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Firefox Gains On Internet Explorer In Businesses

informationweek.com — Even if IT shops aren't formally pushing employees to Firefox, they are moving to support the browser in their enterprise Web apps, according to Forrester Research.

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  • StarWarsFan, on 04/02/2008, -2/+40Not surprised.
    • mattmess, on 04/02/2008, -0/+3Not at my work... My boss recently told my team that we need to uninstall Firefox on our machines. Oh yeah, and I'm a software/web developer...

      Believe it.
  • DeskFlyer, on 04/02/2008, -2/+55At work browsing with FF 3.0b4. Although I'm the only one in my office who doesn't use IE.
    • jasonsalas, on 04/02/2008, -1/+15yep..i've even got my team working on internal web apps with the FF betas. it's that good/reliable.
    • michaelphw, on 04/02/2008, -0/+4Same with me, needed to bring more 'standard' compliance with me. The other guys bust my ass all the time for it though.
    • Rosco, on 04/02/2008, -0/+4FF 3.0b4 here also. The only other FF users here are our IT guys, everyone else is IE
    • astrotrain, on 04/02/2008, -0/+7Its time to lead your people to the browser promised land!
    • NSMike, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1The QC department in the company I work for is now testing our web applications in both IE and Firefox. Which is, I believe, more of what this article is talking about than actually having employees use it for work purposes.
    • Platinumwolf, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1I've been moving as many people over to FF as come to me for tech support. I'm not an IT guy, per se, but our IT guy is hard to get a hold of, and I can usually answer any questions that people have in the mean time.
  • lsfloyd, on 04/02/2008, -1/+56I switched over to FF about two weeks ago, and I'm not going back to IE.
    • over900000, on 04/02/2008, -9/+1***** furry
    • webs05, on 04/02/2008, -0/+11I switched over in the days of 6.0. IE6 was clear sign MS has no idea what a decent browser is.
    • vafada, on 04/02/2008, -0/+6I don't even remember when i used IE on a regular basis. For me it was Netscape, Opera, Mozilla, Firebird, Firefox.
    • mthoringen, on 04/02/2008, -2/+1People still use IE?
      • vincentweber, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's captain obvious!
      • ElBeh, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1A shame, I know.
  • bossm4n, on 04/02/2008, -4/+83Can you imagine how bad IE would be if it weren't for Firefox putting constant pressure on MS to improve it.
    • N0vak4iN, on 04/02/2008, -0/+23The system works... Notice what happens when competition is weak or non-existent (e.g. Creative Sound Blaster)
    • manstein01, on 04/02/2008, -0/+27If it wasn't for Firefox, MS would still be peddling Internet Explorer 6.
      • astrotrain, on 04/02/2008, -2/+10I'm thinking more in the lines of '4'... they would be giving it away with everything pruchased...and even throwing it in Happy Meals.

        "Oh Look Mom! We got IE4 in our Microsoft Themed Happy Meal!.... WOW!"
      • insertAliasHere, on 04/02/2008, -5/+1You know, I'm not so sure about that...just hear me out.
        IE is a free program (well, free if you have windows, but that's not the point.) If you have a windows pc, you already have IE. IE is a money pit; a cost center with little return. It doesn't sell the OS, it is simply a convenience tool. And that's why I think that they would still update it and make it better (maybe not more standards complaint, but adding more features). Because it is a convenience tool for their customers, something that is there so they don't _have_ to go find something else. If enough customers got frustrated with the stagnation and problems with IE, they might not buy Microsoft next time (because most don't know about alternative browsers, they think IE _is_ the internet).

        I love FF, I'm using it to post this comment. But I don't think that they are solely responsible for pushing IE to the point it is now (but I do think that FF inspired some of the features, like tabs).
        • knetworx, on 04/02/2008, -0/+9Even though it comes along with the OS, IE would be a lot worse had it not been for FF. MS doesn't like being beaten, and they want to make sure they always have a presence. Just look at the Xbox. MS has never made money on it (they've reported losses on it every quarter since it came out.) Even if it never makes any money directly for them, they don't want to let Nintendo and Sony take over that market completely, so they will continue to produce gaming consoles, because gaming consoles are becoming more and more the center of family entertainment.
        • jriggs420, on 04/02/2008, -1/+2yes, yes all hail the benevolent microsoft freely giving out their crapware. How about they keep internet exploder and toss in a free virus scanner instead of bundling even more garbage? How does that fit into your little theory?
          • insertAliasHere, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1What an ***** you are. Where did I complement Microsoft for the piece of ***** that IE is? I don't even use it, I like Firefox 3 too much. It's just a theory. My point was, IE is free, it doesn't make money. I'm just not sure that they are all that concerned about browser market share, and that they would continue to develop without FF's competition.

