177
Why's everyone freaking out about Firefox Terms of Service? Isn't it Open Source?
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2025
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Mozilla is changing the license used for the Firefox executable/binary. The TOS will be the governing license over Firefox, the branded browser executable. It will no longer be open source, as defined by the Open Source Initiative, as users are no longer free to use the software however they want. Firefox will now be source available.
The source code for the browser, is (at least as of this comment) FOSS under the MPL2 license. People are free to recompile the browser under a different name (e.g. Librewolf, Waterfox, etc.).
This is not FUD. I read through the new TOS, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Policy. Since the browser executable was governed under the MPL2, there was little concern from the open source community. I made my judgement from those documents alone.
Ughh, don't make me switch my browser again...
LibreWolf my dude. Everything still works as if in FireFox.
That's only works so long as Firefox stays alive and in development.
LibreWolf relies on Firefox being funded, if Firefox dies then LibreWolf also dies. Tens of millions of dollars go into engineering salaries to keep Firefox up-to-date on web standards, features, and performance. LibreWolf benefits from this.
First, mostly as if in Firefox. Go open Netflix, just for the laugh of it.
Second, a fork that depends on Mozilla's power to develop the upstream is not really in the clear. From a licensing perspective, sure. But let's assume the worst (because it's 2025 after all). Firefox is no longer open source. Sure, we can fork from where they left. But building, maintaining, and evolving a browser engine (and the browser itself) requires substantial work. Which means, developers/maintainers, and money. And staying on a "bare" browser might not be viable as long as standards keeps evolving and 95% of people will not care about that stuff.
All that to say, a fork is an option for now. A more tangible solution for the future is needed. A new "Mozilla" without the $millions CEO and structure, Mozilla splitting Firefox into a clean base and a commercial product, something else. But not a fork that just follow Firefox source.
😩 Fuck, I know right?
I found it ironically frustrating that converting from Firefox to LibreWolf is harder than from literally any other browser, because there's no import mechanism.
It wouldn't be that hard to make a standalone tool to import bookmarks, passwords, and config settings, and would make LibreWolf a seamless transition for Firefox users. Instead, it's a frustrating process in re-creating years of tweaks.
It uses the same profiles and configuration as Firefox. Should just have to rename the configuration folder to
.librewolf?