Yes, they have parties for browsers… when your browser is Firefox 3
June 18th, 2008
Or, if you have a great fanbase of cool, dedicated people.
If you haven’t already, you should download Firefox 3. It’s a great browser, and Firefox has long been the darling of the Open Source community. I’ll have an article detailing exactly why, but this is just a quick report on the great evening I had.
I was at the launch of Firefox 3 last night, and was pleasantly surprised at the number of people there at 6pm. A couple of hours later, with the beer and cheer freely flowing, the numbers of partiers was over a hundred, and the downloads were in the millions.
I had no idea that Mozilla (the team behind Firefox) had offices here, nice open-concept ones at that. There was beer and food and screens showing the thousands of downloads they were getting every minute - it was really a good time. A few people have asked me, “Why all the excitement for a browser” and my answer has nothing to do with the browser — it’s all about the people involved. People that make free software (that’s free as in speech, not beer) are committed on a level that makes them interesting and generous and passionate. That sort of dedication is infectious, and makes for a good community.
Just like any other launch party, there was lots of swag to be had, people were milling about and talking about almost everything under the sun. There may have been a few more topics that leaned towards the geeky - but I’m sure you can go somewhere else if you want to talk about Paris Hilton.
MGImedia was there with the cameras, it seems, and although I didn’t see them, Space network was supposed to be there later in the evening. All in all, the launch kicked off with a good bit of coverage, and my good friend Ian also has a bit to say about the party.
I ended up leaving with their washroom key, and for that, I’m very sorry. I did lock myself into the lobby for a bit, and ran into some other people that were also locked out… with the only other key. Eventually, we managed to get the key back to the waiting, eager group.
Good work, guys, it was a great time! Check out some extra pics that didn’t make it here.
Tags: browsers, Firefox 3, Free as in beer, mozilla, party, Toronto
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[...] can check out Mike’s article on the party at Geeks In Training. Thanks to the Mozilla team for throwing a great party, we all had a blast. [...]
At the end of the day, it was a great party and a good evening with a bunch of interesting people. My friend Ian stayed longer and had some more to say about the night… he’s even a bit drunk on camera.
You can find the link to his blog up above.