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Iceweasel IS Firefox

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craigevil
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Iceweasel IS Firefox

#1 Post by craigevil »

Everything including plugins, extensions, themes all work exactly the same with Iceweasel as they do with Firefox.
The Firefox useragent is already in Iceweasel since it is Firefox in all but name.
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:10.0.3) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/10.0.3 Iceweasel/10.0.3

As for Iceweasel take a look at this;

Code: Select all

craig@debian:~$ ls ~/.mozilla
extensions  firefox
There is no difference between the FF you download from Mozilla, assuming it is the same version number, and Iceweasel.

Debian just likes to close security problems a bit faster than Mozilla does.

Iceweasel - Debian Wiki : http://wiki.debian.org/Iceweasel

Mozilla Corporation software rebranded by the Debian project - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Co ... an_project

The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ - Getting and installing Debian GNU/Linux - http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debia ... datestable
2.2 Are there package upgrades in `stable'?

No new functionality is added to the stable release. Once a Debian version is released and tagged `stable' it will only get security updates. That is, only packages for which a security vulnerability has been found after the release will be upgraded. All the security updates are served through security.debian.org.

Security updates serve one purpose: to supply a fix for a security vulnerability. They are not a method for sneaking additional changes into the stable release without going through normal point release procedure. Consequently, fixes for packages with security issues will not upgrade the software. The Debian Security Team will backport the necessary fixes to the version of the software distributed in `stable' instead.
People behind Debian: Mike Hommey, Firefox/Iceweasel maintainer : http://raphaelhertzog.com/2011/02/03/pe ... aintainer/

glandium.org » Blog Archive » Facts about Debian and Mozilla® Firefox® : http://glandium.org/blog/?p=97

Debian and Mozilla - a study in trademarks [LWN.net] : http://lwn.net/Articles/118268/

Firefox Not Really Free? - InternetNews. - http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/ar ... y+Free.htm

Debian Social Contract : http://www.debian.org/social_contract

If you really want the latest and greatest version of Iceweasel follow the directions at:
Debian Mozilla team APT archive : http://mozilla.debian.net/
Which contains the current release version, Aurora, and Beta. All of which are the same versions as the equivalent version of Firefox.

Yes, you can download Firefox from Mozilla, there is no harm in doing so. If you are using 64-bit Debian you will need to install ia32-libs-gtk, and make sure you install the correct plugins for your architecture.

Switching from Debian Iceweasel to Firefox, permanently - http://techpatterns.com/forums/about1435.html
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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#2 Post by craigevil »

The above post is a lie, not only IS Iceweasel NOT Firefox, it is built on the libcairo crap that causes half of the problems you will find in the forums related to Iceweasel.

Save yourself the problems and headaches and use the REAL Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird.

h2 was right all along, and did the right thing when he switched way back in 2009.
Tech Patterns :: Switching from Debian Iceweasel to Firefox, permanently - http://techpatterns.com/forums/about1435.html

Don't believe the lies you have been told. Search Google or use any search engine and search for Iceweasel libcairo issues, Iceweasel font , etc you get the point.

Be FREE, and be true to yourself.
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cynwulf

Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#3 Post by cynwulf »

Firefox is free and open source. Which means that anyone can download it and compile it. By downloading and building firefox it doesn't make your build of firefox "not firefox".

A lot of other distros also build firefox with cairo enabled, does that also make their firefox builds "not firefox"?

The binaries from Mozilla do not have it enabled as they're built to be as generic as possible.

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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#4 Post by nadir »

Don't believe the lies you have been told by me.
corrected it for you.

Is there any reason why you lied?
And, truth to be told, at each and every occasion possible.
Does it mean the we have now to hear that "iceweasel is not firefox" at each and every occasion ? Puh...

Oh, works here, btw.

And:
iceweasel is firefox, iceweasel is not firefox... to me that really doesn't matter. It is one of the browsers available in the Debian repositories.
If one doesn't like it: don't use it. Problem solved. No need for a drama.
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62chevy
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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#5 Post by 62chevy »

nadir wrote:
Don't believe the lies you have been told by me.
corrected it for you.

Is there any reason why you lied?
And, truth to be told, at each and every occasion possible.
Does it mean the we have now to hear that "iceweasel is not firefox" at each and every occasion ? Puh...

