James Delahunty
29 Jun 2011 20:35
Mozilla blog goes into damage control.
After the release of the latest Firefox web browser last week, questions had been raised about the new rapid release schedule for the web browser, and the negative consequences it had for business users. In a blog comment, Mozilla executive Asa Dotzle surprised business users in the tone used to reply to concerns about the schedule.
"Enterprise has never been (and I'll argue, shouldn't be) a focus of ours. Until we run out of people who don't have sysadmins and enterprise deployment teams looking out for them, I can't imagine why we'd focus at all on the kinds of environments you care so much about," Dotzle stated.
Both Google and Microsoft picked up on the comment and posted their commitments to commercial customers and their concerns. Mozilla waited a few days and then finally decided to attempt to patch things up with business users.
"The Mozilla Community has focused our efforts on the needs of the individual user, and prioritized the product roadmap and features accordingly. However, as is the case with many technologies, loyal Firefox users and their IT departments have sought to bring Firefox into their places of work." the blog entry reads.
"A key challenge for enterprises is that they need to certify their websites, apps and add-ons each time Firefox is updated. This can take weeks or months. Security is also paramount, enterprises need access to a version that includes all known security fixes. We are exploring solutions that balance these needs, with active discussion in our community. Open Source software is well-suited to these challenges, as interested parties can come together to build what is needed."