Mozilla sets release date for Firefox 3: June 17

by Brad Linder Jun 12th 2008

Mozilla is set to release the final version of Firefox 3 next Tuesday, June 17th. The next generation of Mozilla's web browser has been in development for almost three years, and after countless alphas, betas, and release candidates, we can't tell you how much we're looking forward to finally reporting on point releases.

The company has big plans for the day. Mozilla is hoping to set a world record for the most software downloads within a 24 hour period. The company is also encouraging people to plan Firefox parties around the globe. Very, very geeky Firefox downloading parties.

We'll let you in on a little secret though. If you don't care about setting world records, but just want to make sure you've got the most up to date version of the web browser, go ahead and download Firefox 3 RC 3 right now. It's pretty much the exact same browser you'll be able to download next week. But it's a lot harder to set a world record if you don't give people some warning, so Mozilla is delaying the official launch by a few days. That's a bit of a different tactic than Opera took when the company pushed out a release candidate of Opera 9.5 Monday and followed up with a final version of Opera 9.5 this morning.

Tags: download-day, firefox, firefox-3, world-record

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Bufsabre said 11:35AM on 6-12-2008

i loves me some firefox

Mark Dean said 11:59AM on 6-12-2008

I can think of one application that is installed on way more computers than FireFox 3 will be.

Windows Update, same day every month and most people have automatic updates on. If they can beat that, I'll be impressed!

Transcontinantal said 12:04PM on 6-12-2008

Does anyone have an idea when 3.01 will be coming out ?
(Nervous laugh, I'm so anxious!) ... ;)

Dagwood said 12:09PM on 6-12-2008

In Ubuntu, it come through as a system update 2 days ago. It looks to be the official Firefox 3. There are no beta or release candidate numbers listed. That kind kills my Download Day need, but I will do it anyway, just to be counted.

Brad Linder said 12:11PM on 6-12-2008

That'd be the RC you just downloaded. Firefox 3 RCs 1 through 3 don't say they're release candidates in the about screen. They just say Firefox 3.

Mark P. said 2:30PM on 6-12-2008

I'm pretty sure the download site won't have the following info:

Should we uninstall v2 first?
Will the default v3 overwrite v2?
Is it recommended to keep v2 in case there problems with v3?
Can v2 be uninstalled later?
Will v3 use the same profile directory or can it be configured to use a new one and import the v2 profile in case there are problems?
Will the installation process make a backup of the existing profile?

Firefox's user base is getting big enough now that there's a significant percentage of users that are not pc literate enough to take care of technical details like the above on their own.

If v3 does not play nice with sites where v2 has no problems with, people will be lost and there'll be too much unnecessary frustration unless the v3 installation process keeps a profile backup automatically in case users need to revert to v2.

RP said 9:48PM on 6-12-2008

From what I've seen, v3 will import v2's history (and bookmarks) when it is installed and run the first time.

But after that, it now saves history to "places.sqlite" (SQLite format?), instead of the old history.dat file.

So if you run v2 again, you'll see all of your v2 history/bookmarks, but none of your v3 surfing/changes.

Someone else can comment on extension compatibility.

I've gone back and forth between v2 and v3 with no serious problems. But v3 has been so good, I haven't run v2 for a long time.

Jeebus said 3:47PM on 6-13-2008

How about the x64 version?

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