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Get your Firefox on: Firefox Download Day
Just a reminder, as Robert hinted half an hour ago today is "Download Day" for Firefox 3. If you haven't yet downloaded the official 3.0 release, be sure to do it today! Firefox is trying to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. At 10 AM PDT (1:00 PM EDT) head over here to get your official download. Note: Only downloads from Mozilla's official site count towards the record.It's not all about Mozilla's pride, really! Firefox 3 will bring many changes for all Mac users (mostly good), as this is the first release of Firefox that is built primarily using Cocoa for the underlying Gecko 1.9 engine (a project that's been in the works for years). Along with better redraw speed (CoreGraphics vs. the older QuickDraw API) and improved memory handling, the new engine provides the groundwork for a pure-Cocoa, 64-bit clean version of Firefox in the future. Firefox 3's UI is more Maclike now, with Aqua-style widgets improving the view. You can read more about the architectural changes to Firefox 3 and Gecko 1.9 at developer Josh Aas' blog.
So head on over to Spread Firefox, we're sure you can't go wrong! If you're in the mood to party with the Firefox launch day crowd, check Mozilla's party site for activities near you.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
iwamoto said 8:40AM on 6-17-2008
i know this is extreme nitpicking, but how will it take for someone to throw the icon up to 512x512 ? i mean, why not ?
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amutti said 8:44AM on 6-17-2008
The official launch time is 10:00 a.m. PDT today.
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OwlBoy said 8:47AM on 6-17-2008
That time around the world: http://tinyurl.com/4e7fv5
bikeham said 8:48AM on 6-17-2008
Too early, as correctly pointed out by the venerable amutti.
In other news, the link currently points to RC3.
Bobnease said 11:22AM on 6-17-2008
Thanks for clarifying this.
silencedotcom said 8:46AM on 6-17-2008
Just remember to use this link or wait until the official front page comes out. Accessing the files via FTP doesn't count for the download record!!
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lee said 9:29AM on 6-17-2008
it will be nice to get a breakdown of the downloads by platform after something like this (which I'm sure they will be doing eventually)
i wouldn't be surprised if Mac's were 15-20% of all the downloads :)
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webmacster87 said 8:47AM on 6-17-2008
According to the Spread Firefox website, the release time for Firefox 3 is set to 10 AM San Francisco time, or 1 PM Eastern/5 PM UTC.
Patience is a virtue. ;)
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Word. said 9:20AM on 6-17-2008
Has anyone figures out a way of getting Firefox to deal with flash content like safari? In safari i can open a number of tabs that have autoplaying flash videos (i.e. youtube) and they won't actually start playing untill i click on that tab. On firefox they start playing in the background, meaning i have to go to them and pause the video.
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Colin said 9:55AM on 6-17-2008
That's why Safari is the preferred porn browser.
Word. said 9:58AM on 6-17-2008
Or for loading a multi-part video on sites that have length restrictions...
The closest i've found is an extension that just blocks flash content, but then you have to click to start it.
crazypenguin said 10:42AM on 6-17-2008
same problem, i have a site that i go to all of the time, it has this big flash object, and it only works on safari, not firefox, i just hope firefox works after this...or else i may have to go back to safari :( .
Harvey said 12:55PM on 6-17-2008
The Firefox behavior has its benefits, too. You can open a bunch of YouTube videos or movie trailers all at once and then, click Play-Pause on each so that they'll all start downloading content and caching.
Why did I learn this behavior? Because on a Powerbook, flash playback suffers greatly while the player is still downloading content. Better to wait until all content has been downloaded and cached before hitting Play.
Word. said 1:00PM on 6-17-2008
You can acheive that exactly in safari just by clicking on each tab (as you'd have to in firefox anyway) and clicking pause.
Chris said 9:25AM on 6-17-2008
And for those of us stuck on Windows boxes all day, a link to Firefox 3.0 for Windows:
[link removed]
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Steven said 9:48AM on 6-17-2008
Please remove the direct download link above. It links to a release candidate and NOT to the final FF 3.0 release. Readers might get confused.
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Michael Rose said 9:51AM on 6-17-2008
Working on it.
L8on said 10:01AM on 6-17-2008
I'm confused about two things. Can someone please clear this up for me?
Is Firefox 3 faster than Safari 3.1?
Would you say it is BETTER than Safari 3.1?
Is Safari 4 supposed to be faster than Firefox 3?
Is there an estimate release time for Safari 4?
Thanks!
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Word. said 10:48AM on 6-17-2008
You can get Safari v4 from apple's developer website. It's only a dev. preview, but its free, you just need to sign up for an account.
Jeff said 10:49AM on 6-17-2008
Yes, Firefox 3 is faster than Safari 3.1. And yes, Safari 4 will probably be faster than Firefox 3. And yes, it is better, at least for web developers. You can't be a web developer without Firebug. Apple is talking about Safari 4 with Snow Leopard although they may release it a little before then.