brianmckenna.org — Some people from GNU have forked a version of Firefox and have called it IceWeasel, they also made a few small security fixes while doing so. Great solution, right? Some people think not. Well, I?m going to try and persuade them right now. Here?s five reasons to support (and use) IceWeasel.
Oct 11, 2006 View in Crawl 4
beniOct 12, 2006
Ok, but I've got dibs on KY Sheep.
ryanjonesOct 12, 2006
@pufuwozu:1. It is really free - of the devs have that much of a problem with it why not submit the patches to Firefox directly through bugzilla? That's the whole point of it being open source - the patches could contain a security fix that could benefit all OS' not just Debian.2. Its never that easy, ever looked at what normally happens when two of Firefox's branches merge? Its normally pretty easy but sometimes its chaos and you have to remember these are almost identical - Ice Weasel and Firefox could very well becomes completely different thereby making it almost impossible to get the code bases to integrate correctly.3. People can do what ever they want with it but you need to look at this from Mozilla's point of view. Say you wrote a pierce of software, it was open source so people could download the code, modify it and re-distribute it without your permission. Your software becomes popular but you find out a company has ported the codebase while still using the same logo and name as your program. What if that copy then gets more security flaws? Are the average users going to think twice when they see "Massive security flaw found in Firefox" even though it could only be referring to Debian? No they aren't. This could potentially happen, non-official patches could open up holes and change Firefox's security record in the users eyes. it has happened before, people using Windows getting worried about a security flaw in Firefox for Linux... this would be the worst case and so its obvious that Mozilla want to avoid it.4. Once again it is completely free.5. Once again it is completely free.I think its a good idea really, if Debian's patches are bad then it won't look bad on Firefox or Mozilla because they are no longer the same thing.
0kontrol0Oct 12, 2006
Wha? No windows binary. I CAN compile it, but don't have time, sorry.
Closed AccountOct 12, 2006
I use Ubuntu.If Ubuntu automatically upgrades me to IceWeasal and Ice Weasal is the what the latest greatest firefox is, I will use Ice Weasal.If Ice Weasal is not what the the latest greatest firefox is I will uninstall Ice Weasal and go back to installing firefox myself.
burkeOct 12, 2006
Thank you!
fumanchuOct 12, 2006
First of all, I think there is a copyright issue still, with the Marvel Comics Group.Didn't "Iceweasel" battle the "Fantastic Four" back in issue 12, along about 1965?Also, @ joelhardi who asks:"Next is Thunderbird going to become Sunshine Pony?"Nope. "Sunshine Pony" is copyrighted by a porn model who specializes in cowgirl poses. ;->
dsn0wmanOct 14, 2006
I understand Debian's position, BUT please come up with a reasonable name.
spankaccountOct 14, 2006
FORK! FORK! FORK! FORK! FORK! FORK!