Internet Explore/Edge and network admins
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I have asked them and usually get the same bogus answer of Group policy or we aren't ready for it. All of the intranet apps work with chrome. I built them.
Group pollicy sounds right for lazy admins. To manage Chrome or Firefox or etc they'd need to use a different tool. As an MS product they can fiddle with all of IE/Edge's settings using the same tools that they use to fiddle with the OS itself.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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Why is it that most network admins are so in love with IE/edge browsers? Every place I have ever worked the network admin was against using chrome as the default browser. Just wondering if anyone out there knew why this is? Because I can't figure out why.
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I have asked them and usually get the same bogus answer of Group policy or we aren't ready for it. All of the intranet apps work with chrome. I built them.
Configuring Google Chrome via Group Policy | Jack Stromberg[^] But I guess expecting them to type "chrome group policy" into Google would be too much like hard work! :laugh:
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
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Why is it that most network admins are so in love with IE/edge browsers? Every place I have ever worked the network admin was against using chrome as the default browser. Just wondering if anyone out there knew why this is? Because I can't figure out why.
Not just net admins. I've been using IE since Netscape became irrelevant, and have seen no compelling reason to switch in the decade and a half (?) since. It's honestly as simple as that, at least in my case. I'm not a web developer, so I don't have the deep-seated hatred.
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I have asked them and usually get the same bogus answer of Group policy or we aren't ready for it. All of the intranet apps work with chrome. I built them.
ie/edge does everything required - admin's not being lazy, they are being smart, and avoiding being called out for complaints resulting from choices made to satisfy a few tech heads. It's not just about what you like for yourself, it's about what is a good, smart and well functioning choice for everybody in the entire company. Chrome is a poor if not the worst choice, fine for those on new equipment, but being such a cpu/memory hog would cause problems for those on older equipment. No sane admin should endorse chrome unless they are sure no equipment in the entire company is more than 2 years old (and their network can handle the entire org checking/downloading updates every 10 minutes.) Finally if it's a work machine, why load it with toys?
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Not just net admins. I've been using IE since Netscape became irrelevant, and have seen no compelling reason to switch in the decade and a half (?) since. It's honestly as simple as that, at least in my case. I'm not a web developer, so I don't have the deep-seated hatred.
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Why is it that most network admins are so in love with IE/edge browsers? Every place I have ever worked the network admin was against using chrome as the default browser. Just wondering if anyone out there knew why this is? Because I can't figure out why.
I can imagine a few reasons. Maybe the truth is a combination of these: 1. IE is available on all PCs and typically preinstalled, requiring no additional work. 2. It's auto-updated with Windows Update, requiring no additional maintenance effort 3. Companies often have some industry-level contract with M$ to support theit Windows, Office, and other M$ products installments. Therefore, even if unexpected problems turn up, they can rely on M$ support, and that of course includes IE. 4. Since more than 20 years, all web developers make sure to be compatible with IE. Unfortunately, even today, the same is not true for any other browser - possibly including Edge. 5. In large companies or holdings consisting of many individual subsidiaries, it's easiest to implement web-based services on IE. Of course you could throw more money at it to make those same services run with Firefox or Chrome, but why would they, when the alternative - to make IE mandatory - costs nothing at all? 6. At the management level deciding on such things, knowledge of browser alternatives is often ... incomplete. Rather than risk a switch for unknown benefits at an unknown cost, they stick with what they know 'just works'. I've had a lot of contact with IT over these and similar topics, and I've come to believe that the first three are the main reasons. The others could be overcome, if you can convince management that it would be more secure or cost-effective to switch to another browser. There's also another, newer reason: most modern browsers, except IE, have stopped supporting NPAPI, and that means Java, ActiveX, and Silverlight (among other things). Edge does not support plugins either (except Flash), and - since version 52.0 - Firefox doesn't either, although Firefox ESR is going to hold out for another year or so. That leaves IE 11 as the only browser fully supporting plugins without a known deadline. Companies relying on Java et al to implement their internal services would need to make a major investment if switching to another browser. Of course, sooner or later, support for IE 11 will run out and they'll need to find another solution anyway.
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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Why is it that most network admins are so in love with IE/edge browsers? Every place I have ever worked the network admin was against using chrome as the default browser. Just wondering if anyone out there knew why this is? Because I can't figure out why.
Most places I've worked at least the the devs and certain others have always been allowed their browser of choice.
Immanentize the Eschaton!
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Why is it that most network admins are so in love with IE/edge browsers? Every place I have ever worked the network admin was against using chrome as the default browser. Just wondering if anyone out there knew why this is? Because I can't figure out why.
One word: Managebility. IE/Edge can be configured via a wide set of group policies, Chrome can't.
