I don't understand why Mozilla never just worked with the author of Download Statusbar to integrate it. That extension has been one of the most popular addons since it was released in 2004. In fact, the addons site show it is currently the 7th most-used plugin with 1,930,345 current users.
ThinkPenguin is one of only a few OEMs that sell hardware that is fully supported by free (as in freedom) drivers (so the hardware will continue to work even after the manufacturer stops supporting it). If you visit libre.thinkpenguin.com then the Trisquel distro (a fully free distro based on Ubuntu without any proprietary software) gets a share of the profits.
From the article: Microsoft says that Windows 8 will focus primarily on online and downloadable media, and it will support a variety of codecs right out of the box: H.264, VC-1, WMA, MP4, AVI, MPEG-2 TS, ASF, AAC, WAV, M4A, MP3, PCM and Dolby Digital Plus. “These decoders are optimized for system reliability, battery life, and performance, and cover all key playback scenarios for mainstream content” — the company says.
Microsoft still licenses the patent encumbered codecs such as MPEG-2 and H.264. What isn't licensed is the DRM required to playback encrypted DVD discs.
Problem is that the FSF/GNU has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that they are incapable of producing a kernel on their own. If Hurd has moved anywhere today, it's thanks to the likes of Debian and Arch, who are doing their own ports. Otherwise, most recently, FSF LA has taken Linux 3.3 and re-branded it 'Libre-Linux' after removing all 'non-free' software. Likely reason for it was Linus making it clear that his kernel is not going to go GPL3, so they decided to fork it to this and make it GPL3, and all the famous FSF distros - Blag, Dynebolic, Trisquel et al will at some point or other be using it, if they don't already.
Speaking of GPL3, it's the reason that organizations which previously didn't have problems w/ GPL2 are now discarding software that has 'upgraded' the license to GPL3 - best example being LLVM/Clang replacing GCC for that reason alone. The 'issue' of software as a service is actually not addressed - even the FSF concedes that it's impossible to address it, even while it thinks of it as an 'issue'.
Linux-libre addresses the problem of non-free firmware (which is incompatible with the GPL license) creeping into the kernel Linux over the years. Linux-libre cannot be relicensed under GPLv3 since Linux is licensed under GPLv2 (without or later) and changing the license to version 3 would require the consent of all the developers (and Torvalds is known to prefer version 2 so it won't happen).
You can replace flash for a couple of big sites right now with FlashVideoReplacer on mozillla. I have been using it for about a week or two now and it's not too bad.
The difference is that Windows is non-free and chromium-browser is free software. (Google Chrome is chromium-browser plus Flash and a couple other minor non-free bits.)
In other words, they tie you into using one of the worst pieces of crap software since Adobe Flash Player.
I just don't buy e-books with DRM, it's much simpler.
I'm currently using QtMoko (which is based on Qt Extended Improved which is forked from Qt Extended) on my Neo Freerunner and I have no idea why Nokia stopped developing Qt Extended as it seems to have a lot of potential. It has a lot of menus just like my previous Nokia phone, but you can simply add the applications and settings that you visit regularly to the favorites section. It also has handwriting recognition which I think is neat.
Porting software is not just copying the code. Popular software does in fact get ported. A good example of this is the Openmoko phones, which contains a lot of ported free software (e.g. FBReader, Midori and Pidgin). Porting non-free software however is impossible unless the developer chooses to do it.
Nvidia only needs to release the source code of one of their drivers (say a Windows driver), and the GNU/Linux developers would create a driver for them. That is how openChrome was born (VIA only provided irregular releases of the code but that was enough to create Unichrome which was forked into openChrome).
What I tried to explain was this:
1. If you use Windows all the hardware will be supported (usually) by proprietary drivers which will only be supported for at most a few years, so new features will not be added even if the hardware can support them. Some hardware is not supported at all or only partially supported on GNU/Linux by proprietary drivers, since the companies don't think it is worthwhile for them to make an effort to support GNU/Linux. These companies want the users to buy new supported hardware instead of adding support to existing hardware. This is part of the reason why I think proprietary drivers are bad.
2. If you use GNU/Linux and use hardware that is supported by free drivers, then chances are that newer common features (like connecting to an external monitor with a 16:9 resolution) will be implemented. This is one of the reasons why I think all drivers should be released under a free license.
Here are some examples of developers of the software controlling the users of the software using proprietary software:
1. Free software, unlike proprietary software, can be ported to other operating systems (and to different architectures). Proprietary software will usually only be ported if the developer wishes to do so (e.g. if enough people use the operating system), which is why for example Adobe did not release a version of Flash for FreeBSD or for the Openmoko GNU/Linux distributions.
