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Mozilla Nixes Firefox EULA Requirement
Less than a week ago, Mozilla asked (and Canonical relucantly agreed, in development versions of Intrepid Ibex) that users be required on first use to agree to a EULA before using Firefox. This drew lots of criticism, and Mozilla agreed that the requirement was flawed. Now, according to a story at Groklaw, the EULA requirement's been done away with. From the Groklaw article linked: "Bottom line: Now, you can install and use Firefox without having to agree to a EULA. The services have been separated out. If they were opt in instead of opt out, I'd be happier, but this is acceptable to me. There may be further tweaks, I understand, but I think it's time to acknowledge that Mozilla is behaving very well indeed now and demonstrating a desire to get this right."
I have obtained a legal copy of the software. It is no longer Mozilla's business what I do with it. Copyright prevents me from distributing it, but I what I do with it is solely up to me. They own the copyright, but the specific copy in my possession is now my property and I have the moral right to use it. Requiring that I assent to a EULA for software that I already have the legal right to use is bullshit.
If Mozilla doesn't like it, they can offer me the agreement before/b> I acquire the software! It's bad enough that proprietary companies try to foist this crap on us, but I expect better from Open Source companies.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
There's more than one new feature. Most of the new features were clear improvements. The awesomebar wasn't, it was a backward slide into Microsoft-style "usability enhancements" with no ability to disable. Heck, even Microsoft allows you to disable "smart menus".
3.0 isn't better in every way than 2.0; but it is better in most ways. It's worth upgrading to, despite the awesomebar. I just hope that in some future version they add in some sensible config options to revert the location bar back to a straight and simple alphanumeric match to previously typed URLs. Some people like it, and that's great; but why remove the prior functionality?