In the nearing Intrepid release, Firefox displays an EULA to the user the first time it is started.
This brought a lenghty discussion on launchpad.

Firefox’s EULA raises a number of concerns:

  • the EULA refusal doesn’t prevent the user in any way from using Firefox, therefore EULA’s is just noise added to the user experience.
  • the EULA agreement would make firefox a non-free application which should be moved to multiverse.
  • refusing the EULA would (legally) leave the user without a browser in the default install.
  • EULA approval on first start would make firefox less usable when using the Live CD.

So far the options are the following:

  • Keeping firefox as it is, even with the EULA.
  • Switch to Epiphany as the default webbrowser.
  • Adopt IceWeasel from debian (which is firefox, with logo and brand replaced)

I’ve created three different Brainstorm idea to let people make their voice heard:

Keeping Firefox:


Adopting Iceweasel:


Adopting Epiphany:

EDIT: I’ve been digged ! http://digg.com/linux_unix/firefox_eula_to_clutter_ubuntu_user_s_experience