June 2008 Archives

Hey everyone! We're back with another in the long running series of developer interviews where you all get to ask the questions.

This week, we're fortunate to have Window Snyder, Mozilla's "chief security something-or-other" answering your questions about security.

Window was just featured in USA Today and Security Focus so if you're not familiar with her, give those articles a read.

Then get back here and ask your questions of Window in the comments. I'll gather up and deliver your questions to her, and in about a week I'll post the results of the interview here for all to read.

We're seven days after the launch of Firefox 3 and we've already exceeded 20 million downloads.

This is pretty amazing to me. I really can't even picture 20 million people. I was trying to close my eyes and see a crowd of 20 million and I just couldn't.

I tried first to imagine a really large stadium, new Wembly or the L.A. Coliseum for example, (both ~90K seats.). I can picture that in my mind's eye. But I can't quite make a picture of 200 of those :-)

Next I started thinking about a really big city like Seoul, New York, or Mexico City but even a satellite view that shows the whole thing doesn't give me a building scale, much less a human scale.

It's just too big a number for me to visualize at a human scale and I find that wonderfully amazing.

Trying to picture all of the Firefox users in the world, over 180,000,000 is just insane.

Firefox is literally bigger than I could possibly imagine ;-)

Digg it!

Check out the new Kung Fu Panda movie and celebrate the release of Firefox 3 with Michael Osborne, the movie's director.

As I'm sure most of you know, Firefox is another name for the adorable Red Panda. Kung Fu Panda features just one such Red Panda and so there's the tie-in :-)

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Brit_2 and used under a Creative Commons license.

Tickets are free but donations are welcome to help the Red Panda Network raise funds for a preserve.

The screening is tomorrow, Saturday, June 21st, 2008 from2:00pm - 5:00pm at the Aquarius Theatre in Palo Alto.

If you're going to make it, please RSVP here or on Facebook.

Well, that didn't take long. Mars Phoenix Lander has discovered what appears to be melting water ice on Mars. Excellent!

it's just short of 48 hours since we released Firefox 3 to the world and we just crossed the 12 million downloads mark.

I'm certainly a partisan, but I'm not going to let that get in the way of saying that Firefox 3 is not just the best browser I've ever used, it's the best piece of software I've ever used.

Thousands of people all over the world contributed to making Firefox the amazing product that it is and millions more are helping to move the Web forward by moving to Firefox.

We're setting the world on fire!

With a few minutes left on the clock for Firefox Download Day, the counter just ticked past 8 million downloads of Firefox 3.

This just blows my mind. My prediction yesterday before the launch was 5-6 million. I was really really hoping to see it go to 6 but was going to be thrilled if we broke 5. Even after getting off to a rocky start with server issues, we still managed to blow past my wildest expectations.

We "got an 8" ;-)

Photo courtesy of Flickr user intothefuzz

Half way through download day, we're at approximately 4 million downloads and getting about 10K downloads per minute right now.

4 million downloads, and that's after having a partially functioning website the first two hours of that 12 hours. Amazing. My mind is blown.

In just a little more than 4 hours, we'll be releasing Firefox 3 and starting our Download Day Guinness World Record attempt.

Download Day 2008 officially kicks off with the release of Firefox 3 from Mountain View, California, USA at 10:00:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT).

OK. So I suck at math and I got enough of this wrong that I'm gonna just cross it out and let you all do the math yourself or use an online calculator like this or this

Now, the good news: Download day is 24 hours long so even if the time is off a bit, that shouldn't be a problem. Check the Mozilla website at the time listed above and if you see Firefox 3, then download it. If you don't see Firefox 3 yet, then we haven't released yet. Just wait an hour or two and check back. There's no need for everyone to make the download at the exact same minute :-)

Paul Thurrot, over at his SuperSite for Windows, gets a jump on the competition and the release with his early review of Firefox 3.

He hits on some great points, including some well motivated criticisms, but overall there's no doubt after reading this review that Firefox 3 is Paul Thurrott's browser to beat.

Mozilla Firefox 3 is the fastest, safest, and most feature-rich Web browser available on any platform and I recommend it to one and all. This is one area where Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux users can simply agree: Firefox is without peer, and regardless of which browser you're currently using--be it a previous version of Firefox, any version of Internet Explorer, or, heaven forbid, Apple's buggy Safari--you need to upgrade to Firefox 3 immediately. I recommend Firefox 3 without hesitation and without caveat, as it is one of those very rare software products, and a key tool in my own personal computing arsenal. No software is perfect, but Firefox is close enough. Highly recommended.

