Firefox 4 RC in 64 bit

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The Challenge

I wanted to try the new release candidate of Firefox 4 in 64 bit as well. However, via getfirefox.com you only can get the 32 bit version. This version works, the extensions work, flash works; but the rest of my system is 64 bit, so I wanted Firefox to be in 64 bit as well.

Furthermore, I have the suspicion that 32 bit firefox keeps my laptop from hibernating, but I have nothing solid to support this allegation.

The Solution

I had heard rumors indicating a 64 bit version of the firefox 4 release candidate exists. This was enough for me to start poking around.

First, on the mozilla websites, but this proved to be fruitless: 32 bit everywhere, or various localizations of 3.6.15 which I did not want.

Second, I tried to get a directory listing by changing the download url on the download page. This was also not successful.

Third, I tried to modify the actual URL where the binary was downloaded from. This URL changes all the time to balance the load on the mirrors I guess (at least, that’s how I’d do it). And this time I was lucky, as the mirror let me browse its directories where I finally found Firefox 4 RC in 64 bit for Linux!