Re: "Gnusaic"? Why not a Gnu-Style Web Browser?

[attila <attila@primenet.com>]

   "free" access to source code and "free" source code w/ free binaries 
are too often confused. in and of itself, GNU or Stahlman are not 
providing free software for whatever use.  GNU allows free distribution, 
but not free commercialization --a good idea except critical maintenance 
is at the time-available consideration of the author.

   Sun permits access (well, relatively free) access to their source code 
for the Java Series and is actively promoting open porting. personally, I 
like Java/Hot Java.

   as to a GNU-like product, I concur with TCM -it needs to be done 
before the commerical interests, politicians, NSA, and assorted crooks 
control the means whereby we communicate, and the browser, IMHO, has 
improved our communication and access to information by many orders of 
magnitude. Now, if any of the non-Gates browsers could fully support 
multi-use/multi-view mail, news, and info browse at the same time....

   I have the code for Mosaic, Java, etc. --they are not trivial. and 
don't forget VGML.

=====================  ORIGINAL MESSAGE  =============================

On Thu, 21 Sep 1995, Timothy C. May wrote:

> 
> I'm pretty happy with Netscape 1.1N, but John Gilmore's point about NCSA
> Mosaic gives me a thought:
> 
>
   [snip]
> 
> Why not a Gnu-style Web browser? I don't know if the original Mosaic can be
> used and added to, but I can imagine something like this could be done.
> 
> Web browsers are becoming, for many of us, our de facto interfaces to the
> Net, not just the Web. A project to make a truly freely distributable Web
> browser and Web server (the other part of the puzzle) could be interesting.
> Strong crypto could be added by volunteers working in their specialties,
> and the "Web proxie" could be put in with robustness (D-H forward secrecy,
> for example).
>
   amen!
> 
> I'll stop now, as I've never been a Gnu customer (except for Emacs), and so
> I'm not really in a position to comment and speculate on Gnu.
> 
> For all I know, Stallman and others have already thought of this and are
> working on it.
> 
> --Tim May
>