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Getting Your Company to Migrate from IE?
RunningFerreT asks: "With all the recent warnings and recommendations on migrating from MSIE, I have come across a serious problem. The company for which I work doesn't want to, even after being informed of all the exploits and problems with Internet Explorer. Having the boss 'try out' Firefox isn't working: a single site looks bad, so IE must be better. Has anyone had success in convincing management types to switch from IE, to another more secure, standards compliant browser? If so, how did you get the job done?"
I just installed Firefox, then deleted the IE icons and then created new ones that had the IE icon and said "internet explorer" but whose link went to Firefox.
No compliants, no spyware since.
Karma: Excellent (fuck, even in the future moderation doesn't work!)
Funny...
Lots of people say that, yet I don't seem to be suffering the least using any of a number of non MSIE browsers, on my non MS OS.
I guess I'm just lame or something and am not using the "hot" or "cutting-edge" web sites... or perhaps the claim that " if you do not use IE, your missing out on imporatant sites etc.." is just plain FUD.
But, so as to not make waves, I'll opt for the "I'm lame" answer...
At several of the organizations I've been involved with over the last couple of years, remote email (and calendar and discussion and ) has been via Outlook Web Access. Funny enough, usability tanks regarding attaching files, spell check, moving emails, preview panes, etc.
IMHO, it is not the internet at large that's the issue with browser shifts; it's the intranet.
Thinking of starting a business in Minnesota? Me too! mnsmall.biz
I had all customer service agents switched to Firefox in a weekend, all they use is the UPS website to check tracking numbers, so the rest of the stuff they do is usually not business related so they don't complain. Have a few java apps, they work well, one required me to install Java 1.5.0 (Err I mean Java 5!) instead of 1.4.2 because it was running dog slow in Firefox with 1.4.2 ....
Imported Favorites and settings...made IE hidden..
2 or 3 users are special cases and they really need IE for some IE specific ActiveX crap but that's it...
I spent 5minutes clearing spyware in the past 6 weeks.
Here it is.
I've used it many times. Switch the icon for Firefox to IE. Install Luna. Done.
I've been using Netscape, Mozilla and Firefox in rotation for many years, and I can assure you that Firefox is more stable than the branded versions. I do recognize the value of branding, but they are really slow to incorporate important fixes...
13 Reasons to use firefox over IE
I think i once saw a page with like 100 reasons. But this covers the major ones.
- tristan
I also work in a recording studio, we are on a MOTU/Mac platform. It is easier to just do then ask permission. What I told my boss, who is also a creature of habit:
:)
"IE is a piece of shit and has security problems. I'm installing another browser."
"But...my bookmarks"
"Your bookmarks will be there"
"Uhm...Ok"
No apologies, just do. If there is arguement, print out some Windows IE bug reports and pretend they affect the Mac. Highlight those phrases like 'critical', 'data corruption' and 'complete data loss'. I don't know what you charge per session-hour (probably around $50-70), but your boss would probably hate to chance losing hundreds of dollars in recording time because of IE
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Heh, only thing rendering horribly for me in FireFox is /.
;)
:)
I don't know what is the reason but sometimes it just renders the frontpages article list on top of the left menu.
Ohwell, guess slashdot should put up a disclaimer:
"Designed for Internet Explorer 6 or later"
PS. Damnit, I tried to get it to barf to put up a screenshot but now the damn stubborn thing refuses to render incorrectly
Bot Assisted Blogging
The /. rendering problem is a known bug, and the fix should appear in Firefox 1.0
7
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21752
A lot of people seem to think saying "IE sucks, use this" is a good strategy.
I hate to bust your bubble, but unless you give someone a reason to switch to your recommendation, you're just babbling at them.
Give they WHY they need to switch to Mozilla. Show them how great tabbed browsing is. Show them the integrated search. Mess with the config a little and show them how much faster it is. All of the things that make you *want* to use it, regardless of whether IE ever existed.
Spyware, security, exploits, etc. are just noise to most users, and consequently most bosses.
vk.
I agrre with the parent on this, but it's not that simple. This is a smaller company, and the boss is THE BOSS. Since he can't actually SEE the problems(exploits, viruses, malware, adware[I keep the computers very maintained]) he doesn't see any reason to switch. It's the sort of situation where we might almost HAVE to get infected with a keylogger and have his CC# stolen and used to get him to change his ways. Even though it's a minor graphical hicup, that is, at this point, enough to prevent us from changing over because he is THE BOSS.
"So I says to Mable, "Hey, those are MY ferrets!"
And then when they next use what they think is IE they'll say "Oh Wow, Microsoft really improved their browser".
/. site somewhere with news stories like "Getting your techies to eat more vegetables and go outside" and people arguing about how to go about that and people saying "omg he drinks HOW many cups of coffee?? Well just tell him how bad it is for him and he will stop". Not going to happen really is it?
No, your average user is utterly oblivious to Microsoft and so on. They really really couldn't care less so long as "Hotmail works". They know that if they click on a blue icon that says "Internet Explorer" then they can look at porn and so on.
Case in point - I installed Firefox for my father recently - he got a PC about 2 years ago and is very much the sort of person who will install anything and click anywhere (while naturally insisting that he doesnt). I introduced him to the concept of spyware recently and installed Spybot, AdAware et al sold to him under the fact that people are "spying on him" (otherwise he wouldnt care). I went around to visit last Sunday and he told me that his spyware software was not working "because it doesnt pick anything up anymore where it used to find lots of stuff". The reason was because he now uses Firefox and literally can't get most spyware, however trying to explain this concept to him is difficult and I can see it just going over his head.
If average users did understand these things, then everyone would patch and keep things up to date and would have Firefox installed anyway but as we know this will never happen. In comparison it would be a bit like we techies limiting our computer use, not playing video games and playing sport and not eating ramen and so on because "someone in the news said it was good for us". I'm sure somewhere there will be an employee management oriented