Mozilla/Firefox Used by 68 Percent of UK Universities and CollegesSunday August 13th, 2006Mozilla-based programs and open source software in general are becoming increasingly accepted by UK universities and colleges, according to OSS Watch, a group that provides advice and guidance on free and open source software to UK educational institutions. The OSS Watch Survey 2006 reveals that 68% of the 114 institutions who responded to the survey have deployed Mozilla Firefox or the Mozilla Application Suite on at least some of their campus desktops (the exact term used by the survey was "Mozilla/Firefox browser", which most institutions would presumably infer to mean either Firefox or the Mozilla Application Suite). The report notes that the 77% of higher education (degree and postgraduate) institutions and 64% of further education (post-16 secondary education) institutions that have deployed Mozilla/Firefox is a significant rise on the last survey in 2003, where these figures were just 44% and 32% respectively. Despite the rise in deployment, the report does note that very few institutions have installed Mozilla/Firefox on all desktops. Nevertheless, other Mozilla-based products also fared well. 22% of institutions have Mozilla Thunderbird on their systems and 27% use Netscape (though some may be using versions that predate the first Mozilla-based release, Netscape 6). It appears, however, that Mozilla products are generally offered as alternatives rather than the default: every single university and college surveyed have Microsoft Internet Explorer installed on their systems. Microsoft Office also registered a 100% deployment rate. "It appears, however, that Mozilla products are generally offered as alternatives rather than the default: every single university and college surveyed have Microsoft Internet Explorer installed on their systems." Well, duh. They all use Windows, so of course they have the crappy browser installed. At least when I was at Uni a few years ago, a lot of departments (notably Sciences, Engineering and Computing blocks) have large numbers of *nix machines. Last I checked IE doesn't work on these at all. In fact when I web browsed in my (mid to late 90s) days at a London Uni, I spent most of my browsing time in Netscape (versions 2.x thru 4.x), and surely all of those Sun, Linux and other *nix machines must be running a version of Mozilla these days? Well, if IE and Office deplayment rates are at 100%, they obviously aren't using Linux. No - the statistic isn't that universities have Windows on 100% of computers, it's that 100% of universities have Windows on at least some computers. If they have a mix of Linux and Windows, they will still be counted in that percentage. Similarly, the 68% isn't that Mozilla or Firefox are on 68% of desktops in universities, it is that 68% of universities have are running them on at least some desktops. Alsdo on the surprised its so low front: The Reg - UK Unis Love OSS <http://www.theregister.co…/04/uk_unis_loving_linux/> My institution will not allow Firefox as it is deemed insecure, they also will not allow any Mac or any *nix (Linux, Solaris) machines on the web as this is seen to be too insecure also. A shame it is one of the main centres in the world for CISCO. I am to believe that Internet Explorer is incredibly hard if not impossible to completely be gotten rid of. Idea from <http://wiki.mozilla.org/U…th_FF_.26_Re-Distributing> The user should be able to make his own install-files bundling his prepared extensions & Settings packages together with his firefox. This would make it easier for Companies or Universities to easily deploy a firefox with good suitable extensions concerning eg. Blackboard, Webmail, etc, to be distributed to students. If universities make good extensions, this will make a lot of academic students use FF. And as we all know, they are the future decision makers in companies. This would also encourage the distribution of firefox on other places than the FF website, and thus reaching a much larger population. This idea is also found on the following wiki: <http://wiki.mozilla.org/U…nd_Mean_vs._Super_Install> But mine has a more entreprise/University centred approach. Yes, the marketshare of firefox in Europe is much bigger. I think the marketshare is in average about 30%, Switzerland <http://www.fitforeurope.com/switzerland/> I heard it is really high - about 40% too! |
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