Firefox future in Linux Mint

[marcin1509]

Hello everyone,
Today in the Internet I saw the information about future of Firefox package in Ubuntu 21.10 and it'll be a snap. Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu obviously and has Firefox as a default browser, but snaps are not supported officially.
Are there any ideas or solutions or is it to early to say anything about that?

[xenopeek]

This doesn't affect current versions of Linux Mint, or upcoming Linux Mint 20.3. It may, if Canonical goes through with these plans, affect Linux Mint 21 mid next year. The Linux Mint developers are aware of Canonical's & Mozilla's plans so there's enough time to get something in place for Linux Mint 21 if that's needed. Currently Linux Mint already has its own Firefox package but it may need something more if Firefox is dropped from Ubuntu repository.

To assuage any worries: Canonical earlier switched Chromium to Snap, which would have made Chromium unavailable on Linux Mint 20.x unless enabling the vendor locked Snap Store. Instead, the Linux Mint developers have put time into making Chromium available as a regular package on Linux Mint 20.x. No Snap Store needed.

[MadmanRB]

Well Firefox still uses other formats like tar.gz, so it may not be that hard to convert it to a Debian package.
Also could convert the Debian sid firefox too

[ajgringo619]

To assuage any worries: Canonical earlier switched Chromium to Snap, which would have made Chromium unavailable on Linux Mint 20.x unless enabling the vendor locked Snap Store. Instead, the Linux Mint developers have put time into making Chromium available as a regular package on Linux Mint 20.x. No Snap Store needed.

It's going to get to a point where Clem will have to make a decision about what takes more time/effort - repackaging major apps whenever Ubuntu decides to remove their debs, or just abandon Ubuntu altogether for Debian. I personally have no problem with snaps/flatpaks as an additional source of packages, but they should never become the only source.

[MadmanRB]

It's going to get to a point where Clem will have to make a decision about what takes more time/effort - repackaging major apps whenever Ubuntu decides to remove their debs, or just abandon Ubuntu altogether for Debian. I personally have no problem with snaps/flatpaks as an additional source of packages, but they should never become the only source.

Yeah, but the good thing about Firefox is that it already has a precompiled package, so it should not be that hard to port it.
Again we even have a deb, the mint team could easily grab the .deb debian sid provides.

[ajgringo619]

<snip>
Yeah, but the good thing about Firefox is that it already has a precompiled package, so it should not be that hard to port it.
Again we even have a deb, the mint team could easily grab the .deb debian sid provides.

It may not be as easy as that, although I don't exactly know how they ported Chromium when this happened.

[xenopeek]

I don't exactly know how they ported Chromium when this happened.

We have a build server that compiles Chromium and then packages it. Similar would I assume be done for Firefox.

[MikeNovember]

Hi,

Firefox can be downloaded from its website, as a Linux executable in tar format. Once uncompressed, it works directly.

Firefox is also available as a flatpak (not depending on Ubuntu).

Whatever the problems with Ubuntu, and even if Mint could not include it in 21, Firefox would be available.

Regards,

MN

[JesseRBassett]

I feel we should ditch firefox for Chrome. Chrome is by far more widely used and while it has its issues, it is more secure than FF. Just my two cents.

[absque fenestris]

I feel we should ditch firefox for Chrome. Chrome is by far more widely used and while it has its issues, it is more secure than FF. Just my two cents.

Google will certainly confirm that. But wouldn't Edge be even better?
Nothing can go wrong with two giants.

[Hoser Rob]

Well Firefox still uses other formats like tar.gz, so it may not be that hard to convert it to a Debian package.
Also could convert the Debian sid firefox too

And who is going to maintain it? You? This is why snaps etc are growing so much in the first place.

[mattlach]

I feel we should ditch firefox for Chrome. Chrome is by far more widely used and while it has its issues, it is more secure than FF. Just my two cents.

It's only secure if you don't consider the data Google scrapes off the top and monetizes.

If you prefer Chrome be my guest. There is a PPA for that.

[mattlach]

Hello everyone,
Today in the Internet I saw the information about future of Firefox package in Ubuntu 21.10 and it'll be a snap. Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu obviously and has Firefox as a default browser, but snaps are not supported officially.
Are there any ideas or solutions or is it to early to say anything about that?

Big sigh.

I have a rant on this in another thread, but this whole snap/flatpak/appimage thing is a huge negative development for Linux, undoing many of its benefits as a platform.

The ONLY right way to handle packages under linux is a system wide unified package manager which manages all of the dependencies.

It's amazing the damage they are willing to do, just for some minor developer convenience.

I wonder if the Debian project will keep maintaining a Firefox package for apt, and if we ca piggy-back off of that somehow?

[pinballfan]

I think it's time for mint to become an exclusively debian version.

Well, Ubuntu is ditching 32 bit support, while Debian is keeping it, so if the next mint of Debian supports 32 bit, then it will be exclusive.

[GELvdH]

I don't like the axium.

"I feel we should ditch firefox for Chrome. Chrome is by far more widely used and while it has its issues, it is more secure than FF."

just because it is more widely used, Windows is more widely used but that does not make it better. I switched from windows like many others because Linux is better in my opinion for what I do. The bottom line is whatever works best for you not if it is more popular.

[Adam_Halverson]

If privacy and ease-of-use are both concerns to you, I highly recommend Brave Browser (https://brave.com/linux/)

I'm not even going to touch on Google Chrome or any Microsoft-based browser - you probably already know where I stand on those.

Based on breaking developments and a thorough review of the recent history of Firefox's developers - Mozilla Corporation - it has become quite obvious that they don't care about your privacy; they're bold-faced lying right to your face, when they say otherwise.

Warning: Firefox starts monitoring keystrokes, adding adverts to address bar | Reclaim The Net
https://reclaimthenet.org/firefox-ads-address-bar/

I don't wish to impose on the Linux Mint community, but I strongly suggest that LM developers reconsider having Firefox Browser pre-installed, and replacing that with Brave Browser. (Or perhaps, offer the option of both, for the sake of choice.)

[shockedquartz]

Firefox's choice to go ahead and add ads, phone-home, and location tracking into 93's "Awesome Bar" is very disheartening . I'm looking into alternatives.
Even if they are not (supposedly) sharing IP addresses [yet] with advertising partners, they do admit they're storing them. So our searches are being tracked by IP and location by mozilla. Privacy is gone. It can be abused just like the recent news of Google and the Federal BIs and search-term warrants for events in Austin TX 2018.

[xenopeek]

And with that, the topic has run its course.

The question was about Ubuntu replacing Firefox package with a snap in upcoming release, and how that would impact Firefox on Linux Mint. As explained, Linux Mint will probably make Firefox available as a normal package. Same as was done for Chromium.