adrianmalacoda

That assertion is also highly debatable. To me no part of releasing software under a free license implies a "stewardship role."

The usual package for Firefox on Debian is `firefox-esr`. 44.18%.

https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=firefox-esr

The `firefox` package is only in `unstable` and thus installing it requires jumping through hoops.

The non-JS challenge[0] mentioned in the blog post is one based on HTTP meta refresh. The (hypothetical) WebAssembly challenge is proposed as an improvement on the existing JS proof-of-work challenge[1].

0: https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/configuration/challeng...

1: https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/configuration/challeng...

Are they locked into github (using their proprietary APIs) or just using it as a git backend (using standard git tooling)? It's not clear from the article.

(IANAL)

Yes, Lucasfilm actually owns several trademarks on the word droid, mainly in toys, computer games, and entertainment. Interpreted broadly, these trademarks cover "smart" devices, which are generally used to interact with entertainment media.

See also the legal battle of Apple v Apple[0] (music vs computers)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer

Related: The origins of Doom's sound effects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bgFpss0YFE

Sound effect in question (104/107) is "FIRE, BALL - IMPACT AND LARGE FIRE BURST, RUMBLE" from The General Series 6000 Sound Effects Library

It was XBL (XML Binding Language)[0] that was removed, not XUL - which is being phased out and replaced with HTML where appropriate.

0: https://briangrinstead.com/blog/xbl-in-firefox/

Eventually, Google replaced most references to SpottedFig.org in their documentation. They inexplicably left this one though

Small nitpick: this is spottedfig dot com, a domain which they still control.

They're not "being weird about it." It's explicitly not "a Linux distro" because they intend for the kernel to be just another freely interchangeable component (as is mentioned), although I suppose there might be some residual bitterness from their work constantly being called "Linux" or "a Linux distribution" as well.

This isn't unique to Guix System, either. Debian[0] refers to itself as "a free operating system (OS) for your computer" and doesn't even mention the term Linux on its home page, until you go to the about page[1], where it is mentioned (three paragraphs in!) that "Debian systems currently use the Linux kernel or the FreeBSD kernel." The term "distribution" doesn't even appear until the very end, where it is mentioned that "Debian was begun in August 1993 by Ian Murdock, as a new distribution which would be made openly, in the spirit of Linux and GNU."

Maybe, since the term "GNU distribution" is rather unorthodox, Guix System should just market itself as a free operating system, as Debian does.

[0] https://www.debian.org/

[1] https://www.debian.org/intro/about

using proprietary software make you a bad person

We don't believe this. We argue that free software is important[0] because it gives users control over their technology, and proprietary software is bad because it denies users that control. We don't believe using proprietary software (whether by choice or otherwise) makes you a bad person.

If anyone is actually making this argument I would say they are doing the free software movement a disservice.

[0] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-even-more-impor...

Proprietary software developers "love FOSS" when they can build their products on it. But, if users desire those same freedoms, they're suddenly fundamentalists or zealots.

Copyleft does not restrict "use," only distribution. In the case of VLC, the only people who would be restricted are people who want to make proprietary versions of it, and I can see why VideoLAN aren't too concerned about these "users."

The list of allowed WebView implementations is baked into the ROM and, by default, only includes the AOSP WebView and various flavors of Chrome.

I'm not very familiar with TunnelBear but they appear to have instructions on how to connect from GNU/Linux with OpenVPN[0], so you might not even need their proprietary Android app to use their service.

[0] https://www.tunnelbear.com/blog/linux_support/

I believe TunnelBear is highlighted because it is proprietary, not because it is evil (I'm not even sure if the author considers proprietary software in general to be evil; the author uses the word in reference to proprietary Google services).

There's something to be said for having a known good source of software that you can trust. GNU/Linux of course follows the same model, where you're expected to get the majority of your software from the distro repository. So, I don't think this model is inherently antithetical to free software.

I'm a free software nerd and I run LineageOS-sans-Google on my mobile device. I get the vast majority of my software through F-Droid, which works like a GNU/Linux distribution - they build all packages from source and sign with their own key. Only time I would sideload a package is if it's not available in F-Droid (because it's proprietary - although I've since found out about Yalp and use that instead) or if I'm building it myself. It works well enough for me.

I think the objectionable part of a walled garden, at least to a free software nerd, is the walled part. I appreciate the option of being able to step outside if I feel I need to.

Free (Libre) Software is very often gratis as well, and generally breaks the "if you're not the customer..." rule. In the case of Android, there are community-maintained forks that do not include any of the Google stuff.

