I wholeheartedly agree with what you are saying but it isn't as simple as need
and availability with users and icecat.
we are like the rebels in starwars. giant corporations and their own search
engines and browsers outnumber us and icecat like 20 deathstars to an xwing and
a few people who pay tickets to ride the star destroyers still want this little
xwing to help them so they can be a rebel on an enemy battleship because it
gives them a false sense of security on a level of which I have never
experience before.
by giving into the fear of offending others and going down the path of
political correctness and by dedicating resources that we don't even have for
our own ship we risk everything.
there is only one Icecat.
there are no other good browsers out there with the privacy and functionality
that Icecat does.
There could be 100 reasons a person who uses a closed source and totally
"owned" corporate nightmare OS can't or won't switch, and we should respect
that, but they undeniably have to respect the fact that we are in a
technological survival situation.
we are a desert nation and we only have so much water. if we give away water to
anyone who threatens to feel "offended" we are endangering our very own
survival in terms of the availability of IceCat to the thousands of users who
use it properly on an open source free OS where it will actually do them any
good at all, period.
If we show every random stranger who demands respect respect while completely
assuming that they are perfectly honest people who would never try to troll,
attack, or manipulate us, then we're not going to lose people. we're going to
lose IceCat.
If people want respect they deserve to earn it by using an operating system
that doesn't take years of developer blood sweat and tears and flush it right
down the toilet by compromising the very privacy and security that was lovingly
constructed piece by piece into IceCat in the first place.
I don't care who gets offended when I say this, and I'm not attacking anyone at
all, I'm telling the truth: There is NO excuse for anyone to allow themselves
to be so ignorant that they would lull themselves into a false sense of
security by using a good browser on a bad Operating System. They Don't get to
complain, and they don't get to be offended when they are absolutely factually
doing things the Wrong Way. not after the developers work so very hard for
years, and then these people demand that they work harder and give them
whatever they want on another anti-security themed operating system. "devs just
drink more coffee, stay up later I don't care"
I want people to be safe, and I want people to be intelligent. nothing makes me
more sick and uncomfortable than watching people think and truly believe they
are safe simply because they put a small bandage on a HUGE problem. the work
required to make just one type of bandage is massive, and they want even more
different bandages to satisfy their false peace of mind. it's inexcusable and I
wont accept it. we can rainbow fish this all we want all day long, every day
until we have nothing left for ourselves like a dry skeleton picked clean by
vultures while throwing aside the very people who truly care about icecat.
you and I and everyone else here that's a part of this project and community
know it as a fact that if IceCat didn't exist the very same people would be
throwing temper tantrums and parasitizing off of another attractive web browser
with a vulnerable dev team and community, the fruits of their hard work ripe
for the picking.
"I'm not saying anyone's right or wrong here, but this argument is going to
piss people off, and anger will only make it worse."
I'm not arguing. I'm stating facts and I'm going to keep blowing the fog away
to keep the truth exposed as long as I live. If I or another person feels angry
than I'm proud of that. I'm proud that for once we as human beings are able to
feel the right emotion for the right reason, and able to have a healthy
reaction to an unhealthy world without someone telling us we are not allowed to
feel that way. it is our right to feel angry and I wish nothing but the best
for all of us in that we use this anger and frustration constructively to do a
strong good honest job and ensuring the survival of IceCat.
Unless we are interested in becoming like every other failed group or ideology
throughout history that is flooded with people who are only interested in how
it can benefit Only them, In a non-violent way, we must revolt against
ignorance. "and get back to supporting the browser we all love."
19. Mar 2017 22:22 by [email protected]:
>
> I see what you're saying, awakeyet. From a certain perspective, you make
> perfect sense. Attempting to bog down the maintainer of a project like GNU
> IceCat to try and take it down is something I could see a competitor doing.
> I won't argue that there are rotten people that do pull shady, petty tactics
> like that to get rid of the competition.
>
> But there are also good people. People like Daniel, that only wanted to see
> support for his OS. He wants to use GNU IceCat, but he got attacked by
> people that laughed him out for not using GNU/Linux. There could be 100
> reasons he can't or won't switch, and we should respect that. If we don't
> show our users respect, but instead assume that perfectly honest people are
> trying to troll or attack us, then we're going to lose people. Not everyone
> is out to get someone else, although I know it can feel that way sometimes.
>
> Everyone remember: We're all here because we want to see GNU IceCat succeed.
> I've been watching the development for years. I've seen two maintainers try
> and fail to keep up with Mozilla's development cycle, and now a third is
> struggling to keep up. That's why it's up to us to be supportive, not just
> of him, but of each other.
>
> I know it's easy to label awakeyet as a conspiracy theorist and move on
> without understanding his perspective, but we should all keep in mind that he
> might be right. And awakeyet, you need to be willing to accept that you
> might be wrong. I'm not saying anyone's right or wrong here, but this
> argument is going to piss people off, and anger will only make it worse.
>
> GNU IceCat is struggling enough without us all squabbling amongst each other.
> Let's end this now before things get any worse, and get back to supporting
> the browser we all love.
>
> --
> Ian Dunn
--
http://gnuzilla.gnu.org