            And as to your scenario fitting into my theory, that would be great except for 2 things: 1) if they didn't bundle some kind of browser, you'd have no way to download Firefox to replace it, and 2) even if they did, people like you and me would still find our own antivirus solution, and people like you would still talk ***** about it no matter how good/bad it was, even though the vast majority of the user base would be satisfied with it.
    • drachemorder, on 04/02/2008, -0/+10Exactly. Competition is good for everybody. It used to be that there were tons of sites that only worked in IE because they depended on IE-specific quirks or ActiveX controls. Now more and more sites are designed to work in any browser. I still have the IE Tab extension for some things, but I find myself needing to use it only rarely. And more often than not, if I have to use IE for something it's because my popup-blocking or filtering settings in Firefox are too strict, which is my own fault more than Firefox's.
    • motang, on 04/02/2008, -0/+12Yeah MS would still be at IE 6, because of Mozilla they have IE 8 in beta!
    • Buelldozer, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1I don't have to imagine, IE 6 is still around.
  • youtellme8, on 04/02/2008, -5/+7The "clear history" function on Firefox is key.
    • BobEwell, on 04/02/2008, -0/+6Easier to delete your porn history?
    • Rauby, on 04/02/2008, -1/+2Sorry Safari is the porn browser with the "Private Browsing". The best feature it's got.
      • knetworx, on 04/02/2008, -0/+2There's a plugin for Firefox that can do that (and everything else Safari can do), but they don't pack it in with the standard browser, because not everybody needs it, and that just bloats the software.
  • Emused, on 04/02/2008, -3/+8Real world example: we could not get IE 5 or 6 to run an opensource VOIP client, ran like a charm on Firefox 1.0.8, currently part of the company standard desktop image sets.
    • Wiini, on 04/02/2008, -4/+1His company also couldn't get opensource mac software to work on Windows.
  • douchewag, on 04/02/2008, -26/+3***** buried no matter how hard firefox tries its no match to IE,get over yourselves.
    • n3demonic, on 04/02/2008, -1/+20You mispelled douchebag
      • douchewag, on 04/02/2008, -5/+1That was reserved for people who reply like you.u happy.
    • luchid, on 04/02/2008, -1/+5Such a clear and coherent opinion, douchewag. Bravo! /s
    • swimmin00, on 04/02/2008, -1/+6ironically no matter how hard Microsoft tries it's no match for open source's possibilities
    • astrotrain, on 04/02/2008, -1/+9Too bad IE doesn't have a Spell checker add-on.... you should switch to improve your spelling.
    • knetworx, on 04/02/2008, -1/+3So, which department of MS do you work in?
    • DarkSamus, on 04/02/2008, -0/+2start selling your msft, noob
  • Hoogs, on 04/02/2008, -1/+16My college's computers all have IE and Firefox on them, and the public library only has Firefox. Looks like most people are finally catching on.
    • ZeroFive1, on 04/02/2008, -0/+10My school switched to Firefox/Safari on the macs and Firefox/IE on the PCs. Luckily our tech teacher is an open source enthusiast.
    • vertexoflife, on 04/02/2008, -0/+2My college is like that too actually, and there's talk of phasing out IE. Unfortunately we still use ***** Microsoft servers.
    • stretch611, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1The library probably got tired of removing spyware/adware.
  • LuviMarie, on 04/02/2008, -4/+27Great can't wait for the day nobody else uses I.E.
    • stretch611, on 04/02/2008, -2/+3Its not going to happen. As much as I am a Firefox supporter, a large number of people will never use Firefox. These people just keep what is installed on the computer never changing what they have. IE won't go away until Microsoft does.
      • knetworx, on 04/02/2008, -1/+4Unless MS got smart and tried to buy out Mozilla. It'd be a very sad day though once all the popups and spyware were added to Microsoft Firefox (TM).
        • stretch611, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1I do not see that happening.
          First, I doubt it will pass any anti-trust test.
          Second, Microsoft would have to admit that IE is a piece of crap and that they can't compete with Firefox.
          Third, the private Mozilla foundation would have to accept the offer. I am not sure about this one, but I hope they would not agree.
