 When it comes to browsers, I'm pretty open-minded as long as your browser works I don't truly care whether or not it's proprietary open source. I would prefer That it was open source, but as long as it works and it provides cool features. I Might use it, you know right now. I'm on Firefox again, but I've in the past. I've used Microsoft Edge I've used Google Chrome in the past. I've used cute browser. I've used all the browsers As long as your browser works and like I said it provides cool features I'm okay with it. It has no impact on my life whatsoever if your browser is proprietary or Not and when it comes to distros choosing what browser to put in their isos That decision doesn't affect me either because I can always go use a different distro or I can use that distro uninstall the browser that they installed and then Install the browser that I want. It's very easy This past week Manjaro Cinnamon Community Edition, which is a mouthful of a name Announced that they were switching from Firefox to Vivaldi So they're moving from an open-source browser to a proprietary browser And I was going to make a video about this because the Fox community has kind of lost their minds when it comes to this kind of stuff They get very preachy when someone makes a decision or a choice That they don't agree with the first community is very lovable in that way I guess is one nice way to put it and that's the video I was going to make but then I found a blog post from Vivaldi itself that just It pissed me off because I don't like hypocrites not even a little bit and this article is just so hypocritical It just seriously fried my brain and it kept me from defending the choice of Manjaro to switch from Firefox to Vivaldi because at this point I'm on the side of all the rest of the floss bros thinking this is a horrible idea because I don't like these people anymore So let's go ahead and go through the article that pissed me off so much Now I will say that I think that this article has been published before on their blog that they've just republished it I seem to remember in the back of my mind that I've read this before. It's very very familiar, but They have updated it on their site. So It's not as if it's not fresh news. So let's go ahead and take a look at it So I'm not gonna put the camera on while I'm here because I want to make sure everybody can read all the text and I will link this in the video description below so that you can read it From top to bottom if you want because I'm not going to read this whole thing verbatum Most of it doesn't matter, but some of it is just kind of it's just not good So it starts out about how they've always getting questions about why Vivaldi is not open source and Then they go on to say that the Vivaldi is actually mostly open source They claim that 95% of their code is open source This comes across a little bit as tooting their own horn when 92% of that Work wasn't from them to begin with 92% of their code comes from someone else and That's okay. That's the way false works a lot of the time You know when you fork a project you take some of one else's code and then add on top of it That's the way open source software works a lot of the time. So there's nothing wrong with it It just this feels like they're advertising the fact that oh we we have the vast majority of our Source code published online for you to see when the vast majority of that source code wasn't their work to begin with But this isn't the part that pisses me off. It's you know, it's whatever You know, congratulations. You've built another chromium browser with five percent of proprietary nonsense stacked on top of it I Don't care. How cool the UI is It is still proprietary on top of it. It's they even admit it right They say right here five percent of for our UI closed source code So the five percent of their code is closed source and it all has to do with UI in some security features Which they talk about later, but let's just move on it's the next part that just makes me mad because this section here talks about One of the reasons why they don't want to make Vivaldi open source is because they're worried someone else will come around and forked their browser and make something different become a competitor and not give them any credit or They will that new product will stain their the Vivaldi's team's reputation and Will become a huge player in the browser space and it's I'm just gonna read it because It's it's fascinating and also oddly just dumb because Well, I'll talk about it later. Okay after I'm done reading I'll explain to you why I think it's just the dumbest thing I've ever read So what makes Vivaldi Vivaldi if the Vivaldi browser is so close to being released under a unified open source license Why haven't we taken that leap? It comes down to protecting the heart and soul of our browser for its Vivaldi's UI that truly makes the browser unique In terms of code, it is our most valuable asset We don't publish it under an open source license and only release obfuscated versions of it The latter is there to improve performance But also to serve as a first line of defense Otherwise other parties could take the code and build an equivalent browser essentially a fork more easily But why fear forks in the first place? We get it from an open source perspective forks are pretty much the point you fork someone else's work Make something new and cool out of it. You get credit for your addition the project you fork from gets the credit for being that project and Maybe they'll take in a your addition and everybody is happy Everyone is happy But the way we see it Vivaldi is more than just its code It is our brand with associated trademarks We have to protect this means any fork needs to be branded as a different product and this new product then would Become an immediate competitor without putting any significant technical work to reach that status Now when it comes to large projects that