Feature changed by: Robert Davies (robopensuse) Feature #312585, revision 8 Title: Iceweasel instead of Firefox openSUSE Distribution: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Important Requested by: Kim Leyendecker (openlhag) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: With the new scheme of version numbers at Mozilla (called by myself "the idiot scheme") and the result, that the add-on-developers need to do a major-port every 3-6 months, I think it's necessary to drop Firefox and set Iceweasel instead as default. Use Case: The normal firefox-user will get a more stable ff-release The user will get more add-ons because the Iceweasel is still on the 3.6.x firefox base which gets support. Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: It would be easier for us to garantee a full time support for Firefox during the whole release cycle of openSUSE 12.1 Discussion: #1: Markus K (kamikazow) (2011-06-28 16:40:31) Someone who calls others an idiot should not act as one himself/herself. Neither Mozilla's classic extension API nor the new default API (aka. Jetpack) change a lot over the releases. For classic extensions the developer usually only has to bump the version number in install.rdf. Additionally: Since Plasma Desktop is the default DE, switching to another non-KDE browser makes no sense. If anything, rekonq or Konqueror+WebKit should be default. The GNOME team could choose a "home grown" browser like Epiphany. #2: Adam Williams (whitemice) (2011-06-28 17:33:10) Firefox is the standard bearer for Open Source browsers; please don't change. I see no reason to be concerned about release numbering; those are just vanity values. The release cycle seems very much the same as used by numerous other projects. #3: Robert Davies (robopensuse) (2011-06-28 18:28:19) My Add On developers seem to have coped rather well, from 4.0, 4.0.1 to 5.0. Furthermore this browser series seems to be more stable, with fewer crashes and restarts to recover sessiosn. Going back to a re-badged Firefox 3.6 is just out of the question; the 4.0+ UI strange initially, is simply far better. #4: Stanley Miller (stan_qaz) (2011-07-04 02:30:46) Add Ice Weasel as an optional repository and see how many folks use it and how well it attracts folks to maintain it. If it is popular and well maintained after a couple of OpenSuse versions then look at changing the default. I'd bet that removing Firefox and Thunderbird as easy to select options if not the defaults would motivate a lot of folks to look elsewhere for a distribution that didn't make them jump through hoops to get what they want. #5: Jan Engelhardt (jengelh) (2011-07-17 15:56:01) While I do not agree with the versioning scheme of firefox either, picking iceweasel just because of the scheme is just a waste of time. Do you also switch away from "less" or "udev" just because they have a similarly dot-less numbering scheme? I guess not. + #6: Robert Davies (robopensuse) (2011-07-17 19:08:33) (reply to #5) + FF alpha version 7.0a2 is already stable, seems snappier using less + memory and offering features like navigation timing, friendly to + website developers. The UI has "small feature" improvements like + "http://" not being shown by default and the domain eg) opensuse.org or + gmail.com being highlighted. If this is release chaos & instability, I + like it and want more of it!! :) -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/312585