskbars. so yea i am a ‘tabber’. loved it since day one. and cant get enough of it.
IE7’s tabbing kinda lags. and i hate IE. FF FTW. opera is quite nice too.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:31 pm
oh no, i’ve mistaken it… the memory usage was…
300,000 kilo bytes = 300,000 x 1024 = 307200000 Bytes…
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:35 am
yea. that is alot. must be running some major flash files or something? anyone use flock?
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:29 am
My PC have IE7, FF2 , Opera and safari ( uninstalled ) ..
But anyway .. i am still using IE7 in my home PC and office PC…
IE still prefer for the company office usage because they able to control the usage of the internet, enable a lot of security with office antivirus, disable the flash and i guess this is not able to do so for this FF.
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:54 pm
@Spammer, i personally think that safari is faster process on the windows based PC.. but it looks nice on their GUI design. If your line is fast then what the standard internet browser will give the pleasure loading result.
@kyLL, this is the 1st time i heard about Flock browser -.-”… What advantages it provided?
July 4th, 2008 at 1:12 am
i believe all those controls can be done at the network level. they dont actually have to be implemented at the user browser level… correct me if im wrong.
July 7th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
@meyon
flock is yet another browser based on FF codebase but integrates social networking and web 2.0 features like facebook and flickr.
i’m running “only” IE7, FF2 and FF3 on vista for different sites. some sites load significantly faster on one browser from another, weird… the problems encountered including:
IE7 - caused the system to behave strangely after some time, memory usage also keeps growing…
FF2/3 - memory usage keeps on growing
July 8th, 2008 at 11:08 am
@kyLL,
For my understanding, the network level only block the website accessible. but doesn’t able to control the browser functionality.
@marx,
The memory usage keeps is linearly to your usage on the browser. The more you use, the more memory have to reserve for it.
July 8th, 2008 at 11:32 am
@meyon
yes i’m aware of that, and i wish the memory can be allocated/de-allocated more efficiently… but one strange behaviour for IE7 on vista: after some time of usage (open and close many tabs) IE7 will misbehave, and the whole vista kernel will misbehave too… sometimes 3rd party (non MS) applications will start to misbehave too. FF doesn’t s seem to have that problem though.
anyway let’s not turn this into a troubleshooting topic…
i wonder what is to come in the future browsers? any idea folks?
July 8th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Everyone have the their own favorite, in my opinion the internet browser now is very powerful and many adds-on can apply on it. Nowadays, we are able to read and hear from the internet browser, how about smell? :)… I think this is possible happen.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
haha… the browser is taking on our desktop…
virtual desktop, virtual harddisk, virtual bla bla…
but, i wish to have a simple browser with flash…
just like my wish for OS, as simple as possible, fancy graphics is not my type…
anyone with me?
July 8th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
i personally just need a faster internet speed, what kind of browser is ok with me.
July 16th, 2008 at 3:41 am
Love Firefox 3. Customised to the maximum. Meyon, if you need pages to be loaded quickly, try Fasterfox add-on for Firefox.