          Fourth, even if somehow Microsoft gets through all the other issues, Firefox is licensed through open source. Someone can take the code and just start working on it. (Think of the Flock browser and IceWeasel.) They could probably just take the money and run. All the developers can quit if that happens take the open sourced code and start developing it with a new company.
    • gothicform, on 04/02/2008, -0/+2It's not going to happen. You're always going to have Steve Ballmer sitting at his desk frothing at the mouth with excitement as he uses IE. As for the rest of the world? We're not as mad.
  • SirZRX, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1OWA is my only gripe
  • dmadip, on 04/02/2008, -12/+2Hey Cool, we have Firefox fanboi's too! I use it as well but why compare to IE? Does it really matter?
    • drachemorder, on 04/02/2008, -0/+7It matters as long as people still design sites that don't work in any browser. Those are rarer than they used to be, but they still exist. If enough people use Firefox, it forces designers to accomodate it in their designs, and it forces Microsoft to improve IE in order to compete. So everybody wins.
    • luchid, on 04/02/2008, -0/+7Yes, yes it does. IE is a cancer.
    • astrotrain, on 04/02/2008, -0/+2Your a bit late for April Fools there...
  • CoaxVex, on 04/02/2008, -2/+11We enforce the use of Firefox on our proxy. Well, block IE actually... :-) We like opera and safari also.
  • xDibblerx, on 04/02/2008, -5/+10Our "work" hates Firefox because they can't filter it as easy as IE so they banned the program and added it to the "unwanted program" portion of our virus program. Fortunately the IT guys are too computer illiterate to have heard of safari so now I can get to digg.com and woot.com again. One gripe... Safari really sucks but at least it works for now.
    • luchid, on 04/02/2008, -1/+4Yeah worthless IT depts are a dime a dozen these days. Most of them have some crappy Microsoft certification that even a trained monkey could pass.
    • doshindude, on 04/02/2008, -0/+4do they call it foxfire.exe?
  • Zeldafreak104, on 04/02/2008, -2/+7They have firefox at my school, and thats what I'm using.
    • sonicjosh, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1Lucky, we have ie/safari; I don't mind safari, but I hate ie6, it always crashes on digg. I have the pass to the rollback software and installed firefox on the pc I use.
  • chanop, on 04/02/2008, -3/+23As an IT analyst, I require our programmers to make everything firefox compatible, which means they actually have to write the ***** right
    • stretch611, on 04/02/2008, -0/+2That's my experience too. Generally, it is easier to code using web standards first, then tweaking for IE than the other way around. IE takes sloppy code and guesses what you want it to do, Firefox ignores bad code. By avoiding bad code, you are 95% of the way to cross-browser support. The good code also has the advantage that future browser releases should support it without breaking the web page; this translates to reduced maintenance costs in the future.
  • Papajohn56, on 04/02/2008, -12/+7So it's Memory leaks in FF or non-compliance in IE. What a winning duo we have competing for the #1 browser.
    • credence, on 04/02/2008, -2/+14You're probably trolling (or a mac fanboi touting Safari), but FF 3.04b has fixed the memory leakage, by and large.
    • skoober, on 04/02/2008, -1/+2or more likely, just some dude with an opinion different to yours eh?
  • kidjesus, on 04/02/2008, -0/+8The IT/MIS departments at my last company didn't just switch everyone to Firefox in 2005/2006, they removed access to IE for all but a select few. Them's some forward thinking dudes right there.
    • luchid, on 04/02/2008, -1/+3You should hug them and be grateful for having them. I know lots of people stuck with IT depts straight out of 1990 who just eat whatever MS feed them.
  • cadmiumpaint, on 04/02/2008, -3/+5I don't use Firefox day to day, but i'd take it in a heartbeat over Explorer.
  • nxtwrld, on 04/02/2008, -1/+6the first fruits of IE7 distribution through automatic updates. While most business apps were designed for IE6 and later tweaked for FF no one really bother to prepare a IE7 tweak. Now it's either - no autoupdate to IE7 / throw away our business applications / pay the developers to weak it for IE7 / ...or get Firefox.
    • stretch611, on 04/02/2008, -1/+2In theory, if they coded with web standards, they would not need to tweak at all for future releases. (I say in theory, because IE tends to break the standards)
  • rmw132, on 04/02/2008, -1/+10At my university, we have had Firefox installed for about two years. Many of our professors talk about it from time to time and they highly recommend that students use it. Surprisingly a lot do. They even have the tab preview plugin installed on the Firefox install as well across the network.