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Not just net admins. I've been using IE since Netscape became irrelevant, and have seen no compelling reason to switch in the decade and a half (?) since. It's honestly as simple as that, at least in my case. I'm not a web developer, so I don't have the deep-seated hatred.
dandy72 wrote:
no compelling reason to switch
Here's a few: Broken Browser – Fun with Browser Vulnerabilities[^] And yes, I know other browsers have vulnerabilities too. But some of the IE/Edge vulnerabilities that Manuel has found seem ridiculously simple once you see them.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
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I can imagine a few reasons. Maybe the truth is a combination of these: 1. IE is available on all PCs and typically preinstalled, requiring no additional work. 2. It's auto-updated with Windows Update, requiring no additional maintenance effort 3. Companies often have some industry-level contract with M$ to support theit Windows, Office, and other M$ products installments. Therefore, even if unexpected problems turn up, they can rely on M$ support, and that of course includes IE. 4. Since more than 20 years, all web developers make sure to be compatible with IE. Unfortunately, even today, the same is not true for any other browser - possibly including Edge. 5. In large companies or holdings consisting of many individual subsidiaries, it's easiest to implement web-based services on IE. Of course you could throw more money at it to make those same services run with Firefox or Chrome, but why would they, when the alternative - to make IE mandatory - costs nothing at all? 6. At the management level deciding on such things, knowledge of browser alternatives is often ... incomplete. Rather than risk a switch for unknown benefits at an unknown cost, they stick with what they know 'just works'. I've had a lot of contact with IT over these and similar topics, and I've come to believe that the first three are the main reasons. The others could be overcome, if you can convince management that it would be more secure or cost-effective to switch to another browser. There's also another, newer reason: most modern browsers, except IE, have stopped supporting NPAPI, and that means Java, ActiveX, and Silverlight (among other things). Edge does not support plugins either (except Flash), and - since version 52.0 - Firefox doesn't either, although Firefox ESR is going to hold out for another year or so. That leaves IE 11 as the only browser fully supporting plugins without a known deadline. Companies relying on Java et al to implement their internal services would need to make a major investment if switching to another browser. Of course, sooner or later, support for IE 11 will run out and they'll need to find another solution anyway.
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
Stefan_Lang wrote:
... Java, ActiveX, ...
No browser except IE has ever supported ActiveX. And that's a good thing. Who in their right mind wants to download and run an unrestricted executable from a random website? :~ Java in the browser isn't much better; just look at the long list of security vulnerabilities. But at least it had some semblance of a "sandbox" to try to protect your computer from malicious code.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
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One word: Managebility. IE/Edge can be configured via a wide set of group policies, Chrome can't.
Kirill Illenseer wrote:
Chrome can't
Are you sure about that? Configuring Google Chrome via Group Policy | Jack Stromberg[^]
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
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dandy72 wrote:
no compelling reason to switch
Here's a few: Broken Browser – Fun with Browser Vulnerabilities[^] And yes, I know other browsers have vulnerabilities too. But some of the IE/Edge vulnerabilities that Manuel has found seem ridiculously simple once you see them.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
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Why is it that most network admins are so in love with IE/edge browsers? Every place I have ever worked the network admin was against using chrome as the default browser. Just wondering if anyone out there knew why this is? Because I can't figure out why.
Actually, at our fairly large company, our default browser is Chrome. But we use Google Docs and Gmail for our corporate email solution. There are still some corporate websites that we have to use IE on though for their Silverlight and older ASP compatibility.
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Why is it that most network admins are so in love with IE/edge browsers? Every place I have ever worked the network admin was against using chrome as the default browser. Just wondering if anyone out there knew why this is? Because I can't figure out why.
We allow multiple browsers, but one enterprise app will only print via IE (not our fault).
My apologies for the previous sig block. It's been ages since I posted anything on here.
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ie/edge does everything required - admin's not being lazy, they are being smart, and avoiding being called out for complaints resulting from choices made to satisfy a few tech heads. It's not just about what you like for yourself, it's about what is a good, smart and well functioning choice for everybody in the entire company. Chrome is a poor if not the worst choice, fine for those on new equipment, but being such a cpu/memory hog would cause problems for those on older equipment. No sane admin should endorse chrome unless they are sure no equipment in the entire company is more than 2 years old (and their network can handle the entire org checking/downloading updates every 10 minutes.) Finally if it's a work machine, why load it with toys?
Anyone who's ever been stuck with a dev machine with less than 4GB of RAM in the last couple of years or just stuck with a magnetic hard disk more recently will appreciate that point. If I have to use a low spec machine for a while I'm just happy if I can convince someone to let me have Cygwin and Sublime. At the end of the day a browser is a browser. It's either compliant with the standards you need or it's not, and for the last couple of years as near as I can tell - IE isn't the least compliant browser around.
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Kirill Illenseer wrote:
Chrome can't
Are you sure about that? Configuring Google Chrome via Group Policy | Jack Stromberg[^]
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
If you don't Google it then you can confidently say it can't...
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ie/edge does everything required - admin's not being lazy, they are being smart, and avoiding being called out for complaints resulting from choices made to satisfy a few tech heads. It's not just about what you like for yourself, it's about what is a good, smart and well functioning choice for everybody in the entire company. Chrome is a poor if not the worst choice, fine for those on new equipment, but being such a cpu/memory hog would cause problems for those on older equipment. No sane admin should endorse chrome unless they are sure no equipment in the entire company is more than 2 years old (and their network can handle the entire org checking/downloading updates every 10 minutes.) Finally if it's a work machine, why load it with toys?
I vaguely recall reading the chrome interferes with MS anti virus. Is this still true?
We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.
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Most places I've worked at least the the devs and certain others have always been allowed their browser of choice.
Immanentize the Eschaton!
For web devs there must be a whole raft of browsers for testing.
We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.
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For web devs there must be a whole raft of browsers for testing.
We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.
Yes, obviously, but what I meant was we had no constraint as to what to use as our normal, non-dev, inter and intra -net browsers.
Immanentize the Eschaton!
