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Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing?

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Ardouos
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Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing?

#1 Post by Ardouos »

I seems to leave a hole in my heart that Iceweasel will change to Firefox within the next 2-3 months?

It will behave in a similar matter so whats the difference right? I guess I am thinking too much about some software that was mainly sidestep for FOSS freedom when it was originally released.

I will miss that Iceweasel rolling around the globe in its icy wonderland making it one of the differences between a Debian system and every other system out there.

Peace.

p.s I will also not forget Icedove.
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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#2 Post by kedaha »

:( I share your view as I commented here; Iceweasel's always been for me something of a symbol of Debian's distinctiveness on the desktop system side of things.
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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#3 Post by edbarx »

No, you are not the only one, but things are changing in favour of business. Iceweasel was easy on my hardware. The new changes are already heavy for my system, and sadly, are reminding me of my MS Windows experience some ten years ago. If Firefox becomes too heavy for my system, I will have to dig into my pockets to purchase a new computer just for the sake of satisfying the unsatiable.

GNU/Linux is no longer oriented to its users, but rather, to those who make business selling and setting up Linux machines.
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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#4 Post by spacex »

Don't know. But me not sad at all. But it would make even more sense to switch to Chrome.

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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#5 Post by edbarx »

Iceweasel morphing into Firefox is a serious problem for all those who use not-so-recent-hardware. The estimated life of a new computer is often around 2 or 3 years which is too short when the price of a new decent computer is considered. Taking my case for instance, I have to always opt for large displays and low electricity consumption, therefore I opt to use a big screen laptop. The reason for opting to use large screens is I need to be able to read text for long periods of time, and I cannot print all programming code that I see on screen.

Sadly, the advantages we ripe Linux users used to boast about, are gone. GNU/Linux is becoming to be bloated like MS Windows requiring a very large RAM, a powerful GPU and a similarly powerful CPU. The days one could use a desktop like KDE, GNOME, and now also XFCE without noticeable time lags on older hardware are gone. On this machine, XFCE 4.10 takes a noticeable time to only load its desktop.
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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#6 Post by woteb »

I also noticed that Iceweasel becomes very heavy. Since two months I use Pale moon as a very pleasant altarnative. A lot faster and I use the old ~/.mozilla directory.
Edbarx, you're right that Linux slowly is transforming from userbase to businessbase. Quite a pity to see that.

On the other hand, one of my laptops is only 2 GB of RAM. This laptop runs extremely fast on Openbox with Lxpanel and Rox as desktop manager. A lot faster than the brand new Windows HP desktops on my work with Windows 7 enterprise.
This post is written on a HP Laptop with 4 GB of RAM with the XFCE4 desktop on Jessie 64 bits. Also very fast with Palemoon.
All my laptops > 5 years of age.
Last edited by woteb on 2016-03-19 20:42, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#7 Post by Innovate »

Do anyone even realize that Iceweasel is based on Firefox ESR not Firefox Stable.
https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=iceweasel
If you look carefully all package names are Firefox ESR.
Just like Tor Browser & Icecat that based on Firefox ESR not Regular Stable
That's mean they're just rename Firefox ESR mess up with "Firefox Stable" in a name. :|

Everybody knows that ESR is long term support firefox which update slow ring
than regular Stable release that update so fast.

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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#8 Post by Crewp »

Will use Pale Moon on the older rigs, FF is to heavy on resources.

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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#9 Post by stevepusser »

I set up a repo on the OpenSUSE Build Service that builds Pale Moon packages from source for Debian 7 and 8, as well as for Ubuntu. Pretty much like a PPA, but much easier for a Debian user to set up.

https://software.opensuse.org/download. ... e=palemoon
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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#10 Post by kedaha »

stevepusser wrote:I did set a repo on the OpenSUSE Build Service that builds Pale Moon packages from source for Debian 7 and 8, as well as for Ubuntu. Pretty much like a PPA, but much easier for a Debian user to set up.

Thanks for that; I've just installed it and note its snappiness with the limited ram on my rig.
It's very likely just my imagination but seems it finds me some better search results too.
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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#11 Post by anticapitalista »

On my desktop (running antiX-sid), palemoon is actually slower and more RAM intensive than iceweasel (and now firefox).
Anyone else seeing this?
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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#12 Post by No_windows »

edbarx wrote:Iceweasel morphing into Firefox is a serious problem for all those who use not-so-recent-hardware.
How? Debian Iceweasel is Mozzila Firefox with out the Firefox branding.

