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Dell Pre-Installing Firefox in UK

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the and-they-get-battlestar-galactica-first-too dept.

seizer writes "Blake Ross, creator of Firefox, has confirmed on his blog that Dell are now shipping Firefox on all desktop and laptop machines in the UK. While rumours had been floating around before this, and UK buyers had been reporting that 1.0.6 came pre-installed, this is the first official confirmation of Dell's decision. Is the US next?"

8 of 359 comments (clear)

  1. Default browser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Definately good news, but if it's not the default browser the impact will likely be limited. Most people will use whatever's the default.

  2. Yes but... by mpapet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    -Is it installed like the rest of their nagware? (e.g. buried in the menus)

    -Is it the default browser?

    -Will it remain the default browser?

    -Is there an icon on the desktop? (still will probably not switch the trained to click the "e" people.)

    In one way it's very good news.

    I don't think it changes much though once IE7 is available. The IE7 hype for a feature set that Mozilla browsers already have will be deafening.

    --
    http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
    1. Re:Yes but... by moreati · · Score: 5, Informative

      My sister got one of these, to my surprise, the fox was there.

      There is an icon on the desktop, along with Internet Explorer's and about 30 others. I believe Internet Explorer came as default, but I didn't observe the first seconds directly.

      It seems a standard install, no obvious branding or skinning - the start page has been set to Dell's EULA.

      Neither browser masks the other that I can tell, of course each has it's standard 'I'm not the default' message.

  3. This is nuts.. by ronsta · · Score: 5, Funny

    I, for one, am outraged. Could you imagine if Microsoft did the same thing and had Internet Explorer installed on every new computer?

    Oh wait...

    --

    Martini Glasses
  4. Why 1.0.6? by Barny · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those wondering why this particular version, it is the latest to support FULL msi options http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=1380 33 as listed on the official mozillazine forums.

    However if the people at DELL had of just gone one more click to the guys full site, they would see the latest MSIs built ready for pre-install or corp rollout needs http://www.frontmotion.com/Firefox/.

    Big thanks to "DraconPern" for doing this, OEMer i been working at has been rolling this onto default install for around 14 months now, not had one gripe about bloatware, and quite a few thankyous from people for saveing them the effort :)

    --
    ...
    /me sighs
  5. And somewhere else by TheSpoom · · Score: 5, Funny

    Inside the corporate offices of Microsoft, a chair is thrown.

    --
    It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
    - E. Debs
  6. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  7. Re:1.5 is out? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's quite funny. Your type seem to cry "anti-competitive practice!" and "monopoly!" when Microsoft chooses to include a product of great quality in their operating system suite, however, look at you now. "I doubt they remove IE on the system". Heh. It's alright when theoretical anti-competitive practice favours Firefox, but not Internet Explorer?

    That's because Firefox isn't leveraging an existing monopoly in one area to gain ground for another (usually inferior) product. That's anti-competitive behavior. For example, if Firefox firmly controlled 95% of the browser market, and told OEMs "We won't allow you to install our product if you install another browser, and unless you bundle Thunderbird with it", that would be anti-competitive monopolistic behavior. If the OEM simply decides not to include what they consider to be inferior but competing products of their own accord, that's the free market in action.

    If MS simply bundled apps with Windows and OEMs left the other products out, I would be quite happy with that. I'm glad they've finally decided to give anti-virus another go for a number of reasons. It's when they tell OEMs, "If you want Windows, you can't install X" that they really need to be backhanded.