Cutting Free

I noted in "Firefox 2.0 Released" (right at the bottom with the Wikipedia link) that I would blog about Firefox not being as Free as I had thought. Well, here is that blog.

Here I explore the issues that have given rise to the Debian IceWeasel package, and the GNU IceWeasel project.

Firefox Restrictions

Firefox is very successful, and is a great testament to the power of opening up the code. However, it has come to light that there are some small things in Firefox that are not completely Free.

There are three main problem areas:

1. The source code for the Talkback (crash-reporting) application is not provided.
2. The Firefox name is trademarked, and Mozilla will not allow modified versions of the programme to bear the name unless they approve the changes.
3. The artwork used in Firefox, including the logo, is covered by a proprietary license, which again restricts modification.

Debian

These problems came to light when Debian wanted to include Firefox in its distribution. The above restrictions would not meet the Debian Free Software Guidelines (the standard measure of when a programme is Free, in my opinion), so they can’t distribute Firefox in its current form.

Debian chose to distribute Firefox without the restricted components. However, Mozilla informed them that they could not use the Firefox name for a programme that did not use the official logo. Hence the genus of the name "IceWeasel" (the relation to the Firefox name is obvious).

Debian are planning to remove the "Firefox" name from the package in the next release (Etch), but they are very close to a feature-freeze, which will make this difficult to accomplish.

For the (very long) discussion on the matter, between Mozilla and Debian, see here.

IceWeasel

To complicate matters, there is a separate but related project, from GNU, that has adopted the IceWeasel name. The above Debian project is simply a recompiled Firefox using options that allows them to exclude certain parts, and use their own artwork. The GNU IceWeasel is a fork of the Firefox code that has a more wide-reaching aim. This is a part of the Gnuzilla project, which also includes IceDove (their version of Thunderbird).

In addition to providing Free artwork (that the Debian version plans to use), they include some privacy features:

• The disabling of cookie-tracking from zero-size images.
• Warning the user about link redirects, also used for tracking.

In accordance with their adherence to Free Software, the GNU IceWeasel will only look for Free plugins.

GNU IceWeasel aims to be a permanent Firefox fork that takes care of these restriction issues. It could serve as a common upstream provider of a package for GNU/Linux distributions that prioritise the Freedom of their software. Developments in Firefox will be included in IceWeasel.

I hope they make a Windows version. It may seem odd to be so particular about software Freedom when running a proprietary operating system, but some of us can’t choose the OS used in our place of work and choose as much Freedom as we can.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu have the same priorities as Debian when it comes to software Freedom, and they look set to go the IceWeasel route. In fact, they have done some great work on possible logos (forum thread, and wiki). However, presumably because of time restrictions, they have shipped the official Firefox build, with the official (restricted) artwork in Edgy (6.10).

Although I understand the pressures of their release deadline, and their commitment to maintaining their release schedule, I’m disappointed in this decision. IIRC, in Breezy (5.10) they shipped a Firefox without the restricted artwork, and renamed to something like "Mozilla Browser"; in Dapper (6.06), they shipped a Firefox without the restricted artwork, but with the Firefox name. Now they have a release with non-Free artwork and a source package that cannot be modified with the DFSG Freedoms. This compromise has an unpleasant feel to it, but I’m sure it will be resolved by 7.04 (Feisty).

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This is still a fluid situation. But it has highlighted some areas that question Mozilla’s commitment to software Freedom. I understand their desire to protect the browser’s reputation, but the GPL gives some protection in this matter by stipulating that derived works be marked as such. The MPL alienated them from the Free Software community at first, but they made the courageous decision to triple-license with the GPL and LGPL. I hope that they realise their current stance is incompatible with Free Software ideals, and that they adjust their position to pre-empt the chance of being alienated again.

It should be noted that Mozilla only became this aggressive in their approach since the control of such matters transferred from the Mozilla Foundation to the Mozilla Corporation. The same trademark enforcement issues apply to Thunderbird, and as mentioned above, have given rise to IceDove.

