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.
Mitchell Baker, cofounder of the Mozilla Foundation, puts the community in the foreground when it comes to Firefox's future.
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 234/2020
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
KDE Developers Are Working on a TV Interface
The developers of the KDE desktop are hard at work to create a TV interface.
-
System76 Is Developing a New Keyboard
The company behind the incredibly powerful Thelio desktop is developing a new keyboard.
-
Zorin OS 15.2 Now Available
The latest release of Zorin OS offers numerous improvements.
-
Firefox to Get an Additional Sandbox Layer
Starting with Firefox 74, the open source web browser will include the new RLBox security feature.
-
Microsoft Defender ATP is Coming to Linux
Microsoft is ramping up its efforts to fight attackers across all platforms.
-
South Korean Government Considers Move to Linux Desktop
Seoul Mulls Migrating from Windows to Linux.
-
OpenSSH Now Supports FIDO/U2F Security Keys
SSH users can now add FIDO/U2F to the list of supported multi-factor authentication tools.
-
System76 Launches New AMD Threadripper Machine
System76 has added an AMD Threadripper option for their Thelio desktop lineup.
-
LibreOffice 6.4 Released
The unofficial office suite for the Linux platform has performance in mind for users.
-
Official Evernote Client Coming to Linux
The most widely-used note-taking app is coming to Linux.