  • nick5014, on 04/02/2008, -13/+2Got to admit, the new Explorer 8 (Beta) is pretty sweet though. May actually turn my back on Firefox
    • Myztry, on 04/02/2008, -1/+5^ Sponsored by Microsoft
      Is it just the taste, or is there some feature(s) you like that actually makes it 'sweet'
      Firefox 3 beta is swift which is something actually quite useful.
      • nick5014, on 04/02/2008, -2/+0For example, as far as web development goes, its beats the heck out of firefox on acid test 3, and the ability to emulate older internet browsers is very useful. I feel like its tailored for web developers much more so than firefox, even with certain addons firefox has availabe.
        • javaroast, on 04/02/2008, -0/+2Last I saw IE 8 got 17% on the Acid 3 test. Lowest of any popular browser.
    • astrotrain, on 04/02/2008, -1/+5...you have given into the Darkside young Nick5014.... there is no more hope for you.
  • fearziz, on 04/02/2008, -18/+3firefox is crap. no where near the quality of microsoft internet explorer. just because you don't like microsoft doesnt mean you can pretend firefox is actually a better browsing tool. although it does have nice features overall it's just crap.
    • credence, on 04/02/2008, -1/+9I like the way you made a generalization and didn't back it up with any in depth criticism. So, to follow your excellent example - You're a moron.
    • astrotrain, on 04/02/2008, -2/+10Don't get us started with the 'list' of why Firefox is better then IE... The Digg comment system would crash.
    • orangefly, on 04/02/2008, -1/+2change....you fearzit....
    • Sirocco, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1Do not feed the troll, children.
  • beerncheese, on 04/02/2008, -1/+6A couple days ago I tried IE7 because I thought the website I was browsing didn't support firefox (turned out, the site was just busted). Anyway, I hadn't used it it probably a year, when I got a popup! For a split second I thought "I have a virus or something!" Then I realized that it was just a popup, the kind I used to get (pre-firefox) every single minute. gg, IE. It was a wild ride.
    • beerncheese, on 04/02/2008, -1/+3Oh, and by the way, I checked. IE's popup blocker was turned on.
  • yellowsnowcone, on 04/02/2008, -4/+3I went to my IT department and demanded that everyone on my team be given access to Firefox ... and it was funny, because virtually everyone in IT was running Firefox as well ... so I can't understand why there is resistance in my organisation (and likely many others) to using Firefox, when so many in IT are on board with it ... anyway, choice is good and we need Firefox to keep IE on its toes ...
    • OmegaNine, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1I had this delema when I was in IT. We decided not to roll it out because some of our dealers sites would only work in IE, and many of the people we worked with would not understand that you would have to view some pages in IE and some in FF. In the end we kept IE.
  • InorganicMatter, on 04/02/2008, -0/+7I would LOVE to deploy FF across the domains I manage. However, until there is an officially supported solution to send it out through Active Directory Group Polices with my choice of addons/plugins preinstalled, and set it as the default browser on all machines, I can't deploy it.
  • over900000, on 04/02/2008, -10/+2Only furries use Firefox.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-tL0zXsRLM
  • poweranimal88, on 04/02/2008, -5/+0one day we'll all be lauded as early adopters.
    • vertexoflife, on 04/02/2008, -0/+5I've been with firefox since beta one, go to the back of the line, you.
  • Hosalabad, on 04/02/2008, -5/+2I'd love to roll out Firefox for my company. The problem is that the number of vendors we have to deal with for web based applications would create so many problems it would never be successful.
  • Frost9999, on 04/02/2008, -1/+4What Firefox needs to gain market share is someone like Dell to make it the default browser on their images. Or Sony...hell they are in direct competition with Microsoft so why not?
  • jsprewell, on 04/02/2008, -1/+4I work at CVS. Now, I don't know about corporate level, but at store level Firefox is the only way to navigate the CVS intranet.
    • thecheatah, on 04/02/2008, -0/+2(pssst. I think he is talking about the store, not the revision tracking system)
  • BlackGaff, on 04/02/2008, -1/+3Just what exactly are IE's "business-oriented" features?

