Firefox vs. IceWeasel; open source is still the winner, or is it??
I just came across this post, which claims that the recent fork of Firefox, by GNU and Debian can only be a good thing because, people who dont like Firefox can go over to IceWeazel!
I dont agree with this, and I think IceWeazel is indeed a bad thing for Open Source, because
1, IceWeazel, as it stands is basically Firefox+security patches+Debian customization, so to claim that people who are fed up with Firefox, will go over to IceWeazel, they won't because IceWeazel IS Firefox.
2, It sets a bad precedent! It basically means that you can fork any project, which actually is doing well, for purely political reasons! The solution to the dispute is NOT to create a new project, and fork firefox with a new logo. Rather I think what should happen, is that Linux Distributions should modify Firefox, only so as to customize it to to their needs, but not carry out any development on it or apply security patches or any other patches which modify the functionality of Firefox. If such patches are applied they should be applied to the main source tree aswell, so that Firefox and all its distribution specific derivatives have all the same functionality. Mozilla should allow distributions to use the Firefox name without the official branding, given that they meet some certain quality requirements, to prevent sub-standard forks in hurting Firefox's reputation.
With this ongoing saga, I can only praise Sun Microsystem, for not open sourcing Java. The main advantage of Java is platform-independance, and this is only maintained by having a single JVM specification, and a single vision to drive it forward. Had Java been open source, some group of developers would have said "Java's too slow, lets create a new version FastJava, which takes less RAM, and add some other features to the language", then another group of developers might say "Java's API is too big, lets create a new java version which has a simple API, and hence will be simpler to develop with, JoeJava" etc...
At the end there will be so many different, mutually incompatible Java versions, that the language will be potentially useless.
3, Open source developers dont come in unlimited quantities! Debian and GNU are basically creating more work for the community. Instead of forking existing projects, which are doing well, GNU should be encouraging deploying open source developers to contribute to projects which really need attention, and can have a big impact like open source Flash implementation, GNU Classpath and GNU compiler for Java, DOTGnu etc.
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October 17th, 2006 - 02:34
i think the open source community should just shut the fuck up and code; who really gives a fuck; none of these products are really that good…and with all the BS in-fighting over nothing; what good is it anyway?
November 23rd, 2006 - 20:16
The whole Firefox logo thing isn’t an open-source issue, it’s more of a Debain issue. The problem is that Debian believes that EVERYTHING should be free and re-distributable, which is not a bad thing, but it’s a little too far with the Firefox logo.
Sun did release Java under the GPL, making it open source, but I believe the effect will be the opposite. What this will allow is a stable platform to code on. The one issue with Linux is that because it’s open source, a lot of programming languages are used which can create issues for people who wish to code or fix bugs. Having Java as a centralized platform is a good thing. I don’t see any reason to create a fork of it, which would be hard to do.
January 10th, 2007 - 18:57
true!
January 25th, 2007 - 11:21
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August 7th, 2007 - 17:34
“If such patches are applied they should be applied to the main source tree aswell, so that Firefox and all its distribution specific derivatives have all the same functionality.”
Yeah, unfortunately, Mozilla didn’t play along with that idea. The problem here lies with Mozilla/Firefox, not with Debian/IceWeasel. Don’t put the blame on IceWeasel.
Also, while you’re probably right about Sun OpenSourcing Java, you can’t really compare it to the situation. Web browsers and programming languages are very different things. Different web browsers don’t absolutely require the level of standardization as programming languages do, so don’t make it sound so horrible if someone wants to create a branch of a product and make it better. That’s the spirit of Open Source, and does not deserve to be criticized.
September 19th, 2007 - 16:08
You havn’t understood Debian. Debian is about free software and a *stable* OS. Firefox introduces new features alongside security fixes; Debian values stability. Therefore the Debian developers don’t fix security issues by upgrading, but by backporting. Mozilla’s licenze does not allow this along with the logos, therfore the fork.
It is good that there are a few people around who care about principles and stand firm to theirs!
September 30th, 2007 - 14:37
Actually, debian referred with the Mozilla.org team on this and it is the Mozilla.org team which refused to let debian use the firefox logo and name.
Please actually read the available information on the subject before posting negative blogs and comments about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_conflict_between_Debian_and_Mozilla