Root of the problem is Mozilla.org is Windows centric [LWN.net]

Root of the problem is Mozilla.org is Windows centric

Posted Jun 7, 2006 21:58 UTC (Wed) by jmorris42 (subscriber, #2203)
In reply to: Move to a portable app model by h2
Parent article: The problem of Firefox in Ubuntu Breezy

> Yes, this is discussed frequently, it's a big problem for debian,
> firefox/mozilla just doesn't play well in this environment. Part of the
> problem is that the biggest firefox installed base is windows,

Exactly. Mozilla.org has never really cared about the needs of the UNIX/Linux ports, only about Windows. This has only grown worse since they became attached to the cashflow from Google.

Generalizing your statement I'd say Mozilla products doesn't play well in enterprise environments period. Enterprise users value stability, reliability and long well established service cycles over new shiny features. Note that Debian and Ubuntu aren't alone in being abandoned by Mozilla.org. See the annoucement yesterday that RHEL3 is dumping Mozilla for Seamonkey for the same loss of upstream errata problems.

Personally I think dumping Firefox from any stable release is something to consider given their stated positions on errata. Too bad there isn't any viable replacements. There is a lesson here about over dependence on a single point of failure, especially one that makes no bones about our preferred platform being an afterthought. Suspect they would just drop the Linux & UNIX ports to shut us up is they didn't know it would just cause a fork, or worse, a whole new browser project.

Or perhaps the idea in the original post should be looked into, having the major distros share the burden of doing their own security patches has merit. This would probably require Mozilla.org to at least be willing to share details on the security issues though.

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Root of the problem is Mozilla.org is Windows centric

Posted Jun 7, 2006 22:25 UTC (Wed) by h2 (guest, #27965) [Link]

While not disagreeing with your points, it's also important to keep in mind that firefox basically singlehandedly kept the internet free. MS was VERY close to forcing us into an active x powered web, with MS created standards, vbscript, you name it. We went from there to the new msn search site being done in xhtml 1.0 strict, quite a leap in my opinion.

So I have to cut mozilla some slack in these areas.

The enterprise points are true, but will evolve over time I think, realistically, linux on the desktop is still at a very early phase in most parts of the world, despite many well publicized victories.

I know at least one major issue with 1.5 on linux came because the main developer worked on gnome, not kde. And it shows. Hopefully the portland stuff will standardize the external features like file dialogues etc to the desktop that is running it.

I also know that firefox and thunderbird made my switch from windows to linux much easier, since my most commonly used apps were there, with the same extensions and bookmarks etc, it wasn't nearly as big a jump as it would have been.

So it's improving.

Given the current cash flow of mozilla firefox, it might not be a bad idea to start putting some of those resources towards things like paying people do to really boring work like patching old versions. That's just not something most volunteers have any interest in doing.

Re the enterprise, also keep in mind, msie, while very well supported version to version over time, made massive jumps, from 3 to 4 to 5 to 5.5 to 6, in about 5 years. Each was a huge change, especially 4 and 6. It was only because MS believed that they had locked in the market that they stopped active development until competition from firefox forced them to reluctantly restart the ie team for ie 7. Which will also break a lot of compatibilities.

Given the speed of change of the web, and the fact that security vulnerabilities can and will be found, it might be that the stable distros and mozilla might need to bend a little bit towards each other.

Root of the problem is Mozilla.org is Windows centric

Posted Jun 7, 2006 22:45 UTC (Wed) by iabervon (subscriber, #722) [Link]

To be fair, the autoupdate of firefox actually works amazingly well on Linux. I'm running a copy of firefox that I downloaded and untarred in a random subdirectory of my home directory, and symlinked into ~/bin, and it's autoupdated (when I decided to take the update) multiple times, having detected by itself that a new version is available. I don't think I've seen any other software for any operating system that's been able to upgrade itself without being installed.

Mozilla doesn't play well with system updates, but it's essentially to the point where it's not necessary for systems to deal with it at all, since users could just take care of it independantly.

Root of the problem is Mozilla.org is Windows centric

Posted Jun 9, 2006 12:42 UTC (Fri) by louie (subscriber, #3285) [Link]

This would all be well and good *if nothing depended on firefox*. But from day one firefox has also been sold as a platform for people to develop on. And that will never happen in any large-scale way with their cavalier attitude towards API/ABI compatibility and upgrades.

Root of the problem is Mozilla.org is Windows centric

Posted Jun 8, 2006 13:27 UTC (Thu) by arcticwolf (guest, #8341) [Link]

You don't seem to understand the purpose of enterprise distributions.

The whole *point* of these is that users (i.e., the companies using them, not the individual employees and end users) can be confident that things do not randomly change when they install updates for the distro.

Anyone who wants newer software versions can upgrade to a newer RHEL (or whatever); but those who'd rather stay with the versions they are already using and which they know work should not be forced to upgrade. New features and changes always have a chance to contain nasty surprises, and that's exactly what you don't want in these situations.

Root of the problem is Mozilla.org is Windows centric

Posted Jun 8, 2006 18:57 UTC (Thu) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501) [Link]

However an ancient SpamAssassin is much less effective at killling spam. Upstream keeps changing the format of the database, so you can't use a recent rules set with an old SpamAssassin. Many spammers have already adapted to that old version.

I also wonder what about security holes in the version of Mozilla included in RHEL 2.1 (or is it actually Netscape 4? )

Root of the problem is Mozilla.org is Windows centric

Posted Jun 9, 2006 17:34 UTC (Fri) by djao (subscriber, #4263) [Link]

Nothing in the world is preventing you from upgrading to the DAG repository's spamassassin-3.1.2-1.el3.rf.i386.rpm, which, although distributed by a third party, is specifically designed to be compatible with RHEL3.

You can sync to the DAG repository using your choice of apt, yum, up2date, or just use plain command line rpm.

A stable distribution using a backport policy gives you the option of remaining with the previous version. This does not in any way prevent you from upgrading to a new version yourself -- you have the option of doing either. By contrast, a distribution which tracks the upstream releases does not give you that option. Many people much prefer having the ability to choose. This is the main reason why backport policies are popular.

If you don't like having the option of going either way, you are always free to choose (!) a distribution like gentoo or fedora that tracks upstream releases closely.

Root of the problem is Mozilla.org is Windows centric

Posted Jun 9, 2006 23:29 UTC (Fri) by gerv (subscriber, #3376) [Link]

> Exactly. Mozilla.org has never really cared about the needs of the
> UNIX/Linux ports, only about Windows.

That's demonstrably rubbish. Many of the developers use Linux, and it's a Tier 1 platform for us (along with Windows and Mac OS X) which gets full support and simultaneous release. And I don't see the supposed connection with Google which was implied by your cheap shot; perhaps you could elaborate?

> Mozilla products doesn't play well in enterprise environments period

That's not surprising; Firefox is not after the enterprise market. If enterprise distro makers want to use our codebase to make something for the enterprise, they can, but they may need to spend those lovely enterprise subscription fees on doing some work on it.

> See the annoucement yesterday that RHEL3 is dumping Mozilla for Seamonkey
> for the same loss of upstream errata problems.

This seems entirely reasonable to me. Mozilla is an end-of-lifed product; Seamonkey is the community continuation. Props to the Seamonkey folks for doing a professional enough job that RHEL have come knocking.

> This would probably require Mozilla.org to at least be willing to share
> details on the security issues though.

There are many distribution representatives on our security email lists, including people from Debian (don't know about Ubuntu off the top of my head, but I'd be surprised if they weren't). Applicants from other distros should contact Dan Veditz.

Gerv