[aklug] Iceweasel (Was: Re: Debian sources.list examples)

From: James Zuelow <e5z8652@zuelow.net>
Date: Mon Oct 06 2008 - 09:10:46 AKDT

On Monday 06 October 2008 07:54:37 Leif Sawyer wrote:
> James Zuelow writes:
> > Mozilla has trademark restrictions on their logo that=20
> > prevents Debian from backporting patches to older versions of=20
> > their software. So Debian renamed everything and builds from=20
> > source without the logo. Sunbird is IceOwl in Debian. Looks=20
> > like it is in etch-backports and Sid. I'm not sure why Lenny=20
> > doesn't have a build.
>
> Actually, this has recently been cleared up. =20
>
The click-through EULA is a completely different issue than the logo
trademark. AFAIK Mozilla has not relaxed their trademark at all.

Debian does not prevent you from installing Firefox complete with
auto-updates. All you have to do is get it from Mozilla.

Debian does insist (rightly) on doing it's own quality control on Debian
packages. They can't do that if the installed package auto-updates from
Mozilla. So I wouldn't use the word "excuse" in Debian's disabling of the
auto-update in their package.

Debian also has a rule about not updating versions for stable editions.
Debian Sarge used Firefox 1.5, and Mozilla said they would no longer support
1.5. Debian was left with a deployed base of 1.5 users that they would
backport security and bugfix patches to. Mozilla (rightly) said that they
were losing control of their logo when Debian did that, because the patched
versions of 1.5 were a "Firefox" browser that Mozilla did not have control
over.

Both parties are correct when you look at it from their viewpoint: Mozilla
does not want users asking them about a "Firefox" browser that comes from
Debian, and Debian does not want users asking them about a Debian package
that comes from Mozilla. The Iceweasel solution is relatively painless.

Debian is not the only organization to do this. There are a variety of
Firefox "Community Editions" out there, and Debian just felt that naming
solution was ugly.

Cheers,

James

---------
To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.
Received on Mon Oct 6 09:11:09 2008

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Mon Oct 06 2008 - 09:11:10 AKDT