Firefox and Codecs: "Face of Mozilla" at Will of Community
Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Foundation cofounder and present at the open source meeting in Munich sponsored by the foundation and OpenOffice.org, recommitted the open course the Firefox browser was taking with video codecs, but still wishes for more user feedback.
She claims to be no "purist" when it comes to the divisiveness of open and close software, in her talk at the meeting in Munich. Nevertheless, she asserted that it was of strategic importance to admit that patent-bound video codecs "do not just disappear once installed."
So far the Firefox browser has been free from the proprietary and cost-based H.264 solution that YouTube recently rolled out, well aware that use was limited to the Chrome, Safari and ChromeFrame-on-Internet-Explorer browsers. Longtime Mozilla developer and ex-IBM researcher Robert O'Callahan set up an FAQ in his blog about why Firefox is not supporting the codec.

When a participant of the open source meeting posed the question to Baker whether Firefox would support the HD codec, she at first responded with a defiant shake of the head, then shrugged her shoulders. Apparently, she said, doing so would damage some of the principles behind free software, not to speak of the millions of dollars of licensing fees. However, she became increasingly interested in what the common user has to say about it.
Baker's whole purpose for being at the open source meeting was to comment on the structure of the Mozilla community and particulars of the project. Thus here statements were clearly directed to the consumer, that is, to users. It came to the point, when questioned at the edges of the meeting about whether the foundation provides any commercial support for enterprises, that she had to say, "regretfully, but definitely no." The user and developer community will decide what the browser should support, she asserted. "We don't want to lose the sympathy and support of the community; that would be fatal for Mozilla," she explained.
Issue 245/2021
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
GNOME 40 Beta has been Released
Anyone looking to test the beta for the upcoming GNOME 40 release can now do so.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 has Arrived
The latest stable version of OpenMandriva has been released and offers the newest KDE desktop and ARM support.
-
Thunderbird 78 is being ported to Ubuntu 20.04
The Ubuntu developers have made the decision to port the latest release of Thunderbird to the LTS version of the platform.
-
Elementary OS is Bringing Multi-Touch Gestures to the OS
User-friendly Linux distribution, elementary OS, is working to make using the fan-favorite platform even better for laptops.
-
Decade-Old Sudo Flaw Discovered
A vulnerability has been discovered in the Linux sudo command that’s been hiding in plain sight.
-
Another New Linux Laptop has Arrived
Slimbook has released a monster of a Linux gaming laptop.
-
Mozilla VPN Now Available for Linux
The promised subscription-based VPN service from Mozilla is now available for the Linux platform.
-
Wayland and New App Menu Coming to KDE
The 2021 roadmap for the KDE desktop environment includes some exciting features and improvements.
-
Deepin 20.1 has Arrived
Debian-based Deepin 20.1 has been released with some interesting new features.
-
CloudLinux Commits Over 1 Million Dollars to CentOS Replacement
An open source, drop-in replacement for CentOS is on its way.