4 ms·

Does Firefox officially provide MSI packages yet? I seem to remember people saying there were a number of issues which made it painful to administrate (for a la

by dtf 17y ago

Does Firefox officially provide MSI packages yet? I seem to remember people saying there were a number of issues which made it painful to administrate (for a large corporation) compared to IE.

rbanffy 17y ago
Properly integrating with Windows management tools should be a priority for the organization. Many organizations won't even consider a switch unless it works with their tools. As many big organizations, the DoS is dependent on Windows. The harm (depending on a single vendor solution) has already been done and it will take some steps to undo. BTW, I would fire a developer who does a web app that only runs on IE, even if IE is the only browser mandated by the organization. Stupid rules are no excuse for employing incompetent people on public money.
- eli 17y ago
  Would you also fire a developer for creating a Windows-only desktop app, even if Windows is the operating system mandated by the organization?
  - ekiru 17y ago
    That's a different question. It's similar, but the situations aren't really the same. Developing a desktop app that runs on multiple OSes either involves using something like Gtk and probably having a noticeably non-native app on at least some systems or writing separate user interface code for every platform. I don't have much experience in web development(or desktop development for that matter), but given that all commonly-used browsers share at least a certain subset of HTML, CSS, and Javascript, is it really as hard as creating a desktop app that looks native on every major platform? Since there's no such thing as a native look for web apps, it's not really something you have to worry about, so you just have to deal with the differing HTML/CSS/Javascript implementations across browsers. Besides, an organization is and far more likely to switch browsers than to switch OSes because changing browsers is a less dramatic change that is less disruptive to their old way of doing things.
    - eli 17y ago
      I think it's a lot more similar than you realize. It's just that most web developers don't have the luxury of deploying to a homogenous environment, so they take it for granted that the site has to work in half a dozen browsers. Or, turn it around: would you insist your intranet apps support IE 6, even if using IE 6 is forbidden by IT policy?
      - rbanffy 17y ago
        I would insist all applications to warn users IE6 is forbidden by IT policy, to record its usage and to fire upgrade requests for the IT services team.

by dtf 17y ago

Does Firefox officially provide MSI packages yet? I seem to remember people saying there were a number of issues which made it painful to administrate (for a large corporation) compared to IE.

rbanffy 17y ago

Properly integrating with Windows management tools should be a priority for the organization. Many organizations won't even consider a switch unless it works with their tools. As many big organizations, the DoS is dependent on Windows. The harm (depending on a single vendor solution) has already been done and it will take some steps to undo. BTW, I would fire a developer who does a web app that only runs on IE, even if IE is the only browser mandated by the organization. Stupid rules are no excuse for employing incompetent people on public money.

eli 17y ago
Would you also fire a developer for creating a Windows-only desktop app, even if Windows is the operating system mandated by the organization?
- ekiru 17y ago
  That's a different question. It's similar, but the situations aren't really the same. Developing a desktop app that runs on multiple OSes either involves using something like Gtk and probably having a noticeably non-native app on at least some systems or writing separate user interface code for every platform. I don't have much experience in web development(or desktop development for that matter), but given that all commonly-used browsers share at least a certain subset of HTML, CSS, and Javascript, is it really as hard as creating a desktop app that looks native on every major platform? Since there's no such thing as a native look for web apps, it's not really something you have to worry about, so you just have to deal with the differing HTML/CSS/Javascript implementations across browsers. Besides, an organization is and far more likely to switch browsers than to switch OSes because changing browsers is a less dramatic change that is less disruptive to their old way of doing things.
  - eli 17y ago
    I think it's a lot more similar than you realize. It's just that most web developers don't have the luxury of deploying to a homogenous environment, so they take it for granted that the site has to work in half a dozen browsers. Or, turn it around: would you insist your intranet apps support IE 6, even if using IE 6 is forbidden by IT policy?
    - rbanffy 17y ago
      I would insist all applications to warn users IE6 is forbidden by IT policy, to record its usage and to fire upgrade requests for the IT services team.