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I don't understand what they are objecting to here. What is "Proprietary JavaScript"? JavaScript is a part of the web, arguably the least proprietary technology

I don't understand what they are objecting to here. What is "Proprietary JavaScript"? JavaScript is a part of the web, arguably the least proprietary technology platform in existence.

privong 10y ago
> What is "Proprietary JavaScript"? JavaScript is a part of the web, arguably the least proprietary technology platform in existence. They're not arguing the language is proprietary, they're taking issue that the code embedded in websites is often under a proprietary license. See https://fsf.org/campaigns/freejs https://fsf.org/campaigns/freejs
- kefka 10y ago
  They say it right at the top of the document: > Proprietary JavaScript is a threat to all users on the Web. When minified, the code can hide all sorts of nasty items, like spyware and other security risks. Minification is the big baddie here, as it can hide all sorts of stuff. We all joke about spaghetti code and badly named variables. What happens with minification is that variables are a, b, c, d, e, .... and functions are truncated the same way. It'd be the equivalent of using an open-source system (like busybox), making modifications to it, and then including it on hardware. Then to comply with the license, you provide a hodgepodge of source files in non-standard ways, that might make the environment they provided.
  - fixermark 10y ago
    One practical key difference though is that the compute environment for the JavaScript is already built under an assumption that none of the software it's running can be trusted. So practically speaking, malicious JavaScript could, perhaps, exploit weaknesses in your sandbox but it can't save files the browser doesn't allow, read state the browser doesn't allow, make network connections the browser or the hosting machine's network configuration don't allow, etc., etc., etc. It's... An odd hill to choose to die on.
SixSigma 10y ago
The Javascript Trap http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.en.html http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.en.html

I don't understand what they are objecting to here. What is "Proprietary JavaScript"? JavaScript is a part of the web, arguably the least proprietary technology platform in existence.

privong 10y ago

> What is "Proprietary JavaScript"? JavaScript is a part of the web, arguably the least proprietary technology platform in existence. They're not arguing the language is proprietary, they're taking issue that the code embedded in websites is often under a proprietary license. See https://fsf.org/campaigns/freejs https://fsf.org/campaigns/freejs

kefka 10y ago
They say it right at the top of the document: > Proprietary JavaScript is a threat to all users on the Web. When minified, the code can hide all sorts of nasty items, like spyware and other security risks. Minification is the big baddie here, as it can hide all sorts of stuff. We all joke about spaghetti code and badly named variables. What happens with minification is that variables are a, b, c, d, e, .... and functions are truncated the same way. It'd be the equivalent of using an open-source system (like busybox), making modifications to it, and then including it on hardware. Then to comply with the license, you provide a hodgepodge of source files in non-standard ways, that might make the environment they provided.
- fixermark 10y ago
  One practical key difference though is that the compute environment for the JavaScript is already built under an assumption that none of the software it's running can be trusted. So practically speaking, malicious JavaScript could, perhaps, exploit weaknesses in your sandbox but it can't save files the browser doesn't allow, read state the browser doesn't allow, make network connections the browser or the hosting machine's network configuration don't allow, etc., etc., etc. It's... An odd hill to choose to die on.

SixSigma 10y ago

The Javascript Trap http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.en.html http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.en.html