Nearly half a million IBM employees get Firefox as their default browser

Like it or not, Internet Explorer is still the browser to beat in terms of market share -- and that's especially true in enterprise settings. One major corporation, however, has just announced a network-wide jump to an alternative browser.

IBM's Bob Sutor has big news to share: Big Blue is making Firefox its default Web browser. According to CNet's Stephen Shankland, that means Mozilla's browser will become the de facto for about 400,000 employees. With Firefox's user base hovering around 400 million, that puts IBM staff at .1% of the total -- which seems small, but is still pretty impressive.

Sutor makes some glowing remarks about Firefox in his post: "While other browsers have come and gone, Firefox is now the gold standard for what an open, secure, and standards-compliant browser should be." He also cites a handful of key reasons for its adoption:

• Firefox is stunningly standards compliant, and interoperability via open standards is key to IBM's strategy.
• Firefox is open source and its development schedule is managed by a development community not beholden to one commercial entity.
• Firefox is secure and an international community of experts continues to develop and maintain it.
• Firefox is extensible and can be customized for particular applications and organizations, like IBM.
• Firefox is innovative and has forced the hand of browsers that came before and after it to add and improve speed and function.

Will IBM start a trend? They're certainly an influential company, and one which a lot of other companies -- tech and otherwise -- look to for advice and guidance. IBM's browser action speaks loudly, and there's every chance their example will be followed.

Tags: browser, default, enterprise, firefox, ibm, stats