Comments on: Mozilla CEO: Why we're still shunned by corporate IT

Businesses still stick with proprietary technology, although Mozilla offers customization kit for business customers.

[erickgrau]

AD - GPO integration

I personally love Firefox and use it both on my Mac and PC. However as an IT manager I can safely safe the biggest reason we have not even thought about rolling FIrefox in our network is lack of Administrative controls. Give the IT department ADM files so we can controls the browser via GPOs and you may see more of an acceptance. Google has it - many have rolled that out.

Erick

[erickgrau]

AD - GPO integration

I personally love Firefox and use it both on my Mac and PC. However as an IT manager I can safely safe the biggest reason we have not even thought about rolling FIrefox in our network is lack of Administrative controls. Give the IT department ADM files so we can controls the browser via GPOs and you may see more of an acceptance. Google has it - many have rolled that out.

Erick

[robot999]

One major reason...

for this is the CIO level on down need to protect their fiefdoms.
'doze (and it's cousin IE) require an ARMY to keep up with all of
the patches / anti_____ware and the mirad of other problems
with the OS. This army need sergeants, and officers (read
managers) to manage them. These are high-paying, low
producing jobs that should be eliminated.
The decision to drive open source must be on a cost savings
basis, and directed to (most) CIOs from their bosses. How can a
CIO deliver high-quality services to the business and keep costs
in check? REDUCE MANAGEMNT OF IT RESOURCES! Dump M$,
and go with open source.

[Betty Roper]

Another reason...

Enterprises take "proprietary" vendors seriously because they know they have a big financial stake in supporting their products. Open source will always have a "neat toy" image until it's tied to big dollars.

Also, in the case of Mozilla, it hurts that the front person is Mitchell Baker. If they really wanted to sell into corporate, they'd get someone who looks like Mitt Romney to be the public face.

[robot999]

One major reason...

for this is the CIO level on down need to protect their fiefdoms.
'doze (and it's cousin IE) require an ARMY to keep up with all of
the patches / anti_____ware and the mirad of other problems
with the OS. This army need sergeants, and officers (read
managers) to manage them. These are high-paying, low
producing jobs that should be eliminated.
The decision to drive open source must be on a cost savings
basis, and directed to (most) CIOs from their bosses. How can a
CIO deliver high-quality services to the business and keep costs
in check? REDUCE MANAGEMNT OF IT RESOURCES! Dump M$,
and go with open source.

[Betty Roper]

Another reason...

Enterprises take "proprietary" vendors seriously because they know they have a big financial stake in supporting their products. Open source will always have a "neat toy" image until it's tied to big dollars.

Also, in the case of Mozilla, it hurts that the front person is Mitchell Baker. If they really wanted to sell into corporate, they'd get someone who looks like Mitt Romney to be the public face.

[ajbright]

State of Alaska

Uses Mozilla products exclusively - however (and no one in the the State's many IT Departments understand why) we're about to go Microsoft for our email server software and therefore email clients.

Our current system, based on Mozilla, Firefox and Thunderbird, as well as the relevant Linux/Unix boxes, fiber cabling, etc we provide internet service at about $2-$3 per State employee per year.

Moving to Exchange servers and Outlook, due to it's incredible inefficiencies, as well as the necessity to install upwards of ten times the number of email servers, as well as the cost of putting Office 2003 on every workstation, this will jump to at least $10 per user per year.

This is a very optimistic number, and no one working in any State IT Dept. believes it. We reckon the final cost will approach $30-$40 per user, per year - for a slower system with less storage (because you remove the option of local HD storage for email, and replace it with server/HD appliance based storage).

The most common expression heard from State of Alaska IT employees these days is "***? I'm using Thunderbird anyway, screw Outlook it's crap and dangerously insecure.. and don't get me started on IE"...

[ajbright]

State of Alaska

Uses Mozilla products exclusively - however (and no one in the the State's many IT Departments understand why) we're about to go Microsoft for our email server software and therefore email clients.

Our current system, based on Mozilla, Firefox and Thunderbird, as well as the relevant Linux/Unix boxes, fiber cabling, etc we provide internet service at about $2-$3 per State employee per year.

Moving to Exchange servers and Outlook, due to it's incredible inefficiencies, as well as the necessity to install upwards of ten times the number of email servers, as well as the cost of putting Office 2003 on every workstation, this will jump to at least $10 per user per year.

This is a very optimistic number, and no one working in any State IT Dept. believes it. We reckon the final cost will approach $30-$40 per user, per year - for a slower system with less storage (because you remove the option of local HD storage for email, and replace it with server/HD appliance based storage).

The most common expression heard from State of Alaska IT employees these days is "***? I'm using Thunderbird anyway, screw Outlook it's crap and dangerously insecure.. and don't get me started on IE"...

[camel828]

Not entirely true

While Mozilla itself does not provide msi or adm files, they recommend this: http://www.frontmotion.com/Firefox/fmfirefox.htm

I have used it in a business network for over a year without a single problem.

[mangoo78]

world is not only English

Unfortunately, they only provide packages in English.

For those who would like to deploy Firefox or Thunderbird in their company (through Samba or AD), they can do it with the original Firefox/Thunderbird installer - just use a silent flag to install it.

More details can be found here: http://wpkg.org/index.php/Firefox

If you want to deploy Firefox with themes, extensions, settings, you can also look here: http://firefox.dbltree.com/
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/cck/firefox/

[camel828]

Not entirely true

While Mozilla itself does not provide msi or adm files, they recommend this: http://www.frontmotion.com/Firefox/fmfirefox.htm

I have used it in a business network for over a year without a single problem.

[mangoo78]

world is not only English

Unfortunately, they only provide packages in English.

For those who would like to deploy Firefox or Thunderbird in their company (through Samba or AD), they can do it with the original Firefox/Thunderbird installer - just use a silent flag to install it.

More details can be found here: http://wpkg.org/index.php/Firefox

If you want to deploy Firefox with themes, extensions, settings, you can also look here: http://firefox.dbltree.com/
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/cck/firefox/