Mozilla to Let Enterprises Build Custom Firefox Browsers - Busin. Mozilla is readying a program that will allow companies to build their own customized browsers based on the next version of Firefox, which will be out in a few weeks. The Build Your Own Browser program is a good fit for enterprises that want to create a customized browser that can be easily installed across multiple corporate desktops, said Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox at Mozilla Corp.
Through the program, which will start sometime soon after Firefox 3.5 is released at the end of June, companies can use a Web application provided by Mozilla to specify certain customizations for the browser -- such as bookmarks to certain sites or corporate intranets or portals, he said. Companies also can brand the browser through technology called Personas that allows them to code a skin across the top of the browser with a company's logo on it, Beltzner said. How To: Deploy Firefox throughout your Organization. Enterprise | Spread Firefox. Internet Explorer 8 vs. Firefox 3 – Deployment and Management. <span class="big">Please enable Javascript, because you won't see all of the content. </span> In my last post I covered the arguments usually heard when people compare Internet Explorer and Firefox. From my perspective however, other factors have to be considered when comparing the two vis-a-vis the corporate environment.
I outlined these issues in my previous posts, which dealt with earlier versions of the two programs. For this article, I reviewed the situation, and I must admit I was a little surprised that not much has changed. It appears that the guys and gals at Mozilla are not really interested in giving Firefox a chance in corporate networks. The three key factors to consider here are deployment, patch management, and central management. Deployment Deploying Firefox is not a big deal but you certainly have to invest some time in it, depending on the number of computers within your network. Patch Management When it comes to patch management, Firefox’s position is even worse. Inside aebrahim's head » Enterprise Deployment of Firefox. I am responsible for overseeing the IT infrastructure of an office with about 40 Windows-based computers.
We always keep the OS and relevant software patched, though sometimes even keeping Windows/Office/IE patched to the most current level is not enough. The workarounds provided by Microsoft for this issue are frankly, not acceptable because website functionality with security set to ‘High’ is unacceptable and generate user complaints (and doesn’t even solve the problem completely). Events like this give me cause to consider a company-wide deployment of Firefox as the default browser.
We have no internal applications that rely on IE so this is not a sticking point for us as it is for many corporations. However, there are a couple of blockers that stop me from taking this step. There are probably a few other points that I can’t think of at the moment. If work was done to make Firefox more enterprise friendly, this would go a long way towards adoption in the workplace.