ANTenna Blog -- Internet/Web

Mozilla's focus on the end user means that many large-enterprises are less than excited about the release of Firefox 3. That's a real opportunity for growing companies not burdened with ossified thinking.

According to J. Nicholas Hoover's piece in InformationWeek -- Firefox 3.0 Doesn't Focus On Business IT Mozilla's "approach is to keep the end user first in mind, not the IT manager" and "that approach won't win any quick converts among IT management."

Hoover quotes IT managers at large corporations whining that, "It's just one more app to support," and notes several companies that prevent users from downloading FF3, and others that "discourage" it, whatever that means.

I just don't get it. Sure,"Mozilla has no enterprise sales or support staff to speak of, and the company relies on third-party add-ons such as FrontMotion Firefox MSI, CCK Wizard, or FirefoxADM for business features like centralized deployment and management."

But FF3 is free, for heaven's sake. Why on earth would it need an enterprise sales staff? And, really, how much support does Microsoft provide for IE?

The bottom line is that FF3 is a better browser. It's safer, faster, and easier to use than IE, with some really useful new features. ANd isn't it IT's job to help the organization use technology to be more productive, whether or not it's convenient for the IT department.

As I said yesterday, there's no reason not to download it and start using it right away.

And here's another reason to do so: FF3's benefits offer your company a subtle but real competitive advantage against stuck-in-the-mud enterprises who somehow find ways to turn down a better product offered for free.