Firefox 3 to roll out next week

Open-source application maker Mozilla has said the latest major release of its Firefox browser will be ready for download on Tuesday 17 June.

In a Thursday statement on the Mozilla Developer Center Web site, the organisation claimed that, although Firefox 3 has been nearly three years in development, it only ever ships products when it feels they are ready.

"After more than 34 months of active development, and with the contributions of thousands, we're proud to announce that we're ready. It is our expectation to ship Firefox 3 this upcoming Tuesday, 17 June. Put on your party hats and get ready to download Firefox 3 -- the best Web browser, period," the organisation stated.

Mozilla is hoping to set a Guinness World Record on the release date for the most number of downloads of an application in a day. There is currently no official Guinness World Record for the total number of downloads of an application in one day, which should make Mozilla's task easier. During the first 24 hours of Firefox 3's release, Mozilla is aiming for over 1.6 million downloads.

Mozilla is encouraging its community of over 175 million users to sign up on the spreadfirefox.com marketing site to receive Firefox 3 on the day of its release, to host download parties, and to put Firefox badges on Web sites and blogs. According to Mozilla, 43,362 people in the UK have already pledged to download Firefox 3 on its release date.

ZDNet.co.uk's Tom Espiner contributed to this report