OVER 1,800 Open Source (OS) Nigerian software enthusiasts took part in the over 8 million global download day of Firefox-3 penultimate Wednesday.
Sources at Mozilla Download Day Headquarters (DDH), owners of Firefox brand said they were amazed following the number of downloads on Firefox 3 within 24 hours of its official release on Tuesday June 17 while download took place before the end of Wednesday, June 18, 2008.
Firefox is a free Internet fast browser which is in the third version of its release into the global market.
Firefox is seen as an alternative browser to Internet Explorer and is a small but easy to use open source browser that has many advantages over Internet Explorer.
ITRealms recalls that few weeks back officials of Mozilla announced the proposal to stamp a Guinness World Record attempt by inviting enthusiasts around the world to express their readiness to download the latest in its shelf, Firefox 3 within the 24 hours of launch.
Noteworthy is that Firefox 2 recorded 1.6 million download on its launch day, which gave the inspiration for the 8m demand.
And as at Wednesday, June 18, ITRealms gathered that Firefox 3 total downloads was at 8,937,974 as at 10pm Nigerian time.
In response to this invitation over 8 million downloads were recorded on the d-date with over 1,800 Nigerians participating in the world record-breaking exercise with accompanying free customized certificate for participants.
“That’s more Firefox downloads than we’ve ever had in a single day – an impressive feat indeed,” sources from DDH declared.
As at the time of going to press, DDH sources affirmed that over 8 million internet users and lovers of open source application like Firefox participated in the scheme and they were reviewing the download logs and validating record attempts alongside the in-house judges and officials of Guinness World Record.
Mozilla explained that it would only count downloads that were fully and completely transmitted and not partial or complete updates.
“We would also discard duplicate downloads with the help of a cookie system,” officials said, adding that they would be logging the downloads using Apache and these logs would be made available for audit to Guinness World Records as well as two judges, namely Corey Shields and Paul Vixie,” DDH official informed.
They further assured on the transparency of the exercise, saying that Mozilla deployed amMap, which would be associated with an Internet Protocol (IP) address; which is a non-personally-identifying information, but with a geo-location.
“No private or personal information is tracked or collected,” DDH stated.
Just as Mozilla would host 10 per cent of the downloads and retain all the logs for these downloads.
According to the number of pledges made per country, the United States of America, home of the software giant, Microsoft Corporation, a major proponent of proprietary software; usually paid-for applications, topped the list with 2,729,086, United Kingdom recorded 327,082; Japan 409,435; Spain 319,103; Iran 261,424; Luxembourg 280,517; Russia 113,340 and Poland 220,145.
However, South Africa led the pack of African pledges with 19,995 with Mozambique 5,081, Namibia 305, Niger 28, Uganda and Zimbabwe recorded 203 each, Togo 46, Tunisia 4,153 and Zambia 162, among others.
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