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'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-01 21:56
by arochester

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-01 22:33
by Ardouos
Great news!! It is nice that Mozilla places trust in Debian to make it compatible with the DFSG. :D

On a side note, I will miss the Iceweasel and Icedove icons.

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-01 22:54
by golinux
I don't trust Mozilla much anymore. I don't see this as a plus. I see it as a way to make Windows converts feel more comfortable in the new Lendows one-ring-to-rule-them-all world.

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-02 08:16
by edbarx
golinux wrote:I don't trust Mozilla much anymore. I don't see this as a plus. I see it as a way to make Windows converts feel more comfortable in the new Lendows one-ring-to-rule-them-all world.
Then, what do you use to access modern websites? Once I was suggested to use a web-browser suitable for Fred Flintstone: it was essentially a lynx GUI version! :shock: :?

I do NOT like the new pro-business trends that are affecting Linux in general, but a decent browser needs to be at least able to properly display web-pages, so that they are accessible and readable.

If you want to limit the nasty effects of using a web-browser that might be doing something you disapprove of, you can run Firefox (was known as Iceweasel in Debian) in a root jail as I do. You only need to install firejail and run Firefox as follows:

Code: Select all

firejail iceweasel

OR

firejail firefox

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-02 08:42
by No_windows
I wonder if Mozilla is feeling a bit behind in the browser wars and sees this as an easy way to gain Firefox users......unless maybe the counts would include Iceweasel anyway?

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-02 14:57
by golinux
There are many changes coming down the pipes in Firefox that will make it less attractive to power users but more attractive to the sheeple (and corporate interests). Will be interesting to see how it all shakes out . . .

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-02 18:27
by No_windows
golinux wrote:There are many changes coming down the pipes in Firefox that will make it less attractive to power users but more attractive to the sheeple (and corporate interests). Will be interesting to see how it all shakes out . . .
Such as????

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-02 18:54
by stevepusser
Hah, we could start another browser war thread--I've been trying yet another Chromium spinoff called Slimjet, which has some nice features that Chromium doesn't, but I guess it would also require a reasonably modern machine.

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-02 20:45
by geekosupremo
As a commercial OS refugee, having the browser named "Firefox" is kinda nice. It allows me to know and have correct expectations for the application. When learning something new, reducing the number of unknowns can be helpful.

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-03 10:58
by swirler
golinux wrote:I don't trust Mozilla much anymore. I don't see this as a plus.
My thoughts exactly: with all the recent (meaning the last 2-3 years) decisions made by Mozilla, I definitely no longer trust them as I used to.
With the worst possibly yet to come (enforcement of extension signing, new addons API that will in all likeliness get rid of most current addons, and who know what else they're planning) I'd really hoped that Debian would eventually part ways even more with Mozilla, maybe to the point of forking their own browser and go much further away than just re-branding.

It is weird enough for me that Iceweasel is coming with almost all of the "calling home" features built in Firefox still enabled, but extension signing will bring IMHO a whole new dilemma: is forcefully preventing users from installing the extensions they want still in line with the true free software ethics and with the Debian manifesto?

Unless, this move from Mozilla is a preliminary move to offset the making of so called "unbranded builds" (that won't have this feature) to Debian, because they know for sure that not providing a viable alternative to their official builds will drive away even more users (like they haven't lost enough of them so far...) .

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-11 10:22
by Ardouos

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-12 13:23
by wpostma
As a user who finds the Iceweasel rename fiasco to be a blight upon Debian, I welcome this reversal of one of the Debian projects most enduring pieces of stupidity.

Goodbye IceWeasel, and good riddance.

Warren

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-12 17:02
by kedaha
I see the "real Firefox" is now available for installation on jessie, wheezy, testing & sid from the mozilla.debian.net team. So looks like bye bye :( iceweasel.

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-12 20:19
by stevepusser
kedaha wrote:I see the "real Firefox" is now available for installation on jessie, wheezy, testing & sid from the mozilla.debian.net team. So looks like bye bye :( iceweasel.
Oh nos! No more about:iceweasel Easter egg?

And it came to pass that the years of pointless arguments concerning differences 'twixt the Fiery and the Icy beasts were rendered moot.

from The Book of Mozilla, 16:3

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-12 23:01
by mor
kedaha wrote:I see the "real Firefox" is now available…
Isn't Firefox on Debian still not "the real Firefox" in the same way Iceweasel "wasn't it" for some?

I mean, Debian is still applying those once infamous patches and stuff to it right, the only difference would be now the name and logo are unchanged.
So if I'm not missing anything who's gonna explain to the world that Debian's Firefox is still not the "real Firefox"?

:lol:

Anyway, I am kinda missing the Ice Age already, even though as a "Seamonkey-to-Iceape-and-back-to-Seamonkey" user I did my grieving some time ago.
Wow, nine year it was. :shock:

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-12 23:17
by Ardouos
mor wrote:
kedaha wrote:I see the "real Firefox" is now available…
Isn't Firefox on Debian still not "the real Firefox" in the same way Iceweasel "wasn't it" for some?

I mean, Debian is still applying those once infamous patches and stuff to it right, the only difference would be now the name and logo are unchanged.
So if I'm not missing anything who's gonna explain to the world that Debian's Firefox is still not the "real Firefox"?

:lol:

Anyway, I am kinda missing the Ice Age already, even though as a "Seamonkey-to-Iceape-and-back-to-Seamonkey" user I did my grieving some time ago.
Wow, nine year it was. :shock:
Exactly... The experience will be the same. Only political and graphical differences. :mrgreen:

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-12 23:24
by stevepusser
Since most Debian packages are patched, to be consistent, those people should also argue that Debian (and Ubuntu et al.) doesn't have the "real" versions of most anything in the repo.

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-13 01:15
by No_windows
stevepusser wrote:Since most Debian packages are patched, to be consistent, those people should also argue that Debian (and Ubuntu et al.) doesn't have the "real" versions of most anything in the repo.
That's what I was thinking. Doesn't that pretty much go for any distribution? Unless repos are directly shared, like SolydXK or Bunsenlabs use Debian repos, isn't it source code that is used by other distributions to make their version of something?

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-13 01:21
by Head_on_a_Stick
No_windows wrote:
stevepusser wrote:Since most Debian packages are patched, to be consistent, those people should also argue that Debian (and Ubuntu et al.) doesn't have the "real" versions of most anything in the repo.
That's what I was thinking. Doesn't that pretty much go for any distribution? Unless repos are directly shared, like SolydXK or Bunsenlabs use Debian repos, isn't it source code that is used by other distributions to make their version of something?
Not for Arch, most packages are supplied directly from upstream and are only patched if absolutely necessary.

I think Fedora & Slackware have a similar approach.

Re: 'Iceweasel' will be renamed 'Firefox'

Posted: 2016-03-13 09:42
by kedaha
I remembered the "real Firefox" from HowTo: Firefox, the "real" thing whence the quote:
Coco wrote:No, thanks! I want Iceweasel or nothing. You keep your Firecrap!
I for one preferred the rebranding to Iceweasel and Icedove but maybe I'm a bit of a maverick; many however will welcome the renaming back to Firefox and Thunderbird in Debian when it'll be outwardly the same as in Fedora, Ubuntu or whatever distro :( . I don't know if any users were consulted but I was surprised by the news.