facepalm

Posted May 15, 2014 11:43 UTC (Thu) by ewan (guest, #5533)
In reply to: *facepalm* by Lennie
Parent article: Firefox gets closed-source DRM

"make sure the open web can compete in every way, including playing DRM"

That's not the open web any more then, that's the closed web. Both the W3C and Mozilla seem to have lost sight of what they are (or were) trying to acheive - not to build a web, or to build a web browser, but to build openness.

If the 'open web' can only be accessed through user-hostile, closed propriety tools, it doesn't do that. It's possible that this is not a fight that can be won, but it certainly won't be if everyone involved just admits defeat.

facepalm

Posted May 15, 2014 17:02 UTC (Thu) by gerv (guest, #3376) [Link] (3 responses)

I agree that DRM is not part of the open web. Mozilla has not lost sight of what we are trying to build. We just haven't yet managed to find a way of producing a web browser people will want to use long term without a way of viewing the Hollywood movies that all the other browsers can view.

facepalm

Posted May 18, 2014 22:09 UTC (Sun) by Arker (guest, #14205) [Link] (2 responses)

The crowd that left Firefox because they want Hollywood movies and the like never really wanted Firefox to begin with. They are happy with their new adware-driven browser and are not coming back no matter what you do.

The people that actually liked Firefox have mostly left at this point too, because in the process of trying futilely to please the first group, you keep breaking the things we care about.

At this point why would anyone use Firefox other than inertia? People that just want to watch their Netflix are happy with Chrome or IE and have no need or desire to change. And people that care about the open web are likely to be using Gecko still, but not via Firefox. Not anymore.

facepalm

Posted May 19, 2014 17:50 UTC (Mon) by gerv (guest, #3376) [Link] (1 responses)

With respect and trying to be polite, you overestimate your own importance :-) We have 450 million users, and most of them are ordinary people. I'm fairly sure a lot of them watch Hollywood or equivalent movies.

facepalm

Posted May 20, 2014 21:06 UTC (Tue) by Arker (guest, #14205) [Link]

And I provide technical support for a significant number of them. You might be able to serve them better if you wiped that smirk off your face and considered the possibility that YOU do not have a clue how they used FF or why they quit using it, something I happen to know.