This probably shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but if you encourage millions of users to download your software on the same day, your servers are going to take a hammering. But it appears that even Mozilla had no idea how many people would be trying to download Firefox 3 today.
There's a good chance that you may get through if you keep hitting refresh. And there's a good chance that the company will manage to break the world record if it ever gets the servers back up. But you know what? If you don't really care about setting a world record, Firefox 3 RC 3 is pretty much identical to Firefox 3 final. So if you're already running RC2 or RC3, there's no need to kill yourself trying to update your browser today. Tomorrow, next week, or even next month will probably be soon enough.
In the meantime, if you've got your heart set on downloading a next-generation browser, you can always take Opera 9.5 for a spin. That company's servers are holding up just fine.
Update: Some users are reporting success with these download links. Windows, Mac, Linux
Update 2: It looks like the site is back up, but incredibly slow. Like dialup slow.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
6-17-2008 @ 2:07PM
PRC. said...
LOL
Reply
6-17-2008 @ 2:10PM
jimmy said...
have they ever heard of mirrors? what a cluster f
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6-17-2008 @ 2:11PM
Grant Robertson said...
Oh Brad.. You might as well have said, "I'd like to take this opportunity to point, laugh, and recommend a real browser."
Remind me not to take ill immediately after a moment of hubiris; at least while you're around. :)
Reply
6-17-2008 @ 2:12PM
Brad Linder said...
Of course, the only reason Opera's servers are holding up is because there hasn't been a mad rush to download the program.
6-17-2008 @ 2:18PM
Ernie Tedeschi said...
Oh, come on. This was planned all along. It's just another way to build buzz. "Ooooo! SO many people were trying to download FF3 that it crashed their servers!" I'm not even convinced the setup file is even on their servers yet. When I went to "http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0&os=win&lang=en-US", I ended up with RC3.
Just a digital version of planned shortages, if you ask me.
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6-17-2008 @ 2:33PM
PrimitiveWallflower said...
Horray! No longer RC3!
6-17-2008 @ 2:19PM
Tool said...
Here is the direct DL:
http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0&os=win&lang=en-US
or use this:
http://ftp.twaren.net/Unix/Mozilla//firefox/releases/3.0/win32/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%203.0.exe
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6-17-2008 @ 2:42PM
robotrock said...
FTP connections don't count towards the total...or so I've read.
6-17-2008 @ 2:19PM
mike said...
finally got onto http://www.spreadfirefox.com/ and the link on there is directing me to firefox 2 lol
the shame!
also it says its been downloaded 578345066 times which is..? er
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6-17-2008 @ 2:19PM
mike said...
got onto the site http://www.spreadfirefox.com/
the download button is linking me to firefox 2... nice
oh and the pages says ff3 has been downloaded
578345066
times....
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6-17-2008 @ 2:23PM
mike said...
finially they changed the link, all is good now
6-17-2008 @ 2:27PM
Jonas said...
download works great now
(no, it's no longer RC3 on the page)
Reply
6-17-2008 @ 2:42PM
friko said...
Not working for Mac OS yet still linking to FF2
6-17-2008 @ 2:42PM
friko said...
...and now is working!
6-17-2008 @ 2:43PM
mugczar said...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10700/firefox
6-17-2008 @ 2:30PM
door0122 said...
so is an official from Guiness scanning their log files or something to verify the credibility of this record attempt? lol
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6-17-2008 @ 2:42PM
robotrock said...
I switched language to English (British) and it came right up!
Reply
6-17-2008 @ 2:43PM
Paul said...
It's back to linking to firefox 2.0.0.14. 2:39 EST
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6-17-2008 @ 2:45PM
Paul said...
2:42 EST
Fixed. Linking to 3.0
6-17-2008 @ 2:45PM
patchsms said...
"Shades of Twitter, let's get a million people to simultaneously try to d/l the update and not provide the infrastructure to support it - after oh say 25 try again attempts got in hit d/l link and got sent to firefox 2 page, I can only hope this spreadfirefox site is not officially affiliated with Mozilla.org it's all flash and candy and a poorly built site at that. huge download now icon without a link to a d/l a nightmare to navigate. It's a damn good thing I love firefox or this experience would be enough to make me think about switching" I said this earlier you stole my rant!! good thing for you I'm not the AP newswire or I'd sue for content infringement! hee hee
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