Links:

• Debian/Mozilla discussion
• Gnuzilla (Wikipedia page)
• Ubuntu IceWeasel icon design
• DebianAdmin - how to install IceWeasel in Debian and Ubuntu (may not work with Ubuntu 6.10)

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Just a quick post to let you know that the new version of Ubuntu, 6.10, has been released. You can download it from the Ubuntu web site.

This release, named "Edgy Eft", comes only four months after their previous version. They normally try to keep to a six-monthly release cycle, but making the last version stable enough for a production environment delayed it by two months. "Edgy" is a slightly more experimental release, using less-thoroughly technology, and is not expected to be suitable for everyone. It does, however, give people like me chance to play with the new stuff.

I’ll say more about it once I’ve had chance to install it.

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A few things I didn’t mention when I blogged yesterday…

Extensions

I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were compatible versions available for most of my extensions. In fact, of those extensions which lacked updates, most of their functionality is now available in Firefox directly.

I moved from Tabbrowser Preferences to Tab Mix Plus after reading that it fit better with 2.0. Having said that, the version of Tab Mix Plus for FF2 is an experimental one, while there is an official version of Tabbrowser Preferences for 2.0. I have been impressed with TMP so far, though.

Depending on your choice of extensions, your experience may be different. However, I use a fairly extensive range, and I haven’t found any show-stoppers yet.

SVG

Firefox 2.0 has improved its implementation of SVG and fixed a number bugs. It seems to do an admirable job, but still doesn’t provide a complete implementation. I have wondered whether support for Flash could be implemented by using an XSLT stylesheet to transform the SWF into SVG. Some JavaScript may be needed for interactivity, and maybe some SMIL for audio. That would make it unnecessary to download the non-Free Flash plugin. Of course, it may the case that the two formats are simply too incompatible.

Feel

Firefox 2 gives the impression of feeling more polished, and seems more comfortable to use. However, the improved functionality of the new versions of the extensions may be responsible for a good portion of this.

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I do think that the improvements are worth the upgrade, and I’m relieved to find that I haven’t been left wondering why I did.

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Firefox 2 was finally released to the public on the 24th of October (although apparently it was available a day early from the FTP site). I’ve been running the release candidates since RC1 and, in fact, the release version is unchanged from RC3.

Look and Feel

When you fire it up for the first time, it doesn’t seem as if much has changed. It’s only when you start using the tabbed browsing, exploring the Options/Preferences window, or updating your extensions that you’ll notice much of a difference.

• The Options/Preferences window has been redesigned and is much easier to use. More frequently used options, such as those for downloads, have been made more prominent. There has also been a spring clean, reducing the number of options per tab, and moving some to more relevant places.
• Tabbed Browsing has been made more intuitive by including some of the features from extensions in Firefox itself. The most obvious of these is that every tab now has a close button (one of my favourite changes). The tabs themselves have also been given a rather attractive silvered look.
• The Themes and Extensions windows have now been merged. This seems like a logical choice, and I find it much more intuitive. Especially so when combined with the "All-in-One Sidebar" extension (though my icon for displaying the extensions in this sidebar seems to have disappeared - don’t know if that’s just me).

Searching

Again, the intuitiveness of the search bar has been improved.

• You will get suggestions while you type, for the likes of Google and Yahoo.
• A new Manage Search Engines window allows you to remove and reorder your chosen search engines.
• It now supports OpenSearch (as championed by A9.com), and so allows you to add any search engine that supports this format.

New Features

• Anti-Phishing measures have been added to warn you about web sites trying to take your login details, or credit card information. This checks the address of the site you are visiting against a blacklist. You can choose whether this is a locally stored blacklist that is updated periodically, or a remote blacklist stored by Google. The Google list will be more up to date, but it means that they are notified about every site you visit. This is an important feature to help in combating this latest form of internet crime.
• Spell-Checking has been added, when filling in web forms. Very useful when writing blogs .
• The Quick-Find now works in text boxes. Useful when editing large amounts of text on the web, such as at Wikipedia.
• Something new, called Live Titles has been introduced. When adding a bookmark, if that page generates a microsummary, you will be given the option of adding it with a Live Title, rather than the normal page title. This is for pages that represent frequently updated information, such as the latest headlines or an on-line auction.

