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diff --git a/dillo.org.html b/dillo.org.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3af204c --- /dev/null +++ b/dillo.org.html @@ -0,0 +1,214 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> + <title>What happened to dillo.org?</title> + <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="img/favicon.png"> + <style> +body { + background: white; + line-height: 1.5; + margin: 3em; + font-family: sans-serif; +} +.main { + margin: 2em auto; + width: 50em; +} +h1 { + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em +} +h3 { + color: #56f; + background: #f0f0f0; + padding: 0.5em +} +img { + width: 100%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; +} +footer { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; +} + </style> + </head> + +<body> +<div class="main"> +<h1>What happened to dillo.org?</h1> +<i>Written on 2024-03-31.</i> +<p> +<h2>Summary</h2> +<p>The domain <code>dillo.org</code> expired in 2022 and shortly after someone +bought it and placed a Wordpress blog withspam posts and some content copied +from the original Dillo website. +Please, <em>don't link to <code>dillo.org</code></em>, use instead the new +website +<a href="https://dillo-browser.github.io/">https://dillo-browser.github.io/</a>. +There is also a copy of the original +<a href="https://dillo-browser.github.io/old/">old website</a> in case you need to +link to an old page. +<h2>Background</h2> +<p> +First, keep in mind that the domain <code>dillo.org</code> was used to serve +several things: +<ul> +<li>The Dillo website since + <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20030726012045/http://www.dillo.org/">at + least 2003</a>. +<li>The mail server (which included Jorge email, jcid@dillo.org). +<li>The developer mailing list at lists.dillo.org. +<li>The Mercurial repository at hg.dillo.org. +</ul> +<p> +So, a failure in the DNS would cause all those services to become +<em>unreachable</em>, specially the mail server. Developers were using +<code>@dillo.org</code> email addresses to communicate among themselves and to +the mailing list. +<p> +To understand the development situation of Dillo in 2022, we can take a +closer look at the commit frequency. It can be computed from the Git +repository<sup>[<a href="#fn1">1</a>]</sup>, +but keep in mind that it only covers the timeline <em>after</em> October of +2007, when it was switched from CVS to Mercurial (and later to Git, keeping the +history)<sup>[<a href="#fn2">2</a>]</sup>: +<img alt="Commits stalled in 2017" src="img/commits.png"> +</p> +<p>The development of Dillo decayed from 2014 to 2017. The last 3.0.5 version +was released on 2015 and the next 3.1 release never happened. +The main architect of the rendering engine, Sebastian Geerken, +<a href="https://groups.google.com/g/dillo/c/Kpuh3d6nNL8/">passed away</a> on +September 2016. +<p>The last email I found from Jorge (the main developer of +Dillo) was from +<a href="https://groups.google.com/g/dillo/c/UQ1nWyMa3yo/m/07qhu9KqAgAJ">2019</a>, +recommending to use the development version on the Mercurial repository, instead +of waiting for the 3.1 release: + +<blockquote> +<pre> +... +> According to the info on +> https://hg.dillo.org/dillo/raw-file/default/ChangeLog, dillo-3.1 [not +> released yet]. +> I will probably wait until they release it officially. + +IMHO, you should get it. It's being stable for years. + +-- +Cheers +Jorge.- +</pre> +</blockquote> + +<p> +From the commit history and the mailing list messages one can reach the +conclusion that Dillo was not really being maintained around 2022. So it +is not a surprise that nobody was giving much attention to the domain renewal. +<h2>Expiration</h2> +<p> +From the Web Archive you can see that the domain name <code>dillo.org</code> +<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20220602023156/https://www.dillo.org/"> + was parked around Jun of 2022</a> and shortly after it displayed this +<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20220810101323/http://dillo.org/contact.txt">message</a>: +<blockquote> +<pre> +Domain For Sale +For more high authority domain names for sale, please contact hello@criticalhit.net +</pre> +</blockquote> +<p> +The moment the domain expired it took down the website, but also the mail +server used to reach the developers, as well as the mailing list. This +difficulted any attempt to reach them to warn about the domain expiration. +<p> +A notice was published on Hacker News when the +<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32448104">domain was for sale</a> +on August, and