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Re: Mozilla to Enterprise: We Never Meant to Make You Cry
Posted by: Richard Adhikari 2011-07-22 06:44:49
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Less than a month after Mozilla evangelist Aza Dotzler blew off enterprise users of the company's Firefox Web browser, triggering an avalanche of angry responses, the Mozilla Foundation is seeking to make nice with corporate America. The Foundation has announced that it's re-establishing the Mozilla Enterprise User Working Group. This group will provide a forum for enterprise developers, IT staff and Firefox developers to discuss the challenges, ideas and best practices for deploying that browser in the enterprise.
An enterprise should control its software and the deployment of that software. Both Chrome and Firefox are open source products and an enterprise can take the source code and create their own browser, along with an appropriate corporate warning page, a domain exclusion list, etc. They can wind out security fixes in their time and pattern. So if I were Oracle, my browser would be called Oracle!
Probably, Mozilla isn't enterprise oriented, and probably they are feeling Chrome Heat. So what? Most open source developers are anti-enterprise in perspective, so Mozilla's attitude and behavior is understandable if not defensible.
Probably, Mozilla isn't enterprise oriented, and probably they are feeling Chrome Heat. So what? Most open source developers are anti-enterprise in perspective, so Mozilla's attitude and behavior is understandable if not defensible.
And frankly I don't blame them. It all comes down to "ZOMG! Chrome has higher numbers ZOMG!" which is about as childish as you can get. I used to think I would be on Firefox for as long as it exists, after all I was using Firefox before it was even called that, and the Moz Suite before that.
But I had to move away from FF to the Chromium based Comodo Dragon, which I chose after trying several browsers. Why did I switch? Because in their 'ZOMG! Me Too!" race with Chrome they've frankly made the browser unsuitable for purpose. I have to support a VERY wide range of machines, from netbooks and midrange P4s all the way to the latest multicores and since 3.6.x I've found that FF is simply unusable on less than a 3GHz P4 with HT.
I'll give an example: I have a 1.8GHz Sempron I keep in the shop as a nettop, this is a great testbed for netbooks and older machines since it is slightly faster than a single core Atom. With FF launching a tab will cause the CPU to slam for up to 30 seconds where the machine is unresponsive and if the tab contains video it can lock for up to two minutes and the video will be a slideshow regardless. With Dragon the browser tops at 60% CPU, SD video plays perfectly, and most importantly it doesn't gobble memory or take control away from the user like FF does.
IMHO Moz blew it, folks use something at work and then end up using it at home. I knew many IT guys that were switching the corp over to FF, now that is over. I myself gave out FF on every repair and new build, but that is over too. Instead of focusing on being the best light browser, their original mission statement, they have become the bloated mess that they said they were getting away from in the first place! And their attitude to businesses is the height of arrogance but their code can't back up their attitude. Sorry Moz, but you have become Netscape all over again. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
But I had to move away from FF to the Chromium based Comodo Dragon, which I chose after trying several browsers. Why did I switch? Because in their 'ZOMG! Me Too!" race with Chrome they've frankly made the browser unsuitable for purpose. I have to support a VERY wide range of machines, from netbooks and midrange P4s all the way to the latest multicores and since 3.6.x I've found that FF is simply unusable on less than a 3GHz P4 with HT.
I'll give an example: I have a 1.8GHz Sempron I keep in the shop as a nettop, this is a great testbed for netbooks and older machines since it is slightly faster than a single core Atom. With FF launching a tab will cause the CPU to slam for up to 30 seconds where the machine is unresponsive and if the tab contains video it can lock for up to two minutes and the video will be a slideshow regardless. With Dragon the browser tops at 60% CPU, SD video plays perfectly, and most importantly it doesn't gobble memory or take control away from the user like FF does.
IMHO Moz blew it, folks use something at work and then end up using it at home. I knew many IT guys that were switching the corp over to FF, now that is over. I myself gave out FF on every repair and new build, but that is over too. Instead of focusing on being the best light browser, their original mission statement, they have become the bloated mess that they said they were getting away from in the first place! And their attitude to businesses is the height of arrogance but their code can't back up their attitude. Sorry Moz, but you have become Netscape all over again. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
This current paradigm at Mozilla is sheer nonsense. If they are saying it is because of security updates, then they should do the updates with point releases as in the past. Users did not then lose extensions, themes, etc.
This is really about Chrome browser. Mozilla is telling the public that they are a pack of idiots when they go to this rapid release. They think that the public buys into this as a necessity.
In truth, Chrome is nothing like Firefox, (or IE, or SeaMonkey), all of which for the user are quite similar (I am not an I/T person, so all I can speak to is usability).
I tried Chrome (and Safari and Opera). Sorry, Chrome looks and acts - for me - like a toy. A tinny toy.
Mozilla should go back to the point release paradigm for security releases.
This is really about Chrome browser. Mozilla is telling the public that they are a pack of idiots when they go to this rapid release. They think that the public buys into this as a necessity.
In truth, Chrome is nothing like Firefox, (or IE, or SeaMonkey), all of which for the user are quite similar (I am not an I/T person, so all I can speak to is usability).
I tried Chrome (and Safari and Opera). Sorry, Chrome looks and acts - for me - like a toy. A tinny toy.
Mozilla should go back to the point release paradigm for security releases.
