Iceweasel in Debian
Long time no blog. Shocking as it may seem, I've not blogged since September. I'm sure you've all missed me.
Anyway, here's why I blogged today. To put it simply, the Mozilla Foundation uses a trademarked Firefox logo that Debian team cannot distribute with its upcoming Etch release of the Debian OS, and therefore decided to rename the browser Iceweasel. The current license (of the logo) does not allow the reselling of software that includes the Firefox logo, so the renaming was the only option available to the Debian team if they wanted to distribute the browser. (For those of you not in the know, Debian is free software, and you can do whatever you want with the OS, including reselling it for a hefty sum of money.)
Unfortunately, Debian's taking a lot of heat for the move. The decision to let Debian remain free and untainted by non-free licenses is called anything from "lame" to "disruptive", and people are arguing that Debian's strict license policy is hurting the open source movement since Firefox is its flagship product, soon to run on every desktop there is. And the policy is supposedly extra dangerous now, when Microsoft finally decided to upgrade Internet Explorer.
Unfortunately, people are missing the point. This is what open source really is about. The whole development model is about the freedom to do whatever you want with the software, including reselling it. It's the "free" part that enables fast development, quick and efficient bug tracking, and new versions as fast as you can type apt-get.
Don't let the open source ideals get lost because of some stupid image that will be changed and forgotten in a few version bumps, anyway.
Anyway, here's why I blogged today. To put it simply, the Mozilla Foundation uses a trademarked Firefox logo that Debian team cannot distribute with its upcoming Etch release of the Debian OS, and therefore decided to rename the browser Iceweasel. The current license (of the logo) does not allow the reselling of software that includes the Firefox logo, so the renaming was the only option available to the Debian team if they wanted to distribute the browser. (For those of you not in the know, Debian is free software, and you can do whatever you want with the OS, including reselling it for a hefty sum of money.)
Unfortunately, Debian's taking a lot of heat for the move. The decision to let Debian remain free and untainted by non-free licenses is called anything from "lame" to "disruptive", and people are arguing that Debian's strict license policy is hurting the open source movement since Firefox is its flagship product, soon to run on every desktop there is. And the policy is supposedly extra dangerous now, when Microsoft finally decided to upgrade Internet Explorer.
Unfortunately, people are missing the point. This is what open source really is about. The whole development model is about the freedom to do whatever you want with the software, including reselling it. It's the "free" part that enables fast development, quick and efficient bug tracking, and new versions as fast as you can type apt-get.
Don't let the open source ideals get lost because of some stupid image that will be changed and forgotten in a few version bumps, anyway.
Labels: Debian, Firefox, Iceweasel, open source
posted by Ari N at 11:30 PM
1 Comments:
I agree with you. As a Firefox fan I don't get why they do that. And I support Debian team on their decision.
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