[Linux-aus] FireFox vs IceWeasel

[Neill Cox]

Paul Wayper wrote:
> Sure, there are going to be some dedicated die-hard Free Software
> fanatics who change over to IceWeasel because they can't bear that the
> Mozilla Foundation might allow the user to use non-free plugins, and
> supply FireFox with a binary application that reports crash details.  I

[snip]

Paul,

I understood that much of the motivation for IceWeasel was that Debian
(and Ubuntu and Fedora and everybody else) cannot ship security updates to
Firefox without the Mozilla Foundation's approval.  In fact no-one can
ship anything but the unmodified "official" binaries and call it Firefox.

You might like to look at http://lwn.net/Articles/200857/ for a discussion
of the security implications of the Mozilla Foundation's trademark policy.

Personally I put Ubuntu's ability to release security patches ahead of
concerns over branding.  You're free to choose differently, that's the joy
of free software.

Cheers,
Neill

Who's off to use his coal powered computer.  Probably to find recipes for
carnivores :)