Firefox 3 download day made possible by Windows

"I think this whole thing was a business ploy to distract from Opera's new launch of the next major version upgrade on the desktop, Opera 9.50, which launched about a week before Fx."

And your point would be? Mozilla is a business, and their business is creating more market share. They're also really good at creating a great browser, IMO. Is Opera any different? They used to charge for the full version of their browser. I don't understand why Opera users are so bitter about their browser not being #1. Firefox users aren't bitter than IE is #1 over Firefox in market share in most markets - a little exasperated perhaps, but I don't think as bitter as Opera users are that Firefox is above Opera in market share. So what if Download Day is a gimmick to get more attention and possibly more market share? What do you want them to do, quietly announce the next major revision of their software and say "eh, you can come get it if you want, I guess. It's not really all that great"? What would be the point of releasing anything at all?

You're surprised? There are more Linux users than Mac users...

Hell, there's almost as many Ubuntu users as there are Mac users by now.

Linux users are more involved in the open source community. Mac users are still punching above their weight in the rankings.

As both an Apple and Windows user I waited before downloading, using multiple computers means I like to have all my bookmarks and passwords synchronized. The lack of support in FF3 for the Google Sync meant I had to look for alternatives, and nothing so far comes close in ease of use. :(

I've used Firefox since 1.5 from Microsoft Windows (3.1-Vista) to Ubuntu's Linux (5.n-8.04) to Apple's Leopard (9.n-10.5). I didn't like using IE (because of the lower browser securities and lack of extensions) and I don't use Safari (unless I need to be logged into two separate Gmail accounts or I'm logged into a Google Apps account and I need to modify a user's account on that domain, without logging out—no extensions either).

I find the use of Extensions/Add-Ons in Firefox to increase my web work productivity. I can't live without them. I have all the tools at my mouse click and I don't need to run another program to accomplish the simplistic tasks.

I have Dreamweaver but I don't hardly ever use it. I prefer to dabble with the script (HTML/CSS - now learning PHP) so I use two more extensions: Codetch & FireFTP. I discovered that the Mac's TextEdit adds formatting to the plain text and I needed to use a non-format-additive text editor to write clean scripts.

When I need to make a very large high-resolution/detailed map, I use ScreenGrab and write out an iFrame HTML file to the height/width of map size I need.

I use Adblock Plus to remove all the annoying pop-ups and flash ads from each website.

"Better Gmail 2" extension allows me to compose a Gmail message when I select an email address from a webpage.

DownloadThemAll! Tools and a Greasemonkey script allow me to download all my Google Docs to my computer. GdocsBar does the opposite and then some.

Quartz PDF Plugin allows me to load my PDFs within the Firefox window and I can save them to my Desktop via the File menu. By default, Firefox would show the download options.

PicLens is great to use with Firefox (it's limited on Safari) for viewing pictures and videos. The experience is even better with the Mac's Trackpad.

Finally, TwitterBar allows me to post to my Twitter account right from the Address Bar.

Aside from the extensions I use many online WebApps to do creative work.

http://danielbdesigns.com

In terms of raw power, Safari is better than any FF. FF3 gets 70 on acid3, and FF2 gets 52. Safari 3.1.1 gets 75. I don't have Safari 3.1.2, but I bet it gets 100/100

It may have been possible by Windows users (sick and tired of IE) but comparing % of OS users using Firefox then Linux would have the majority at about eee ~ 85% since Firefox is generally standard web browser in all Linux distros.