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Idea #13200: Firefox EULA

bug This entry was marked as not being an idea the 23 September 08. If this is a bug report, please use the Ubuntu bug tracker.
Written by tacone the 14 Sep 08 at 19:21. Related project: Firefox. Status: Not an idea
Rationale
In the nearing Intrepid release, Firefox display an EULA to the user the first time it is started.

This raises a number of concerns:
- the EULA refusal doesn't prevent the user in any way from using Firefox, therefore EULA's is just noise added to the user experience.
- the EULA agreement would make firefox a non-free application which should be moved to multiverse.
- refusing the EULA would (legally) leave the user without a browser in the default install.
- EULA approval on first start would make firefox less usable when using the Live CD.

So far the options are the following:

- Keeping firefox as it is, even with the EULA.
- Switch to Epiphany as the default webbrowser.
- Adopt IceWeasel from debian (which is firefox, with logo and brand replaced)

You can find the full discussion here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.0/+bug/269656

*** If you'd like to vote for keeping firefox as it is, vote this idea. ***

if you preferer to adopt IceWeasel vote this idea:
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/13201/

if you prefer to adopt Epiphany vote this idea:
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/13202/
Tags: eula

-119
votes
closed
Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #13200
Written by tacone the 14 Sep 08 at 19:21.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #13200 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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Comments
forteller wrote on the 14 Sep 08 at 21:25
Firefox is such a well known, and therefore important, brand name in the FLOSS world. We should not change it. Clicking one button is not that big of a deal, IMHO.

Auzy wrote on the 14 Sep 08 at 21:58
This is a dupe anyway of other ideas.. And isn't really an idea. It simply states that the EULA will be forced.

Forteller, I don't believe renaming is a problem actually. Because we can simply rename it Web Browser, but from the appearance, everyone will know its firefox.

firefeather wrote on the 14 Sep 08 at 23:13
Firefox is a "selling" point for Ubuntu: you can switch to Ubuntu and still use a browser familiar to you.

Surely something can be worked out with Mozilla. Even if not: I agree that EULAs should be left for proprietary software (if that), but I think that switching away from Firefox shouldn't be a first option.

Anyway, another big point about keeping Firefox is that many websites support only Firefox, IE, or Safari. I wonder if even "Iceweasel" would work on all the sites that Firefox does on Ubuntu (user agent sniffing; and no, I don't think User Agent Switcher is an acceptable workaround unless it's totally pre-configured).

afuchs wrote on the 14 Sep 08 at 23:49
Allow the EULA to be accepted system-wide before the installer starts copying files.

scuba wrote on the 16 Sep 08 at 08:30
afuchs: So what if other software gets the same, should you need to read and accept maybe 10 EULAs?

If you haven't noticed, they are horrible to read, and their length does not ease things.

TomChiverton wrote on the 16 Sep 08 at 23:19
Showing an EULA is a terrible user experience, double plus ungood when it's written in lawyer-speak and full of capital letters.
The EULA is pointless to end users - who don't need to agree it to use the product, even if it were possible to enforce click-wrap agreements, which it isn't.
The correct solution is not one of the choices given above - it's to work with Mozilla to find a sensible way forward with this that gives the end user as good an experience as possible - this is why Ubuntu has the wide usage it does after all !

Auzy wrote on the 17 Sep 08 at 00:24
Scuba and Tom.

An example during install:

Licences
==GPL TAB== Textbox of the currently selected licence
==MPL tab==
==LGPL tab==

[agree] [ disagree]

1 click is all it takes to agree to all licences. You could also summarise the privilages in another textbox (ie. This licence requires that all programs based on it are free and open source, and is good for users).


You honestly cant say 1 click during install, with a summary too is not-user friendly. At least then users know the EXACT privilages of the licences they are using. Otherwise they are using software with licences they don't understand (which is how GPL gets abused, because there is no easily summarised versions of it for human beings).

For mass installations, a mechanism could be added to the installer to block the licencing message being shown at all.


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