As I understand it (and I may well be wrong), IceWeasel *is*
Firefox....just without the branding. The problem lies with the fact that
the logo/name is not free in the GNU sense. Therefore Debian have decided
to provide a truly free version for their distribution. I believe the code
is the same but the branding has just been removed/replaced.
I agree to some extent with your comment related to web designers and the
many differences between distributions, however it is more the number of
browsers that would cause problems rather than distributions themselves. Do
all Mozilla browsers not use the same Gecko engine though? If so then I
guess this begins to alleviate some of the issues.
-Alasdair-
On 11/12/06, Tim <xendistar@???> wrote:
>
>
> I was looking through google a google search looking for something when I
> came
> across Iceweasel. For those not in the know this is the *GNU version of
> Firefox. Basicly Firefox come with some non-free software that does not
> conform to GNU. Debian etch will be getting Iceweasel 1.5.* (which is
> based
> on Firefox 1.5.*) sometime in December and not Firefox ver 2.0
>
> Surely linux is becoming the car sales lot of operating system, there
> enough
> distro and distro version of application software out there to confuse a
> geek
> (as the car sales lot confuses the car buyer). At least with windows you
> have
> a flat playing field (you several playing fields, 98, me, 2000, XP, 2003,
> Vista etc.), if you design a web app for windows IE you have a good chance
> that it will work on all versions of windows. Can you say the same for the
> various different distro of linux and all their idyosynchrocies(sp) I
> think
> by going down the Iceweasel route is just going to confuse the issue
> further.
> How many of us use purley true GNU software, I think the percentage is
> going
> to be small quite small.
>
> Firefox was the first Linux browser that really matched MS IE so why shoot
> yourself in the foot and build your own copy of it, its not going to be a
> development gain, its going to be an ethical choice
>
> Have fun discussing
>
> Tim
>
> *http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/
> Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
>
>
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