Annoyances

Quick-Find

There has been great debate about the new Quick-Find behaviour. With 1.5, when you started typing on a read-only page, in order to find certain text, the familiar bar would pop up at the bottom of the window and then you would jump to the first text on the page to match your query. This behaviour was amazingly useful and was something I used all the time. The problem was that the quick-find bar wouldn’t auto-hide.

Mozilla’s solution seems to have been to create an additional find bar. With 2.0, when you start typing in a page, a much simpler quick-find bar appears. There are no "Next" or "Previous" buttons, or any others for that matter. You jump to the first instance of your query as before, but then you seem to be stuck. The first few times I used this, I was very frustrated. I quickly found that if I pressed Ctrl+F the old find bar with all the old features helpfully appeared with the query from the previous bar already filled in. But why would they make you do these extra keystrokes?

Fortunately, I happened to stumble upon a forum that pointed out you can press Ctrl+G to "find next", and this is starting to become second nature. Nevertheless, it seems odd that this new behaviour is more fiddly. The new quick-find bar auto-hides, which is a welcome addition. But, really, what was wrong with just keeping the old bar and making that auto-hide? I would gladly have ticked a box in the options window, if people didn’t want that to be the default.

Toolbars

It looks as if we’re going to have to wait until FireFox 3 to get movable toolbars. This is something I’ve really wanted to see in Firefox, but they have to change the layout engine to do it. In Firefox 3, that engine will be Cairo and it looks as if will be a lot more flexible.

Conclusion

Is Firefox 2 cutting edge? It certainly seems to be out at the front. It has further developed tabbed-browsing, done a number of things to make every-day browsing easier, and started to tackle the growing threat of phishing. Internet Explorer has only just implemented tabbed-browsing with version 7. Opera seems to be Firefox’s main competitor, but it’s proprietary. Perhaps the Firefox-based Flock is a better candidate, with its integration of the social web, but in my mind its status as "Free Software" is in doubt.

The aim is to ship Firefox 3 in the first quarter of 2007. We can expect a layout engine that should be able to take advantage of hardware-acceleration, a combined bookmark/history system that uses a database back-end and adds tagging, and a host of user-requested features. I’m already chomping at the bit.

Further Reading

• MozillaLinks Firefox 2.0 Review
• Firefox on Wikipedia (After reading this page, I intend to blog soon on finding that Firefox may not be as Free as I had thought)

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This is the obligatory introduction to the blog.

The main focus of "Cutting Free" will be Free Software at the cutting edge. By "Free Software", I mean "Free as in freedom". People generally understand this to be "Open Source", and the terms are usually considered to be interchangeable, but "Open Source" has a wider scope.

Free Software often leads the field in technological development and innovation. I shall focus on such projects, but probably also mention software that really should be brought up to speed.

Software that pushes the boundaries is what excites me, and being able to dabble in the code and get to see the workings doubly so. Free software has the unique position of enabling individuals around the world to play with an idea just because they want to, without having to worry about commercial viability. Microsoft spent a lot of time and resources on developing WinFS (a filesystem which uses a database to take care of the storage), but they dumped the project. It’s actually quite a good idea (although it would have reduced interoperability), but GNOME have explored the same idea through their GNOME Storage project, and that work continues.

There are, of course, examples where the volume of company money has enabled proprietary software to succeed where Free Software cannot. However, the unrestricted way in which Free Software can be developed, and the remarkable results that can come from that, that makes for a fascinating topic itself.

If there are any projects you would like me to feature, then please leave a comment.

I hope that I shall be able to make this subject as interesting for you as it is for me.

Michael

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