Firefox 3 Launches, Servers Crash

Dan Frommer | June 17, 2008 1:15 PM

To celebrate the launch of its Firefox 3 Web browser, Mozilla (SAI 25 #5) has a gimmick up its sleeve: It's trying to set the Guinness world record for most downloads in a day.

Apparently it didn't plan ahead for the swarm of traffic that would hit its servers when the Firefox 3 update got released at 1 p.m. ET. (And it doesn't look like Mozilla is using a CDN like Akamai or Limelight to cache its site.)

We've been trying to load Mozilla's site to download Firefox 3 for the last 15 minutes, with no success. So in the meantime, we'll stick with our old browser. We will, however, try to make it to the NYC Firefox 3 launch party tonight at AdaptiveBlue in SoHo.

Update: Some mirrors to the Mac and Windows versions of Firefox 3, via Hacker News.

Subscribe to SAI: RSS, email newsletter (no spam)

Share:

< Prev. Story

Next Story >

30 Comments

frugal said:

Jun. 17, 1:24 PM

Only time in history when server crashing is great news and a major punch in Microsoft's face!

Sean Robertson (URL) said:

Jun. 17, 1:27 PM

What kind of idiots are running that server? They didn;t even bother to put up mirrors or anything, and there seems to be no way to get Firefox 3 directly from Mozilla. STUPID. They need to take the server off the network, replace all the PHP stuff (I assume they're still using Drupal) with a plain text web page containing nothing but a link to the download page and mirrors and then bring it back up. How the heck did they not anticipate this?

Dan Frommer (URL) said:

Jun. 17, 1:29 PM

Post updated with mirrors. Still, where's the CDN?

Alfie Noakes said:

Jun. 17, 1:46 PM

Strange:

I got 3.0 from the Mozilla FTP just now. The size is 7160KB, version 4.42.0.0. The license agreement still says May 2008

The file in the (windows) mirror above is a LARGER file but still 4.42.0.0 and same date (May 2008).

Hmmm?

Alfie Noakes said:

Jun. 17, 1:48 PM

... Maybe just a different language version I suppose...

Dan Frommer (URL) said:

Jun. 17, 1:53 PM

Dunno. Seems to work fine though.

Derek said:

Jun. 17, 1:59 PM

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.0/win32/en-US/

DougT said:

Jun. 17, 2:02 PM

LOL. It loads now, and redirects to mozilla.com -- where I get a big shiny button that offers me....

...wait for it...

Firefox 2!!!

C'mon, no Akamai? Obviously the "world record" wasn't really that important to them ...

FHER (URL) said:

Jun. 17, 2:33 PM

para los que a estas alturas no pueden descargar firefox 3 y no les importa el record mundial y sí tener la nueva versión del mejor navegador de la historia de la humanidad, descarga desde http://rapidshare.com/files/123137998/Firefox_Setup_3.0.exe

Phil Pendlebury (URL) said:

Jun. 17, 2:37 PM

Some of you may want to try here too:

ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/3.0/

There you will see all the language versions etc.

Just keep trying you'll get on eventually.

Enjoy said:

Jun. 17, 2:44 PM

Windows
http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0&os=win&lang=en-US
Macintosh
http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0&os=osx&lang=en-US

abz said:

Jun. 17, 3:01 PM

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html

theres you go ladies and gentlemen...

John said:

Jun. 17, 3:14 PM

Please use http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html, as thats load balanced and counts towards the record.

DougT: fyi, the button is now fixed to correctly downloads FF3.

John said:

Jun. 17, 3:16 PM

Please use http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html, as thats load balanced and counts towards the record.

DougT: fyi, the button is now fixed to correctly downloads FF3.

Gubatron (URL) said:

Jun. 17, 3:30 PM

It's working now for me, installed on 5 machines, different OSes

Gubatron (URL) said:

Jun. 17, 3:31 PM

Check out how many downloads they have, updated to the minute supposedly

http://downloadcounter.sj.mozilla.com/

754k+ downloads at the moment of this post

josh said:

Jun. 17, 4:59 PM

Works just fine. They are now rotating through about 2 dozen providers, still no Akamai. They have some tough hurdles to go over... My company just handled the release of "Age of Conan", the file size is huge... so I guess they need to define "largest download" or what have you. I think Cindy Margolis might have to protest!

