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Debian got this in the neck before Etch and there was loud condemnation of the reaction but Mozilla are now showing their dragon-like legal teeth and going after everyone else who DARES to treat Firefox as free software. Current target: Ubuntu. I see no reason why they will stop there, Fedora and SUSE are sure to be next, then everyone else. Mozilla state that nobody is able to modify FireFox without their prior approval if they still want to call it FireFox. That is not free. To be free software, the firefox codebase must not use the FireFox branding. Simple. If you call it FireFox, you must not change a single byte without getting the change "signed-off" by Mozilla. How can that be free? That is about as free as Internet Explorer. Gee, I have access to the firefox source code - but I can't modify it so what is the point? Firefox is not free software, it has not been free software since before Debian 4.0 "Etch" was released and it will continue to be non-free until Mozilla see sense and stop penalising those who are supposed to be on the same side. (Reminiscent of SCO.) Ubuntu are complaining but without effect: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.0/+bug/269656/ Unbelievably, Mark Shuttleworth has come down on the side of Mozilla, as if the retention of the contaminated Firefox brand supports Ubuntu. In reality, the disease known as EULA is a poison that is weakening Ubuntu and FireFox has now set a dangerous precedent. Other respondents have already indicated that this EULA now forces them to get approval from the corporate legal team for Ubuntu - approval that Debian would not need - because FireFox is installed by default. Retaining Firefox in the climate of open hostility now evident from Mozilla is madness, especially in the default install. Ubuntu have the easy out - iceweasel is already available to them - but those in charge of Ubuntu appear to be paralysed in fear at losing "TheFireFoxBrand" as if it was important. What *is* important is that free software users (corporate or home) do not get EULA notices that remind them of Windows, that free software packages do not make it impossible to derive from Ubuntu by invalidating the GPL (additional restrictions). Honestly, I am *so* glad that Debian got this sorted at the first opportunity. Yes, it was unpopular, it was regrettable, it could be reversed overnight if Mozilla ever see sense but it WAS the right thing to do and IMNSHO it IS the right thing for Ubuntu to do. The word "firefox" is not free - dump it. (Don't think that Thunderbird is safe either - Mozilla have already said that every additional restriction that applies to FireFox also applies to Thunderbird.) I will no longer be recommending Ubuntu. Until Ubuntu drop FireFox, I regard Ubuntu as non-free. (I stopped recommending FireFox before Etch was released.) The same is true of Fedora and SUSE and anyone else who continues to distribute a modified version of FireFox (even if the modifications are entirely related to the packaging requirements of the distribution concerned). Firefox on my Aspire1 is doomed - Debian is imminent. If you want a decent browser, use epiphany. By all means use FireFox on Windows - the natural home of the EULA. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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