Comments on: US State Department Thinks Firefox is Too Expensive http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/07/16/us-state-department-thinks-firefox-is-too-expensive/ tech, science, news and social issues for geeks Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:53:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Michael the Dumb Techttp://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/07/16/us-state-department-thinks-firefox-is-too-expensive/#comment-173564 Michael the Dumb Tec Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:03:55 +0000 http://www.geeksaresexy.net/?p=15623#comment-173564 "How do you stop individual employees from installing however many addons and Greasemonkey scripts they want? " It's called employee monitoring. I, like @Carl, work for the government. I installed one of those pdf printing replacements on one of my machines. Within the week, an admin lackey came by my desk, said I'd been black-listed, and sat at my desk to remove the offending software. Bottom line is as @nroach says: the government only wants to invest in supporting one browser. Since IE is the biggest and comes pre-bundled with our OS of choice, it's the clear winner. As for security, they have firewalls and a black-list of sites. If they stop EVERY system from downloading .msi or .exe or .zip from the web, AND auto-encrypt any portable media connected, AND monitor email, you're butt is officially grounded in using what they provide you and nothing else. "How do you stop individual employees from installing however many addons and Greasemonkey scripts they want? "

It's called employee monitoring. I, like @Carl, work for the government. I installed one of those pdf printing replacements on one of my machines. Within the week, an admin lackey came by my desk, said I'd been black-listed, and sat at my desk to remove the offending software.

Bottom line is as @nroach says: the government only wants to invest in supporting one browser. Since IE is the biggest and comes pre-bundled with our OS of choice, it's the clear winner.

As for security, they have firewalls and a black-list of sites. If they stop EVERY system from downloading .msi or .exe or .zip from the web, AND auto-encrypt any portable media connected, AND monitor email, you're butt is officially grounded in using what they provide you and nothing else.

]]> By: nroachhttp://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/07/16/us-state-department-thinks-firefox-is-too-expensive/#comment-173537 nroach Mon, 20 Jul 2009 05:33:03 +0000 http://www.geeksaresexy.net/?p=15623#comment-173537 You people need to understand that development of apps for firefox cost more than IE. Most apps are already designed for IE and it makes no sense for companies to develop for a second browser. I sure that there many that would love have chrome as their choice. Employees can do whatever they want on their home machines. Just let the IT departments control running of the work environment. This not even a news worthy issue. Firefox is a great product and I use to push it to all my friends for many years.... but since ie7 and chrome.... i've kind of lost intrest in it.... Maybe ill dust it off tonight and launch it for a second or two.... You people need to understand that development of apps for firefox cost more than IE. Most apps are already designed for IE and it makes no sense for companies to develop for a second browser. I sure that there many that would love have chrome as their choice. Employees can do whatever they want on their home machines. Just let the IT departments control running of the work environment. This not even a news worthy issue. Firefox is a great product and I use to push it to all my friends for many years…. but since ie7 and chrome…. i've kind of lost intrest in it…. Maybe ill dust it off tonight and launch it for a second or two….

]]> By: Willemhttp://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/07/16/us-state-department-thinks-firefox-is-too-expensive/#comment-172742 Willem Sun, 19 Jul 2009 02:23:57 +0000 http://www.geeksaresexy.net/?p=15623#comment-172742 It would be interesting to see results of a study comparing comparing the security costs / risk between running IE and Firefox on government computers. This reminds me of the other recent news about Orange UK fining technicians £250 for using Firefox instead of IE6: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/n3mrqs" rel="nofollow">http://tinyurl.com/n3mrqs</a> It would be interesting to see results of a study comparing comparing the security costs / risk between running IE and Firefox on government computers.