2. Nvidia is unwilling to add VDPAU support to the GNU/Linux drivers of their old graphic cards even though the Windows drivers support the equivalent technology. So if you want VDPAU on GNU/Linux you need to buy a new graphics card, even though your card should be able to use VDPAU if Nvidia decides to support it.
3. The VIA Unichrome Pro graphics card does not support a 16:9 resolution when using the proprietary graphics card driver on Windows XP, so if you want to connect a Windows XP computer with this graphics card to a 16:9 monitor without seeing a distorted image, you need to buy a new graphics card. The reason for this is that VIA stopped supporting the driver in 2007. The free driver on GNU/Linux called openChrome on the other hand supports 16:9 resolutions such as 720p. If someone didn't know about GNU/Linux, they would probably just buy a new graphics card, even though their card might actually support a 16:9 resolution if the graphics card driver developers decide to support it.
The whole point of a free distibution is not to use or recommend proprietary software as proprietary software is viewed as unethical since the developer of the software controls the users of the software.
The distro Trisquel is based on Ubuntu so you can get most of the help needed from the Ubuntu forums. The distro also has its own forums. The main differences from Ubuntu are a rebranded Mozilla browser which never suggests the use of Adobe Flash and instead uses replacements such as Gnash, the removal of Ubuntu's Multiverse repository as it contains non-free software and a Linux kernel without any non-free binary blobs. Note that since the Linux kernel contains non-free software it violates its own license.
The problem with Android is that Nokia will need to compete with other manufacturers that sell Android phones. However, none of the major manufacturers are selling Gnu/Linux phones (discounting the N900), so Nokia could have chosen it instead of Windows Phone 7.
...was that despite their large market share in mobile phones, everyone was running different versions of Symbian OS and thus couldn't run the same applications. Had Nokia let its users upgrade their OS this problem would have been solved, because by 'forcing' people to buy a new phone to get a newer version of an OS there is always the danger that the users will buy from a different company. Of course Nokia could have also taken more steps to keep its current users pleased, like developing more software (e.g. an.ePub viewer).
With the IOS concentration camp, Android bootloader lockdown, and Windows Phone 7 copying everything that we hated about IOS it looks like a bleak future for anyone who wants to do cool stuff with their phone beyond the simple apps you get on the common platforms. If Nokia abandons MeeGo with this deal then any hope we have of being able to get new phones with the same freedom as the N900 will be fed to the meat grinder.
Looks like I will have to take great care of my N900. It's the first and last of it's kind.
The Openmoko phones were released before the N900 and they provide more freedom as the drivers are free software as well.
Actually the fast and free (LGPL licensed) browser Midori supports WebM on Youtube and both H.264 and Theora on Dailymotion. So technically you could say that it supports all three html5 video formats (WebM, H.264 and Theora).
This (my previous comment) also holds for Epiphany.
Which browsers would those be? I thought Chrome was the only one with both WebM and H.264.
Actually the fast and free (LGPL licensed) browser Midori supports WebM on Youtube and both H.264 and Theora on Dailymotion. So technically you could say that it supports all three html5 video formats (WebM, H.264 and Theora).
Connecting the Openmoko phones to your Linux computer provides ssh, charging and internet sharing (you can use your computer's internet this way which is quite useful to check installed programmes which require internet access, e.g. a web browser or an instant messaging programme). The usb port also supports host mode. The screen resolution is pretty good as well for phones that were released in 2007-2008 (480x640). The phones don't have a physical keyboard, but the virtual QWERTY keyboard used with a stylus is quite good.
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Are you sure you aren't confusing Stylish with Scriptish?
Also, the add-on LinkTube replaces embedded video with a link, which you can feed to youtube-dl or to the other programmes.
There are lots of alternatives that can play back YouTube videos without using Google's JavaScript or Adobe Flash (e.g. ViewTube, youtube-dl, UnPlug, quvi and youtube-viewer (which also supports viewing comments).
I don't understand why Mozilla never just worked with the author of Download Statusbar to integrate it. That extension has been one of the most popular addons since it was released in 2004. In fact, the addons site show it is currently the 7th most-used plugin with 1,930,345 current users.