I've yet to read more unequivocal recommendation for a browser than that :-) Thanks, Paul.

digg it

I asked the other day what people thought about search toolbars now that browsers all come with pretty sophisticated built-in search and find capabilities. There were some good responses both pro and con.

Today, the news is good for Google Toolbar fans. Just in time, it's been updated to work with Firefox 3. If you're a user and you can't do without it, here it is: Google Toolbar.

I answered some questions for a short interview with FavBrowser.com. If you're interested in learning a little bit more about me or about Mozilla and Firefox, head over and give it a read. An Interview with Asa Dotzler (Mozilla)

I think Walt Mossberg is right on when he makes the point that search toolbars are a thing of the past. Now that all of the major browsers include pretty sophisticated Internet, in-page, and local search functionality, the idea of adding an entire toolbar for a search box seems kind of silly.

Now, some of you, I'm sure, will say, "but I need the page rank tool" or some other niche feature that comes with a search toolbar. Maybe so, but it's just that, a niche feature and not something that any large number of users really needs.

What do you all think? What am I missing here? Why do so many people want a search toolbar add-on for Firefox when the bulk of those features exist in the default install?

Mozilla has such an amazing community. Here's just one great example. Check out Jimmy R's Firefox 3 review screencast.

The deadline for the Firefox 3 Screencast Contest is coming up soon. There's not much time so if you want to be a part of making Firefox 3 rock and you want a really cool Firefox t-shirt, you'd better hurry!

What's the contest?

We need your help to create screencasts for the top 100 support articles on our community-powered Firefox Support site. It's your chance to impact Firefox users worldwide and win some cool prizes.

Why Screencasts?

The Firefox Support project (also known as SUMO) has a huge knowledge base full of tutorials, how-tos and troubleshooting articles for Firefox, written by the amazing volunteers of the Mozilla community.

This is where you come in! Now it's time to create videos for those words.

Creating screencasts is super easy with software like the Jing Project, a free screencast recording software for Windows and Mac. Just select the area of the screen you want to record, and start recording your screencast. Upload it to the web with a simple click, and you're ready to submit your screencast to the contest.

How to participate

1. Pick an article from the top 100 list
2. Create a screencast for the article
3. Submit your screencast

Questions? We've got the answers!

Deb has really blown my mind this last month with her amazing series of Firefox 3 blog posts.

Well, she's gone one step further and wrapped it all up into a mega blog post that covers everything you need to know to get the most from Firefox 3. Go read it:

Field Guide to Firefox 3

And, to make sure that as many people see it as possible, please, please go digg it.

Yep, we've nailed down the last of the remaining launch issues and we're excited to announce that the worldwide launch of Firefox 3 (in more than 45 languages) will be happening next Tuesday, June 17th.

update: ROBOT VICTORY!

Aza (yeah, that's with a "z") Raskin, from Mozilla Labs, has a great blog post and screencast demonstrating some very innovative and I think extremely friendly mobile UI concepts for Fennec, the Firefox browser for mobile devices. Head over to his blog and check it out.

Deb Richardson and Stuart Parmenter teamed up on a great blog post that demonstrates some of the amazing work on fonts that make Firefox 3 really shine. Head over to Deb's blog via digg (and bump that post up a notch while you're there) and have a gander. Lots of explanation and pics!

Today we rolled past the one million mark in Firefox 3 download pledges over at the Firefox Download Day site.

Wow. In less than 2 weeks, more than a million Firefox fans have signed up to help set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours! I find that just phenomenal.

You know, with every one of these community marketing programs, from The New York Times ad in 2004 to Firefox Flicks to the Firefox crop circle to Operation Firefox and now Download Day 2008, I am repeatedly blown away by the passion and the creativity of the Mozilla community.

There's something really special about this worldwide group of enthusiasts and participants that just doesn't exist anywhere else. It's more than a software project. It's a movement, and on days like today I'm reminded what a positive force for change Mozilla -- the millions of people that make it, can be.

Congratulations to everyone that's signed up, and if you haven't yet, head over to Spread Firefox and make your pledge.

Firefox 3 pre-releases are over 2 million active daily users. Schrep's got a great chart and blog post here showing the usage growth since Firefox 3 Alpha 2.

THIS ARTICLE IS OUT OF DATE. SEE THIS DOCUMENT FOR CURRENT LOGOS.

Just about every day I run across someone using Firefox's ancient, pre-1.0 logo. To most people it won't be obvious or it won't seem like a big deal, but it's a real peeve of mine so I'm asking you all to help me spread the word.

Below, I've provided a sample illustrating the two logos and offering some suggestions for quickly identifying which logo you're looking at. In addition, I'm providing a couple of links to the correct image in several sizes and formats. If you all could, please help me rid the web of that old version. Thanks.

