Deployment:Deploying Firefox

Deploying Firefox

Many people are using Firefox at home, and many also want to use it at work or see it on public computers such as at libraries or Internet Cafes. This article provides links and references to issues that might come up when considering or executing a Firefox deployment plan. It describes a wide variety of tools and features available that can be to deploy Firefox and centrally manage and control the use of Firefox in enterprise, business, education, and a variety of large and small organizational settings.

The Rational for Deploying Firefox inside Organizations and Institutions

It is interesting to note that Firefox market share in corporate environments appears to be pretty closely tracking with the increased use of Firefox in the general internet population. Concerns about security is a strategic reason some enterprise customers move to Firefox exclusively or provide support for multiple browsers. Many users choose Firefox when it is offered inside their organization, or go around IT policies because it makes them more efficient and more productive in accessing information on the web. They take advantage of firefox features such as tab browsing, rss feeds, and integrated search to get more done, faster. Some organization also chose Firefox as a tool to assist in ensuring development of internal applications and documents comply with web standards, and that the organizations do not get locked into proprietarty document formats that could become difficult or costly to support. If your applications and content works in Firefox its highly likely they will work in other browsers.

October 30, 2006 - The New Browser Wars: Firefox vs. Internet Explorer
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=13200C4PLUMO

"Jupiter survey showed that 26 percent of companies with more than 250 employees allowed their employees to install Firefox in 2005. By 2006, that number had jumped to 44 percent."

February 13, 2006 - Deployments at IBM, Boeing and Fidelity http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/story/0,10801,108622p3,00.html http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;453717301;fp;2;fpid;2 14% of Surveyed IT Managers had multi browser deployments going on in there companies.

03 Jan 2006 Open source's speed, Firefox's security wows Fidelity http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci1155599,00.html prediction of Open Source used in 25% of business software investments by 2010

July 06 Marketshare among IT workers visiting Janco http://www.e-janco.com/browser.htm

Firefox Customization (CCK and Repackaging Tools)

The Firefox Client Customization Kit (CCK) was designed as a successor to two Netscape products, CCK, and Mission Control Desktop (MCD). These two products were used to customize Netscape browsers for deployment for ISPs (CCK) and enterprises (MCD).

The goal of the Firefox CCK is to provide an extension that can be deployed with Firefox that does most basic customizations.

More information is available at http://www.mozilla.org/projects/cck/firefox.

Information on the release repackaging tool is available here http://benjamin.smedbergs.us/release-repackager/

Centralized Settings Management and Control

The core technology in Firefox and Thunderbird contains a feature called "Mission Control Desktop/Auto Config" that can be used to centrally manage Browser and Mail configuation settings for the client software that is deployed across and organization. More documenation on this feature can be found at: http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/MCD%2C_Mission_Control_Desktop_AKA_AutoConfig and http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Automatic_Mozilla_Configurator:Locked_config_settings

Most of the controls are carried out via the preference system. An overview of the this system can be found at http://www.mozilla.org/catalog/end-user/customizing/briefprefs.html http://www.xulplanet.com/tutorials/xulqa/q_prefs.html

Extensive lists of preferences can be found at: http://preferential.mozdev.org/preferences.html

This article also talks about controlling other features such as bookmarks and history and an approach to "Securing Mozilla in the Public Library": http://tln.lib.mi.us/~amutch/pro/mozilla/

Installer Options

Large Oranizations have a variety of software deployment systems. In most cases the Firefox installation package can be wrapped inside these deployment systems. Some groups have packaged the firefox installer inside a MSI package to do their deployments. The firefox installation program can be wrapped inside these deployment systems. Two installer options are valuable in these set ups.

FirefoxSetup.exe /ms (for mode-silent)

or

FirefoxSetup.exe /ma (auto-mode, hands-free but visible)

Another installation option ( /ira ) might be useful in these scenarios as it keeps the program from running after the install has completed.

Some changes were made in Firefox 2 to modify installer command line options. Information on those changes is here: http://wiki.mozilla.org/Installer:Command_Line_Arguments

Deployment Tools

Automated deployment of Firefox with extensions, themes, and pre-configuration http://firefox.dbltree.com/

Firefox ADM (Active Directory deployment) Manage Firefox settings through Group Policy and Active Directory. http://homepages.ed.ac.uk/mcs/FirefoxADM/Readme.htm

Software Update

Mozilla offers automated updates of security patches and bug fixes for Firefox and Thunderbird though its software update system. You can choose to use this system or modify the firefox configuration to turn software updates off and gain more control over the update process. An overview of the software update system can be found at http://wiki.mozilla.org/Software_Update

Companies

List of companies and contacts who can help with your evaluation, pilot projects, and deployment of Firefox or Thunderbird across your organization is provided below.

Wayforth - London, UK
Browser Garage - Mountain View, CA
IBM - Austin, TX - contact Michael Kaply

We are also interested in hearing about your success stories or problems at partners@mozilla.org

Licensing/Distribution Terms and Conditions

The Firefox End User License can be found here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/legal/eula/

and more information about logo and trademark use can be found here: http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/

Export Control Information

Companies looking to provide Mozilla Software outside the United States often ask about Export Control provisions.

The Export Notice can be found at http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/security/export-notice

In addition, the CCATS number makes it easier for companies to file when they included NSS or Mozilla Applications like Firefox, which use NSS. This CCATS filing covers all the crypto operations used in the Mozilla code base, including SSL and S/MIME.

The reference number for export filings is CCATS G023895. Strictly speaking, we did not have to file for a CCATS number because the NSS crypto code is "publicly available" and the binaries are built from purely open source software. More information on exporting products made from Open Source can be found here https://www.bis.doc.gov/encryption/enc.htm and here http://www.access.gpo.gov/bis/ear/ear_data.html - Part 740. Section §740.13(e) is on page 30 of the PDF.

We strongly caution you not to act on your personal reading of export regulations. They are complex and loaded with history, precedent, and context which often require interpretation from a qualified attorney.

Most questions about features provided by Mozilla's security library are contained in this document http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/nss-3.9/nss-3.9-algorithms.html

Other Links

Collection of other random thoughts, press, and other articles on Firefox Deployments in Enterprise and Large Organizations

http://del.icio.us/chofmann/enterprise
http://del.icio.us/chofmann/firefox-deployments
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox:1.5_Institutional_Deployment
http://www.sanduskycomputers.com/downloads/fxcorp/
http://corporatefirefox.blogspot.com/
http://firefox.dbltree.com/
http://varun21.blogspot.com/
http://www.frontmotion.com/Firefox/