Oh, works here, btw.

And:
iceweasel is firefox, iceweasel is not firefox... to me that really doesn't matter. It is one of the browsers available in the Debian repositories.
If one doesn't like it: don't use it. Problem solved. No need for a drama.

+1

I just deleted Firefox a week ago and now this. Well I've never had any problems with Iceweasel and plan on using it as long as I can.
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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#6 Post by ComputerBob »

@craigevil: Thanks for the info, and for being willing to correct yourself publicly. I used to manually install both FF and TB, but these forums convinced me to switch to IW and ID, even though I suspected that the latter two caused more problems than their Mozilla-branded cousins.

I think I'm going to switch back to FF and TB later this evening. Problems solved. ;)
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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#7 Post by Bulkley »

craigevil wrote:Tech Patterns :: Switching from Debian Iceweasel to Firefox, permanently - http://techpatterns.com/forums/about1435.html
The latest post in that link was dated Dec 12, 10. Is the premise still valid?

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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#8 Post by craigevil »

Bulkley wrote:
craigevil wrote:Tech Patterns :: Switching from Debian Iceweasel to Firefox, permanently - http://techpatterns.com/forums/about1435.html
The latest post in that link was dated Dec 12, 10. Is the premise still valid?
Oh YES.

Sure nothing has changed. Other than the blinders I had on have been removed.
<h2-gw> craigevil, using iceweasel in stable is a huge security hole
<h2-gw> my squeeze iw is 3.6
<h2-gw> firefox stopped security updates a long time ago for 3.6

Code: Select all

Package iceweasel

    squeeze (stable) (web): Web browser based on Firefox
    3.5.16-15 [security]: amd64 armel i386 ia64 kfreebsd-amd64 kfreebsd-i386 mips mipsel powerpc s390 sparc
    squeeze-backports (web): Web browser based on Firefox
    10.0.4esr-3~bpo60+1 [backports]: amd64 i386 kfreebsd-amd64 kfreebsd-i386 s390
    wheezy (testing) (web): Web browser based on Firefox
    10.0.4esr-3: amd64 armel armhf i386 ia64 kfreebsd-amd64 kfreebsd-i386 mips mipsel powerpc s390 s390x sparc
    sid (unstable) (web): Web browser based on Firefox
    10.0.5esr-1: amd64 armel hurd-i386 i386 kfreebsd-amd64 kfreebsd-i386 mips powerpc s390 s390x sparc 
the security patches are in the xulrunner package, so theoretically the version in squeeze is just as safe as the esr. But no one new to Debian or Linux is going to know that. Hell most people could care less.

Nadir, thanks for correcting me. :)

I should have stuck to my belief , I knew just like h2 did that Iceweasel had issues/problems that Firefox didn't/doesn't have.

A few years ago I argued over and over that Iceweasel used more ram, crashed more, had font and rendering issues that Firefox didn't have. But over time I drank the kool-aid and went along with the Debian flow, that a rose by any other name was still a rose.

h2 still won't use Iceweasel. Ikey is taking the time to build Firefox rather than use Iceweasel in Solusos. LMDE has Firefox.

While I have always had Iceweasel installed, Firefox is and has been my default browser.

Code: Select all

# update-alternatives --config x-www-browser
There are 7 choices for the alternative x-www-browser (providing /usr/bin/x-www-browser).

  Selection    Path                                   Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/bin/google-chrome                  200       auto mode
* 1            /home/craig/Downloads/firefox/firefox   100       manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/google-chrome                  200       manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/iceweasel                      70        manual mode
  4            /usr/bin/konqueror                      100       manual mode
  5            /usr/bin/midori                         50        manual mode
  6            /usr/bin/uzbl-browser                   10        manual mode
  7            /usr/bin/xlinks2                        69        manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 
My second choice is Chrome. With Midori, uzbl, and Konqueror rarely used as web browsers.
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vbrummond
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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#9 Post by vbrummond »

Building with cairo is an option when compiling firefox it is not unique to iceweasel. I could probably make iw packages with it disabled.
Always on Debian Testing

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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#10 Post by nadir »

After reading the output of craigevils update-alternatives i decided to (finally) have another look at konqueror.
Being in a no-KDE environment, it needed 180MB, but what does it matter
(i really am not very happy with the actual path of iceweasel, and epiphany seems to be even worse... uzbl otoh is a bit hard for everyday browsing)

Seems to work good.
What i fear most is proxy settings, and that seems to work (i can access tor and i2p, but i can't access the i2p-router right now...).

