Debian and Firefox
» 25/09/2006, 11:03:29 / / / Subscribe
Some of you will know the word Debian some may not. It's basically one of the oldest (and most mature) distros of Linux around. It prides itself on it's social contract which means that unless it's free, a 100% free, your software will never make it in to the Debian distro. Recently a post was made to the bug list from mozilla.org informing Debian to stop using the name "Firefox" in the Debian version of Firefox, unless they use the fox on a globe logo. Of course Debian can't do that because the logo is subject to copyright therefore it's not free because you'd need to pay a license fee. So rightly so Debian does not use the logo. So much for mozilla.org being a free software foundation. It's ok to the take the software, compile it and use it on your own Distro but you HAVE to use the logo if you want to call it what it is? The only thing being left of out of the compile is the logo because it isn't copyright free. Why would the mozilla.org foundation be so stupid and picky?
I've always said I am not a huge fan of Firefox, yes it meets standards but locally it hogs resources like you wouldn't believe and it has its fair share of bugs just like "the other" popular browser. That's why I use Konqueror, the best of all worlds.
I hope Debian stick to thier guns on this one, this is just what mozilla.org are good at, shooting themselves in the foot. The very people that helped get mozilla.org back on track and arguably Firefox in to the spot light are the free software people.
Technorati: debian firefox mozilla copyright
Comments:
#1. MostDef
25/09/2006, 19:20:08
#1. MostDef25/09/2006, 19:20:08
I agree with konqueror being a better all round browser, although I haven't used debian before (mainly xubuntu and sometimes knoppix - Even got a partition with red hat 7.2 installed)
Damn mozilla, I never even realised the logo was copyrighted, it kind of doesn't make much sense.
#2. Narelle
26/09/2006, 21:50:34
I'm going to put konqueror on my "to download eventually" list. Have never heard of it until now. I'm quite happy with firefox, but to be honest it's just for the tabbed browsing!
#3. tek
26/09/2006, 23:03:42
Then you best stick Linux on your download list too (if you don't already have it)! You can't use it unless you have Linux installed with KDE!
www.debian.org
www.konqueror.org
www.kde.org
It's worth the switch! 
