Re: What is the "open web" ?

Mark Watson:
> I think we all agree that W3C recommendations must be implementable,
> royalty-free, in open source software.

+1

> Some would extend this to "Free Open Source Software".

I am not sure how this is meant. The choice of Open Source licenses used
by an Open Source implementation should not be restricted by a W3C
recommendation directly or indirectly.

> It's also been said that "open web" refers to an ambition that the
> entire software stack on which the web platform rests be
> implementable in FOSS software. That is, not just that W3C
> specifications should be implementable
> in FOSS, but that the underlying capabilities the web platform
> exposes should meet the same requirement.

+1

> Examples include Geolocation and WebGL. Whilst it is possible to
> implement both of these in open source software, you basically
> need proprietary > hardware (and the proprietary software drivers
> to go with it) to offer a performant capability to applications
> (GPS and a graphics card, respectively).

I do not agree. Neither Geolocation nor WebGL "basically" require closed
source drivers.

> You could also include some video codecs, though here the
> issue is just the royalty-free part rather than the open source part.

The HTML5 video tag is usable with WebM/VP8.

It is a problem that H.264 is patent encumbered and I am convinced that
one reason why some closed source web browsers belonging to proprietary
operating systems implement only the second format and not the first one
is exactly this.

> At the other end, if there was only a single
> example of a platform which did not support a given capability,
> would that be ok ?

It would a problem if it is impossible to implement that capability
using an Open Source license chosen by the implementer.

These documents might be relevant for this discussion:

Debian Social Contract and Debian Free Software Guidelines
http://www.debian.org/social_contract.en.html

Debian 6.0 "Squeeze" to be released with completely free Linux Kernel
December 15th, 2010
http://www.debian.org/News/2010/20101215.en.html

Cheers,
Andreas

Received on Sunday, 2 June 2013 18:27:00 UTC