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March 2017

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[opensuse-factory-mozilla] Planning for Firefox on openSUSE
by Wolfgang Rosenauer 29 Mar '17

29 Mar '17

Hi, not sure how many people still are on that list but before I post more on opensuse-factory@ I'd like to share my thoughts here. As you probably are aware there are major changes planned for Firefox since quite some time which are now executed upstream as Firefox 52(esr) was published. e.g. - removal of the NPAPI interface (plugins) - requirement of Rust to compile FF components - switch from Gtk2 to Gtk3 (which already was done a few releases ago upstream) - usage of Rust will be mandatory starting with Firefox 54 (still optional for FF 53) - Gtk2 is dropped completely for FF53 - Gtk3 builds has at least some user impact on systems with strange dpi apparently http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1022830 Currently not sure if there is more relevant impact though. Now this has some impact on how to maintain and update Firefox on the different openSUSE flavours which are still active: Leap 42.1 Leap 42.2 Leap 42.3 (to come) Tumbleweed So let me dive into the different versions and elaborate my current plans which are still open for discussion: Leap 42.1 - only maintained until May - has no rust components at all - Gtk3 is slightly older - got Firefox 52.0.1 at the moment -> we could update to 53 max but would need to introduce Gtk3 -> I'm planning to provide 52ESR starting with next cycle for 42.1 until it is out of maintenance Leap 42.2 - has rust but too old - Gtk3 should be fine - got Firefox 52.0.1 at the moment -> we could update with some headaches by bringing newer rust to 42.2 in worst case with every new Firefox cycle; we would need to introduce Gtk3 version though within the 42.2 cycle -> I tend to switch to 52ESR for 42.2 instead of adding the rust burden now for 42.2 Leap 42.3 - has rust - Gtk3 should be fine - got Firefox 52.0.1 at the moment -> the rust maintenance and update cycles are probably a pain; we could switch to Gtk3 and use a minor release as "excuse" -> I think we need to go for the non-ESR version as we cannot circumvent it during the lifetime of 42.3 in any case since ESR releases usually have a lifetime of a year and 42.3 will exceed this; going ESR could still be an option to ease the rust update pain and especially with the funeral of NPAPI plugins it could be wise to keep 52ESR longer on Leap 42 until as long as possible (until 52ESR is unmaintained upstream) For this I really like to seek feedback since I'm undecided here. The rust burden is someone else's work as well and it would need to be agreed upon Tumbleweed - is new on any component anyway -> plan to follow normal upstream releases as close as possible when done so I expect some delay until new releases (including security fixes) will hit Tumbleweed as it is usually harder to integrate with a moving target for the Firefox package (recently learned with 52 on TW) and ESR will be a second Firefox package to be updated at the same time for Leap releases. It will also most of the time require an up to date rust package set and in case this is behind for some reason it might delay Firefox Please send your feedback. I will wait for any input before I plan to announce this on opensuse-factory@ or other channels for broader audience. Wolfgang -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory-mozilla+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory-mozilla+owner(a)opensuse.org

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