IBM Sees Firefox for What It Is: An Awesome Web Browser
We all know IBM, the multinational computer, technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, North Castle, New York. And we all know the Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit organization that behind the quite popular Firefox web browser. Here comes the part that you may not know: IBM has asked its employees to make Firefox their default browser.
“It is not news that some IBM employees use Firefox. It is news that all IBM employees will be asked to use it as their default browser. So what does it mean for Firefox to be the default browser inside IBM? Any employee who is not now using Firefox will be strongly encouraged to use it as their default browser. All new computers will be provisioned with it. We will continue to strongly encourage our vendors who have browser-based software to fully support Firefox,” said in a blog post Vice President of Open Source and Linux at IBM's Software Group, Bob Sutor.
Just to put things in perspective, IBM has more than 400,000 employees around the world. Right now a few thousands are using Firefox on their Windows, Mac OS X or Linux powered laptops and desktops. In the future all of them are expected to adopt Mozilla’s Firefox as their default browser. Oh, since we’re throwing numbers around, Mozilla estimates its total number of users at around 400 million.
Getting back to IBM, Bob Sutor cited the following reasons for choosing the Firefox browser:
This cannot be good news for Redmond-based software developer Microsoft, who holds the lion’s share of the browser market with its Internet Explorer (IE) web browser. It especially can’t be good news considering that not too long ago Google announced that it is phasing out Windows usage because of security concerns.
I wholeheartedly advise you to get Firefox. You can download the latest version for Windows, Mac or Linux here.
“It is not news that some IBM employees use Firefox. It is news that all IBM employees will be asked to use it as their default browser. So what does it mean for Firefox to be the default browser inside IBM? Any employee who is not now using Firefox will be strongly encouraged to use it as their default browser. All new computers will be provisioned with it. We will continue to strongly encourage our vendors who have browser-based software to fully support Firefox,” said in a blog post Vice President of Open Source and Linux at IBM's Software Group, Bob Sutor.
Just to put things in perspective, IBM has more than 400,000 employees around the world. Right now a few thousands are using Firefox on their Windows, Mac OS X or Linux powered laptops and desktops. In the future all of them are expected to adopt Mozilla’s Firefox as their default browser. Oh, since we’re throwing numbers around, Mozilla estimates its total number of users at around 400 million.
Getting back to IBM, Bob Sutor cited the following reasons for choosing the Firefox browser:
- Firefox is stunningly standards compliant, and interoperability via open standards is key to IBM’s strategy.
- Firefox is open source and its development schedule is managed by a development community not beholden to one commercial entity.
- Firefox is secure and an international community of experts continues to develop and maintain it.
- Firefox is extensible and can be customized for particular applications and organizations, like IBM.
- Firefox is innovative and has forced the hand of browsers that came before and after it to add and improve speed and function.
This cannot be good news for Redmond-based software developer Microsoft, who holds the lion’s share of the browser market with its Internet Explorer (IE) web browser. It especially can’t be good news considering that not too long ago Google announced that it is phasing out Windows usage because of security concerns.
I wholeheartedly advise you to get Firefox. You can download the latest version for Windows, Mac or Linux here.
