Juan J. MartÃnez used to talk here about Open Source and Other Things.
This is a blog in archive mode, you can read new posts at en_GB@blog
I don’t like it, and it’s not consistent (ftp:// or https:// are still there). Moreover there are problems with the implementation in X11 (although seems it’s fixed, I have to wait to the next update).
I don’t get the point, what are the advantages of hiding something that has been there for more than 15 years?
If you’re wondering, this is Chromium 5.0.377.0.
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From Android and the Linux kernel community, by Greg Kroah-Hartman.
The whole post it’s worth reading, lemme quote another sentence Google shows no sign of working to get their code upstream anymore
. That’s important, IMHO.
It reminds me the complaint on the way Google is developing another open source project: Chrome (er, Chromium browser); they use several open source libraries, including them in the source tree, and forking existing FOSS code bits for Chromium like a rabbit makes babies: frequently, and usually, without much thought.
So if you want, you can find a pattern here. Google isn’t playing the open source community rules, they’re just using (abusing?) open source. Come on Google, give something back!
Last week I was wondering how to fix the font uglyness of Chromium in Fedora 11, and the solution came from identi.ca: install freetype-freeworld from RPM Fusion.
Basically it’s Freetype with subpixel rendering enabled, as states the package information:
This version is compiled with the patented bytecode interpreter and subpixel rendering enabled. It transparently overrides the system library using ld.so.conf.d.
Why it’s not this Freetype version included in Fedora 11 by default? I’m not sure, but seems it’s just because patent problems, at least in USA (AFAIK software patents aren’t an issue in Europe, by now).
May be there’s more people like me, without the time (or the interest) to try out Chromium (the open source counterpart of Google Chrome).
Moreover, if you’re lazy too, then Tom Callaway’s packages for Fedora are your only choice.
My final motivation was testing ln.usebox.net, because I developed it with Firefox 3.5, and totally forgot to test other browsers. By chance I have Chromium in my Ubuntu at work, so I tried it. Oh man, it’s fast.
The only downside is the ugly font rendering (at least in Fedora), that seems to ignore my desktop setting (which is subpixel smoothing, but Chromium seems to use best shapes… that looks blurry to my eyes).
May be you know hot to fix this little annoyance, although seems a problem related to Fedora’s Freetype version. Don’t be shy, and share your knowledge in a comment. Thank you.
Very impressive^W lovely promotional video for Google Chrome.
I must confess that I’ll try Chromium when it’s ready for production, although all the Google^W big brother fears. But hey! Chromium is free software, isn’t it?
