Is Ubuntu going to adapt Ice Weasel?

[Steve Barnhart]

On 10/10/06, Scott Abbey <scott at wangfu.org> wrote:

> I, for one, use Ubuntu over another distribution (ie Fedora/Red Hat or Suse)
> because, in it's as-shipped form, it is entirely free. I don't want to ask
> Mozilla, or anyone else, for their permission to make changes to my system. I
> want the freedom to pass on what works for me to anyone I choose, without
> worrying about some big, bad intellectual property lawyer sending me a cease
> and desist letter.
>
> While I sympathize with Mozilla's desire to maintain strong brand recognition,
> etc., there is no middle ground here. Either their software is free, or it is
> not. If they choose to bar users from redistributing modified software under
> the Firefox (or Thunderbird, Mozilla, etc) name, then it is no longer free.
> Luckily, in this circumstance, we have the benefit of being able to simply
> change the name, and continue about our business.

Umm no. Actually Fedora is comprised of ENTIRELY free software. They
don't even have any links up anywhere stating how to get flash and the
like. Ubuntu does with easyubuntu and the like. AND Fedora doesn't
load restricted modules including ntfs which ubuntu does. Fedora is
one of the most anal of them all so you are totally wrong and I am
sick of people spreading this propoganda about redhat/fedora all the
time.

Secondly, trademarks are a part of life because people abuse things.
It happened with Mozilla and obviously the quality dwindled. By
default Firefox builds without the branding for modifying and one can
also follow this policy:
http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/community-edition-policy.html
which what I believe if the Ubuntu developers are so worried about can
use that instead. Don't confuse users with another stupid name in the
face of ideology. You sure haven't with restricted modules and the
like so I don't see a need to start here. Ubuntu is for the general
population and has a prominent place right there where they have a
great deal of influence. PLEASE do not bow down to the minority's
demands and end up confusing new users. The great thing about this
switching and OSS software is that one can start to easily migrate
because of the same software now available on Windows. We don't need
another incompatibility layer. Stay with Firefox please. For people
who care so much about this sort of thing can use Debian.


-- 
Steve