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I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

adayinthelifeof.nl

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Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#491

Post by ynniv »

jjav wrote: post #451
domador wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the same problem with GPL, specifically in that as far as I can tell it doesn't give one the freedom of making a living out of making software as a product. I'd love to be proven wrong and find out that there are practical, viable ways to develop new GPL software and be paid strictly for doing this. However, what I tend to hear is that people don’t get paid for this, but rather for customizing that software (o…

> I personally want to make a living making software products, not services. GPL doesn’t seem to offer me a way to do this. It's exactly the opposite! If you want to make a living making software, you make it GPL. Any corporation that wants it will need to pay you for a commercially licensed version they can use (it's your code, you can license it in as many ways as you want). The hobbyists can use the free GPL versi…

Dual licensing becomes very difficult once there is more than one person writing code, and that includes submitting bug fixes. Once this happens you need to track down every contributor and have them sign licensing terms. It's long, difficult, expensive, and you might prefer to rewrite the whole thing again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contributor_License_Agreement

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#492

Post by slashdev »

jackthetab wrote: post #485
slashdev wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He doesn’t, if he’s honestly ok with that. But you only have so much time, why not pick a goal that is achievable? Seems like a waste.

Why have a goal? Oftentimes it is the journey that is the most important, not the destination.

Not all journeys are equally valuable. A goal is critical to point yourself in a worthwhile direction.

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#493

Post by phendrenad2 »

rdlw wrote: post #406
phendrenad2 wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just a trite saying, that doesn't logically follow. "Driven by" is not the opposite of "innocent". If you want to blindly believe what random people say on the internet, simply because said thing was said about a corporation you dislike, that's fine by me. But don't get frustrated when people prefer to look at the available evidence first, and the available evidence is an (alleged) div breaking Edge around the…

> "Driven by" is not the opposite of "innocent" I agree, that's why I didn't say driven until proven innocent. I'm just pointing out that the concept of innocent until proven guilty does not apply, as we have no moral imperative to treat corporations fairly. We're not claiming that any person at Google did something immoral, but that the structure of the corporation resulted in an immoral act. An 'unjust conviction'…

Well, you'll find it hard to argue with people if you let your philosophical beliefs get in the way of finding common ground. Many people don't agree that "innocent until proven guilty" does not (philosophically) apply to corporations.

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#494

Post by mgbmtl »

93po wrote: post #383
mgbmtl wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't flag/mod the comment, but I think it errs towards conspiracy theories. I'm not American, and I understand the American government does evil things sometimes, but it also does a lot of good things for its citizens. It builds roads, keeps the skies clear, funds education, health systems, sues tech giants when they go too far, tries to manage the speculation/money markets, etc. To say "undeniably often working…

> it also does a lot of good things for its citizens. > It builds roads At insane costs and timelines while also lining the pockets of the politically connected > keeps the skies clear 60% of power generation in the US is fossil fuels, which is horrible compared to any european country > funds education Much less so than any country in Europe, and the cost of education is sky-high > health systems Which is terrible c…

As I said, most would probably say the government does not do enough. My point was just that the comment could be seen as erring towards conspiracy theories, because it's quite common to hear "the government is against you". Maybe it was not op's intent.

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#495

Post by jackthetab »

slashdev wrote: post #492
jackthetab wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why have a goal? Oftentimes it is the journey that is the most important, not the destination.

Not all journeys are equally valuable. A goal is critical to point yourself in a worthwhile direction.

"Not all those who wander are lost." -Tolkein

You and I obviously have different value systems so this thread will never coalesce.

Enjoy your travels towards your goals.

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#496

Post by fragmede »

intelVISA wrote: post #431
fragmede wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An unfortunately large subset of tech workers have decreed the right way is to always reinvent the wheel, never import, and avoid 'reading documentation'. The worst bit? They're very well compensated for it, so arguably they made the true smart choice here. To the blessed few who reject NIH syndrome and use existing solutions? I salute you!

You got me this time, fragmede. :)

I am guilty of both, naturally :)

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#497

Post by slashdev »

jackthetab wrote: post #495
slashdev wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all journeys are equally valuable. A goal is critical to point yourself in a worthwhile direction.

