Firefox : The Guerilla Approach To Reloading The Web
So I've come to the conclusion that the only way to get Firefox used by the internet population at large, and to stop all these stupid spyware exploits and viruses clogging up our precious bandwidth every two days, is guerilla tactics. We need to employ our own version of Microsoft's campaign of the '90s, and simply remove any sign of Internet Explorer from their computers. I don't go in for the customising of Firefox to look exactly like Internet Explorer, partly because Firefox with Qute looks 100 times nicer than IE ever could. But this campaign could be very effective. It's simple: go onto your friend/flatmate/work colleague's computer and get rid of the desktop IE icon and any links from the start menu, quick-launch bar and so on. Install Firefox and make icons in exactly the same place as they'll simply go there to launch it anyway. But make sure you rename them to "Internet" - we don't want our dear friends getting confused, after all. This is something I've already tried out a couple of times and it seems pretty effective. If they're tech-savvy enough to notice that something is different, simply say: "Oh, it's a new version" - then show them some of the new features included. Hey, we're not saying they've been included by Microsoft!
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6 Comments
In worst case for people that demand to have their blue E back, just link IE icon to FireFox :-) People won't notice the difference really, I've had people in the past telling me that they just want to use their big blue E, so I simply do what I described aboive, and hell they didn't notice anything different ;)
Ignorence is a blizz.
Comment by Helgi at November 24, 2004 08:37 PM | PermalinkThere is an easier way - Firexplorer from http://firexplorer.mozdev.org/ does that all for you.
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at November 24, 2004 08:59 PM | Permalink
No offense, but if someone got onto my computer (which is locked/password protected) and installed software and removed software I used daily, I'd be mad. Even if it was better software and free.
Also, I don't recall Microsofties ever coming to my house, school or work and installing IE without my permission. I chose to download and install it back in the day. I knew that Office 2000/etc required IE 5+. It told me beforehand.
No one likes to be told what to do. We can turn off a very important audience if we go around and covertly install Firefox and ditch IE.
Comment by Jason at November 24, 2004 10:24 PM | PermalinkAll though I'd like for firefox to have more browser share, this isn't the correct way to do it, it isn't really making firefox have a better user base, users will keep thinking they are using IE, even if they are not, they will think they are.
Comment by Justin Shreve at November 24, 2004 11:22 PM | PermalinkI don't think that it is a good way, for a single reason: they are not tech aware enough to do the security updates.
However, I heard of something interesting from my friend: his agency firewall blocks IE from surfing. Of course, every of us know why this happen. (Well, if it blocks OE, even better)
i have used this in the past at several small business i service and it works! i have told them it is just an updated icon, new revision, etc....
Comment by lumpygravy at November 24, 2004 08:04 PM | Permalink