[sylpheed:37037] Re: Sylpheed project

[1.anonimo.italiano at gmail.com]

(this is an asymmetric email, beware to reply-to address)

Hi Celejar,
Hi mailing list,

Apologizes for the long delay, ... starting an IT company ... time is not my best friend.


Yes I can explain : Polyfill / Phorming / Web Browsers "free from".


---
Hereafter ... many simplisms and short-cuts ... for the sack of brevity, but how brevity could be possible with a matter such technique moral and ethic ? Trying my best.
---



For a start, this is not a claim/complaint.

Second, this is not a M$ plugin (nor sort of).

"Things/answers" are at a sub level.






Polyfill 
--------
(former Shim for APIs)

Had appeared in former web browsers in order to help execution of ECMA (JS/ESx) code where support was lacking.

Polyfill can be and have been used for other codes than ECMA.

With evolution and convergence of ES to strong standards Polyfill have become less used.

Almost all modern web browsers have polyfill already "in".





Phorming
--------
(to not mistaken with Pharming)

Business models of Companies creating/Exploiting proprietary code have changed.

Before, the business model was based **mainly** on the "pay per use" and variants.

Open Sources offering free alternatives and other market difficulties have encouraged a new business model.

----- The "Sell information about users habits and preferences" -----

While this kind of activity is, per se, nor new, nor "immoral", the "modern technology" and some global ignorance have allowed to changed this a lot.

Before this change, a "marketing specialized company" had to run studies and tests.

Now, data about users habits are intercepted directly by ISPs and reused industrially.

Since several users may be connected at the same time at the same IP, Web Browsers provide a further identification of the user. The PH-UID. (Phorm Unique ID).

Phorming is illegal in almost all the countries. But collecting "really usable" evidences against it is a huge work very very hard to set up.

The information collected + used allows markets revenues of superior scale.

Collected on real time about more than 50 M of users, 1 months habits, Sold at about 0.10 p each, does represent a market share of about 700 Billions dollars !

This is a huge money earned on the back of costumers without their consent.

This is one of the reasons why it is out of the law.









Web Browsers "free from"
------------------------

1/4.part
Some Open Source projects sensitive to this question have started to provide Web Browser "free from" the dirty code that was allowing PHorm Unique ID + other dirty Finger Printing (to not mistaken with (finger print identification).

e.g. (Exemplis Gratia)
Firefox had started with the best intentions and had provided to the community some beautiful version of their web browser. (I have been on board).
At some point, "The Foundation" have been mesmerized by the "how much they could help the users" with the money they could do if they was going onboard of the "new ways to process information".
.
Today Firefox have, in his code, several routines that connect permanently to Amazon and Google Server and send data even when the user is not ... Navigating, even if user have removed Amazon and Google from the search engines !
.
Well, this is not "a secret" nor a "breaking new". 
About this, Mozilla FF have a public page to state this very fact. 
I would say ironically, look up for it, feel lucky, Google is your friend.




2/4.part
A project have forked Firefox in order to provide a web browser free of dirty code. Actually many projects started forking from several origins.

The concerns in all cases of Browsers "free from" dirty code are always the same :
- compatibility ?
- full fledged ?
- safety/security/privacy ?
- ...

Having a full fledged Web Browser "free from" is not a simple task/project, but a few exists !

I will not here advertise nor recommend "this one" over "that one".

I use several of them but I have my preference for Palemoon that I use from long time ago and I have a personal experience it is really full fledged and nicely extensible !
About safety and privacy, I have found in it what I was expecting.



3/4.part
When connecting to Github with a "clean" web browser, you are able to see projects, read code pages and a do few more things.
What you can not is :
- subscribe ;
- send reports / tickets ;
- contact project creators.

Because in order to do it, you do need a piece of code that "polyfill", if it was still installed, would download from Github.

If you are curious, download that piece of code. Its reading is sufficiently enlightening.
The goal is crystal clear and your browser will not be anymore be "free from" and will start feeding phorming criminal industry.

That said, if one still would decide to "download and install" polyfill, there is only one place where to find it ... on Github.

It is obvious the war Proprietary vs Open Source continue. The current goal is actually to preclude the use of tools not participating in the global phorming.

- "oooh ! but you can git clone ..." 
Well, actually, I heard and have seen several person / colleagues complaining about git not working anymore as expected on Github ...

You do the math.




4/4.part 

.. last but not least ..

In the previous era, the strategy was to try to force the end users to come back to the "paid per use" software.
This strategy have failed to produce the expected results.

The new strategy targets you dear Celejar and dear mailing list colleague, the developers.

Because developers (not all) love so much to include new and attractive features, that will "improve the user experience" and, because we have such big impact on end users ... 
then, we are the ideal target !

And yes, we have that power, but we have a responsibility and a duty too, is it not ?


Sylpheed is born on the free side, where do we want to bring it then, on Github ?




Cheers

Best regards

Enzo








On Fri, 8 Oct 2021 15:39:04 -0400
Celejar <celejar at gmail.com> wrote:

> Can you please explain your claim that accessing Github via a browser
> requires some sort of Microsoft plugin? I access Github fine via
> Firefox on Debian, and I don't see any such plugin installed, default or
> otherwise. Is this Microsoft code open or closed source?
> 
> Celejar


-- 
This is an asymmetric email system.
Please, use the address in "Reply-to"  sc1.sylpheed-en-mailinglist at kappa-square.com
Warning : replies to the "From" address are silently discarded by the system and lost.
---
Reply-to :  sc1.sylpheed-en-mailinglist at kappa-square.com
Thank you.