"Not all those who wander are lost." -Tolkein You and I obviously have different value systems so this thread will never coalesce. Enjoy your travels towards your goals.

Likewise enjoy your wandering, and in your journey may you encounter a something worthy of setting as a goal, something that captures your heart.

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#498

Post by samus »

jaytaph wrote: post #59

OP here. Thanks for the pos/neg/neutral comments everybody. Some remarks: Yes, there are a lot of browsers out there where I can contribute to which would be more efficient. But that would result in just a few browsers instead of a lot of browsers. I'm all for the last one, as this would give people options. This IS a pet project. I never told anyone otherwise. I would start writing it even when I wasn't fed up with…

I like your list of 100 opinions. Of course, not absolutely all of them ;-) but the effort you took to compile the list. Lots of things to think about.

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#499

Post by runningmike »

> "I’m not an activist fighting for a better world or anything. But I get angry about the corporations screwing over people, software, planets. I’m not in a position to solve that."

You ARE in a position to make the world a little bit better. We all are. Start with simple things, like thinking about using cc-by license and think about why, when and what FOSS license to use. A FOSS license is just a tool but make it work for your goal(s)... And why not just ask your local government to use FOSS software on websites to be a bit more compatible with every home baked browser. Your privacy and freedom is limited year after year.

Re: I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser

#500

Post by trealira »

freedomben wrote: post #401
distract8901 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copyleft was a good idea, but its real world utility is a lot less than anyone would like. I once inherited a GPL project, but I couldn't muster any community interest in working with it. Plugin authors would have been compelled to use GPL and no one seemed interested. We had to burn the project to the ground and start over with a new MIT licensed project. Now there's a flourishing community of plugin authors working…

Why would plugins have to also be GPL? The whole point of plugins is (typically) to allow distribution separately. IANAL but it would seem to me that unless you distribute your "plugin" as a statically linked binary that includes the main app, then the GPL would be irrelevant. If I'm wrong I'd love to be informed

According to the GPL FAQ, there aren't different license requirements for static linking vs dynamic linking. (The reason you can link glibc, stdc++, etc., which are licensed under the GPL, is because they carve out a "GCC runtime library exception" for such libraries, allowing one to choose a different license anyway).

The FAQ also says that if "establish intimate communication by sharing complex data structures, or shipping complex data structures back and forth," then the that is essentially the same thing as dynamic linking, and so the GPL applies to your program as well.

Link to the FAQ: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html

The relevant FAQ questions:

----

> Does the GPL have different requirements for statically vs dynamically linked modules with a covered work? (#GPLStaticVsDynamic)

> No. Linking a GPL covered work statically or dynamically with other modules is making a combined work based on the GPL covered work. Thus, the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole combination.

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> When is a program and its plug-ins considered a single combined program? (#GPLPlugins)

>It depends on how the main program invokes its plug-ins. If the main program uses fork and exec to invoke plug-ins, and they establish intimate communication by sharing complex data structures, or shipping complex data structures back and forth, that can make them one single combined program. A main program that uses simple fork and exec to invoke plug-ins and does not establish intimate communication between them results in the plug-ins being a separate program.

> If the main program dynamically links plug-ins, and they make function calls to each other and share data structures, we believe they form a single combined program, which must be treated as an extension of both the main program and the plug-ins. If the main program dynamically links plug-ins, but the communication between them is limited to invoking the ‘main’ function of the plug-in with some options and waiting for it to return, that is a borderline case.

> Using shared memory to communicate with complex data structures is pretty much equivalent to dynamic linking.

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> Where can I learn more about the GCC Runtime Library Exception? (#LibGCCException)

> The GCC Runtime Library Exception covers libgcc, libstdc++, libfortran, libgomp, libdecnumber, and other libraries distributed with GCC. The exception is meant to allow people to distribute programs compiled with GCC under terms of their choice, even when parts of these libraries are included in the executable as part of the compilation process. To learn more, please read our FAQ about the GCC Runtime Library Exception (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gcc-exception-faq.html).

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