Mailing List Archive

Thanks for the clarifications Randy.

- Mark

On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 2:09 PM, Randy Barlow
<randy@electronsweatshop.com> wrote:
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> On 03/17/2015 08:21 AM, Mark Knecht wrote:
>> NetFlix now plays fine in Chrome, at least the unstable version. I
>> use no special flags and get it directly from portage. No overlays,
>> no license files. From my POV it's as open source as most other
>> stuff but I haven't investigated that in any depth. Yes, the
>> content is DRM'ed but with (I think) HTML5 support in a browser I
>> no longer need to run a VM to watch movies. Just log in.
>
> It's important to note that Chrome is not open source (though it is
> "open core", depending on your definition of "open"). Note that when
> you emerge Chrome, no building occurs in Gentoo. The open core part of
> Chrome is Chromium, and Chromium does not have the decryption module
> to play Netflix.
>
> This page explains Netflix playback a bit:
>
> http://www.dash-player.com/blog/2015/02/the-status-of-mpeg-dash-today-and-why-youtube-and-netflix-use-it-in-html5/
>
> Supposedly Firefox will be able to do it sometime soon, but it will
> depend on a closed source extension that reportedly will be written by
> Adobe ☹
>
> I wish it were possible to watch Netflix using only Free Software.
>
> - --
> Randy Barlow
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Randy Barlow posted on Tue, 17 Mar 2015 17:09:43 -0400 as excerpted:

> On 03/17/2015 08:21 AM, Mark Knecht wrote:

>> NetFlix now plays fine in Chrome
>
> It's important to note that Chrome is not open source[.] The open core
> part of Chrome is Chromium, and Chromium does not have the decryption
> module to play Netflix.

> I wish it were possible to watch Netflix using only Free Software.

Well stated. My reply would have been very similar.

FWIW, chromium is available in gentoo, and it's an option I'm glad to
have (as unlike the closed source Chrome I could actually build/install/
run it), but for now at least, I'm a firefox guy.

(It would help if both chromium and firefox upstreams didn't want to
bundle all sorts of stuff that should be external libs, only some of
which gentoo maintainers can properly unbundle, so building them takes
far longer than it should, a situation dissuading me from simply merging
both so I have alternatives even if I primarily use just one, due to the
unnecessarily long build time for something I'd not use that much that I
avoid by having just the one I regularly use merged.)

And as long as FLOSS firefox remains the target product, while the OSS
(without the FL) chromium remains only a sideline focus while the
partially closed-source chrome is the real target, I have a big incentive
to favor firefox, that it'd take a big disincentive elsewhere to
counteract, before I could favor chromium.

(As for chrome, even if I could run closed source I'd not trust it.
Google is after all an ad/tracking company at core, which after all does
own the doubleclick I've NEVER trusted and have blocked about a half-
dozen different ways, and if they're insisting that something stay closed-
source, I'm inclined to believe there's a /reason/ it's closed source,
that I'd not like were it available to examine, and that I STILL don't
like, hidden in code I /can't/ examine. So even if I were to run closed
source in general, I'd be about as likely to run chrome as I would to run
closed source from, say, Sony, "The rootkit people!(TM)".)

(As for google in general, I use their search and I spend quite a bit of
time in minitube and firefox (with youtube's new html5 support) on
youtube. And some of my feeds are via feedburner, which I think is
google's too, but I don't have a google account of any kind, third-party
cookies are blocked and others are session-only (and unlike some I don't
have a 50-tab firefox going constantly, so session-only generally means
only a few hours at most), and I'm pretty strict with disconnect/request-
policy/noscript policies, such that google generally gets no notification
when I'm browsing other sites, so while I'm not kidding myself that they
don't have a profile on me, it's much more limited than their profile on
most users, for sure!)

That google profile mention reminds me, tho... I really need to set a
new randomized MAC in my router, so my DHCP-assigned IP address changes
and those IP-tracked profiles get reset... Which of course is yet
another reason to get the new gentoo-based router up and running, so I
can properly automate MAC randomization without having to fight the not-
entirely-familiar OpenWRT configuration to figure out how to do it. Then
my IP will automatically change whenever I reboot the router, or whenever
I or the cableco's maintenance drops/restarts the connection, which won't
be daily, but it'll be considerably more often than the years the ISP's
so-called dynamic IP assignment can remain the same, based on a stable
MAC address requesting that IP.

--
Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman

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On 03/17/2015 10:55 PM, Duncan wrote:
> (As for chrome, even if I could run closed source I'd not trust it.
> Google is after all an ad/tracking company at core, which after
> all does own the doubleclick I've NEVER trusted and have blocked
> about a half- dozen different ways, and if they're insisting that
> something stay closed- source, I'm inclined to believe there's a
> /reason/ it's closed source, that I'd not like were it available to
> examine, and that I STILL don't like, hidden in code I /can't/
> examine. So even if I were to run closed source in general, I'd be
> about as likely to run chrome as I would to run closed source from,
> say, Sony, "The rootkit people!(TM)".)

Hahah, I enjoyed that so much of this e-mail was in parentheses.

