Can Firefox replace IE as the corporate browser?
Biggest obstacle that Firefox faces in becoming number one browser is
its ability to woo IT managers to adopt Firefox as the default
corporate browser or at least convince them to officially deploy within
their organization.
However aggressive adoption of HTML 5 and
CSS 3 by Firefox and not so by IE might help Firefox to overcome this
last big obstacle, HTML 5 represents the biggest leap forward in HTML
standard especially when you consider that the last major update was
HTML 4.01 completed in 1999, current proposal of HTML 5 standard will
make browser based application a full-fledged application platform.
Microsoft’s
hard line stand on HTML 5 standards (we are not going to support it
until it becomes standard) and their history of ignoring standards (it
took 7-8 years for IE to finally catch up with HTML 4 and CSS 2.1)
might prove as the beginning of the end of IE dominance as corporate browser.
JavaScript
performance is also going to play big role in future corporate browser
selection, rich JavaScript based web application which works perfectly
in Firefox are sometime unusable slow in IE because of poor JavaScript
performance. Following chart shows browser script performance
comparison.
(Browser comparison shamelessly copied from IE blog )
Following
are the game changing proposals in HTML 5 which might make web based
application as preferred line of business application development
platform .
- Canvas API. Gives ability to draw graphics on browser without using plug-in, imagine drawing dynamic animated charts in your application without using Flash or Silverlight. Partial support of canvas is already available in most of the browser except IE.
- New input types. Around dozen new input types including date, color, number, time and combo box will make line of business application development easier.
- Localized databases. Ability to store data locally to support offline usage of application.
- Web Workers. Provides a standard way for browser to run JavaScript in background to make lengthy network request or access local storage while main web page responds to user typing clicking or scrolling.