7 ms·

Ubuntu has decided to closely track Firefox releases because Mozilla doesn't provide security updates for older Firefox versions. I'm not sure what other softwa

by sciurus 14y ago

Ubuntu has decided to closely track Firefox releases because Mozilla doesn't provide security updates for older Firefox versions. I'm not sure what other software receives major version updates within the lifetime of an Ubuntu release (Chromium?), but it's not the norm. Debian hasn't adapted this policy yet; they still declare a version of Firefox stable and backport patches to it. They've had to switch the name and logos from Firefox to Iceweasel because Mozilla does not allow anyone to independently provide updates and still use the Firefox trademark. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Specs/Lucid/FirefoxNewSupportModel https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Specs/Lucid/FirefoxNewSu... http://wiki.debian.org/Iceweasel http://wiki.debian.org/Iceweasel

cookiecaper 14y ago
Which makes sense. If you change Firefox, it's no longer the real Firefox, it's a derivative work. Allowing derivative works to use your trademark without careful review and blessing is surely dangerous and misrepresentative.
- nash 14y ago
  Take a look at the patches that ubuntu does apply. In this case there is more than a little politics involved.
- sciurus 14y ago
  This is going off on a tangent, but in comparison to other free software projects Mozilla is unusually strict about trademarks. LibreOffice, for instance, has a policy that says You can use their trademark if you are 'substantially unmodified', which means "built from the source code provided by TDF, possibly with minor modifications including but not limited to: the enabling or disabling of certain features by default, translations into other languages, changes required for compatibility with a particular operating system distribution, the inclusion of bug-fix patches, or the bundling of additional fonts, templates, artwork and extensions)." Mike Connor from Mozilla has said that to use the Mozilla trademarks, you have to get prior approval from them for your build configuration and every patch you introduce. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?msg=74;bug=354622 http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?msg=74;bug=3546...
  - gcp 14y ago
    Does The Document Foundation receive any income from their distribution of LibreOffice?
pja 14y ago
There's an LTS Firefox version these days: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/ http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/ (I believe Debian is now basing the iceweasel browser in Debian stable/testing on this release.)

by sciurus 14y ago

cookiecaper 14y ago

Which makes sense. If you change Firefox, it's no longer the real Firefox, it's a derivative work. Allowing derivative works to use your trademark without careful review and blessing is surely dangerous and misrepresentative.

nash 14y ago
Take a look at the patches that ubuntu does apply. In this case there is more than a little politics involved.
sciurus 14y ago
This is going off on a tangent, but in comparison to other free software projects Mozilla is unusually strict about trademarks. LibreOffice, for instance, has a policy that says You can use their trademark if you are 'substantially unmodified', which means "built from the source code provided by TDF, possibly with minor modifications including but not limited to: the enabling or disabling of certain features by default, translations into other languages, changes required for compatibility with a particular operating system distribution, the inclusion of bug-fix patches, or the bundling of additional fonts, templates, artwork and extensions)." Mike Connor from Mozilla has said that to use the Mozilla trademarks, you have to get prior approval from them for your build configuration and every patch you introduce. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?msg=74;bug=354622 http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?msg=74;bug=3546...
- gcp 14y ago
  Does The Document Foundation receive any income from their distribution of LibreOffice?

pja 14y ago

There's an LTS Firefox version these days: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/ http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/ (I believe Debian is now basing the iceweasel browser in Debian stable/testing on this release.)