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Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives

#161

Post by KETHERCORTEX »

eduction wrote: post #84

Debian/Ubuntu is also the sole chosen distro for Spotify and Signal first-party native packages. I try to use Fedora whenever possible so have noticed that Debian tends to be the first choice, even for "client" type software, which makes sense considering the popularity and cross compatibility of Ubuntu+Debian. (You can generally still get stuff on Fedora - they do their own Firefox package of course, Signal is a fla…

> Debian/Ubuntu is also the sole chosen distro for Spotify and Signal first-party native packages.

I don't know about present, but in the past their .deb packages were updated later than the snap ones.

Re: Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives

#162

Post by mixmastamyk »

blitz_skull wrote: post #124
amiga386 wrote: post #95

I was already using the ~mozillateam PPA, because fuck Snap, but it'll be great to have an offical Firefox repository. Ubuntu, if you're listening: fuck Snap. I'm never going to use it. I stripped from all my Ubuntu machines. If you try and force it upon me, I'm moving to Debian, no matter how much hurt that causes me.

As someone who is quite new to Ubuntu, and recently just ran an install. I've seen this "snap" word thrown around and for better or worse I consider the opinion of random HN users to be better than the average opinion elsewhere on the internet. What do you dislike so much about snap? Also any tips on how one goes about purging it from their machine if they too also decide they don't like it?

The concept is fine, but implementation is quite obnoxious.

You'll have crap in your mounts list, process list, home folder, etc. As a reward for putting up with all that you'll have slower to start applications!

PPA, flatpack, and even "make install" are much more polite when you need a newer version of something, with good performance.

I recommend Mint these days. Easier than decluttering Ubuntu after every install.

Re: Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives

#163

Post by compsciphd »

lolinder wrote: post #10

> Getting the latest version with features and security fixes is key to having a good experience whenever you use Firefox. Now, our new APT repository is directly connected to the Firefox release process, so you will receive the latest updates whenever we make them available. Tip: you will still need to restart Firefox for the latest version. In the past when I've installed Firefox through a .deb, it has had this ann…

in the past, this was because firefox was very dynamic loadable (i.e. not keeping everything it needed in memory) so when you updated, you were overwriting data that it depended on.

I argued that this was a positive reason for snap (updating the image behind the scenes and only getting the new version when you restart). However, snap designers (in my not so humble opinion) missed the boat (to put it politely), as one can only upgrade a snap image when the application is not running. So one has to exit, update, wait, restart. This is missing one of the primary benefits of container based delivery for desktop applications.

Re: Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives

#164

Post by npteljes »

denebula wrote: post #127
amiga386 wrote: post #95

I was already using the ~mozillateam PPA, because fuck Snap, but it'll be great to have an offical Firefox repository. Ubuntu, if you're listening: fuck Snap. I'm never going to use it. I stripped from all my Ubuntu machines. If you try and force it upon me, I'm moving to Debian, no matter how much hurt that causes me.

What hurt do you expect from Debian? Just genuinely curious as I've daily drove since my switch and would like your perspective

I'm using Debian Testing with KDE, after using Ubuntu with KDE, and it's basically just some lack of polish, and I also sometimes miss the PPAs. (I understand that it's technically possible to use software from Ubuntu PPAs in Debian, but as I'm getting older, I prefer officially supported ways of doing things, so that I can stay on the happy path as much as possible.)

So all in all, not much of a hurt, for me at least. My home server integrations, my software and my games work just as well.

Re: Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives

#165

Post by lazyweb »

Has anyone tried mirroring their apt repo yet? Using apt-mirror on Debian stable, I'm seeing errors:

  Processing indexes: [PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPapt-mirror: can't open index packages.mozilla.org/apt//dists/mozilla/main/binary-amd64/Packages in process_index at /usr/bin/apt-mirror line 891.
Config section in /etc/apt/mirror.list:

  deb https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla main
  clean https://packages.mozilla.org
Edit - probably apt-mirror showing its age and adding a second forward slash. I'll look into it soon-ish.

Re: Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives

#166

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

lolinder wrote: post #10

> Getting the latest version with features and security fixes is key to having a good experience whenever you use Firefox. Now, our new APT repository is directly connected to the Firefox release process, so you will receive the latest updates whenever we make them available. Tip: you will still need to restart Firefox for the latest version. In the past when I've installed Firefox through a .deb, it has had this ann…

Why does this even matter, when session restore works reliably?

So reliably that from time to time, when I want to restart for some reason, I'm killing it with all 9es from some already running htop.

Klicking the icon. Yah yah yadda yarr yarr, all new, no I don't wanna sync, no tour, FO! (meanwhile disabled all that shit)

Every tab there as it was before.

Re: Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives

#167

Post by sfink »

Jach wrote: post #126
sfink wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of it more as "we compile with -O3". If you installed with the .tar.bz2, you'd get that already. If you use a 3rd party produced .deb, they might build with -O2. That's just an example; the blog is probably referring to PGO and/or LTO: profile-guided optimization and link time optimization, which require some fiddly setup that I believe third parties have traditionally not bothered with. And yes, it's all open…

Gentoo users like me fiddle with such things, they're just flags you can turn on before compiling. It's been a while since I experimented though, I didn't notice any advantage, with a disadvantage being an increase in compile time. I haven't tried on my newer machine yet though... but I suspect I wouldn't notice any difference.

In this case, it's not just a flag. Unless you're going through the Mozilla build system, in which case it kind of is. But what's actually happening is that it compiles the browser once, then runs it against some very small examples while collecting profiling data, then recompiles it while using the profiling data to guide optimization. That part about running the browser in the middle is what makes it complicated. (It can't do that when cross-compiling, for example.)

Re: Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives

#168

Post by Tijdreiziger »

Dalewyn wrote: post #149
Tijdreiziger wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The voluntary testers are the Firefox Nightly and Firefox Beta users, not the Firefox stable users.

I said involuntary testers. The guys who sign up for the nightlies and beta know full well what they signed up for, but not the involuntary testers aka "normal users".

Your premise is flawed. The testers are the Nightly and Beta users, not the stable users.

Re: Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives

#169

Post by sfink »

Aissen wrote: post #154
sfink wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see linux/aarch64 builds at https://treeherder.mozilla.org/jobs?repo=mozilla-release&sea... so it seems like they exist. Maybe they aren't packaged for apt?

They are packages by distros, but not considered a tier 1 platform by Mozilla. I didn't see those builds on your link, only android/windows/osx aarch64 builds, what am I missing ?

Oops, looks like you're right. I mixed up "Linux x64 Shippable" with AArch64.

Re: Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives

#170

Post by vanni »

morsch wrote: post #119

PSA if you want to upgrade to these from snap (and I would encourage you to do so), do your research: Ubuntu likes to replace installed debs with snaps without consulting the user and you need to configure it not to do so. And the profile folder for the snap is in a different place than for the deb, so make a copy of it etc. I'm not going into full detail as these things are easily found via Google as long as you're…

It's documented: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux#w...
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