    "...Explorer, a new study finds that IE7 has done little to slow the gains Mozilla Firefox is making on Microsoft in enterprises despite Firefox's relative lack of business-oriented features."
    • init100, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1Probably support for deployment and configuration using Microsoft's enterprise deployment and group policy systems.
  • doshindude, on 04/02/2008, -2/+1I know a college nearby that suspended a kid becuase he was using firefox because it was not "a supported standard browser." *****, the IT department was just retarded. How do they not know about firefox?
    • kinggps, on 04/02/2008, -1/+1actually you just saw the story about the high-schooler that was posted on digg a few months ago
  • alexlook, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1I need a Chart or it did not happen
  • willy3121, on 04/02/2008, -0/+2The company I work for uses open source software almost exclusively since we're a small company and the IT Director knows what he's doing. Its funny to see how the cost of a product can affect ones opinion of it independently of quality. When I started, a lot of the older folks who work here viewed the open source stuff as a compromise, particularly firefox. Go figure.
  • vagrantradio, on 04/02/2008, -1/+1Coincidence that IE Beta 8 renders the same as Firefox 2? I think not.
  • konradk, on 04/02/2008, -1/+2Our CMS' administrator interface supports ONLY Firefox - no more mr nice guy. Quirks mode, huh?
    We did our part in this, and I'm proud! :)
  • Wiini, on 04/02/2008, -8/+2I can't bring myself to like firefox because I don't want to be part of the firefox circle jerk.
  • iHatemacintosh, on 04/02/2008, -6/+1I use safari on my pc. Very Secure.
  • gowingsgo, on 04/02/2008, -0/+8As a sports junkie, I noticed that somebody at ESPN was using Firefox. They showed a live image of what was being displayed in the browser, and I couldn't help but smile seeing Firefox with the Adblock image clearly seen to the far right of the browser. I could never see myself ever using Internet Explorer or any other browser in the near future. Internet Explorer is an absolute disaster, just waiting to let in all types of malicious things.
    • josephjs, on 04/02/2008, -1/+0Your mom's a disaster just waiting to let in all types of malicious things.
  • LOVEANDEQUALITY, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1i want FF 3 for my MAC now! i read that is suppose to b faster than SAFARI but i dont know until i try the final release!
  • aserer511, on 04/02/2008, -0/+2and why not?
  • Tuto, on 04/02/2008, -6/+0Pretty gay. I wish we could use I.E for evah!
  • Darcy, on 04/02/2008, -7/+2I use both IE and FF and I don't really see that much difference between the two, but that's probably because I see web browsers as a tool for viewing web pages and not a lifestyle choice. I've never really understood why fanboys get so emotional and angry over a web browser or any other software. I personally prefer IE7 on Vista because I find it a little bit faster, and FF seems to crash quite a bit for me, though I still use it. On XP and OS X I use FF mainly, even though I think safari seems to render pages faster than any other browser I've used. When it comes down to it though, why does it really matter what browser others use? Admitting to using and preferring IE over FF may go against diggs group-think mentality, but I think anyone who gets upset about something so trivial needs to grow up or find psychiatric help.
    • ukblacknight, on 04/02/2008, -1/+3When you start web development, your attitude will change.
      • pilobilus, on 04/02/2008, -1/+2Yea verily. I spend way too much time systematically breaking perfectly good xhtml to force Internet F***ing Exploder to render it close to right. Another factor: We all have to live with the spam from botnets supported by Microsoft's so-called web browser.
  • cglisson, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1Every one of our work stations run XP SP2, and everyone of them is on the net with Firefox 2. My Mac, with Vista emulated runs Safari and Firefox 3 Beta 4... safe to say IE is gonna be bye bye in not too long.
  • Sirocco, on 04/02/2008, -1/+2Our company established a new policy just last week mandating all employees use Firefox and Thunderbird. I never thought I'd see that happen!
  • kinneys, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1If you like customizing a browser to virtually anything, Firefox is the only game in town.
  • JasonCox, on 04/02/2008, -1/+1BREAKING: IE6 loses ground to Firefox (yet again).
  • TRScheel, on 04/02/2008, -0/+1Where I work they still use IE6... and develop sites around it too...

    I have raised objections, but considering I have to have forms signed in triplicate before using the restroom, it might be a few years [cough]decades[/cough] before they upgrade....

    [sarcasm]Oh I love big corporations[/sarcasm]
  • taketheleap, on 04/02/2008, -1/+3Fine, I'll be the one to say it:

    ***** Microsoft.
  • LightSpeed4, on 04/02/2008, -6/+1go MS, ***** firefox
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