[opensuse-factory] A plan to move firefox to gtk3-based builds for Tumbleweed
Dear Tumbleweeders, As you might (or not!) be aware that upstream for firefox, the default browser on openSUSE, will be moving to gtk3 based builds by default [1] with the release of version 46.0. As of the beta-testing upstream deems their gtk3 builds to be stable enough for public consumption. However, a few bugs do persist yet [2,3] and many of them have cropped up since the launch of gtk3 3.20.x. For openSUSE Tumbleweed, which already has gtk3 3.20.2, we have to plan for how we should do this migration [0]. Since, firefox is an application with major user reach and also the default browser on openSUSE TW, this question is likely answered by playing it safe. In other words, we would probably be best served to see the fallout from upstream's switch, which will likely lead to much bug-reporting and fixing from those who do use the upstream binaries, and then make the switch for our openSUSE:Factory MozillaFirefox package when some of the dust has settled. It seems most of the gtk3 3.20 related issues are going to be fixed by upstream only for their v48 release (Aug, 2016) and that seems to me to be the best time we should make the switch to building our OSS firefox packages against gtk3 too. In the meanwhile, for the brave folks who want to give gtk3-based firefox a try, I have set up a repository [4] where these are available. Packages here will be kept in sync with those in the mozilla:Factory repository (which is the devel prj for firefox related pkgs in openSUSE:Factory), so you will be receiving all security updates at least as quickly as they land in your OSS repo (likely somewhat earlier) and the only difference will be the gtk3 base of firefox available from this repo. Really, it wouldn't be that foolhardy to give these packages a whirl. That is if you can live with minor rendering issues, etc. (I have been seeing some since making the switch myself). If you do volunteer, please report bugs and make suggestions as you encounter issues. The situation has been also wikified: https://en.opensuse.org/Firefox-gtk3 Any suggestions, comments and/or discussion welcome. Thank you very much for bearing with my rather long email. Also, a big shout out to Wolfgang, openSUSE's go to guy for all things Mozilla :) [0] Leap 42.1, older openSUSE releases will stay on gtk2. This discussion only pertains to TW users. [1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1186003 [2] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1239213 [3] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1262136 [4] http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/badshah400:/firefox -gtk3/openSUSE_Factory/ -- Atri Bhattacharya Fri 15 Apr 00:31:11 CEST 2016 Sent from openSUSE Tumbleweed (20160411) (x86_64) on my laptop. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org
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Atri Bhattacharya