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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#13 Post by HuangLao »

Glad Firefox is coming. I would also like to see Debian add IceCat and Seamonkey.

I use firefox/iceweasel on desktop and seamonkey on laptop.

Xfce is plenty light on Debian, it is heavier on other distros but thats because of other services running in the background. Right not I have a stock Debian 8 Xfce (task and all) running with Iceweasel (one tab), Claws-Mail, keepassx and htop and its only using around 520-530 mb or 8GB of RAM and between 5-12% CPU, keep in mind thats also with firewalld/applet running.

I also suggest the mighty fluxbox, which gets RAM on this rig down to 300 MB and about 0-2% CPU with the same programs running.

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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#14 Post by HuangLao »

anticapitalista wrote:On my desktop (running antiX-sid), palemoon is actually slower and more RAM intensive than iceweasel (and now firefox).
Anyone else seeing this?

I've noticed the same before.

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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#15 Post by PhilGil »

I'm don't understand why users would find Firefox heavier than Iceweasel. With the exception of the branding and a few Debian patches they're the same code base, the versioning is identical, the profile folders are interchangeable. I assume Debian will ship with the ESR version of Firefox so the only thing that will change is the branding.

I'll miss Iceweasel too, but eliminating the rebranding will free up the Mozilla team for more important work and maybe allow them to push out updates in a more timely manner.

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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#16 Post by edbarx »

HuangLao wrote:Xfce is plenty light on Debian, it is heavier on other distros but thats because of other services running in the background. Right not I have a stock Debian 8 Xfce (task and all) running with Iceweasel (one tab), Claws-Mail, keepassx and htop and its only using around 520-530 mb or 8GB of RAM and between 5-12% CPU, keep in mind thats also with firewalld/applet running.
Performance, including speed, depends on hardware, especially the CPU and RAM. A performance comparison without clear reference to hardware type and generation is meaningless. The fact that you are saying there are 8 GB in your system suggests that your system is quite powerful. My post describes the performance on a T4400, 2 GB DDR2 based system. Should I take your post to indicate that hardware like mine should be discarded and thrown into the bin?
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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#17 Post by Ardouos »

If it helps in any way, my work laptop is a Dell latitude d520 with an Intel duo core with 2 gb of ram. It seems to run Iceweasel quite well. I user a window manager over a DE though.

The stability of Firefox on that laptop depends on how heavy it gets after future development.
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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#18 Post by HuangLao »

edbarx wrote:
HuangLao wrote:Xfce is plenty light on Debian, it is heavier on other distros but thats because of other services running in the background. Right not I have a stock Debian 8 Xfce (task and all) running with Iceweasel (one tab), Claws-Mail, keepassx and htop and its only using around 520-530 mb or 8GB of RAM and between 5-12% CPU, keep in mind thats also with firewalld/applet running.
Performance, including speed, depends on hardware, especially the CPU and RAM. A performance comparison without clear reference to hardware type and generation is meaningless. The fact that you are saying there are 8 GB in your system suggests that your system is quite powerful. My post describes the performance on a T4400, 2 GB DDR2 based system. Should I take your post to indicate that hardware like mine should be discarded and thrown into the bin?
Not at all edbarx. I love old pc's, preference is off lease business computers from tigerdirect. this rig is a HP dual core 800mhrz, AMD Athlon II 64 with 8gb ram. Not powerful at all, and about 5 years old. My wifes laptop (also Debian 8 ) is an old Gateway Intel, 32 bit, single core 1.3 ghrz (I think) with 2gb DDR2 ram, and somewhere around 8 years old. She prefers Seamonkey on there, and only uses Iceweasel for secure sites, shopping etc....

Debian is great at rescuing older/old hardware. Im all for it!

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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#19 Post by spacex »

My 15+ year old Toshiba Satellite is still going strong. Upgraded to 2 GB RAM. Fast and furious. But it isn't my main pc though. But I find it fun to keep it alive as long as possible. Actually, there you reminded me. It's been a while since I tried it. I think I have to dig it out. I'm kind of nostalgic about it. Because it wasn't my first pc, but it was my first laptop :)

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Re: Am I the only one that is sad that Iceweasel is changing

#20 Post by HuangLao »

fire that bad boy up spacex...from a safe distance on non static surface with nothing flammable nearby.... :lol:

nothing like bringing life back to them....[insert stevepusser avatar here]

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