[gobolinux-users] Firefox up to date

[Laurent Pelecq]

Le Fri, 28 Jul 2006 18:00:10 +0100, MJ Ray <mjr at phonecoop.coop> a dit :
> In reverse order:
> - It's a discussion about making gobo the best possible.
> - The restriction is that you cannot modify the Mozilla builds.
> - If we use the Mozilla-made binaries, it's pretty clear what we
>   lose (freedom to bugfix promptly) but the only gain I see (avoid
>   a compile until someone uploads a binary package) is minor.
> 
> Why include an unmodifiable Firefox browser when we can include
> a free software Firefox browser?

I would agree with you if firefox official builds where really
different from what you can get from sources.

But in that case, since I don't want to compile firefox myself, it
doesn't make any difference if I use Mozilla builds or someone else
builds (as long as I trust them equally).

We cannot modify the binary distribution. But the freedom is not here.
The freedom is to be able to modify the source code. This is possible
with firefox. If we wanted to bugfix firefox, we would have to compile
from source anyway. We would not modify the binaries themselves.

If I'm not allowed to use firefox icons and trademark, this doesn't
actually restrict my freedom. This is a non functional aspect.

The main problem IMHO is that if gobolinux provides firefox, it has to
be up to date because a web browser vulnerability is very serious. So
either with have a recipe to compile Firefox from source (but the
package should be made available in binary form for convenience), or we
have a way to install official builds or we should distribute firefox
at all and recommend konqueror instead (or your preferred alternative
browser).

Maybe we need different repositories (unstable, non-free, ...).
Although I don't think that firefox official builds should be
considered as non-free actually. Flash is non-free. Firefox could be in
a repository called binary-only together with OpenOffice. This would be
fair.

-- 
Laurent