I'm a web developer responsible for an intranet. I develop using Firefox, but the IT guys here plan to use only Internet Explorer on the network going forwards.
This is because IE can be installed / configured from an MSI file, but Firefox doesn't provide an MSI. According to the admins, this means that remote administration of Firefox (e.g. managing updates, configuring NTLM authentication) is much harder.
From a developer's point of view, Firefox is a far superior browser, so if we were to use any browser as the company's default, I'd rather it was Firefox.
Tool me up! In the absence of an MSI file, what options are there for remote administration of Firefox? Are the same things possible, but done differently? Or do my admins have a point?
Speak slowly! I'm only a developer…
Best Answer
No doubt that it's a better browser to use and to develop for from me, but that's only a small part of what makes a good platform in the workplace. Your admins don't so much have "a" point as they do a whole zoo full of points and a large family group of baby little pointlings all waiting to grow up into points themselves.
We discussed Firefox's suitability here in the past as it happens, and the long and the short of it is that while there are a few things you can do with it, it's not suited to enterprise deployment and management in many ways, making the cost of deploying it and managing on Windows desktops it much higher than that of deploying IE, and the attitudes of the Firefox developers seem to range from total disinterest in making the product more "enterprise friendly" to active hostility towards the idea.