IBM Makes Firefox Its Corporate Browser 152
Posted
by
kdawson
from the good-thing-orange-goes-with-blue dept.
from the good-thing-orange-goes-with-blue dept.
e9th writes "Ars Technica reports that IBM has adopted Firefox as its company-wide browser. Firefox will be installed on all new employee computers, and all 400,000 employees will be encouraged to use it. Speaking of encouraging Firefox use, IBM VP Bob Sutor blogs: 'We will continue to strongly encourage our vendors who have browser-based software to fully support Firefox.' I hope this means that if IBM can't navigate a vendor's site with Firefox, they'll just look elsewhere."
Bad news for banks (Score:5, Insightful)
This is bad news for banks and other big orgs that dodge supporting browsers other than IE giving the "cover story" that other browsers are wildcards in term of security.
People will ask if IBM can do it, why can't they.
I guess the admins of such orgs could always say
"Well, we do not have the resources of an IT company giant"
Yet, with all of those employees, going to all of those sites......
Tell the vendors. (Score:5, Insightful)
> I hope this means that if IBM can't navigate a vendor's site with Firefox,
> they'll just look elsewhere.
I hope this means that if IBM can't navigate a vendor's site with Firefox they'll tell the vendor why he is losing the sale.
Buyer: "I tried to check on your Web site as you suggested but it doesn't seem to work with Firefox." Salesman: "Oh, yes. We only support IE." Buyer: "Get back to me when you've fixed your site."
They also offer an "open client" (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not using a "Facebook" browser (Score:5, Insightful)
Being fast is one thing, but it's really pointless when it's spying on you and makes it a headache to use sites because it randomly refuses to show images without explanation. I have a sneaking suspicion that, that whole spying things probably has something to do with it not being chosen.
Re:Not using a "Facebook" browser (Score:4, Insightful)
Notice that IBM is not going with Chrome, though it is a faster and better browser for the moment.
Well, there's also the fact that Chrome is only a year or so old. Firefox, in all its iterations, has been around for almost six years. Which one do you trust more?
What a pipedream. (Score:4, Insightful)
What we are really seeing here IMHO is an internal political battle that has spilled outside the corporate structure. One exec has decided to stake his name on adopting Firefox and will blame the every development group that only supports IE when this fails.
Re:Ok back down just a sec (Score:3, Insightful)
I fail to see how it would be of any benefit to us for IBM to take that stance.
Regardless of if end users have to use a site, other vendors will, and that affects what browsers are in use at those other vendors. It also determines what Web development skills, developers, and tools benefit most moving forward. Companies being pressured to spend money and comply with standards or lose deals will suddenly care about standards, which means their Web developers will and their tool providers will. So now you have more Web development tools and developers who make standards compliant sites and that will almost certainly bleed over into other Web sites that average people do use.
Re:Not using a "Facebook" browser (Score:4, Insightful)
In my job I use the various browsers to varying degrees.
However, for my own use, I stick to Mozilla for ideological reasons: Firefox is their raison d'etre. They have a vested interest in keeping the web open and standards-based.
Apple and Google might someday decide that it's not worth developing their browser any further, or decide that it should really be a vehicle to promote their core services (media sales, QuickTime, ads, analytics etc) to the detriment of the user. I think it's revealing that neither Apple nor Google chose to invest in Mozilla instead of going it on their own - either it's impossible to work with the Mozilla folks, or they wanted to retain control, in which case you have to ask why.
Nevertheless, it's good for everyone that there's a bit of competition, so use what you like!
Re:Great News for Companies Scarred by IE6 (Score:1, Insightful)
Does a GPO configured IE prevent you from running portable Firefox?
No. Because the two things aren't at all related, just like in your example.