And, as always, please also help others to use these logos correctly and legally. Thanks.

Mozilla [Toronto] is not tech's worst workspace.

Having spent a few days there this week, I can confirm the wonderful air conditioning, nearby food goodness, and the abundance of Mikes.

From the conductor himself, Mike Beltzner's get to know Firefox 3 screencast.

It's that time again -- time to party with the Fox!

With every major release, thousands of people get together at hundreds of parties all across the globe to celebrate the release and this year is going to be the biggest and most awesome world-wide party ever!

Head over to Alex Polvi's blog for more information.

Walt Mossberg was on CNBC today praising Firefox 3. Apparently CNBC doesn't believe in offering embedding for it's videos so if you want to watch, go here.

We've passed 60,000,000 active daily users. That should translate into about 180,000,000 total active users. Amazing!

The last major milestone for Mozilla that fell on my birthday was the release of Mozilla 1.0 in 2002.

Walt Mossberg, one of the most well-respected technical reporters in the business, has this to say about Firefox 3:

I’ve been using prerelease versions of Firefox 3.0 for months, and have recently been testing a near-final version and comparing it closely to IE and to Safari. I have tested it on multiple Windows PCs and Macs, on desktops and laptops, over slow connections and fast ones. I have tried it with well over 100 Web sites.

My verdict is that Firefox 3.0 is the best Web browser out there right now, and that it tops the current versions of both IE and Safari in features, speed and security. It is easy to install and easy to use, even for a mainstream, non-technical user. It can be downloaded, free, at mozilla.com by clicking on “Firefox 3 Sneak Peek.”

....

My bottom line: Even though you already have a built-in browser, Firefox 3.0 can improve your Web experience.

I just ran across a blog post claiming that IE 8 beta 1 with its 2 million downloads was doing better than Firefox 3 pre-releases which are being used by more than 2 million people every day. Not a big deal, but in case anyone was thinking anything like that, it's wrong. 2 million downloads does not mean 2 million daily users and certainly not the case with IE8 beta 1 which is pretty much unusable as a daily browser. Firefox 3 pre-releases, on the other hand, have been downloaded nearly 10 million times (not counting updates between betas) and Firefox 3 is being used by enough people that it's about to break 1% of global web usage.

I’ve arrived for my first visit to Mozilla Toronto’s luxurious nerd-class offices. Very comfortable. It’s like being at an Internet-bubble-era startup all over again. Nice!

Hoping for some excellently productive meetings with my fellow Evangelizers.

Firefox 3, which hasn't been released yet, is gaining a significant following, and has just overtaken Opera Software's Opera 9 desktop browser in global market share (according to Net Applications.) I wonder if Firefox 3 will be able to break 1% global share before it's even released. That would be pretty crazy.

With millions of people already using the pre-releases of Firefox 3 and the enthusiasm around the arrival of the final release, I have no doubt that we'll see Firefox well above 20% global market share in the very near term.

How'd I miss this one? Apparently there's a design flaw in Windows Safari that allows a website to "carpet bomb" the user with a large number of automatic downloads of executable files to the desktop. Microsoft is threatening to take action after Apple claimed it was not a security issue. I like Paul Thurrot's take on it:

Microsoft recommends a workaround while it works on a solution: Reconfigure the default location where Safari downloads content to the local drive, as doing so will prevent the flaw from being exploited. I have a more elegant solution: Simply avoid Safari all together and use a browser that's written by developers who understand the security nuances of Windows better. I recommend Mozilla Firefox, but Internet Explorer 7 is acceptable as well.

There's a very good chance, according to the good folks evaluating the latest photographic data from the Phoenix Mars Lander, that it has landed on a sheet of ice that's just inches below the rocky surface.

See the photo and the initial analysis here.

Firefox, now with 18.41% of the global browser market according to Net Applications, was the fastest growing browser in May.

The May numbers from Net Applications have been released to the public. The three notable moves, I think, are that IE has fallen more than 1 full percentage point in the last month, Firefox has gained nearly a point, and Firefox 3 pre-releases are very close to passing Opera's desktop browser to become the 4th most used browser in the world.

IE continuing to lose market share is no surprise, but the 1.08 point drop is pretty significant for a one month period before the release of Firefox 3.

The Firefox growth of 0.65 points is the biggest monthly jump for Firefox in the last 7 months.

The most exciting change, though, is the Firefox 3 pre-release growth. Firefox 3 pre-releases grew .23 points in May -- and without even maintaining that growth rate, it will surpass Opera's desktop browser before Firefox 3 ships.