Comments on: Using Firefox On Our Public Computers

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:45:22 +0000

I agree that Firefox is a better browser than IE. But, IE still out-foxes Firefox when it comes to dealing with RSS Feeds. Using default RSS Feed functionality of the browser without using a third-party news reader, Firefox doesn’t show the pub-dates, categories, doesn’t allow for sorting and filtering, etc. I do hope Firefox will come around and upgrade those issues without forcing the user to have to install additional software or sign-up to yet another website to have basic RSS feed functions available. Otherwise, yes, Firefox outclasses IE by far.

By: Brian Herzog

Brian Herzog — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:04:07 +0000

@MJ: no, I haven't seen anything like that. Public Web Browser does use an ini file that make it easy to manage multiple installations, but I haven't seen (or looked for) anything similar for Firefox. What we use to build our computers is the ghost software from Symantec. The library's IT person and I made one computer the way we wanted it, and they cloned out that image to the rest of our PC's. For the most part, it worked okay, but we (well, she) went through some trial and error before everything worked properly. For instance, she was able to install and the Firefox plug-ins on the master, but had to turn them on after a PC was cloned for them to work right. We also learned that she had to install Deep Freeze, our timer software, and our pay-for-print software on each individual PC after the cloning, too. And we're still experimenting.

By: MJ

MJ — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:59:28 +0000

Thanks for the tips. I’m going to try them at my library, but I wondered if anyone knows of a tool to redistribute the Firefox installation to all the other computers once everything is installed and configured? It would be easier than doing all those steps listed above on every PC.

By: Open Sesame » Blog Archive » Firefox on Public Computers

Open Sesame » Blog Archive » Firefox on Public Computers — Fri, 23 May 2008 23:42:06 +0000

[...] Brian Herzog writes an interesting piece about how his library switched the browser on their public computers to Firefox. My library is in the process of re-doing all of our public computers. One major change we’re making is to switch to Firefox for our web browser, instead of the Internet Explorer/Public Web Browser combo we’ve always used. [...]

By: FIKSZ :: K2 Webzine » Archív » Firefox (újra) a könyvtárban

FIKSZ :: K2 Webzine » Archív » Firefox (újra) a könyvtárban — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:43:27 +0000

[...] eredeti bejegyzésben Brian Herzog ajánl beállításokat és kiterjesztéseket, hogy a legnépszerűbb alternatív [...]

By: Phil Shirley

Phil Shirley — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:04:01 +0000

Thanks for the awesome post. Disabling mailto links is good, but I wonder if there’s an even better way to deal with them. I dream of having a program or script as the default mail client that, when you click on a mailto link, would open and give useful info about the link (the “to” and even sometimes subject line in the link) plus explain what to do, perhaps even with links to some popular mail sites.

By: mlibrarianus

mlibrarianus — Wed, 21 May 2008 12:16:34 +0000

Here, here! Congrats on going with Firefox. You will not regret it.

We’ve been using Firefox exclusively as the browser on our PACs for about 3-4 years. We’ve run into a few sites that unfortunately didn’t work correctly in Firefox because the web designer (use that term loosely if you are stupid enough to not adhere to standards) made the site for IE only. Interesting thing is almost every site we’ve contacted and explained the problem to(also talked about web standards and how if you adhere to them your site can be used in ANY browser) changed their code to meet standards. Next step is to move to Linux so you don’t have to deal with all the Windows updates, problems, bugs, viruses, and issues.

By: Using firefox to improve customer satisfaction « Sno-Isle ILS Project

Using firefox to improve customer satisfaction « Sno-Isle ILS Project — Wed, 21 May 2008 05:42:59 +0000

[...] on May 20, 2008 by Jim McCluskey Brian Herzog has an interesting post on how his library is replacing Internet Explorer with Firefox because it allows them to improve the browsing experience for patrons by allowing a number of [...]

By: cybergrunt

cybergrunt — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:24:24 +0000

Really good to see you’re making the move to Firefox. I’ve been using it in my academic library for about 4 years now and it is the default browser.

I don’t use any freezing type program. I lock down our public computers (all 400+ of them) via a combination of cloning, using mandatory profiles and group policy which I find is a lot easier and cheaper than shelling out for extra applications.

Good luck with Firefox, I have very few problems with it.

:librarykaos: [http://librarykaos.blogspot.com]

By: The Browser War « The Geeky Librarian

The Browser War « The Geeky Librarian — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:41:52 +0000

[...] more people bothered by that?) I just hate the thing. Which is why I was so happy to see Brian Herzog’s write up on his library’s total migration to Firefox. And they get bonus points from me for [...]