have been around for ages in our household names people might not even Notice the fork, but with Vivaldi's relatively smaller footprint We could be easier to overshadow making our brand more vulnerable and not just in terms of revenue our ethical identity Also comes into play Now I'm gonna just stop there the rest of it talks about how morals and ethics and stuff again. That's whatever Let's just talk about the elephant in the room here Vivaldi as Admitted in the previous paragraphs gets 92% of their work from a project that they themselves forked Yes, they themselves have forked a project chromium to build their product and Their problem with open sourcing their project is that somebody else might come across and do what they have already done and Make it better or you make a competitor. I mean it's just so so hypocritical and We I mean we can ignore that part, but I don't think we should it's just so so weird It's infuriating how hypocritical that is now if you want to be proprietary Be proprietary. It's okay. Just say we want to protect our patents and our UI and we don't want anybody else to steal them Basically saying the same thing, but it's also it's it's being said without being so Too faced about it, I guess I would say I don't even know if that's the right way to put it It doesn't I mean it's just I'm so infuriated by it that I can't even talk. It's just so so stupid You forked something but the reason why you don't want to Open source your product is because you don't want somebody else to fork your fork. I mean That's I mean That's so dumb, right, but let's move past it. Let's Matt just take a breath. It's okay Let's talk a little bit about the fact that they think so much of their browser that they expect someone to come through and take it and rebrand it and sell the exact same browser and Somehow become an overnight competitor. That's actually going to take their market short share I mean, I suppose that's possible to happen But it seems relatively unlikely given that Vivaldi has such a small market share to begin with I doubt that someone who comes through and forks it is going to take any of that stuff without putting some kind of technical effort into it and that's the thing They say that Where was it and This new product would then become an immediate competitor without putting any significant technical work in to reach that status No, if somebody comes across comes around and let's just say Vivaldi is open source and somebody forks it and puts it out There as Bob's browser the the likelihood of people using Bob's browser if it's identical to Vivaldi is slim to none Because it's just Vivaldi. They're going to use the mother ship It's almost guaranteed if it's exactly the same and if it's not exactly the same Let's say Bob has put a lot of effort into making the Vivaldi better like say he Makes it faster for example. I don't know something like that. Then he's put some technical effort into it and He deserves to be a competitor So this whole thing doesn't make any sense whatsoever Because there's so little of a chance of a fork actually becoming a significant competitor to such a small project It doesn't make any sense. It just feels overly paranoid and I don't understand it Now like I said, I don't care that the proprietary I don't it doesn't whatever, you know be proprietary if you want to be proprietary Chances are you're just going to drive a lot of people away who want to use a false browser But those people were using Firefox to begin with they weren't going to use a chromium-based browser anyways You're not gonna lose many customers by not being open source You're gonna get a lot of weird press when Open source people Stir up a fuss that's gonna happen from time to time Which was why I think that that this this blog post has been republished But whatever it doesn't matter what matters to me is being honest about why you're proprietary being forthcoming because the reason why the volley is proprietary is because they want to protect their patents if they have patents or they want to protect their UI and That's a reasonable reason to be proprietary, I suppose even if having your tabs on the bottom and your your tabs on the side isn't necessarily the most groundbreaking piece of UI design I've ever seen in my life Whatever you can be proprietary. It doesn't matter. Just be honest about it Don't go through and say we have forked a project called chromium and we've put a new UI on it Which that part is closed source But we won't open source that because we're worried about forks, but even though we are Relying on a fork of a fork. It's just It's so weird and it's so infuriating and it's just entirely hypocritical. I Don't like the way they put it. Let's just put it that way. So yeah My whole defense of men jarrow switching away from Firefox to go to the volley just kind of went up in flames when I saw this saw this post Because like I said, I don't like hypocrites. I don't like them at all and It just has totally changed my mind on the volley because it comes across as just so tone death. It's just so bad so Don't use the ball because not because it's proprietary but because they don't want you to fork their software even though they've they're standing on the shoulders of another fork and It just is so weird. Anyways, that is it for this video I apologize that I got so infuriated that I lost all my words there for quite a while this is like my fourth try at doing this video because Every time I read that one that that one section I was like, what is wrong with you people? It's just so weird. Anyways, you can follow me on Twitter at the linuxcast You can support me on patreon at patreon.com slash linuxcast before I go. I'd like to take a moment to thank my current patrons Devon Chris East Coast Webgent to his fun to Marcus Magland Sven Jackson knife tool Joshua Lee Mitchell Arch Center American camp Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time