Browser Wars!
I normally don’t weigh in on the browser wars, as each browser has its own place. For instance, there simply is no replacement for Microsoft Internet Explorer if you want near 100% compatibility with every site in the world.
Obviously, each alternate browser has a strong point, such as speed, or installation size, or security, but each browser also has downsides that sometimes keep people, especially administrators from adopting something other than IE.
One such downside is that in many cases, for an administrator to deploy an alternative browser such as Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome, they have been forced to install at each machine, and for each user of that machine, or employ little “tricks”. Once installed, they then have an update and management issue where they don’t know why Bob’s browser doesn’t have the same extensions as Mary’s browser without checking it out (remotely or physically visiting the machine generally because it is faster than actually talking to Bob) to resolve the situation.
Recently Google has created a new installer designed for enterprise use. It allows a system administrator to utilize active directory in a Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 corporate domain to push the browser out to PCs (Windows XP Professional, Windows 7 Pro), control which extensions are used, lock down a proxy server, insure all installations are up to date, etc. Policies control many factors (the list can be found here).
If you would like to check out Google Chrome, it can be downloaded from http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?msi=true
Google Chrome may not be able to replace all aspects of IE, however, from the looks of it, it would appear that they are trying.
Should you need more information about the security or features of this browser, or how you can implement it site-wide at your organization, you can call upon us at 864.990.4748 in Greenville / Upstate SC, or email info@homelandsecureit.com