Given Pocket's inclusion in Firefox, it seems that Mozilla does indeed consider a "news feed" to be a "core function" of their browser.

I don't think your pedantic coworker's criticism is unreasonable at all. APIs, HTTP or otherwise, should communicate what they actually do as best as possible. I have no idea what "blue" is supposed to mean in context, and I struggled to connect "blue" to "car."

What the article is saying, and what I think GP is saying, is that trying to model (non-CRUD) actions as "resources" in the pursuit of being "correct REST" is often a waste of time. `/nouns/8000/verb` is somewhat obvious to me (it does `verb` to `noun` 8000) despite not being "proper REST" whereas `/verb/8000` doesn't (what exactly am I `verb`'ing?), `/green/8000` would just make me scratch my head, and `/9f27410725ab8cc8854a2769c7a516b8/8000` tells me I'm wasting my time with this API and should go do something else.

As a user or developer I think being obvious and usable is more important than being "correct REST" and so I don't even use the term anymore, I just say HTTP API.

You might think it is just "pedantry" or "semantics" but consider that you are not the only one who will be using or reading these APIs, and design accordingly.

(However, if your coworker really was jumping up and screaming loudly at you because of this, this suggests he may not be as enjoyable to work with as you think)

This does not claim to be a markup language.

According to the repo history, it did... 5 years ago, until someone noticed and corrected it.

There is also e.g. Chocolatey[0], which IIRC is the closest thing to a GNU/Linux package manager for Windows.

I install and update from Chocolatey whenever possible.

[0] https://chocolatey.org/

There is a libpurple/Pidgin plugin for Discord. As you might expect, however, it only exposes text chat and not any of the "rich" features such as voice chat or emote reactions.

I don't know of any free software full reimplementation of the Discord client, and I suspect such would be against their terms of service.

I recall when Mozilla announced that they were dropping legacy extension support, people were upset. Firefox legacy extensions pretty much had free reign in the browser internals, making them very powerful, but also making performance improvements difficult and API changes a headache. Now that Firefox has "done a Quantum" and vastly improved performance, it has won back some users, but there's still a vocal contingent of legacy extension fans holding on to some old Firefox version or a fork.

I use Atom precisely because of its extensibility, although I'll admit I wish it were faster sometimes. I've never used VS Code but I understand it beats out Atom in performance by limiting extensibility, much like what Firefox Quantum has done. So I feel "Atom Quantum" already exists in the form of VS Code, and Atom going that direction would cause it to lose whatever proposition it has in the eyes of its users (who do exist, although you wouldn't be able to tell from this thread alone) and turn it into "a crappy VS Code/Sublime knockoff."

TL;DR: As an Atom user, I would much rather Atom keep its focus on extensibility and make performance gains where possible, rather than drop its focus and try to become VS Code.

Fellow Atom user here. According to Lee Dohm, Open Source Community Manager at GitHub, "Atom remains key to GitHub. Our product roadmap is set, and the team will continue all of their work." [0]

[0] https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/17454#issuecomment-39442...

My thought exactly. For something that can easily be self-hosted, I feel a focus on a handful of "major platforms" is the wrong approach. Already people in this thread are saying that smaller well-known instances are "not major enough" which I disagree with.

GNOME is a free software project (as self-described[0]) not merely an "open source" project. Therefore, while GitHub's place in the "open source" ecosystem and its contributions to said ecosystem are well known (and worthy of respect), it does not share in the principles of the free software community. GNOME, as a free software project (and a subproject of GNU at least nominally[1]), is inclined to select an option in line with its principles.

[0] https://www.gnome.org/about/

[1] https://www.gnu.org/software/software.html

Wouldn't be the first time that happened. Go had the same "issue." [0]

The ticket was eventually closed with status "unfortunate"

[0] https://github.com/golang/go/issues/9

Memory-Alpha[0] lists that rule as "Knowledge equals profit" so probably a mistake.

[0] http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition

There was indeed a rule at one point that apps had to be written in C, C++, or Objective-C. This was allegedly implemented in order to ban cross-compilers such as Flash compiler[0]. Presumably they would either require the source code to verify this, or inspect the compiled binary for some identifying feature. However, these rules don't exist in the current version of the guidelines[1].

[0] http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/iphone_agreement_bans_flas...

[1] https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/

If I'm understanding it correctly, though, prepending while(0) or even if(0) to the JSON would prevent the attack, because the JSON object would not actually be executed. I think they were asking if there was any particular reason to prefer the infinite loop over that.

The answer that comes to mind for me is that having the script hang is a more obvious failure state than simply skipping over the statement, and makes it more immediate that something has gone wrong.