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Debian 5 Release Approaches... Binary Blobs Included

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 6th Jan 2009 13:48 UTC

"The developers behind the Debian Linux distribution are preparing for the upcoming release of Debian 5, which is codenamed Lenny. The decision to move forward with the release follows a contentious vote over whether to permit the inclusion of binary blobs in the new version of the distribution. Consensus coalesced around a controversial proposal to "assume blobs comply with the GPL unless proven otherwise."

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RE[3]: Funny...

by da_Chicken on Wed 7th Jan 2009 09:54 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Funny..."

Member since:
2006-01-01

More specifically, I think, you can only use the Firefox branding if you're shipping a browser built from unmodified upstream source code. Being open-source, you can change the code as much as you like - but as soon as you do, you can't call it Firefox anymore.

Debian and Ubuntu added the same patches to their Firefox builds but Mozilla allowed only Ubuntu to call their package "Firefox". That's because Ubuntu agreed to distribute the web browser with the original non-free Firefox artwork (icons and logos). So the actual disagreement between Mozilla and Debian was finally about distributing the Firefox icons and logos that have a restrictive copyright. Mozilla people said: If you don't ship Firefox with the original artwork, you don't get to call it "Firefox". So Debian calls it Iceweasel.

Wikipedia has a page about this controversy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation_software_rebranded...

It's a matter of maintaining a brand image - if some distro-specific patch causes a problem like the OpenSSL fiasco last year, the policy ensures it's not a problem that will harm the Firefox brand itself.

Again, you should compare Debian to Ubuntu to get a clearer picture. Ubuntu had the exact same OpenSSL problem and still they are allowed to call their patched build of Mozilla's web browser "Firefox".

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