Being ridiculous does not kill
By glazou on Monday 14 June 2004, 16:57 - Mozilla - Permalink
Unfortunately...(source: Pascal Chevrel)
Next events
- 9-11 may-2012, CSS WG meeting, Hamburg, Germany
- 29 oct-2 nov 2012, W3C Technical Plenary Meeting, Lyon, France
Comments
from the diff:
< <DT><A HREF="forums.mozillazine.org/vi... Support</A>
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> <DT><A HREF="forums.mozillazine.org/vi... Support</A>
*ARGH*! How lame is that one...replacing Firefox with Smartfox, change the logos and done X-/
You that you are popular when your are copied.
So how long until Mozilla Foundation Lawyers get to flex their muscles and get rid of these morons?
Grr, cut off.
The About page still contains old firefox branding, (including the phrase "firefox" in the scrolling credits).
If they are just going to rebrand... they could change the brand entirely.
Also not fond of this:
The SmartFox Internet Browser is a fast, safe and secure open source alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Based on 100% open source mozilla technology, SmartFox enhances your internet experience by providing advanced features such as pop-up blocking, internet acceleration, spyware protection, strengthened privacy, tabbed browsing and much more in one easy to use, intuitive user interface.
100% Mozilla technology? How does MF know that there isn't .01% Spyware, or something else embedded? I'm not to keen on using other brands like that.
Why does this upset anyone? That's what open-source is about. As long as they release the sourcecode to Smartfox they have the right to create an app from the firefox source.
Because they just took Firefox and rebranded it. They didn't even bother to make it different like Camino or K-Meleon.
People have been doing this with the GIMP, linux and other Free software for years. I have no idea why people are getting their panties in a twist with someone doing something that the license explicitly allows them to do.
- Chris
Simon, you're right. Open Source is (also) about that: ppl are free to fork, rebrand, redistribute. At least I must admit this one provided a diff, and does link to the donation page of Mozilla (most "forkers" don't even do that).
) in their "smart" thing.
Why does this upset anyone ?
The ridiculous amount of new "code" (arff...
It's upsetting to see ppl consider they have done a job worth releasing, when they hardly changed... names and logos.
- Especially when considering the efforts the mozilla foundation have done in setting up a good "end-user" browser, with strong brand identity (since Netscape was disbanded).
- Especially when you speak of FireFox, wich is theme-able, extension-able.
I don't think anybody "cares" about that SmartTry, as long as they don't do any harm (corrupted installation, spyware).
But one might be upset, because Open Source spirit (yes! such a thing exists) is (also) about:
Releasing products and code that one should be proud of (not just put your name on existing code), and that are at least useful to "users" or eventually innovate.
Thus, it's obvious to conclude that SmartMachin:
(a) - are 12 years old
and / or
(b) - are just plain idiots (aka "Athlètes Complets")
and / or
(c) - want to make a name on the newbie scene (lol)
and / or
(d) - have an idea behind (charging for code sooner or later, spyware, whatever)
Having the right to do things doesn't automatically grants you respect for what you do.
Best Regards
*echoes Simon and Thumper* What's the problem here?
More power to whoever is doing this - hell, they're even giving credit to Mozilla, something which the license doesn't require, so they have at least my respect. For whoever is doing this, it's probably a good learning experience, and maybe they'll over time even come up with worthwhile alternate choices to whatever direction Firefox will be heading in. And who knows, they might just get a few more people to use the gecko engine than would otherwise have been the case, which is a definite win in my book.
'sides, wasn't the thought once that we should head in the direction of dozens of different browsers, all targetted at different audiences, all based on the same underlying mozilla core?
Yes Sander, you made points.
)
"Let a thousand browsers bloom", that was the thought.
'm still puzzled by your thoughs...
I - You pointed out it might make more users switch to gecko based browsers. So you admit there's a "better" direction (use a decent browser) and a "worse" one (use something else).
But you have nothing to say against the publication of a "mirror" app that will bloat the landscape.
So you do think ppl should become smarter, and also think it's ok to confuse (not that smart) ppl, by mirror-bloating the landscape.
You're kind of a teacher!!!
II - Yes, building firefox (sorry, "smart") is a good learning experience.
Do you seriously think (lol) that these guys learned anything from grepping "fire" to "smart", and doing it so fast they didn't even check that they missed some "fire" (and official logos) from place to place (see "about") ? Come on...
III - What do you think of the 3 meg oversize of smartfox.exe (1.8) compared to firefox.exe (0.8) ?
They are surely not justified by the provided diff.
IV - You (obviously) didn't fall with the last rain (hardcore translation from french
So, if you surf to an app homepage, and find no contact form, no release history (for a 1.8 app), no ressources beside links to not so interesting portals, and a design that make you think of a pornographic or / and spyware thingie, well, what do you think ?
You might think it's done by amateurs (you might think that ten years ago).
Or you might think it's crap, made "à la va comme je te pousse" by a small smart-up (sorry... start-up) that doesn't care about the usefullness of their product, but rather think how easy it is to recompile open-source app like a snap, and get HITS from that.
Just take a look at the source of the homepage:
<script language="javascript"><!--
EXd=document;EXw?"":EXw="na";EXb?"":EXb="na";
EXd.write("<img src=\"h t t p : / / t 0 . e x t r e m e - d m . c om",
"/c.g?tag=stplane&j=y&srw="+EXw+"&srb="+EXb+"&",
"l="+escape(EXd.referrer)+"\" height=1 width=1>");//-->
</script>
They suuuuurrree want to do a better browser...
I do share most of your ideas Sander, but pushing them too hard will makes ppl look suspicious at them - including me...
Oh, well, let's drop it and go back to work.
Best regards.
Yeah, I fired too fast. "Extreme-dm" thingie is just a crappy hit counter...
Rats! No porn, no hardcore gore between elephants and mangouste! What a lost of time!