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IceWeasel — Why Closed Source Wins

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the some-say-the-world-will-end-in-fire dept.

engtech writes, "There's been some hype about the Debian fork of FireFox called IceWeasel. Politics aside, this is a bad idea because it fragments the user base, divides the focus, and opens the path for Microsoft and Internet Explorer 7 to regain marketshare."

8 of 551 comments (clear)

  1. Seamonkey by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just like how Firefox fragmented the Mozilla userbase?

    1. Re:Seamonkey by rolfwind · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But Firefox is installable on a ton of platforms.

      Ice Weasel sounds like it will be only installable on Debian, perhaps Debian-descended platforms like Ubuntu. Of course, since it's open source, anyone can port it to other platforms, I suppose. But why bother, all Ice Weasel is, is Firefox devoid of any nonfree trademarked art. And any updates to Firefox will be bought to Iceweasel.

      But there are already other variations of Firefox, like Swiftfox. Firefox will be the main flavor for a long time.

      The only way a fracture in the community will happen is if the releases are not compatible with each other, but the projects don't sound like they will develop on their own, but always staying with the main branch of Firefox. They can't really afford not to.

    2. Re:Seamonkey by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?

      It's not that nobody reads them. It's just that the intersection of (dotters who read the articles) and {dotters who post} is the empty set.

  2. Err by republican+gourd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly *how*, is Microsoft going to capitalize on a fracture of Firefox... within *Debian*? This doesn't touch the userbase that is competing with IE etc whatsoever.

  3. marketshare? by teslar · · Score: 5, Insightful
    and opens the path for Microsoft and Internet Explorer 7 to regain marketshare
    Pray, do tell me again, what exactly is the current marketshare of IE7 on debian?
  4. Re:it's bad either way by XanC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Debian's goals are to quickly patch security problems, and to backport fixes to versions declared stable for the benefit of their users.

    Both these goals a) good, useful, helpful, and worthwhile, and b) in conflict with the wishes of the Mozilla Corporation.

    Perhaps Mozilla could give a little here, instead of Debian. Hmm?

  5. Re:Missing the point... Yourself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Mozilla Foundation doesn't have a problem with Debian modifying FireFox. What they have a problem with is Debian modifying FireFox fairly significantly, yet continuing to call the product "FireFox". FireFox(tm) is a specific codebase, maintained by the Mozilla Foundation. I think they have every right to ask Debian to rename their fork, so that end users are not confused, thinking that bugs in Iceweasel are general FireFox bugs (in some cases, they may be, in other cases, not).

    I don't see anything wrong with asking someone who forks your codebase to use a different name to avoid confusion. What's the problem with that?

    Plus, there is this thing about Trademark law. If you don't actively police it, you can lose the right to the mark.

  6. Polarising the argument by delire · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If it is to be renamed then why not do it with some reference to the reason. A name like FreeFox or similar would at least maintain symbolic connection to the parent while underscoring that it is a wholly non-proprietary distribution of that parent. 'IceWeasel' sounds directly antagonistic of FireFox itself. If FireFox is hot, then it's alternative must be cold. It itself reads as a childishly extremist 'reaction' to what should otherwise be understood as a wise and considered move, for real and sane reasons.

    The sheer lack of foresight amazes me. For years afterward we'll be hearing damaging myths that "FireFox doesn't install on Linux". Newbies coming into IRC to ask how to install FireFox will be pointed to what's later knows as the longest running $TOPIC in history. 'IceWeasel' just adds needless noise for all those millions considering switching to a Linux OS. FireFox is arguably the most important FOSS application for the desktop, if only because of it's notoriety. The name itself is larger than the software it represents. fscking with this reveals new depths of disregard for the adoption of Desktop Linux more generally.