Schools, Colleges, and Universities

Firefox (and possibly Thunderbird) need to target educational institutions, in my opinion. Here's why:

• The 'students' age group are likely to have control over what goes on the home computer. If they use and like Firefox at college, it is likely they'll download it for home use. Also, the size of educational institutions justifies targeting them.
• I've heard one girl say she doesn't like Firefox, without giving a reason when I asked. The only reason I can think of why she thinks this, is that she's so used to IE. Using FF at college would solve this
• The customisability of Firefox, both themes and extensions, are more likely to appeal to a younger market, rather than older people who may not appreciate, as much, just how cool Firefox is.
• Firefox is just amazing.

However in my area, Firefox is hardly used in colleges, which is a shame. These are potential reasons, in my opinion, why it isn't used

• Network Technician laziness: Internet Explorer comes with Windows, so the technician can't be bothered, or can't see the point of upgrading to Firefox. He may not realise the demand, if there is any.
• Internet Explorer does the job. It may not do it as well as FF, but it works. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I don't think we are going to get anywhere by asking Network Technicians to install software. In my experience, they can get stubborn and take the "it's my network" attitude. Therefore, I'm quite stuck on how we can target this sector. I looked at how IE overtook NN, and as far as I can see, all MS really did was intergrate it with Windows. Here are a few ideas on how we can get FF running in most colleges

• Target Portable Firefox specifically at students. The whole "fed up of IE" approach should encourage them to attempt to run pFF on a college workstation. The network, however, may block it, and it may have little success rate. On the other hand, if enough people do it, technicians may install it to stop students running apps off their USB sticks.
• Release an official "Firefox for Education" build. This could have special features geared towards college/uni, like some sort of integration with Wikipedia/Google Scholars, and programs like MS Office, OpenOffice and Lotus Symphony. A build could be geared towards web developers (such as the ability to parse PHP code), which would appeal towards computing students.