I am not sure about people who use KDE, but in general konqueror looks like the most underestimated web-browser out there
(or better: seldom mentioned at all).

Yup, i changed the subject... just chatting.
Before someone asks: it is not firefox. Foo shoe.
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shmerl
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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#11 Post by shmerl »

I always preferred Mozilla's build, simply because it's updated more often so you get all the needed security fixes in time, and as comes out now it's even more stable. But what exactly prevents Debian now from shipping Mozilla's build as is (besides the trademark issue, which is kind of a non issue already, but still hangs in the air). I.e. what are the technical reasons to have a customized build of Firefox in Debian, vs the stock one?

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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#12 Post by craigevil »

On a side note, OpenDNS took a crap on me today.

Since I use Google for pretty much everything I said the heck with it and switch to using Google's DNS.
Using Google Public DNS - https://developers.google.com/speed/pub ... docs/using

/etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

They already track me, so why not make it a bit easier on them.

ALL HAIL GOOGLE CREATORS OF SKYNET

Code: Select all

 dig @8.8.8.8 www.google.com.

; <<>> DiG 9.8.1-P1 <<>> @8.8.8.8 www.google.com.
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 5932
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 7, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.google.com.                        IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.google.com.         86399   IN      CNAME   www.l.google.com.
www.l.google.com.       299     IN      A       74.125.139.99
www.l.google.com.       299     IN      A       74.125.139.147
www.l.google.com.       299     IN      A       74.125.139.104
www.l.google.com.       299     IN      A       74.125.139.105
www.l.google.com.       299     IN      A       74.125.139.106
www.l.google.com.       299     IN      A       74.125.139.103

;; Query time: 37 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Wed Jun  6 20:28:26 2012
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 148
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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#13 Post by shmerl »

Can you please elaborate a bit what can you see in the answer? I'm not really sure how to interpret it.

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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#14 Post by ComputerBob »

ComputerBob wrote:@craigevil: Thanks for the info, and for being willing to correct yourself publicly. I used to manually install both FF and TB, but these forums convinced me to switch to IW and ID, even though I suspected that the latter two caused more problems than their Mozilla-branded cousins.

I think I'm going to switch back to FF and TB later this evening. Problems solved. ;)
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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#15 Post by stevepusser »

I just want to get this straight--a Firefox compiled with an internal libcairo2 library is likely to work better than one that uses Debian's system libcairo2? If so, then good, because I've been building the MEPIS version that way. I can see from the debian/rules files that the newest Ubuntu releases do build against their (patched) system libcairo2.
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cynwulf

Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#16 Post by cynwulf »

Anyone who dislikes Debian's patching of upstream software, shouldn't be using Debian (or any distro in fact...).

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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#17 Post by ghostblader »

cynwulf wrote:Anyone who dislikes Debian's patching of upstream software, shouldn't be using Debian (or any distro in fact...).
There are distros with mostly unpatched software.I think Arch is one of them.

cynwulf

Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#18 Post by cynwulf »

Arch is a rolling release, a lot of their patching (and bugs) will come from new upstream releases - ideal for those who want "the real firefox(tm)". Debian backports bug fixes from later versions with the goal of forming a "stable release". It does this with many packages, not just iceweasel. People notice iceweasel and make a big song and dance about it because they also changed the branding.

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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#19 Post by ComputerBob »

cynwulf wrote:Anyone who dislikes Debian's patching of upstream software, shouldn't be using Debian (or any distro in fact...).
Thank you for your ruling, your majesty.
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Re: Iceweasel IS Firefox

#20 Post by 62chevy »

Iceweasel works just fine for me on Stable, Sid with Gnome 3 and Sid with KDE 4.8. Adobe Flash is the only thing that gives me problems and that's why I only do manual installs and keep older versions around.

openDNS has never failed me in all the years I've used it. Never!

Google on the other hand is nothing but a company of Thugs. Stop using anything Google and Iceweasel and openDNS will work just fine.
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