If we're fighting for different goals, sooner or later this will cause
problems. For instance, server owners might agree to remove certain functions
and our fellows who are concerned about security will get soothed this way -
we don't.
That said, i'm not happy with your unix comparison.
First of all, the the creation of a free replacement for unix was one of the
biggest deals (maybe the biggest one) in the history of free software. It was
a historical effort and we haven't seen something comparable in the last
decades.
Today, people are waiting for a piece of video editing software for an
eternity, and so do they for free firmware.
Another concern:
Javascript code is mostly available; you can read it, though it's
proprietary.
A free replacement would do the same job as the proprietary code and look
more or less identical.
I think you can't just write (more or less) the same code and release it as a
piece of free software. Sure there are a lot of legal issues here.
Also, unlike back with unix, we can't just write the code and use it; we are
dependent on the websites, and those businesses will sure implement
technologies to detect whether a visitor runs some userscript and they will
come up with technologies to prevent him from doing so.
That said, we don't have a rms at the moment who writes a free replacement
for javascript of the web.
Even if we had: due to the size and the dynamic nature of the web, it would
be
1. horribly incomplete
2. outdated tomorrow.
