Are you going to download Firefox version 3.0 today?

After months of testing the new browser version and quite a few public betas and release candidates (I’m currently running RC2), the final version will be available at 5pm GMT today.

Indeed, Mozilla have dubbed today Firefox Download Day, and they’re aiming to make a Guinness World Record:

[…] All you have to do is get Firefox 3 during Download Day to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours – it’s that easy. We’re not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome.

The official date for the launch of Firefox 3 is June 17, 2008. Join our community and this effort by pledging today.

It doesn’t seem that long ago when Firefox made big news headlines with its double-page ad spread in the New York Times to launch version 1.0 and to raise awareness of its challenge to Internet Explorer.

That NYT ad on December 16, 2004, was quite something, containing the names of thousands of people who’d donated money in support of the costs of buying the ad space. I was one of those; you can actually read every contributor’s name in the PDF of the ad (download link) if you set the magnification to at least 300%.

You’d need a powerful magnifying glass to read the names in the printed newspaper ad.

And that ad was the first ever full-page ad in a major daily newspaper in the US (probably in the world) created and paid for by the open source community.

Heady pioneering days back in 2004!