windows new browser is free software?

7 réponses [Dernière contribution]
tonlee
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A rejoint: 09/08/2014

If microsoft's new browser is a version of chromium then
the browser is free software?

aloniv

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A rejoint: 01/11/2011

Unlikely - it will probably be like Chrome and Safari - a non-free browser using a (mostly) free engine.

Magic Banana

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A rejoint: 07/24/2010

And you cannot know if that free engine, under a permissive license, was modified in the final program.

strypey
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A rejoint: 05/14/2015

Tivo, MacOS, and Android were all examples of the same thing. A lot of the datafarms (FB, gOgle etc) use a lot of free code on their servers. In all these case, free code cores are packaged up in forms that end up denying their end users some or all of the four software freedoms. This happens so often we need a term for it. At one point some people used to call it "open core", but the person who coined that phrase now discourages people from using it in this way:
http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2011/03/05/open-core-slur.html

If the phrase "trojan horse" didn't already have an established meaning in computer terminology, it's quite appropriate. PR about the product being "open source" is often used to make it seem more hip and cool, and hijack people who believe they're supporting software freedom into doing unpaid marketing for the company selling it, while slipping in anti-features through the back door. Canonical and Ubuntu are a classic example of this, as a lot of us only realized when the Amazon Lens debacle happened.

nadebula.1984
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A rejoint: 05/01/2018

Even if Microsoft's new browser is based on "open source" Chromium, it can still be non-free, because Chromium is released under permissive license (i.e. not copyleft).

And don't forget Microsoft's Secure Boot. It not only restricts operating system but also application software, drivers and even documents. It's very possible that Microsoft releases the new browser under a "free" license but prevents user-modified version from running. In such tivoized systems, there is no freedom. Only GPL v3 can defeat tivoization.

tonlee
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A rejoint: 09/08/2014

You are allowed to take chromium and make a non free software version of it?

nadebula.1984
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A rejoint: 05/01/2018

Surely, everyone can make a Chromium-based web browser proprietary, because Chromium is released under permissive license. There are already so many non-free derivatives of Chromium.

If you release a free software and don't wish anybody to turn it non-free, be sure to use a copyleft license (e.g. GPL v3 or later) rather than a permissive one.

Magic Banana

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A rejoint: 07/24/2010

Figuring out what you can do with Chromium's source code is not that easy: https://trisquel.info/forum/free-software-foundations-problems#comment-128239