Firefox in trouble?
Summary: eWeek: Has the success of Firefox inadvertantly put the team behind the browser in a bind? In his column, Steven J.
eWeek: Has the success of Firefox inadvertantly put the team behind the browser in a bind? In his column, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols says that the future may not be so bright for Firefox if the Mozilla Foundation doesn
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Talkback
mmmmmmmmmmm duh.
If firefox is to compete with the upcoming IE 7 they had better address the corporate administration issue. Why would I, a network admin, roll out firefox to my 1000's of windows desktop's (not a small feat in itself) only to completely lose control of them once there. I wouldn't, especially when something that will give me what i want will be out within the year (IE 7).
Security is not an driving issue as proper firewall policies, local rights, and perimeter and local security has been shored up with either a little elbow grease using what comes with windows or with a 3rd party product. (Any network admin who says you can't protect a windows network against virus's worms or spyware is incompetent, or very underfunded). Current products when properly configured don?t really need AV or AS, the only thing they are still vulnerable to are zip files, whose payload is should be nill on a properly configured box (no admin rights no user access to local hard drives, application policies.)
- Sam
- Sam
The solution is not taking the computer away...
Maybe I'm misreading you, but when you write "no admin rights no user access to local hard drives, application policies" sounds like you're describing a lockdown.
Not all users, but some have specialized situations and do not appreciate lengthy procedures designed to reassure people who don't know anything about their jobs that they need what they know they needs. Particularly if there's any chance of the request being rejected.
In other words, case by case flexibility, even a somewhat permissive general policy.
If flexibility requires extra effort on the part of IT, then the general attitude is IT should make that effort.
No obvious way to prove it, of course, but I have long suspected that one reason non-IT people are put in charge of IT is to infuse a bit of what the rest of the world would call common sense.
a computer is not a toaster....
I don't care if they resent me i only care if they are productive and the computers are running smoothly. both are accomplished by lockdown.
Easier patching?
Doesn't get much easier than that. What more do you want?
Probably
yes....
Sounds like things can be improved to me.
Chris
Thing to remember though
why would i remember that?
What time costs?
No reboot required.
Is it ideal? No. It's still a far sight better than what's out there.
not true
thier is nothing the will patch/manage/configure firefox from a central localtion that i am aware of.
- Sam
The truth here is
Patching Was Easy
well,
u guys are barking up the wrong tree
The current team seems to already have its hands full. So they need more ppl to turn around faster on feature implementation and maybe patch development as well.
This is true
To sound like No_Ax for a moment...
The Mozilla Foundation probably didn't realize it would become even as popular as it is, and weren't looking for it. They probably saw FireFox as just proof of concept for minimo.
I would pat myself on the back, but a significant part of greatness is being unassuming.
So, all part of a normal day's work.
And for the record
And not only does the main program need a better patching system (and hence more programmers), but the extension and theme programmers need to be more on the ball for when an upgrade comes out, because extensions and themes have maximum version numbers they will work with and that number is usually the current version (for obvious reasons). So the main program's programmers and the extension and theme programmers need to get on the same page.
I disagree with your minimo comments however. I do think that Firefox was the goal in mind, being modular to the point that forks such as minimo would be possible without forking too much off the main tree to be detrimental in the future. Minimo is a planned fork intended to bring in the cash. And of course you would not begrudge a programmers' group their right to earn money for their efforts.
normal growing pains
It is a problem, but a very good problem to have.
I suspect that Firefox will get more coders, and get more servers, as it is a very high profile project that has a lot of different interests invested in it's success. I wouldn't be surprised if the likes of IBM, AOL, or Google all chipped in. And I could see more volunteers come into the fold.
RE: Firefox in trouble?
There are exploits out there for Chrome, FireFox, and Safari, as well as IE, but they are pretty easy to block with simple firewall hygene.
I support Mozilla, as well as Linux, open source will eventually win out, especially FREE operating systems like Ubuntu, but my customers resist changing from Microsoft operating systems, I imagine familiarity has something to do with it.
I've had one customer blame Vista and the IE 8 browser when HE downloaded a zipped scareware program which was supposed to be a folder locking tool which he really didn't need.
He'd also not bothered to create a password for Vista, making him a very easy target for any port scanner to take over Admin/owner authority.
After he installed it the program refused to open his locked folders(wouldn't accept his password), and told him he'd need to use his password to uninstall the program(still unaccepted). He uninstalled the program through the utility in the control panel, ( he'd had to use XP compatability for it to run), but the install had dropped a "spook" called Imrunin.dat, but once the .dat was changed to .TXT, so it could be read in notepad the program was listing all his "locked" folders and began locking him out of all Windows, and other programs, as the .TXT file made it appear that it was broadcasting his "personal" information to a group of crackers.The program had told him he'd need to contact the malware's creator for "technical assistance"(at a very high charge rate) in removing the bits of the program which remained. as it's last act it renamed his harddrive to jacked, but had used white as the color it typed jacked in with, so for all intents and purposes to the user the C drive now was un-named, and could not be accessed.
It was a fairly easy disinfect job, but his attempt at removing the program did delete the name of the program which he'd downloaded from Simtel. I am actively searching for this malware download, so if anybody sees a folder security tool that has Imrunin.dat with the compressed files, please drop a name and a DL site, and I'll roast this idjit if his "technical assistance number" goes to an actual tech for pay line.
The malware was not able to access other computers on his office network, though it tried (bad calls, this was an advanced amature, but he seems desperate for money, easy to bait maybe).
As usual it was an I.D.10T error.
We have good software, we need better users.
RE: Firefox in trouble?