[ed-tech] [Fwd: Web Browsers at MIT - support and recommendations in FY2005]

[Jean Foster]

FYI:
-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Theresa M Regan <tregan at MIT.EDU>
To: Administrative Community <aac-aoquery at MIT.EDU>, IT-Partners
<itpartners at MIT.EDU>, it-lead at MIT.EDU
Cc: Information Services and Technology <is&t at MIT.EDU>
Subject: Web Browsers at MIT - support and recommendations in FY2005
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 06:14:12 -0400

Date:  May 12th, 2004

To:       Members of the MIT Community

From:  Information Services and Technology

Subj:   Web Browsers at MIT
            Support and Recommendations for FY 2005

---------------

The following is a Community-wide announcement.  The information
conveyed in this announcement was discussed and endorsed at a recent
"browser summit" meeting and reviewed by many colleagues who support
and/or maintain MIT websites.  We believe, the decision to recommend the
natively available browser by computing platform aligns with the
Community's needs and lessens the burden on software release efforts and
desktop maintenance during the upcoming fiscal year.

Information Services and Technology, IS&T, recognizes the continued
reliance on web browsers to deliver critical information and timely
services, and that vendor support for web browsers by computing platform
varies greatly. Criteria for selecting the best suited web browser by
computing platform include:  support for x.509 certificates, robustness,
stability, ease of use, trends in customer preference, and endorsement
from the key web site providers within our Community.  It is essential
that we consult all of the key web masters and maintainers across campus
before any strategy in this communication is implemented; so, that they
have adequate time to provide any crucial feedback.

The immediate consequence of our collective decision is IS&T will focus
its support of the Netscape web browser to the most recent MIT supported
version, 7.02, and retire Netscape 6.2.3, as well as, strengthen its
recommendation and support for Internet Explorer under Windows, Safari
under Macintosh and Mozilla under Linux.

We are sharing this information now in anticipation of the upcoming MIT
x.509 certificate renewal process.  We encourage you to consider web
browser support within your department and anticipate software upgrades
prior to June 2004.

Should your current web browser of choice be Netscape, then the
following options are available to you:

     -- Windows' users:  Internet Explorer, IE 6 SP1 or later, is the
recommended and supported web browser for the upcoming fiscal year. It
is important that the web browser version be current with the operating
system and all critical web browser patches be current. Should you
prefer to remain with Netscape, the recommended version is Netscape
7.02.

     -- Macintosh users:  Safari v 1.2.x (x.509 personal certificate
support), Apple's developed and maintained web browser for MacOS X
(10.3.3 or later) is currently under evaluation.  We anticipate a
support announcement by mid-May.  Should you prefer to remain with
Netscape, the recommended version is Netscape 7.02.

  -- Linux users:  Mozilla 1.6 is the current version available in the
Athena Linux and Solaris environments and is recommended for stand alone
Linux and Solaris installations.

We hope that providing this information and recommendations now will
allow our colleagues to plan accordingly.  We remain confident that
these web browser recommendations are adequate for the upcoming year and
lessen the burden on software release efforts and desktop maintenance.
Please feel free to share this announcement with colleagues who may be
interested and should you have any pressing questions or concerns,
please feel free to contact Software Release team at <swrt at mit.edu> or
me.
-- 
-------------------------------------
Jean Foster
MIT Academic Computing
617.253.3909, jfoster at mit.edu, N42-040F