I agree with these thoughts. I think people come to open source
software for many different reasons. For some, it's the collaboration.
For some, it's because it's free as in beer. For some, it's the fact
that you can modify it to solve your particular needs. For others,
including me, it's primarily for trust reasons. I think it's important
to be able to trust the software we are giving private information to.
That's what draws me in. I also like the collaboration, and I like
that I can have it for $0 (though I do work professionally on writing
open source software, so in a way it pays me ☺). I also enjoy the many
other benefits. The "freedom" aspect of Free Software is really what
draws me. The freedom to modify is great too!

> (As for google in general, I use their search and I spend quite a
> bit of time in minitube and firefox (with youtube's new html5
> support) on youtube. And some of my feeds are via feedburner,
> which I think is google's too, but I don't have a google account of
> any kind, third-party cookies are blocked and others are
> session-only (and unlike some I don't have a 50-tab firefox going
> constantly, so session-only generally means only a few hours at
> most), and I'm pretty strict with disconnect/request-
> policy/noscript policies, such that google generally gets no
> notification when I'm browsing other sites, so while I'm not
> kidding myself that they don't have a profile on me, it's much more
> limited than their profile on most users, for sure!)

I also find their tracking practices to be troubling. I avoid their
links, and I do what I can to educate the people around me about how
nothing they do is "free".

- --
Randy Barlow
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On Wed, 18 Mar 2015 00:29:02 -0400
Randy Barlow <randy@electronsweatshop.com> wrote:
>
> On 03/17/2015 10:55 PM, Duncan wrote:
> > (As for chrome, even if I could run closed source I'd not trust it.
> > Google is after all an ad/tracking company at core, which after
> > all does own the doubleclick
>
> I also find their tracking practices to be troubling. I avoid their
> links, and I do what I can to educate the people around me about how
> nothing they do is "free".
>

You may want to have a look at Iron Browser which is based on
the chromium source but is specially designed for privacy:

http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php


FP

Randy Barlow posted on Wed, 18 Mar 2015 00:29:02 -0400 as excerpted:

> On 03/17/2015 10:55 PM, Duncan wrote:

>> (As for google in general, I use their search and I spend quite a bit
>> of time in minitube and firefox (with youtube's new html5 support) on
>> youtube. And some of my feeds are via feedburner, which I think is
>> google's too, but I don't have a google account of any kind,
>> third-party cookies are blocked and others are session-only (and unlike
>> some I don't have a 50-tab firefox going constantly, so session-only
>> generally means only a few hours at most), and I'm pretty strict with
>> disconnect/request- policy/noscript policies, such that google
>> generally gets no notification when I'm browsing other sites, so while
>> I'm not kidding myself that they don't have a profile on me, it's much
>> more limited than their profile on most users, for sure!)
>
> I also find their tracking practices to be troubling. I avoid their
> links, and I do what I can to educate the people around me about how
> nothing they do is "free".

... And continuing my thought, to cover the biggest gaping hole of
omission, I don't have a cell phone either. There's a number of reasons,
but one of them is that there's not a sufficiently open option to justify
paying the money I'd pay, either up-front for an unlocked and as open as
possible phone, or more significantly, monthly, for the "privilege" of
carrying a GPS movement tracker every where I go, and for a monthly
unthrottled net allowance under my daily average.

So no google (or apple, for that matter) tracking via cell, either. =:^)

The closest I'm likely to get in the near term would be that netbook/
chromebook or tablet, wifi/ethernet-only, amd64 based and reimaged to
gentoo, on the requested-recommend post at the top of the thread.

There's enough public wifi (and my cableco ISP provides many too, tho
I've not looked closely at access details as I've not had the need... but
I suspect they're making use of otherwise idle bandwidth on ISP-managed
customer-premises routers, and likely partnering with cablecos in other
cities doing the same thing, for wider coverage) hotspots now that such a
thing is quite reasonable, unlike cell network internet per-gig costs
from what I've seen.

--
Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman

Benny Pedersen posted on Tue, 17 Mar 2015 10:44:57 +0100 as excerpted:

> On March 16, 2015 7:47:24 AM Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> So I'm simply going by what I know to be out there, actually available.
>
> http://www.soekris.eu/ if you want it ? :)
>
> there is more then one model, and its possible to build as needed, here
> i have a now end of life net4801 with 7 ethernet ports, will build
> something with it atleast for me to learn how to build a 10Gbe with
> gentoo, it just still a dream, but if one follow ones dreams it might
> come true one day

Interestingly enough, I had the soekris.com site (US) bookmarked. A
dream from some years ago... Very nice indeed! But also pricey! The
base board (with CPU and RAM) w/ 4x-gigabit Ethernet is over $400, near
$600 in the 19" 1U case w/ power supply and room for two 4x-gigE PCIE
cards ($134 each, separate). That's with the maxed out 1.6 GHz Atom and
2 gig RAM (soldered on). Storage is separate.

So 1 less gigabit port than the 1+4 solution I'm looking at, and the
populated board alone is over $400, or near $600 including case and
power, while Thanasis' solution looks to be $325-ish for everything.

But if I had money, the Soekris solution looks very nice indeed, and the
12-port model (4-port plus two 4x port addons) in particular would be way
more compact than trying to do it with an mATX or the like, for sure!


(Didn't get much of the research I wanted to do done yesterday, and
they're calling me in for a few hours on what would have been a second
day off today. But oh, well... delay and extra work means it's easier to
pay off. =:^)

--
Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman