Enterprise IT Unhappy With Firefox 4’s Retirement

By | June 24, 2011


Enterprise IT Unhappy With Firefox 4's RetirementSeveral corporate IT managers have displayed discomfort with Mozilla’s decision to deliver new editions of Firefox every six weeks with its new rapid release program. This discomfort centers around the retirement of Firefox 4 from security support as well as their inability to test any new version beforehand.

The Firefox 4 EOL (End of Live) is a kick in the stomach. I’m now in the terrible position of choosing to deploy a Firefox 4 release with potentially unpatched vulnerabilities, reset the test cycle for thousands of internal apps to validate Firefox 5 or stay on a patched Firefox 3.6.x. – John Walicki of IBM


Mozilla considering Firefox 5 to be not only the newest edition, but also the security update to Firefox 4 may work for consumers but it does not work for enterprises according to an analyst.

A major version change is a big signal to the enterprise that there’s something drastically different, and a signal that IT needs to do its due diligence. People in the enterprise are in the habit of evaluating every bit before they put it on workstations. – Al Hilwa, an analyst with IDC

IBM adopted Firefox as its default browser in mid 2010. Many companies, including IBM, want to insure that a new application, especially a browser, does not create compatibility or security problems. To corporate IT, however, Firefox 5 is a new browser, not simply a security update for Firefox 4.


About (Author Profile)


Being passionate about software, Armin joined FavBrowser.com in early 2011 and has been actively writing ever since. Having accepted the challenge, he also enjoys watching anime, indulging in good books, staying fit and healthy, and trying new things.

Comments (3)

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  1. Tiago Sá says:

    I believe enterprises will eventually need to COMPLETELY separate their offline business from their online life. Browsers should be used for web browsing PERIOD. Nothing to do with their bleeding internal applications.

    I know of big banks that use IE6 for internal stuff and Firefox for the internet. That’s a healthier approach than this nonsense.