Microsoft hits back at Firefox business snub

Microsoft has waded into the latest

Firefox debate, saying its Internet Explorer browser is focused on both business users and consumers, rather than one or the other.

Last week, Mozilla courted controversy, after Firefox product manager Asa Dotzler stated the company was more interested in consumers' needs.

We believe that all Windows customers should have a great browsing experience, whether they stay at home, go to school, or work in a large organisation with managed IT resources.

"It's about and not or," said the headline on Microsoft's IEBlog where Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president for the Internet Explorer team at Microsoft, made a post offering an alternative viewpoint to Mozilla's consumer focus.'

"We believe that all Windows customers should have a great browsing experience, whether they stay at home, go to school, or work in a large organisation with managed IT resources. Because all these groups of Windows customers are important to Microsoft," he said.

The circumstances seem ideal from a marketing perspective, although it should be noted Asa Doztler, the Mozilla manager who lit the touchpaper on consultant Mike Kaply's blog, actually spoke favourably of Internet Explorer in his posts.

"IE9 is a fine browser and probably better suited to those who want long-term support," he said.

"It'll always be behind the consumer browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera) but it does offer enterprises a more conservative and slow-moving option."

Hachamovitch was less flattering of the opposition and described Mozilla's outlook as "the tyranny of OR".

"We ship updates to five versions of IE across seven operating systems with 14 Service Pack variations to customers in 96 languages worldwide every eight weeks," he boasted.

"We do this because it's what many customers need to fulfill their missions, safely, reliably, and in compliance with the requirements they have."