On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 08:44:40AM -0600, esque wrote:
How about you? ;)
Right, because if I was going to work on a free software browser, I'd pick the one where my paid collaborators say things like: # 'The fact is that an end user should not care if software downloads a # "binary blob" without running it. This is functionally equivalent to # downloading anything from the Internet, a JPG file for example. Chromium # downloads a bunch of things on startup, and nobody seems to mind. Just # because hotword.nexe happens to be an executable blob doesn't really # make a difference.'¹ Instead I think I'd prefer to work on the one where the code that they silently download and install is free software: # Firefox does auto-download an OpenH264 binary on systems without a # supported H.264 decoder library (if this feature is enabled, which it # isn't currently in Debian's iceweasel packages). But note that OpenH264 # is free software available under the BSD license: # Firefox downloads binaries from Cisco because Cisco can legally # distribute this software in binary form in countries where H.264 patents # apply, while Mozilla can't do so directly.² :sigh: (That actually sounds like a neat-ish legal hack for our tricky patent law, but) I haven't heard of this before, and it's frustrating if it really is silently downloading code in the background. Though as someone who lets a lot of unsourced javascript run when browsing the www I probably have scarier things than this happening, though still not as scary as chromium installing a thingymablob that if the debian devs hadn't been wise enough to disable all of NaCL in chromium could be happily sending private conversations across the internet. -- sam [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9736033 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9729379