The third major release of the browser that ended Microsoft Internet Explorer’s monopoly is almost here. Mozilla Firefox 3 will ship on Tuesday the 17th. To mark the occasion, the non-profit behind this open-source browser hopes to set a new world record — most downloads of a program in a 24-hour span — on that day.
Like a lot of programs these days, however, Firefox 3 has been available for months already in pre-release form — first as an alpha last summer, then a beta starting last winter and, for the last several weeks, in “release candidate” builds. The arrival of the “finished” version may be a formality for many people
