(Computerworld)
-- With a new CEO on board and a major update of its Firefox
Web browser expected this year, Mozilla Corp. hopes to
reinvigorate its campaign to pull users away from Microsoft
Corp.'s still-dominant Internet Explorer software.
But Mountain View,
Calif.-based Mozilla continues to expend little energy on
wooing IT managers to formally adopt Firefox for deployment
within their organizations, according to analysts and users
of the open-source browser.
In the past, Firefox faced
two main obstacles that limited its adoption by corporate
users: its immaturity, and its incompatibility with
corporate Web applications and intranets that relied on
Microsoft technologies such as ActiveX.
Now nearly three-and-a-half
years old and nearing the release of Version 3, Firefox no
longer can be accused of being callow. And while many
IE-only apps remain, plenty of others have been overhauled
to support Firefox as well, according to the
general manager of Browser Garage LLC, a Web consulting firm
in Mountain View.
However, other obstacles to broader adoption have
emerged. Mozilla thus far has neglected to develop tools to
help IT departments deploy and manage Firefox, and it
doesn't offer paid technical support services to risk-averse
corporate users.
"The enterprise is looking for a neck to choke, and that
is absolutely what is missing from Firefox," said Ebron, a
former product manager for Firefox and its predecessor,
Netscape Navigator. "If you have a problem with IE and you
are a big enough customer to Microsoft, [CEO] Steve Ballmer
is going to come out and talk to you. That isn't there yet
from Mozilla. It isn't their focus."
Mozilla claims that Firefox has more than 125 million
users. And according to market researchers, the open-source
browser has made some steady, albeit relatively small,
inroads against IE on usage. For example, Net Applications
Inc., an Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based company that tracks
visitors to about 40,000 Web sites, said Firefox held a 17%
share of browser usage in December, compared with 76% for
IE. Similarly, Janco Associates Inc. in Park City, Utah,
currently gives Firefox a 16% usage share among visitors to
17 business-to-business Web sites that it monitors.
Janco puts IE's share at 67% while
giving 9% to Netscape and 3% to Google Desktop. (Netscape is
credited with only a minuscule market share by Net
Applications, which doesn't include Google Desktop in its
rankings.)
Firefox's market share has increased from 14% since last
January, while IE's share has eroded by two percentage
points, according to Janco. But Firefox's gains have mostly
come from workers installing the browser on their own,
without IT's blessing, noted Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis.
"Users are frustrated with Microsoft's product, and more
people are starting to experiment in enterprises with
Firefox," he said.
Firefox may gain more users following AOL LLC's Dec. 28
announcement that it will discontinue Netscape Navigator --
and its recommendation that users switch to Mozilla's
browser.