a month later when the +<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32991598">domain was "back"</a>. +Interestingly, the user <code>gurjeet</code> offered to buy the domain +back to the developers (thanks!), but they rejected: +<blockquote> +<pre> +I have decided not to sell the domain, and keep it. I have reuploaded the +original site from WayBackMachine, ... +</pre> +</blockquote> +<p> +However, they didn't upload the original site. They created a Wordpress blog +(Dillo cannot render it very well) and copied some content from the original +dillo.org, along with some blog posts that read like advertisements. You can +track their activity by looking at the +<a href="https://dillo.org/post-sitemap.xml">site map</a>. +<p> +Based on the content of the CriticalHit webpage, I assume they are placing +blog posts on dillo.org with a link to someone's page who has paid to get more +clicks, exploiting the situation where dillo.org it is still linked by many +places. I don't know if there are any laws that could protect us against this +type of +<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_drop_catching">abuse</a>. +The company seems to be based on +<a href="https://www.criticalhit.net/terms-of-use/">South Africa law</a>. +<h2>Aftermath</h2> +<p> +In the meanwhile, we have setup a new website based on GitHub pages (so +hopefully it won't dissapear soon) at +<a href="https://dillo-browser.github.io/">https://dillo-browser.github.io/</a> +which also includes a copy of the original content of the +<a href="https://dillo-browser.github.io/old/">old website</a> as it was before +the domain expired. +<p> +The repository was transformed into Git and is kept in +GitHub<sup>[<a href="#fn3">3</a>]</sup> +at +<a + href="https://github.com/dillo-browser/dillo">https://github.com/dillo-browser/dillo</a>. +The mailing list archives were recovered from the original server and they are +available +<a href="https://lists.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/dillo-dev.mailman3.com/">in +the new mailing list</a>. +<p> +Until we have a better plan on taking back dillo.org, please don't link to that +website as it is not trustworthy. If you can help us, please send and email to the +mailing list +<a href="dillo-dev@dillo-dev@mailman3.com">dillo-dev@mailman3.com</a>. +<section> +<hr> +<ol> + <li id="fn1"> + <p>Here is the command to generate the plot in case you want to investigate + on your own:</p> + <pre> +% git log --pretty='format:%cd' --date=format:'%Y' | sort | uniq -c \ + | awk '$2>2000{print $2,$1}' \ + | gnuplot -p -e "set grid; set term pngcairo size 1000,300;\ +set output \"commits.png\"; \ +set title 'Number of commits in the Dillo repository over time since 2007'; \ +plot '-' title 'commits' with linespoints lw 2 lc rgb \"black\"" + </pre> + </li> + <li id="fn2"> + <p>Notice that this plot is very different from the + <a href="https://github.com/dillo-browser/dillo/graphs/contributors">one in + GitHub</a>, as they only + count contributions from users of GitHub and none of the main developers had an + account there: + <img alt="Missing a lot of commits" src="img/commits-gh.png"> + </p> + </li> + <li id="fn3"> + <p>This decision is not permanent, but it seems to be a good starting point. + It makes GitHub another single point of failure, but on the other hand, it + allows us to run the CI builds for "free" on several platforms.</p> + </li> +</ol> +</section> +<footer> +<a href="index.html">← Home</a> +</footer> +</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/img/commits-gh.png b/img/commits-gh.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea7a816 --- /dev/null +++ b/img/commits-gh.png diff --git a/img/commits.png b/img/commits.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0bc01b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/img/commits.png @@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ table { margin: 1.5em; } <a href="img/hackernews.png"><img alt="Hacker News website" class="shot" src="img/mini-hackernews.png"></a> <a href="img/100r.png"><img alt="100 Rabbits website" class="shot" src="img/mini-100r.png"></a> <p style="text-align:right">...check <a href="old/screenshots/index.html">the archives</a> for more pictures.</p> + <p> <h2>Project objectives</h2> <ul> <li>Lower the barrier of entry to the web.</li> @@ -74,6 +75,8 @@ table { margin: 1.5em; } </ul> <p> Check the <a href="old/index.html">old website</a> for more details. + The domain <code>dillo.org</code> is + <a href="dillo.org.html">no longer under control</a> of Dillo developers. </p> <h2>Download</h2> <p>Download Dillo from the |
