RFC: Switch to Firefox and a 1.5 GB image

[Pali Rohár]

On Monday 05 December 2011 21:37:40 Felix Geyer wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'd like to propose switching to Firefox as our default browser.
> 
> We have discussed switching to a different browser more than once in
> the past. I think the arguments against it were "let's give rekonq a
> try and see how it evolves", "we prefer KDE applications" and "no
> space on the CD image".
> At the same time we provide a Firefox installer in the Kickoff menu.
> Isn't that already a strong indication that we should really switch to
> Firefox if possible? :-)
> 
> So here are my arguments why we should switch:
> 
> - I'm worried about the security support of rekonq + QtWebkit.
>   Firefox and Chromium regularly provide security updates while
>   there were none for QtWebkit. I find it hard to believe that
>   it doesn't have any vulnerabilities. In fact the security tracker [1]
>   lists many webkit CVEs.
> - I think rekonq is not stable enough, i.e. it crashes too often.
> - The browser is the most important application so we should provide
>   the best solution available for Kubuntu and not limit ourselves to
>   "KDE-native" applications.
> - The Firefox KDE integration works very well now so we have KDE
>   file dialogs and correct file type associations.
> - It should be obvious that Firefox has superior features. Just think
>   about bookmark and history syncing and the vast amount of extensions
>   available.
> 
> Some may prefer Chromium over Firefox but that isn't in the Ubuntu main
> component so we'd have to convince the MIR team [2]/Canonical to
> guarantee support for the package.
> 
> Firefox requires approximately 20 MB on images. This is too much
> for our 700 MB CD image. Thus I propose that we switch to a 1.5 GB
> USB/DVD image that includes everything on the CD + Firefox + more
> language packs + maybe a few more applications. This also means
> dropping our current DVD image which is imho of very limited use
> anyway [3].
> We would still provide a CD image with rekonq and a very limited set
> of languages (probably just one).
> 
> What are your opinions?
> 
> Felix
> 
> 
> [1] http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-security/cve/main.html
> [2] MIR approval team: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mir
> [3] It contains the live CD image and an alternate image with all KDE
>     SC packages. Who seriously wants all those packages on his/her system?

Firefox does not support storing passwords in KWallet. And I think this is 
needed for default browser.

-- 
Pali Rohár
pali.rohar at gmail.com
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kubuntu-devel/attachments/20111205/b8fa9483/attachment.pgp>