they are also confusing the software with the firefox brand.
t3rmit3@beehaw.org 1 day ago
I am 100% on board with the author until they claim that this is not open source, immediately after noting that users can take the source code and remove the telemetry function from it. They try to reconcile that contradiction by seemingly saying that since Firefox has the telemetry, a non-telemetry Firefox wouldn’t be Firefox, and that somehow makes FF not open-source?
Is Firefox really open source if we have to submit to data collection to access features distributed under an open source license?
Yes, ordinary end users can create a patch set to enable these features without needing to submit data to Mozilla - but that would clearly no longer be Firefox.
Plenty of OSS licenses have rules baked into them about how you can use the code, or lay out obligations for redistribution.
“Is it really open source if I have to edit the source code I was given to remove a feature I don’t like?”
I mean, yeah? What a program does is completely orthogonal to the rights granted by its source code license, which determines whether something is open-source.
I am also not sure why they seem to think that this move either is meant to or is likely to push away technical users in favor of some supposed group of non-technical users who will go into the settings to manually enable a beta testing feature (Labs).
Yes, the purpose of a system is what it does, but the author isn’t presenting any evidence of what it’s doing vis a vis their claim of making technical users quit FF.
Mozilla has plenty of issues, but I just don’t see “forces you to agree to telemetry if you want to participate in beta testing” as some canary in the coalmine of enshitiffication.
sanzky@beehaw.org 1 day ago
desentizised@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
We’ve been through this with Canonical when they tried to shove something into Ubuntu that would’ve only benefited them and nobody else. And I think this is the point. You’re suddenly not all about keeping the web free and open anymore. Suddenly this is a byproduct of your endeavors at best. And for anyone who does mind that shift you really have no other option but to switch to another browser. Today it may be just their beta-programme. Who knows about tomorrow.
We don’t delete our Xitter accounts because the core product has changed, we leave the platform because nothing good can come from morally bankrupt leadership. Comparing X and Mozilla in that regard might be a stretch, but like you said, “Mozilla has plenty of issues”, these don’t get talked about nearly enough.
t3rmit3@beehaw.org 1 day ago
I understand it’s a slippery slope argument, which is why I didn’t find it particularly convincing.
And if you’ve done bugfixing of software, you know that the data that users give you in reports is 90% of the time less useful than what you get out of crash reports or telemetry. Not all beta programs are there solely for the developers’ sake (some are there for e.g. third party devs to update integrations, etc), but this one seems to be, and that isn’t evidence of malice.