this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] pnutzh4x0r@lemmy.ndlug.org 52 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Would to see them publish stable releases via this apt repository as well.

[–] otl@lemmy.sdf.org 37 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Looks like that will happen later. From Mozilla's original article:

Following a period of testing, these packages will become available on the beta, esr, and release branches of Firefox.

[–] pnutzh4x0r@lemmy.ndlug.org 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I read that, but I don't know if that means they will publish stable releases via the same repository. That just sounds like the packages themselves will end up being in those channels (which makes sense, nightly becomes beta, which becomes a release, which ends up as esr). It doesn't necessarily mean this apt repository will be a release channel itself.

That said, there is the Mozilla Team PPA.

[–] otl@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 year ago

Ah yes good point. Fingers crossed.

[–] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago
[–] PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Take that Ubuntu and your PPA that use to not drive people to your snap package!

[–] otl@lemmy.sdf.org 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Good to see development effort going towards actual Firefox and not those random Mozilla products that I can't keep track of

[–] dan@upvote.au 27 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Do you mean products like their VPN? They really need the revenue to try and become more independent from Google. Right now something like 90% of their income comes from a deal with Google to make Google the default search engine.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

They should make a search engine. If Kagi can do it, why can't Mozilla? Because it would upset Google...

There is no real competition. Google has mozilla in a strangehold and they are fine for mozilla to do privacy stuff, but not fine with them competing for real.

[–] Spectacle8011@lemmy.comfysnug.space 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They should make a search engine. If Kagi can do it, why can’t Mozilla?

The biggest provider of Kagi's results is Google. They are unique in that they have their own Tinygem and Teclis indexes to augment results, though. Mozilla could certainly operate a plain Google proxy like Mullvad does with Leta, but I don't think they'd be making more money out of it than just agreeing to Google's exclusive terms.

Building a search engine with an independent index is hard. Mojeek has done the best job of it, but you can tell there's a disparity in result quality even if they're improving.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yes I know, but users may pay mozilla for added privacy, just like they are paying Kagi now for privacy and extra features on top of Google.

But you are right, they are still depending on the monster that is Google.

I would be interested in seeing Mozilla invest in making Mojeek better. I think they could be a good match. An independent browser engine and an independent search engine. On the other hand, I don't want Mozilla to acquire them and kill them a few years later. Their short attention span is one quality I wish they hadn't cribbed from Google.

A search engine is an interesting idea, but:

  1. it needs to be independent. Mozilla can't be depending on Google or Bing. After Bing got what they wanted, they started choking their proxies by pushing prices up substantially. Depending on Google is a similar folly.
  2. they need to be committed to it. This isn't some project Mozilla can cook up in three or four years and abandon two years later. It needs to be a long-term strategy with hundreds of millions of dollars invested.

That's why I think Mojeek could be a shortcut. But either way, I don't think Mozilla has the bandwidth (or guts, frankly) to commit to this sort of project.

But you are right, they are still depending on the monster that is Google.

And as long as you're depending on them, you might as well take as much as you can.

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[–] 1984@lemmy.today 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] 1984@lemmy.today 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

After the disaster with colorways, mozilla has picked up the pace and started being sane again.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 2 points 1 year ago

Sorry for commenting on my own post, won't happen again.

:)

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

kinda wish they would put nightly on fdroid too instead of just google play or through the website

[–] twei@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

Doesn't Firefox use GCM? I think fdroid doesn't allow apps that use that

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You don't even build from source?

What kind of Linux users are you?

[–] kogasa@programming.dev 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Never built Firefox from source but Chromium takes way longer than the kernel for me. Like half an hour on a 5800x3D. Bit much for nightly updates.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 8 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


While Mozilla has always produced Firefox Nightly builds for Linux as traditional binaries, they have finally decided to offer up an APT repository of Firefox Nightly builds to make it easy to stay up-to-date with new Firefox Nightly releases on Debian and Ubuntu Linux based distributions.

Mozilla announced today they have setup an APT repository as an easy option for using Firefox Nightly on Ubuntu/Debian-based platforms.

The Firefox Nightly Debian packages will also see better performance thanks to extra compiler optimizations, additional security hardening with extra security-related compiler flags, and easily stay up-to-date now via the APT package management.

Eventually the packages will become available for Beta, ESR, and release branches of Firefox from this APT repository too.

More details on this long overdue Firefox APT repository via Mozilla.org.


The original article contains 129 words, the summary contains 129 words. Saved 0%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] Forcen@lemmy.one 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Some day they will offer linux version that you can download from from the website and install without using terminal.

[–] dino@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

Appimage? So we go behave like windows users?

[–] samc@feddit.uk 0 points 1 year ago

Whilst I agree that that's a nice option to have (more options are usually better!) I've come to love the linux way of distribution via repositories. These days I barely use the cli too: GNOME software and KDE's Discover are great. Perhaps an official nightly flatpak would be best?

[–] dino@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

So how many debian packages with firefox are now available? debian sid, stable, testing & firefox nightly?

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