Firefox 3.5 exceeds 7 million downloads, portable, Ubuntu versions available
In the few days since Firefox 3.5 was officially unleashed on the public, it's been downloaded well over 7 million times according to Mozilla's real-time download tracker. That's nowhere near the estimated 8 million downloads achieved in the first 24 hours after Firefox 3.0 launched, but it's still pretty good.
It's also probably worth pointing out that anyone who was running Firefox 3.5 RC3 on launch day probably isn't included in these numbers since RC3 is basically the same as the final release, which means if you had that version installed you didn't download any updates.
Now that there's a new version of Firefox, there's also a new version of Firefox Portable, which lets you run the browser from a USB flash drive. If you were running an older version of Firefox Portable you should be able to upgrade automatically from within the browser. But if you want to give Firefox 3.5 a try without installing it to your computer, the portable version is an excellent alternative.
And while Mozilla thinks Firefox 3.5 is stable enough to take remove the "beta" and "release candidate" labels, some Linux distributions might be slower to add the browser to their repositories. But that doesn't mean you can't install the browser manually. Kabatology has posted instructions for installing Firefox 3.5 in Ubuntu by typing a single line of code into a terminal window.
[via Lifehacker]
It's also probably worth pointing out that anyone who was running Firefox 3.5 RC3 on launch day probably isn't included in these numbers since RC3 is basically the same as the final release, which means if you had that version installed you didn't download any updates.
Now that there's a new version of Firefox, there's also a new version of Firefox Portable, which lets you run the browser from a USB flash drive. If you were running an older version of Firefox Portable you should be able to upgrade automatically from within the browser. But if you want to give Firefox 3.5 a try without installing it to your computer, the portable version is an excellent alternative.
And while Mozilla thinks Firefox 3.5 is stable enough to take remove the "beta" and "release candidate" labels, some Linux distributions might be slower to add the browser to their repositories. But that doesn't mean you can't install the browser manually. Kabatology has posted instructions for installing Firefox 3.5 in Ubuntu by typing a single line of code into a terminal window.
[via Lifehacker]













Comments
9
Subscribe to commentsIjaarJul 2nd 2009 11:59AM
I would love to see such growth for Chrome. It is still better and lighter than firefox, only if it had add-ons, it would have much more market share.
Gardiner WestboundJul 2nd 2009 11:29AM
Hold off installing Fx 3.5 for a few weeks. There's a few bugs they haven't worked out yet.
GenericJul 2nd 2009 5:16PM
All my saved passwords are gone. Lucky me I use Password Exporter extension. I don't even remember most of my passwords.
motangJul 2nd 2009 1:28PM
Well it's not native update for FF 3.5 on Ubuntu but all it is just downloading the file from Mozilla's FTP server and unpacking it into your Home directory and launching it from there, which is not a bad solution and it works. :)
JesusJul 2nd 2009 1:29PM
"In the few days since Firefox 3.5 was officially unleashed on the public, it's been downloaded well over 7 million times according to Mozilla's real-time download tracker. That's nowhere near the estimated 8 million downloads achieved in the first 24 hours after Firefox 3.0 launched, but it's still pretty good."
Since when is 7 million nowhere near 8 million? Would 7.75 million be anywhere near 8 million? What about 7.9 million?
Brad LinderJul 2nd 2009 1:41PM
7.5 million in three days is not 8 million in 1 day.
Dave ForsterJul 2nd 2009 2:00PM
I am fast losing faith with FF.... start up times were dreadful to start with and i've found them even worse since downloading 3.5 (and thats with only a few add-ons that I feel are essential)
As mentioned in a previous post, if it wasn;t for the lack of add-on support for chrome then id' be switching... i've just downloaded Opera Unite to give that a whirl.
GenericJul 2nd 2009 5:25PM
There was a challenge when Firefox 3.0 was released to break a download record and Mozilla was advertising it like it was the only thing to live for. This ad campaign didn't exist for version 3.5 and not many people knew about the release date.
Add to that, some people now download once and install multiple times. I have done that myself. I installed Firefox 3.5 on 10 computers from a single download. I am also spreading it to my not-so-geeky friends that don't know what the word browser means.
SilverWaveJul 4th 2009 10:26AM
It you set your sources in Ubuntu to allow Proposed Updates then FF3.5 is available :)
Was: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1b4pre) Gecko/20090401 Ubuntu/9.04 (jaunty) Shiretoko/3.5b4pre - Build ID:20090401172919
Now: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1) Gecko/20090701 Ubuntu/9.04 (jaunty) Shiretoko/3.5 - Build ID: 20090701021524
Remember to then turn proposed off :)