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Mozilla struggles with Firefox 3 release

by Robert Palmer Jun 17th 2008 at 3:00PM

Promised at 10 a.m. Pacific time (1 p.m. Eastern), Mozilla was eager to set a one-day world-record for the release of Firefox 3. With most of the day already gone for much of the world, and nary an update to be seen, it's looking bad for June 17.

Getfirefox.com alternates between being entirely down and cheerfully offering up the latest and greatest version of Firefox 2.

"Check for Updates" inside of Firefox (eventually) returns a "AUS: Update XML File Malformed (200)" error reading the XML file that would normally contain information about Firefox updates.

When will we see an update? "Shortly," according to the Mozilla Blog. They are also careful to point out that the "official" 24 hours of record-breaking will commence the moment the software is released, and not from their original 10 a.m. estimate.

Thanks everyone who sent this in!

Update: 3:05 p.m.: We did it! TUAW single-handedly provided the schadenfreude necessary to get the server running, and getfirefox.com is serving up Firefox 3.



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Promised at 10 a.m. Pacific time (1 p.m. Eastern), Mozilla was eager to set a one-day world-record for the release of Firefox 3. With most...
 

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Adrian vG

I didn't read the previous posts, but the Mozilla team said most downloaded in 24 hours, not specifically on the 17th. in CET it means from 18:00 17th -> 18:00 18th.

June 18 2008 at 5:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
CZ

What Mozilla Firefox needs to do in order for me to switch from Safari completely:

1. Allow me to use the right-click "Look Up in Dictionary" function that is native to OS X. It's essential once you're used to it, and Firefox's only close relative to this is an online Dictionary search.

2. Put a "Save Image to Downloads" item in the right-click menu. As it stands, Firefox asks you to Right Click, pick "Save As...", pick a folder, and then click "save" (or is it "OK"?) --- They turn something that's a one-click affair in Safari into a multi-click pain in the butt.

OK. I lied. One more thing: PDF handling within the browser.

June 17 2008 at 10:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Y-Guy

I've loaded FF3 on my iMac as well as our other home machines, XP/Vista - no problems. Been running FF3 during the beta process with only a few issues. Glad the day is here, competition for browsers is a good thing.

Now my question is where do I get a clean version of the snazzy fire fox logo posted here, that would make a nice icon!

June 17 2008 at 9:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TVGenius

If you have problems, try this:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox?p=downloadday

This was in the email they sent to those who 'pledged' ahead of time, and it worked fine for me when the getfirefox.com and everything else I tried was either down or still showing Firefox 2.

June 17 2008 at 7:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dat

firefox is great...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrielamadeus/2588686484/

June 17 2008 at 6:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Dat's comment
Robert Palmer

Dat, it looks like you have a PostScript version of Helvetica Neue in one of your Fonts folders. To fix this problem, remove all fonts named "Helvetica Neue" from your fonts folder, and only leave "HelveticaNeue.dfont".

Not an ideal solution, and one I fight with myself, but it should do the trick. But, safe to say, it's not Firefox's fault.

June 17 2008 at 7:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Big Boss

I started downloading FF 3 then the Spore demo. The Spore trial, all 197 MB of it downloaded in about 2 minutes.

It took 8 minutes for Firefox (17 MB).

June 17 2008 at 5:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Wayne Pascoe

I just downloaded 3.0, but when I run it, it says thanks for helping test this release candidate.

I don't want to test anything. I don't want to run an RC - that's why I downloaded straight from www.getfirefox.com

I guess that's what you get for trying to help break a record - burned.

Half-assed at best!

June 17 2008 at 5:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Micah

I loved firefox when I was a PC user, mostly because anything is better than IE. I hate it on the Mac though. I'm using Webkit or Safari and both run faster and are more stable. I downloaded 3 to see if I would like it and I hate the UI and it is slow.

I will stick to Webkit and Safari thanks.

June 17 2008 at 4:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Micah's comment
Ted

Good for you. I can't use safari at work, in fact safari and mail.app both fail to work on our network there.

So for me Mozilla products is the only ones that work fine. It appears Apple still has some issues that need to be fixed. The exact same websites work in FireFox but not safari on the exact same network..

June 17 2008 at 4:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Micah

That seems really weird. I have not heard of that happening unless someone is intentionally setting it up that way. I would try changing the user agent in Safari to something else and see if those sites work. If they do your network admin isn't an Apple fan and is screwing with you.

June 17 2008 at 5:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Wojtek

And what is the current record, anyway?

June 17 2008 at 4:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Lachlan Hunt

It's still not working for me. Whenever I'm able to actually load the site, it still links to Firefox 2. Maybe it's because I'm in Norway and I'm getting one of their mirrors that hasn't been updated yet.

June 17 2008 at 4:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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