This reminds me of the other recent news about Orange UK fining technicians £250 for using Firefox instead of IE6: http://tinyurl.com/n3mrqs

]]> By: Carlhttp://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/07/16/us-state-department-thinks-firefox-is-too-expensive/#comment-172322 Carl Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:59:14 +0000 http://www.geeksaresexy.net/?p=15623#comment-172322 > But noting deployment and maintenance costs as reasons > to not adopt the browser is completely ridiculous. Deployment and maintenance costs can be extreme to a level I would not have imagined if I didn't work in a large government organization. You can pooh-pooh and deride them all you like, but there do exist real concerns that trump personal or ideological browser preferences. If switching to Firefox became cheaper than staying with Internet Explorer then you would see it happen rather quickly. Firefox focuses on empowering users so it is by far the better browser to use. Microsoft focuses on empowering administrators and managers, so it is the cheaper option for an organization. > But noting deployment and maintenance costs as reasons

> to not adopt the browser is completely ridiculous.

Deployment and maintenance costs can be extreme to a level I would not have imagined if I didn't work in a large government organization. You can pooh-pooh and deride them all you like, but there do exist real concerns that trump personal or ideological browser preferences.

If switching to Firefox became cheaper than staying with Internet Explorer then you would see it happen rather quickly. Firefox focuses on empowering users so it is by far the better browser to use. Microsoft focuses on empowering administrators and managers, so it is the cheaper option for an organization.

]]> By: Mark O'Neillhttp://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/07/16/us-state-department-thinks-firefox-is-too-expensive/#comment-172219 Mark O'Neill Thu, 16 Jul 2009 08:28:07 +0000 http://www.geeksaresexy.net/?p=15623#comment-172219 How do you stop individual employees from installing however many addons and Greasemonkey scripts they want? Some employees might get a bit carried away and spend a lot of working time searching for cool addons and then customizing and perfecting their browsers. How do you stop individual employees from installing however many addons and Greasemonkey scripts they want?

Some employees might get a bit carried away and spend a lot of working time searching for cool addons and then customizing and perfecting their browsers.

]]> By: Loren Pechtelhttp://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/07/16/us-state-department-thinks-firefox-is-too-expensive/#comment-172215 Loren Pechtel Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:34:21 +0000 http://www.geeksaresexy.net/?p=15623#comment-172215 There are very real costs from deploying Firefox--the support people need to learn how to support it. There are very real costs from deploying Firefox–the support people need to learn how to support it.

]]> By: adminhttp://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/07/16/us-state-department-thinks-firefox-is-too-expensive/#comment-172210 admin Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:08:02 +0000 http://www.geeksaresexy.net/?p=15623#comment-172210 Shavlik NetChk also does it beautifully :) Shavlik NetChk also does it beautifully :)

]]> By: adminhttp://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/07/16/us-state-department-thinks-firefox-is-too-expensive/#comment-172209 admin Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:06:33 +0000 http://www.geeksaresexy.net/?p=15623#comment-172209 There's an MSI version of Firefox out there (for all versions) that can be deployed easily via group policy. There's an MSI version of Firefox out there (for all versions) that can be deployed easily via group policy.

]]> By: mehttp://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/07/16/us-state-department-thinks-firefox-is-too-expensive/#comment-172205 me Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:47:28 +0000 http://www.geeksaresexy.net/?p=15623#comment-172205 I dunno deployment is something Mozilla need to work on in order for big corporations to take it on. As at the moment installing an executable on hundreds of systems is a very resource-hungry task and then then upgrading monthly. I dunno deployment is something Mozilla need to work on in order for big corporations to take it on. As at the moment installing an executable on hundreds of systems is a very resource-hungry task and then then upgrading monthly.

]]> By: thomhttp://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/07/16/us-state-department-thinks-firefox-is-too-expensive/#comment-172204 thom Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:46:28 +0000 http://www.geeksaresexy.net/?p=15623#comment-172204 I don't think you can really say "noting deployment and maintenance costs as reasons to not adopt the browser is completely ridiculous" How is it ridiculous? If you want to keep things simple and efficient in business you try to standardise everything. Presuming they use windows as the OS, deployments, policies and updates are very easy to do. Not so with firefox I don't think you can really say "noting deployment and maintenance costs as reasons to not adopt the browser is completely ridiculous"

How is it ridiculous?

If you want to keep things simple and efficient in business you try to standardise everything. Presuming they use windows as the OS, deployments, policies and updates are very easy to do. Not so with firefox

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