A shared workstation inventory should describe the work people need to keep doing, not merely list installed software. Looking back at March 19, 2017, Firefox 52 offered a concrete reason to record those dependencies: Mozilla had removed support for NPAPI plugins apart from Flash, including Silverlight, Java and Acrobat. Our proposed inventory starts with one row per essential task, naming the machine and any plugin it relies on. An unknown dependency belongs in that row as unknown, not as an assumed upgrade clearance. [firefox52]

Add the operating system and Firefox release track alongside each task. Mozilla reported moving Windows XP and Vista users to Firefox’s extended support release, or ESR. For Linux, it specified PulseAudio for sound playback instead of direct ALSA playback. These are different entries to resolve: the browser track on an older Windows machine and the audio prerequisite on a Linux machine. Neither entry, by itself, establishes that a particular workplace application will function. [firefox52]

Meeting work deserves its own unresolved row. Google’s March 9 announcement described Meet joining through a shared link without accounts, plugins or downloads. Record that as Google’s joining proposition, separately from Mozilla’s browser changes. It is not evidence that Meet replaces a legacy plugin-dependent task or runs on the workstation being inventoried. Google also announced general availability with rollout across G Suite customers over the following weeks; that announcement does not establish local access by March 19. [hangouts][firefox52]

For that meeting row, our recommendation is to assign a named person to establish the supported route for the recorded browser and operating system before anyone relies on it. Keep distinct spaces for the existing dependency, the relevant browser prerequisite, the announced joining proposition and the evidence still needed. Leave compatibility and local availability unresolved until verified. This is a proposed continuity inventory, not a completed test record: the two issuers’ descriptions do not supply a Firefox 52–Meet support matrix or a successful workstation trial. [firefox52][hangouts]

Source documents

  1. Firefox 52.0 release noteshttps://www.firefox.com/en-US/firefox/52.0/releasenotes/?redirect_source=mozilla-org
  2. Meet the new enterprise-focused Hangoutshttps://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/workspace/meet-the-new-enterprise-focused-hangouts/