Computer Services reveals the mystery of the disappearing Firefox
Mark Brannen
Issue date: 5/7/09 Section: News
A good number of students returned from Spring Break to discover that their life had taken a turn for the worst. Their beloved browser, Mozilla Firefox, had been removed from campus computers. The unexpected loss prompted many students to fall in to a deep despair; some of the most affected couldn’t even bring themselves to surf the web without their furry friend the Fox. Losing touch with the outside world, they had nothing to live for.
“I always used Firefox over Internet Explorer. I think it is faster, easier to use and overall just better.” griped Freshman Tony Hernandez.
For the well being of students such as Tony we at the Sentinel decided to explore the reasons behind the removal of Firefox. It turns out that this was a necessary step to ward off problems in our network.
“Firefox was temporarily removed from campus lab machines due to multiple security holes that were discovered in the software, which Mozilla corrected by releasing new versions of the software,” commented Michael Stanclift.
Stanclift is the network analyst here at Rockhurst and was more than helpful in my search for answers. It turns out that Mozilla distributes the software in a manner that is difficult for Rockhurst analysts to update in the managed campus systems.
“Since Mozilla does not distribute Firefox in a way that allows us to quickly update, we rely on a third party to repackage the Firefox code in a way that we can easily manage,” added Stanclift.
This third party, however, has been slow to update the software and thus led Rockhurst to remove the software altogether. Friends of Firefox need not worry though, as Mr. Stanclift is intent on reinstalling the latest version.
“I have heard a handful of complaints from students. I would have complained as well considering Firefox is one of my favorite browsers,” noted Stanclift.
“I always used Firefox over Internet Explorer. I think it is faster, easier to use and overall just better.” griped Freshman Tony Hernandez.
For the well being of students such as Tony we at the Sentinel decided to explore the reasons behind the removal of Firefox. It turns out that this was a necessary step to ward off problems in our network.
“Firefox was temporarily removed from campus lab machines due to multiple security holes that were discovered in the software, which Mozilla corrected by releasing new versions of the software,” commented Michael Stanclift.
Stanclift is the network analyst here at Rockhurst and was more than helpful in my search for answers. It turns out that Mozilla distributes the software in a manner that is difficult for Rockhurst analysts to update in the managed campus systems.
“Since Mozilla does not distribute Firefox in a way that allows us to quickly update, we rely on a third party to repackage the Firefox code in a way that we can easily manage,” added Stanclift.
This third party, however, has been slow to update the software and thus led Rockhurst to remove the software altogether. Friends of Firefox need not worry though, as Mr. Stanclift is intent on reinstalling the latest version.
“I have heard a handful of complaints from students. I would have complained as well considering Firefox is one of my favorite browsers,” noted Stanclift.
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