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It’s time to give Firefox another chance

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Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#431

Post by tzs »

eslaught wrote: post #374
nine_k wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think KHTML, as a part of KDE, was open from the start?

Sure it was, but how much additional effort did Apple put into the code base by way of WebKit? Apple didn't need to open source that work, even if the original was open source, and I'm sure the leg up made a big time-to-market difference for Chrome. Edit: Actually, KHTML is licensed LGPL, and that's a viral license if you make a derivative work. So I suppose Apple was forced to open source their changes when it final…

> Edit: Actually, KHTML is licensed LGPL, and that's a viral license if you make a derivative work. So I suppose Apple was forced to open source their changes when it finally went to market.

When LGPL code is linked with non-free code and the resulting work is distributed LGPL only requires that the changes to the LGPL code be open and that the object files for the non-free code are provided so that users can exercise their LGPL rights with regard to the LGPL portion of the work.

Apple could have separated out much of their work into separate files that contained no non-Apple code and that dynamically linked with the KHTML LGPL code and they could have kept those files closed. They would only have had to open the changes to the LGPL code.

If we accept the terminology that GPL is a viral license then LGPL is more of an immune system than a virus.

Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#432

Post by rowyourboat »

ricw wrote: post #259
agumonkey wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of work, the extent for how long they've been doing so, all relative to the funding they got.. it's even painful to think about. Chrome shadowed them overnight, had Google infinite wallet and started from scratch. Mozilla became the old slug.. Since then they got Rust off ground, servo yielding good fruits, firefox cool n quiet. Once again kudos.

That is not representative of either the time frame or the resources available to Mozilla. Mozilla has had Hundreds of millions of annual income through their search associations [1]. It’s surprising how they’ve wasted that amount of money to finally in 2017 build a browser that can compete again. This is 9 years after google chrome was released! They have absolutely no excuse for falling this far behind. They squand…

> They squandered a lot of money, while neglecting their core business (their web browser).

They are not a business, they are a non-profit organization. And their aim is not to simply build a better browser, but to preserve the open web, and put control in the hands of the users. Granted, phoneOS was a failure, but given their mission, they had to try.

Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#435

Post by 482794793792894 »

whyenot wrote: post #179

"Internt for people, not for profit" This is a great slogan, but actions speak louder than words. Why hasn't FF implemented basic privacy protections and block trackers like Safari does? If Firefox is really "for people," this seems like an area they should be leading in. A cynic (like me) might suggest that it is because Mozilla has become utterly dependent on ad revenue for their survival. Long gone are the days wh…

Because implementing such user protections takes away from the revenue stream of webpage owners. As a result of that, those have much less of a incentive to ensure compatibility with Firefox, which ultimately means lots of broken webpages when browsing with Firefox.

What's more, with Google at 60% market share and growing, and not offering such protections for their users, it becomes increasingly more likely for webpage owners to just drop Firefox completely. It's not worth the effort compared to the money they make off of oblivious Chrome users.

You also seem to not be aware of Tracking Protection. Firefox blocks trackers by default in Private Browsing. There's more examples where Firefox goes the extra mile to protect user privacy, but Tracking Protection really is just exactly what you said. You should've seen the outcry from webpage owners when that was pushed out to users.

Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#437

Post by thanksgiving »

vanviegen wrote: post #430
zdkl wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah further proof for google that being sneaky Gets Shit Done. We collectively need to factor this into our product choices and stop encouraging the sneakiest of them all.

I understand that it's quite trendy to shit on Google's parade these days. But how exactly is bundling Flash player sneaky? Or are you alluding to some sort of bait and switch that was executed to suck people into the Google sphere? If so, please explain! Chrome was never marketed as a privacy-minded browser, was it?

I didn't see it as shitting on Google because there are newer, "hungrier" companies that I think will do sneakier things and cross lines Google wouldn't cross. I think it was valid as a general talking point. We do need to be careful about who we support.

For example, there is apparently a $40B rural Internet access bill that Dems are pushing. I love greater access to the internet but I'm more than a little skeptical.

Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#438

Post by int_19h »

sametmax wrote: post #416
hueving wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you forget about the Firefox OS for mobile phones?

Like you can't make mistakes in business, come on ! Who in this bloody comment thread did something as spectacular as mozilla ? As useful ? As hard ? And without grave mistakes ? Seriously get a reality check.

The question you should rather be asking is, who in this bloody comment thread didn't expect Firefox OS to fail, back when it was first announced?

Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#439

Post by ce4 »

eastWestMath wrote: post #404
nine_k wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You probably forgot to consider how much money / effort have Google wasted on projects that did not pan out. Their flagship products, like Hangouts, still have long-standing issues. Nobody is perfect, and making a good and desirable product is hard.

Doesn't google have more than one failed social network?

Buzz, Wave, Orkut, Talk, Hangouts, Google Plus, Allo, Duo, forced YouTube comments merge to G+
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