Why Icecat?

[hazel]

I find myself puzzled by the increasing number of Firefox clones. I understand that the Debian team forked off Iceweasel because they were dissatisfied with the restrictions of the Mozilla license and wanted something freer. Swiftfox and Swiftweasel were obviously created for people who place a higher premium on speed. But what is Icecat for?

[reed9]

I think Icecat is GNU's version of Iceweasel, which not only eliminates the proprietary Firefox branding, but removes all reference to non-free plugins.

[techieMoe]

I think Icecat is GNU's version of Iceweasel, which not only eliminates the proprietary Firefox branding, but removes all reference to non-free plugins.

Interesting.. so it's a browser that takes the gNewSense view on strict OSS compliance?

[reed9]

Interesting.. so it's a browser that takes the gNewSense view on strict OSS compliance?

Yup.

GNUzilla is the GNU version of the Mozilla suite, and GNU IceCat is the GNU version of the Firefox browser. Its main advantage is an ethical one: it is entirely free software. While the Firefox source code from the Mozilla project is free software, they distribute and recommend non-free software as plug-ins and addons.

GNUzilla and IceCat - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation

[bigtomrodney]

I suffer from neither Obsessive Compulsive Disorder nor any form of fundamentalism so I see no need to ever use these projects. I always use the free alternative where it is actually an alternative. For example, there is no open source games console with reasonable uptake so I own an Xbox. I don't pretend games don't exist. As a consequence I like to stream music and video to it and as such keep my media in mp3, XviD and DivX formats. I don't sulk that there are no open game systems or pretend that my Xbox isn't a uPNP client.

The same applies when I surf the web. I largely block flash banners but I do still use some Flash applications. The sad things is I see people choosing Iceweasel/Icecat and then immediately installing the plugins and icons anyway. NONSENSE.

[reed9]

I don't use icecat, but I'm glad it exists and there are people fighting for free software. I'm not obsessive about it, but I do avoid proprietary stuff to some extent. I do have flash installed, I do use mp3s. When I back up my CDs, it's in ogg format, though, and I would never buy a digital music player that didn't support ogg. I won't purchase anything by Apple. I haven't purchased anything made by Microsoft in years. I bought an ATI graphics card because they are more open than Nvidia.

[techieMoe]

I agree that their practical use is limited, but I'm glad projects like this are out there and maturing so that perhaps one day in the future they will be a real alternative.

[bigtomrodney]

I agree with both of you about the drive to free and open software. I want to underscore that these are primary goals for me too and I will always choose FOSS where there really is a choice - for example I'm only waiting to switch to Gnash/SWFdec when they really are stable and ready or maybe even better for Flash to die fully

My beef with projects like IceCat and IceWeasel is that they aren't really contributing anything. They're taking the work of hard-working open source developers and claiming holier-than-thou. Mozilla really did make a difference to the web with Firefox, they genuinely forced us out of the IE6 rut and allowed web standards to flourish. These projects to me are not an original or inventive work but really a matter of stubbornness and in some cases outright spite.

Anyway my choice of words isn't great. I don't really feel that strongly about it at all believe it or not.

[elija]

^ What he said ^