The license of Download Statusbar isn't compatible with Firefox's license. From the add-on page:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/download-statusbar/license/0.9.10
Source Code License
Custom License
Copyright 2011 Enzymatic Software, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkPenguin is one of only a few OEMs that sell hardware that is fully supported by free (as in freedom) drivers (so the hardware will continue to work even after the manufacturer stops supporting it). If you visit libre.thinkpenguin.com then the Trisquel distro (a fully free distro based on Ubuntu without any proprietary software) gets a share of the profits.
From the article:
Microsoft says that Windows 8 will focus primarily on online and downloadable media, and it will support a variety of codecs right out of the box: H.264, VC-1, WMA, MP4, AVI, MPEG-2 TS, ASF, AAC, WAV, M4A, MP3, PCM and Dolby Digital Plus. “These decoders are optimized for system reliability, battery life, and performance, and cover all key playback scenarios for mainstream content” — the company says.
Microsoft still licenses the patent encumbered codecs such as MPEG-2 and H.264. What isn't licensed is the DRM required to playback encrypted DVD discs.
Problem is that the FSF/GNU has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that they are incapable of producing a kernel on their own. If Hurd has moved anywhere today, it's thanks to the likes of Debian and Arch, who are doing their own ports. Otherwise, most recently, FSF LA has taken Linux 3.3 and re-branded it 'Libre-Linux' after removing all 'non-free' software. Likely reason for it was Linus making it clear that his kernel is not going to go GPL3, so they decided to fork it to this and make it GPL3, and all the famous FSF distros - Blag, Dynebolic, Trisquel et al will at some point or other be using it, if they don't already.
Speaking of GPL3, it's the reason that organizations which previously didn't have problems w/ GPL2 are now discarding software that has 'upgraded' the license to GPL3 - best example being LLVM/Clang replacing GCC for that reason alone. The 'issue' of software as a service is actually not addressed - even the FSF concedes that it's impossible to address it, even while it thinks of it as an 'issue'.
Linux-libre addresses the problem of non-free firmware (which is incompatible with the GPL license) creeping into the kernel Linux over the years. Linux-libre cannot be relicensed under GPLv3 since Linux is licensed under GPLv2 (without or later) and changing the license to version 3 would require the consent of all the developers (and Torvalds is known to prefer version 2 so it won't happen).
You can replace flash for a couple of big sites right now with FlashVideoReplacer on mozillla. I have been using it for about a week or two now and it's not too bad.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashvideoreplacer/
Linterna Mágica is better than FlashVideoReplacer as it works with more browsers (Midori, Epiphany) and supports more websites (e.g. Dailymotion).
Flash videos on YouTube work fine in Midori if you use Linterna Mágica with Totem plugin.
The difference is that Windows is non-free and chromium-browser is free software. (Google Chrome is chromium-browser plus Flash and a couple other minor non-free bits.)
Actually chromium-browser isn't entirely free software:
http://libreplanet.org/wiki/List_of_software_that_does_not_respect_the_Free_System_Distribution_Guidelines#chromium-browser
Android is an infinitely moddable user interface but stock tends to be completely and utterly crap.
Android doesn't even let you adjust the font size which is an essential part of the user interface:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=4547
In other words, they tie you into using one of the worst pieces of crap software since Adobe Flash Player. I just don't buy e-books with DRM, it's much simpler.
You are right.
All the software (including drivers) is FOSS. Of course the GSM chip still tracks your rough location in order to work.
I'm currently using QtMoko (which is based on Qt Extended Improved which is forked from Qt Extended) on my Neo Freerunner and I have no idea why Nokia stopped developing Qt Extended as it seems to have a lot of potential. It has a lot of menus just like my previous Nokia phone, but you can simply add the applications and settings that you visit regularly to the favorites section. It also has handwriting recognition which I think is neat.
Porting software is not just copying the code. Popular software does in fact get ported. A good example of this is the Openmoko phones, which contains a lot of ported free software (e.g. FBReader, Midori and Pidgin). Porting non-free software however is impossible unless the developer chooses to do it.
Nvidia only needs to release the source code of one of their drivers (say a Windows driver), and the GNU/Linux developers would create a driver for them. That is how openChrome was born (VIA only provided irregular releases of the code but that was enough to create Unichrome which was forked into openChrome).
What I tried to explain was this:
1. If you use Windows all the hardware will be supported (usually) by proprietary drivers which will only be supported for at most a few years, so new features will not be added even if the hardware can support them. Some hardware is not supported at all or only partially supported on GNU/Linux by proprietary drivers, since the companies don't think it is worthwhile for them to make an effort to support GNU/Linux. These companies want the users to buy new supported hardware instead of adding support to existing hardware. This is part of the reason why I think proprietary drivers are bad.
