On Sunday 12 November 2006 22:42, Alasdair Ross wrote:
> 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-
Taken from the aforementioned web site
"While the source code from the Mozilla project is free software, the binaries
that they release include additional non-free software"
So GNU will take out these binaries give it a new name then release it and
then 90%+ of user will download the binaries for this non free software and
install them back in again. I seem to remember an option in the debian
installer asking the question about do you want to use non-free software?
can't they just offer the same, "Do you want to install firefox and its non
free software yes\no" I don't use debian for its ethical stance on gnu free
software, I use it because its reliable and the update date system (apt)
sorts out 99% of the dependances problems.
Yes I could leave debian and go for a debian derivative, but I have tried a
couple of them and don't like them.
At the moment there are to many version of the same program in the linux
world, the last thing the forward march of linux progress need is another
firefox clone by another name.
Tim
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