> "Require" in a technical sense like "can't be done without javascript":
none.
> "Require" as in "won't run today without javascript": an aweful lot.
But today, many websites won't work without non-free JavaScript code, which
simply isn't going to be made free any time soon. RMS vaguely claims that
people sometimes release JavaScript under a libre license, but how often does
this really occur?
I recall two campaigns from the FSF to convince single websites to free all
their JavaScript or "at least" make the sites work without JavaScript: one
for Greenpeace.org, and one for Reddit. I remember absolutely no reaction on
Reddit, and while I don't know about the progress with Greenpeace on the "at
least" not making it required front, looking at the scripts it's attempting
to load, they still seem to be proprietary; the only script I found in my
quick trawl that had a license notice was minified, and didn't have a source
link. At this rate, it's completely unrealistic to expect to make even a
slight dent in the non-libre JavaScript problem this way.
> You're proposal is completely beyond any practicability.
> Who is supposed to write all the replacements for
> javascript of popular websites?
The idea of replacing all of the Unix system probably looked just as
impractical in 1983. Would you propose that RMS should have instead devoted
his time to going to the door of everyone who developed a component of Unix,
and pressuring them to release their program under a libre license along with
source code?
Replacing the JavaScript code on a few popular Web sites seems to me like a
trivial task compared to the task of replacing the entire Unix system. And
it's already partially done; look at ViewTube, ViewTube+, and ViewTubePlus,
for instance, which replace the proprietary scripts for playing videos on
dozens of sites.
But even if it doesn't ultimately fix the problem, that's not the purpose.
Replacing scripts on popular websites with user scripts is a way to deal with
the problem today, which the FSF and RMS currently don't have a proposal for
at all. The way to deal with the problem in the long-term is exactly the same
as the FSF's current way: convincing webmasters to change their habits.
