We have a network where, due to a SaaS piece that is used to manage the school, we cannot allow Firefox to update until the SaaS piece notifies us that they support the newest version.
This mean that, unfortunately, we have had to block Firefox updates until we get that notification, at which point we unblock them, update everyone, etc.
What I was wondering is if there is any way to have Firefox check an updates.xml file on out servers instead of Mozilla's, and only go get the updates that we have cleared.
I know that, obviously, this won't stop a user from downloading the latest version if they want to, but that isn't a concern here...it just that, every time the "Please Update Your Firefox" message pops up because Mozilla is wanting to push an update.;..we get a bunch of service requests, because people try to update and it fails. Any ideas?
You can disable the autoupdate behavior in firefox.js and push it to all of the clients. The problem with this is that firefox.js syntax changes occasionally. If you have mixed versions this isn't the right way to go. If you do go this route, it's easy enough to push out approved versions via GPO/startup script/etc.
You might want to look at frontmotion.com. They take the official firefox installer, wrap it in an MSI and do some modifications that are enterprise friendly, like disable the autoupdater, keep it from becoming the default browser, etc. Since it's an MSI, you can make an administrative install point and modify firefox.js before you even deploy the software. It even installed very smoothly via GPO/SCCM.