Guess who was at the party Mozilla had last night to celebrate the launch of Firefox 3.6? Yes, me! It was more exciting than it sounds. There was cake! (Who ate the logos??) And dinner from Dish Dash, definitely one of my favorite restaurants in the area.

I had been to the party in San Francisco to celebrate five years of Firefox and while it was much swankier (and probably a lot more expensive) I actually preferred this one. I could see how all the glitz of the last party would appeal more to the Firefox community at large, what with the flaming kabobs and butler-passed drinks complete with glowing ice cubes, but as a member of the Mozilla extended family (meaning those literally married to or related to employees) I preferred the intimate feel of a small party at the office that was thrown together fairly quickly.

Five Years of Firefox party in San Francisco, fall 2009

Mike Beltzner, Director of Firefox, whose Canadian accent made me nostalgic for Minnesota every time he said “oot” and “aboot”, announced that this is the most stable version of Firefox yet. Apparently, it is also quite a bit faster. Interesting stat, it was downloaded 17 million times before the first week was up (23 million now), which you can see by looking at this handy download tracker that Dave worked on! I have to admit that Personas is pretty cool too. I’m usually not that in to customizing my browser with pretty pictures, but it’s hard to resist when you can see what it looks like by simply rolling over the sample image. I hate downloading unnecessarily.

But back to the party! Like most days in the Mozilla office there were a variety of dogs in attendance, a game of pool going on, and good company. This time there was also a beer pong competition. I’m assuming that doesn’t happen every day, but maybe that’s just what they want me to think. I heard mention of Rock Band, but we had to head home before it got to that point. I look forward to the next shindig so I hope Dave continues to be as happy at Mozilla as he is now.