Righto. Here’s a chance to get in on something cool. Want to help set a world record? (That’s World Record, with a capital ‘W’ and ‘R’ yet!)
Here’s what you do:
- Head on over to the official Firefox Download Day 2008 site.
- Click on the big button that says “Pledge Now“
- Fill that in properly, and submit your pledge to download Firefox 3 when it’s launched later in June.
- And of course, remember to keep your pledge!
What’s it all about?
What is it really? Well, it’s obviously a pledge to download the newest version of the open source browser, Firefox. Duh. But more than that, and rather obvious too, it’s an attempt to set a world record for the most number of software downloads within 24 hours. Like the good folk at Mozilla say, the sky’s the limit. So instead of the 1.6 million downloads they saw on launch day for Firefox 2, maybe we’ll see a higher number this time, 5 million maybe? But only with everybody’s help!
It’s a browser, geek. Why should I care? Get a life.
I’ll tell you why you should care. First up, Mozilla Firefox is a shining example of open source software development. Imagine, the people behind Firefox are by-and-large a loose-knit group of volunteers who spend their free time tinkering with the project, adding their two cents as-and-when. All these little contributions have somehow managed to coalesce into a product that has gained rapid and continued popularity since its first release. In the time taken for the leading competitor to come up with a new release, Mozilla Firefox has managed to grow from a fledgling 0.1 release, to a fully-featured, 2.0 (and now we wait for 3.0). As a nice surprise to web developers worldwide, Firefox has also managed to adhere closely to official web standards; something its commercially-supported rival and market leader is still having trouble with.
This tells us one thing: Proprietary software by large companies isn’t always better. Open source software can be a viable alternative.
Besides, web browsing isn’t just a geek thing. A web browser is an essential tool for almost anything web-related, and, unless you’re some kind of guru, chances are, you’ll be running into a web browser quite a bit. What’s more, as utility (eg. del.icio.us, Google Reader) and social (eg. Facebook, Flickr) websites keep popping up one after another these days, you’ll probably have better chances of getting them to work properly in a standards-compliant browser like Firefox. And honestly, if everyone used a standards-compliant browser, the poor web developers would have a much easier life not having to un-standardise their pages just to cater to the quirks of certain browsers.
Supporting Mozilla in its record-setting attempt is only one way of showing support for a better product.
Do you care yet?
Anyway, I won’t deny it, the same way you’d recommend a good movie to your friends, I’m recommending using Firefox — that is, if you aren’t already.
If you are, good for you! And do remember to pledge your support for Download Day 2008.
