Ubuntu 8.10 released but...

Scott Kitterman ubuntu at kitterman.com
Thu Oct 30 23:09:32 UTC 2008


On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:50:33 -0400 Martin Owens <doctormo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Firefox is a special case.  Because of Mozilla Corp's trademark policy 
>> Ubuntu cannot ship Firefox and call it Firefox unless Mozilla has 
approved 
>> all the changes in the package.  If you have a problem with Firefox, I 
>> think you really need to look upstream.
>
>Doesn't this tie our hands with regards to serving our users? If mozilla
>went evil and decided to ignore any bugs not found in the windows
>version. What would we do?

Switch to the unbranded "abrowser" version that we already ship.  We can 
modify that all we want, but since it's built from the same source as 
Firefox, it's not particularly feasible to diverge from the branded package 
while we continue to ship it.

>Ont he other hand for Mozilla's side, aren't they inviting forks if no
>one but Mozilla devs can fix problems?
>

We recently had a painfully long discussion on this topic and I don't care 
for doing it again.  Like it or not, their policy is what it is.

We can fix problems, we just need permission to ship the fix.  Asac and 
Ubuntu Mozillateam do a good job in a difficult environment.

Scott K




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