Will Abrowser get phased out by IceCat eventually?
Now that Ruben is developing the GNU Icecat browser and it is a more upstream browser than the Trisquel only Abrowser, how much longer will he continue to develop both? Are both needed or will Abrowser eventually get phased out? If they choose to faze out Abrowser, hopefully IceCat can keep up with the main Firefox releases because of right now, it is two releases behind both Abrowser and Firefox.
It would be nice if Ruben's IceCat versions are pushed upstream into Debian/Ubuntu as well all users will benefit from this alternative browser.
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I think Icecat follows only LTS versions of firefox. I may be wrong..
That is correct.
On the other hand, the Mothership that is Trisquel has gone LTS only, hasn't it?
Contrary to Debian, Trisquel (and its base, Ubuntu LTS) do not only ship ESR (Extended Support Release) versions of Firefox (or whatever it is renamed). They ship all stable versions (even if Firefox's new version arrives in the middle of the development cycle of a new version of the distribution).
I would like to see Trisquel keep both, for different purposes. Personally, I like IceCat for daily browsing and most internet use, however, I prefer a separate browser for private online matters (shopping etc...), and Abrowser fits that need perfectly. Midori is too unstable still, Epiphany is average at best, it is nice having two Firefox based browsers for different purposes.
Of course, I second the notion of having IceCat become the standard browser, or at least a viable alternative for every distro. I do beleive IceCat is based on Firefox ESR. Which is for the best.
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I'd like to see Abrowser phased out and be replaced by IceCat. Personally, I'm ok with being a few versions behind Firefox (tracking ESR), but I can see how some people will like to have the latest and greatest. Ultimately, it would be nice to see IceCat keep up with Firefox releases, or maybe just stay one behind. I don't know who maintains Abrowser at the moment, but if it's Ruben, then surely it would be less effort to discontinue it and put that effort into keeping IceCat up to date. Seems like much less work for greater benefit. Win-win.
Found this response from Ruben on reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/trisquel/comments/2jxaxs/what_is_the_difference_between_abrowser_and_icecat/
I never understood the ESR releases of Firefox as newer versions add new features quickly so the web can advance in the right direction. For an OS I can understand being an LTS due to so many programs that interact with each other and potential issues if one version doesn't work with the next. Firefox makes no sense as it is one program and updating to a newer version doesn't break anything.
ESR is great for programs that want stability over latest and greatest, similar to LTS with Ubuntu, or stable with Debian, LTS with Trisquel etc...
Schools, businesses etc..., are better served with ESR, also think ESR is a better choice for Trisquel so Ruben does not have to spend so much time with the browser, smaller changes and security updates rather than dramatic changes to the look and engine.
This is where I don't understand the ESR release. In order to get security updates, someone has to go through the effort to download and install the newer ESR release. How is this any different than getting the latest Firefox?
>It would be nice if Ruben's IceCat versions are pushed upstream into Debian/Ubuntu as well all users will benefit from this alternative browser.
IceCat is free software so Debian and Ubuntu can use it already if they want. I don't know what you mean by “pushing” in this context (I know what it means in distributed version control systems).
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Debian/Ubuntu isn't really the upstream of IceCat.
IceCat's direct upstream is Firefox, which is pulled down into Debian and re-branded as IceWeasel. So for IceCat to get into Debian/Ubuntu this way, the changes would have to be accepted upstream by Firefox. They would then get pulled down into Debian Sid. I'm not sure how Ubuntu works - usually they base on Debian Testing, but I have a funny feeling that they do something wierd with the browser and use upstream Firefox directly IIRC.
What would be nice is for Debian to rebase IceWeasel on IceCat instead of Firefox. Or better yet just *use* IceCat in their distro.
They might mean the program is not in the repositorie for Debian or Ubuntu. You can download and compile or run the prepackaged version, but there are no .deb versions etc... Only trying to mind read, but thats my guess.
I think Fedora has it in their yum package manager or as a .rpm, so Blag would have it. Not sure about the others, but I know (as ex Debian testing user) that Debian does not have it.
Also, latest IceCat does not work with Debian Wheezy, some of the lib files are too new, did work well with Jessie/testing.
there are deb versions:
sudo apt-get download icecat
For Debian? If you search their repository you get:
"You have searched for packages that names contain icecat in suite(s) stable, all sections, and all architectures.
Sorry, your search gave no results"
and the same for testing. Isn't the command, apt-get install..., unless you meant aptitude download?
if you want to install the package its apt-get install
the command i posted downloads the .deb file
so you could use that in debian
with dpkg -i icecat.deb
this command:
sudo apt-get download icecat
downloads the icecat deb file and dosent install it
just make sure its the correct cpu type
e.g amd64, i386
I would also like to see this. I use Icecat as my primary browser, and it would be great to have it Updated for security.
It does get security updates; that's the whole point of Firefox LTS!
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exactly
for me I said farewell to Abrowser
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still can't find you on diaspora alimiracle.
p.s - consider abandoning gmail by switching to some decent provider as openmailbox or tutanota may be