A couple of comments about Firefox in response to the IE item posted here. Yes, certainly Firefox looks like a good alternative, but it’s not as simple as just that. I thing FF is well done and seems to be a viable response to Microsoft’s bungling of IE – which they have clearly bungled. However, that does not mean that FF is going to be a clear winner in the security area. First, it lacks hooks into group policy so it’s not a serious contender in many larger companies since deployment and control from Windows AD enviromennts is limited. Second, it simply hasn’t been pounded on for 10 years like IE. After it’s been around for a year or more and hits a million or so deskstops, then we’ll know more about the true colors. Third, widespread adoption of FF will mean a SIGNIFICANT increase in web site development. Used to be tht you’d have to develope for IE and Netscape but a lot of shops just wrote off the Netscape portion making it far easier and less expensive to develop and maintin HTML. So, indirectly, Microsoft has contributed to what will certainly be a more expensive proposition for e-commerce sites – to develop and maintain code that presents well and is secure for two browsers. Personally, I am not looking forward to that
Brett Hill has an interesting view about the developments and (too early ?) excitement arounf Firefox.