2. If you use GNU/Linux and use hardware that is supported by free drivers, then chances are that newer common features (like connecting to an external monitor with a 16:9 resolution) will be implemented. This is one of the reasons why I think all drivers should be released under a free license.
Here are some examples of developers of the software controlling the users of the software using proprietary software:
1. Free software, unlike proprietary software, can be ported to other operating systems (and to different architectures). Proprietary software will usually only be ported if the developer wishes to do so (e.g. if enough people use the operating system), which is why for example Adobe did not release a version of Flash for FreeBSD or for the Openmoko GNU/Linux distributions.
2. Nvidia is unwilling to add VDPAU support to the GNU/Linux drivers of their old graphic cards even though the Windows drivers support the equivalent technology. So if you want VDPAU on GNU/Linux you need to buy a new graphics card, even though your card should be able to use VDPAU if Nvidia decides to support it.
3. The VIA Unichrome Pro graphics card does not support a 16:9 resolution when using the proprietary graphics card driver on Windows XP, so if you want to connect a Windows XP computer with this graphics card to a 16:9 monitor without seeing a distorted image, you need to buy a new graphics card. The reason for this is that VIA stopped supporting the driver in 2007. The free driver on GNU/Linux called openChrome on the other hand supports 16:9 resolutions such as 720p. If someone didn't know about GNU/Linux, they would probably just buy a new graphics card, even though their card might actually support a 16:9 resolution if the graphics card driver developers decide to support it.
The whole point of a free distibution is not to use or recommend proprietary software as proprietary software is viewed as unethical since the developer of the software controls the users of the software. The distro Trisquel is based on Ubuntu so you can get most of the help needed from the Ubuntu forums. The distro also has its own forums. The main differences from Ubuntu are a rebranded Mozilla browser which never suggests the use of Adobe Flash and instead uses replacements such as Gnash, the removal of Ubuntu's Multiverse repository as it contains non-free software and a Linux kernel without any non-free binary blobs. Note that since the Linux kernel contains non-free software it violates its own license.
And Google isn't doing anything to rectify the situation despite the following bug reports: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=4547 http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3382 and http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=5876 Android lacking adjustable font sizes is inexcusable. Android's font size is tiny on small screens. When I installed it on a friend's Neo Freerunner the first thing my mum noticed was that the fonts were tiny. I can choose a different distribution on my Neo Freerunner, but someone who buys an Android phone without root privileges cannot.
The problem with Android is that Nokia will need to compete with other manufacturers that sell Android phones. However, none of the major manufacturers are selling Gnu/Linux phones (discounting the N900), so Nokia could have chosen it instead of Windows Phone 7.
...was that despite their large market share in mobile phones, everyone was running different versions of Symbian OS and thus couldn't run the same applications. Had Nokia let its users upgrade their OS this problem would have been solved, because by 'forcing' people to buy a new phone to get a newer version of an OS there is always the danger that the users will buy from a different company. Of course Nokia could have also taken more steps to keep its current users pleased, like developing more software (e.g. an .ePub viewer).
With the IOS concentration camp, Android bootloader lockdown, and Windows Phone 7 copying everything that we hated about IOS it looks like a bleak future for anyone who wants to do cool stuff with their phone beyond the simple apps you get on the common platforms. If Nokia abandons MeeGo with this deal then any hope we have of being able to get new phones with the same freedom as the N900 will be fed to the meat grinder. Looks like I will have to take great care of my N900. It's the first and last of it's kind.
The Openmoko phones were released before the N900 and they provide more freedom as the drivers are free software as well.
Actually the fast and free (LGPL licensed) browser Midori supports WebM on Youtube and both H.264 and Theora on Dailymotion. So technically you could say that it supports all three html5 video formats (WebM, H.264 and Theora).
This (my previous comment) also holds for Epiphany.
Which browsers would those be? I thought Chrome was the only one with both WebM and H.264.
Actually the fast and free (LGPL licensed) browser Midori supports WebM on Youtube and both H.264 and Theora on Dailymotion. So technically you could say that it supports all three html5 video formats (WebM, H.264 and Theora).
Connecting the Openmoko phones to your Linux computer provides ssh, charging and internet sharing (you can use your computer's internet this way which is quite useful to check installed programmes which require internet access, e.g. a web browser or an instant messaging programme). The usb port also supports host mode. The screen resolution is pretty good as well for phones that were released in 2007-2008 (480x640). The phones don't have a physical keyboard, but the virtual QWERTY keyboard used with a stylus is quite good.