14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla is finally launching Firefox 4.0. While the actual Firefox 4.0 builds have been available already, Mozilla has a lot more work to do besides the software itself before it can be ready to launch. But most of the preparations are now done and Firefox 4.0 is ready for download on the main Mozilla page.
There's still no official announcement, but you can check out air.mozilla.com to watch the live video stream of the launch event and even ask the team questions about Firefox 4.0 live.
Despite no announcement and no 'official' launch, Firefox 4.0 has already gone past 360,000 downloads. In fact, it's already at three times the download rate of Internet Explorer 9, Mozilla says, at about 5,000 download per minute.
At this rate, Firefox 4.0 seems set to break the most downloads in the first day record set by Firefox 3.0 which got 8.3 million in the first 24 hours. Firefox 3.5 got 5 million downloads in the first day and Firefox 3.6 only 4.5 million times. The recently launched Internet Explorer 9 got 2.3 million in the first day.
Firefox 4.0 is also being pushed through the update channels and Firefox 3.6 users should be able to upgrade through the built in interface. If you're running the older Firefox you can hit Check for Updates and you should have the possibility to upgrade to the just released version.
Alternatively, Firefox 4.0 will be pushed as an optional upgrade in the next few days for all of the hundreds of millions of Firefox 3.6 users. While it takes a while for the latest version to propagate to all users, most should be running Firefox 4.0 soon. Mozilla reveals that 7 percent of users in Brazil already have already switched. You can check out the progress in real time over at glow.mozilla.org.
UPDATE: Firefox 4.0 has been officialy launched.
UPDATE 2: Firefox 4.0 already has over 1,000,000 downloads.