UPDATE 2010-04-07: never mind
Original post follows…
Rick Spencer, Canonical (emphasis added):
[Ubuntu Lucid] is changing the default search provider in Firefox to Yahoo! … I am pursuing this change because Canonical has negotiated a revenue sharing deal with Yahoo! and this revenue will help Canonical to provide developers and resources to continue the open development of Ubuntu and the Ubuntu Platform. This change will help provide these resources as well as continuing to respect our user’s default search across Firefox.
Since Google is the current default, will the switch to Yahoo only have an effect on new installs?
Rick Spencer, Canonical (emphasis added):
No, this will effect [sic] upgrades if the computer is currently set to Google. This is not because of anything special for this particular change. This is because Ubuntu always changes to new defaults for users who are on old defaults.
I have a thought, does changing this default setting in Firefox break Mozilla’s branding rules? I assume that the lawyers have gone over it already, but you know what Mozilla are like for trying to make sure that Firefox is exactly the same as the one their [sic] release.
Rick Spencer, Canonical (emphasis added):
The answer is “no”. I don’t know if lawyers went over it, but as I said in a previous response, we work with the Mozilla team, and this was discussed with them, they were not surprised. We would not do something to Firefox that would violate Mozilla’s rules, and we for sure wouldn’t make a change like this without discussing with them first.
In sum don’t worry, all is fine with our relationship with Mozilla ;)
Leaving comments closed because I work for Google and we have a similar revenue sharing deal with Mozilla. I just wanted to highlight two aspects of this deal that didn’t seem to get emphasized when the news broke last month.
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