MatthewHSE - 3:30 pm on Nov 11, 2004 (gmt 0)

If Dell and the other big-box'ers bundled FireFox on the machines they sell, they wouldn't need to uninstall IE. Just remove the shortcuts and label the FireFox shortcuts something like "Go Online with FireFox" or even just "The Internet."

I know many non-tech people who have switched to FireFox (or Mozilla) and wouldn't consider going back to IE. They get hooked on the features. So even if Dell began installing FireFox and leaving IE shortcuts, I believe FireFox would still rapidly pick up users (particularly FireFox was preconfigured with a few non-default options and extensions).

I agree that privacy and security will never be big reasons for most people to switch to FireFox. On the downside, I just mentioned that I know some non-tech users who switched to FireFox for its features . . . well, I also know the IT guy for a medium-sized corporation, who had tried FireFox, liked the features, but went back to IE because that's what everyone else on his network used. He had no clue about the security issues involved - and he's the one entrusted with the entire security of the company.