Mozilla re-establishes Enterprise Working Group

Perhaps stung by the reaction to recent statements and actions, Mozilla has announced that they are taking the old Mozilla Enterprise Working Group out of virtual mothballs.

The MEWG is a forum where Mozilla developers can interact with Enterprise IT and developers to discuss their needs and experiences with Mozilla software. It is supposed to include a monthly conference call in addition to online forums, but there hasn't been a meeting in almost 4 years.

The near-term discontent first became viral when Mozilla's Asa Dotzler announced in a blog comment: "Enterprise has never been (and I'll argue, shouldn't be) a focus of ours". This was in the wake of rising anger in IT organizations at Mozilla for ending support for Firefox 4 when they released Firefox 5, less than 3 months later.

One of the first things Enterprise IT will ask for, no doubt, is a manageable installer, probably in the form of a .MSI file and .MST for updates. Mozilla has actively rejected calls for such versions in the past, even though providing a .MSI should be a fairly simple matter. Whether Mozilla is willing to modify their release schedule or support policies is a more difficult question.

Within a few months it should be clear whether Mozilla is changing course or just condescending to corporate IT.

Larry Seltzer is a freelance writer and consultant, dealing mostly with security matters. He has written recently for Infoworld, eWEEK, Dr. Dobb's Journal, and is a Contributing Editor at PC Magazine and author of their Security Watch blog. He has also written for Symantec Authentication (formerly VeriSign) and Lumension's Intelligent Whitelisting site.