Live data from Hacker News

Mozilla Launches a New Firefox Version Without DRM Support

techcrunch.com

41–50 of 220 posts

Re: Mozilla Launches a New Firefox Version Without DRM Support

#41
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, I'm sick of people making such a big deal just becasue Mozilla lost its CEO in such an awful way that he didn't even return to his CTO role. Just because he literally wrote JavaScript, co-founded Mozilla and worked on Firefox since it was called Netscape Navigator it doesn't mean he should be able to take part in America's political process in a way that some find offensive.

*most find offensive. It is possible for someone to be a brilliant technologist and an otherwise awful person. And before someone takes me to task for the words "awful person" - sorry, that's my evaluation of someone who'd rather lose their job than say sorry for the prejudice.

Well allow me to extend thanks to you and everybody like you for damaging a very important Open Source project at a very important time. I understand it would have been difficult to sit down at the negotiation table with Eich and set an example for everybody of how to work with people you have disagreements with, but it would have been the right thing to do.

Either way, you won. I hope it was worth it.

Re: Mozilla Launches a New Firefox Version Without DRM Support

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silverlight is needed just to add attachments to Outlook in the browser. I don't understand why there isn't a 64-bit version for chrome on mac.

...how? How do they fuck up that badly to need silverlight for attachments?

It's likely part of their tech mandate. I suspect what advantages it may have were not a big driver in that decision.

They have a vested interest in driving silverlight adoption and use.

Re: Mozilla Launches a New Firefox Version Without DRM Support

#44

Yeah, but at least we managed to get that hateful bigot out of the company! That's important, right? More seriously, we really do have a problem, but it looks like the users just don't want to be free.

but it looks like the users just don't want to be free. The users don't care. I have never been able to convince a layperson why DRM should matter at all to them, have you?.

The best I've gotten is when we can't watch something on a project from a macbook because ~hdcp~.

Re: Mozilla Launches a New Firefox Version Without DRM Support

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but it looks like the users just don't want to be free. The users don't care. I have never been able to convince a layperson why DRM should matter at all to them, have you?.

Right on it. Most users use the things they do because they're either easy or there is no other feasible choice. Will a user download a plugin when a browser can now "guarantee" most forms of content to play without one? I know I probably wouldn't. Adobe just became an unwritten standard... again.

That's the annoying part, right?

Surely there was, at least, some kind of open-source alternative for getting/fetching/caching these keys? Or does it truly rely on blackbox obfuscation?

Re: Mozilla Launches a New Firefox Version Without DRM Support

#46
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*most find offensive. It is possible for someone to be a brilliant technologist and an otherwise awful person. And before someone takes me to task for the words "awful person" - sorry, that's my evaluation of someone who'd rather lose their job than say sorry for the prejudice.

Well allow me to extend thanks to you and everybody like you for damaging a very important Open Source project at a very important time. I understand it would have been difficult to sit down at the negotiation table with Eich and set an example for everybody of how to work with people you have disagreements with, but it would have been the right thing to do. Either way, you won. I hope it was worth it.

How do you foresee a negotiation with someone's core values progressing? There's a fundamental incompatibility there, not just something that can be talked and reasoned around.

You personally, the guy typing the letters into this box, what do you think the outcome of such a "negotiation" would be if it were as successful as humanly possible?

At the end of the day, Mozilla's entire mission statement is contrary to Eich's stated beliefs.

Were we talking about peons rather than C-levels, the words would be "bad culture fit".

Re: Mozilla Launches a New Firefox Version Without DRM Support

#47

I'm curious as to why anyone would want this? I guess if you consider the new DRM integration a potential attack vector it removes that possibility. But, if you're going to install this in the first place you won't be consuming DRM content - so you probably won't even be visiting the sites that have it anyway and using the feature.

Wow, when I clicked to see the comments section here on HN it was kind of the other way around in my head. I thought "Yes! Finally good news from Mozilla!" I don't need this binary blob on my computer and therefor I don't want it because I can never know what it does. Why use Linux if you end up running closed source binary blobs anyway? (I understand that somewhere down there I still am using some propriatary nvidia driver or something but if I can avoid it then I would like to be able to.)

Re: Mozilla Launches a New Firefox Version Without DRM Support

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...how? How do they fuck up that badly to need silverlight for attachments?

It's likely part of their tech mandate. I suspect what advantages it may have were not a big driver in that decision. They have a vested interest in driving silverlight adoption and use.

Had. Silverlight is no longer improved.

Re: Mozilla Launches a New Firefox Version Without DRM Support

#49

And here is the end result of people leaving Firefox for Chrome. You neutered Mozilla. There is no longer a browser vendor which has both your interests in heart and sufficient power to direct the evolution of the web. Who now gets to choose which features are built into the majority of desktop and mobile browsers? Advertising companies.

I left Internet Explorer for Firefox because I was unsatisfied and jumped to the first viable alternative. I left Firefox for Chrome for the same reason. I'll jump to the next viable alternative as soon as it's available.

You would think that but chrome is much more insidious than other browsers. I can log in to chrome on all my devices and share bookmarks, apps, sessions, passwords, etc. That makes me a sticky chrome user because I lose all that functionality if I ever switch.

Re: Mozilla Launches a New Firefox Version Without DRM Support

#50

And here is the end result of people leaving Firefox for Chrome. You neutered Mozilla. There is no longer a browser vendor which has both your interests in heart and sufficient power to direct the evolution of the web. Who now gets to choose which features are built into the majority of desktop and mobile browsers? Advertising companies.

agreed. i try to explain to people that firefox is an open source program created by an organization that is trying to keep the web free, while chrome is created by one of the world's biggest advertising companies, but they don't seem to care enough to use firefox.

i feel like mozilla should give up on the soccer mom users and focus on being the power user browser. this is already the case to an extent, but they don't market firefox's advantages (like better extensions) well enough, and they don't quite focus on power-user-type features as much as i think they could.

Post reply on HN