Greasemonkey Primes Firefox For Embarrassment
Forrester Research is warning IT departments of Greasemonkey … oh boy,
granted, Javascript extensions can be harmful … but the cat is out of the bag already, as eager (may I say power) users have downloaded FF and the most clever ones have also detected Greasemonkey and its benefits …
[they started] using it to streamline the way they browse. But IT managers beware: Greasemonkey will cause you nothing but headaches, and may even be a good reason to delay that Firefox pilot you’re planning.
Sticking with IE can’t be an alternative, no? IE’s many vulnerabilities should it make a no-no in any corporate environment. To me, it would rather make sense to implement trusted (intra-company) sources of Greasemonkey-Extension-Code that augment the Firefox browsers of corporate users …
What a freaking ma’roon!
So typical of most IT departments, IT managers, IT employees, and IT pundits, as well.
No one who knows much of anything should be surprised.
I can’t believe they’re actually charging $49 to read the so-called “report”.
What a ripoff!
I wasted time I’ll never get back just reading the first part.
They all deserve what they get.
Ah, yes. “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” Well, Chicken Little was wrong then, and is wrong now. But it shouldn’t be a surprise: we dont expect brains in a chicken.
Speaking as an IT guy who would *love* to get his shop switched to Firefox, I have no problem at all with Greasemonkey. Most users anywhere are non-technical. The vast majority of Firefox users have never heard of Greasemonkey. Of those who have, a majority of those will not have the skills to create thier own user scripts.
Given the choice between dealing with spyware and trojan infections via IE (which I just had to do), or possible rogue user scripts via Greasemonkey in Firefox, the decision requires even less brains than Chicken Little has — Firefox all the way.
i think forrester is mostly concerned about the “activex” aspects of greasemonkey. if this gets wide adoption, it would be VERY easy to write a big ole piece of spyware, malware, or worse and have it be undetectable unless the user installing it knows javascript.
i could see why forrester is scared. altho i do love greasemonkey. 🙂