Peter (URL) said:

Jun. 17, 6:57 PM

Firefox 3 rocks and is super fast as promised. Optimize your FF3 experience with Firefox’s recommended add-on, the Me.dium Social Toolbar. Find us on AMO: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4365

Friend pjn, gfigg, and jenniferlauren so we can surf around together in Me.dium and talk about how Fx3 kicks @$$!! http://blogme.dium.com/content/2008/06/welcome-firefox-3-users

Tin Huckington said:

Jun. 18, 1:41 AM

Just got Opera 9.5 and IE 7 of this shameful effort of Mozilla >:-(
The site wasn't working and the download started in the night for many of the worlds countries. :-|

Horton Ferdnandaz said:

Jun. 18, 1:46 AM

Mozilla is going down because cause of hype and not real work being done. :(

wow gold (URL) said:

Aug. 12, 12:09 AM

buy WOW GOld .We supply cheap wow GoLd,to reliable customers. welcome to
WOw golD buy woW gOld,sell wOw Gold
Please look here WOw gold,Cheap wow gold,WOw GOld,
buy woW goLD,Cheap WoW gold Power Leveling, World of Warcraft
WOw gold.

Nancy said:

Aug. 13, 9:20 PM

Help! How do I uninstall Firefox 3.0.1? Add/Remove programs cannot remove the downloaded product...and my computer is having intermittent outage problems, since the install. Please help or tell me an e mail address where I can ask Mozilla tech support. Thanks, Nancy

safsdfdsf (URL) said:

Sep. 11, 1:34 AM

World of Warcraft Alliance Leveling Tips - Tips on Powerleveling your Alliance Character in World of Warcraft(LWB)

Here are some tips on how to quickly wow power leveling your World of Warcraft Alliance character to level 60 and beyond in the least amount of game time.cheap wow power leveling

1 - Since wow power leveling is the most important thing, only take First Aid as a profession. Running back and forth to profession wow power leveling trainers is time consuming. So is getting enough wow power leveling resources in your inventory to make use of the profession. Instead, use that wow powerleveling time for questing and building experience. First Aid world of warcraft powerleveling requires cloth and is a profession that has immediate benefits after battles. Make some bandages and get moving again.world of warcraft power leveling

2 - Use Auto Run when possible.you wow gold It is amazing what you can do while make wow gold you are using Auto Run. Make a sandwich. Rearrange your inventory. Carry on a chat conversation with someone. Use your travel wow powerleveling time as wisely as possible.world of warcraft power leveling

3 - Make sure your world of warcraft gold ammo supplies are topped off before you leave wow powerleveling town. If you use arrows or bullets, make sure you have plenty to survive on until the next time you world of warcraft gold go back to town. There's nothing worse than a Hunter leaving town, having a few battles, and then world of warcraft powerleveling coming back because cheap wow gold he forgot to stock up on arrows Warhammer Online Gold before he left. Topping off your supplies might take a little extra time, but it will save travel time if you have to run back to town.buy world of warcraft gold

4 - Make sure equipment is fully repaired before buy AOC Power Leveling town. Another big pain is going on a quest far from town and then finding your main weapon is in need of repair. Get it repaired before you leave AGE OF CONAN Power Leveling town.

5 - Destroy inventory Warhammer Online Power Leveling items to save trips to town. If you are far from town Warhammer Power Leveling and have a full inventory, it's not against any rule to destroy items to free up room. Try not to destroy items needed for quests.Warhammer Gold 2 Moons Dil MapleStory Mesos Maple Story Mesos MS Mesos WARHAMMER ONLINE GOLD Cheap WARHAMMER ONLINE GOLD RuneScape Gold RS Gold RuneScape Money RS Money SilkRoad Gold SilkRoad Online Gold SRO Gold EVE ISK EVE Online ISK Gaia Gold dgsrgtwrt

UserName said:

Sep. 14, 9:47 PM

digital signage advertising display[babjjhidaaehfa]

cuilsearch said:

Sep. 27, 1:52 AM

dvd cutter is a multifunctional and easy-to-use DVD cutter software, it enables you to cut DVD files easily by setting the start time and the end time with high quality.

treeddr (URL) said:

Oct. 08, 3:46 AM