Browser Security News

We’ve just released Firefox 2, the culmination of a year’s hard work. To those following our progress, it was no surprise. The schedule is public, and hundreds of contributors from across the world are involved in the release process. How could we possibly have kept it a secret? But this does cause a problem.

When some major online event occurs, the website concerned tends to get very popular very fast. This tsunami of traffic is usually called a Slashdotting, after the granddaddy of tech news sites which originally created the effect. But these days, one can also get Dugg or Reddited – or even all three at once.

To mitigate this problem for Firefox releases, we have a sophisticated mirror system, which spreads copies onto many servers around the world whose administrators have volunteered to help us. It makes sure that everyone gets the most appropriate version – for their operating system, in their language, from a working server geographically nearby. So no one’s machine is overloaded, and everyone is happy. Open secret: how Firefox 2 was born - The Net - Times Online