Linux for the masses

Story: Debian 8.0 Cinnamon Screenshot TourTotal Replies: 10
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kikinovak

Apr 27, 2015
5:10 PM EDT
Debian always manages to get that special "east german" look out of the box for every desktop environment.

:o)
seatex

Apr 27, 2015
5:57 PM EDT
I've been toying with Debian 8 the past couple of days. Yes, kiki, it certainly has that "east german" flair.

I am also playing with Q4OS 1.2, based on Debian 8 with the Trinity DE. It is very nice for the footprint and low system requirements.

But the biggest beef I have with Debian is Iceweasel, Icedove, Iceowl, and Iceape. Debian really needs to loosen its requirements on free licenses and bans on trademarked artwork - it's ridiculous.

We should be able to download the latest Firefox version 37.02, as well as the other latest Mozilla apps easily. The Iceweasel version they include is 31.6! Some websites will refuse to work with it because it's so dated now. And this is a new release!
jdixon

Apr 27, 2015
9:00 PM EDT
> But the biggest beef I have with Debian is Iceweasel, Icedove,...

Then talk to the Mozilla folks, not Debian. Debian isn't the one who set the rules.

Of course, ever since the Eich affair, my conversation with the Mozilla folks has consisted of two words, which can't be repeated on this site.
seatex

Apr 27, 2015
9:21 PM EDT
> Then talk to the Mozilla folks, not Debian. Debian isn't the one who set the rules.

I wasn't aware of that. This is all it says on the Debian Wiki:

What is Iceweasel?

Iceweasel is a fork [from Firefox] with the following purpose :

1. backporting of security fixes to declared Debian stable version.

2. no inclusion of trademarked Mozilla artwork (because of #1 above)

Beyond that, they will be basically identical. (quoting Roberto C. Sanchez post in debian-devel mailing list)
jdixon

Apr 27, 2015
9:35 PM EDT
> I wasn't aware of that. This is all it says on the Debian Wiki:...

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation_software_re... and http://n01getsout.com/blog/2006/11/18/why-iceweasel-instead-... for some background. I'm sure a quick search will turn up lots of other discussions.
seatex

Apr 27, 2015
9:52 PM EDT
> jdixon

Well, I wish Debian would just leave it as Mozilla intended it, like every other distro does. If they have to fork it, they should at least keep it updated for the safety and convenience of their users.
seatex

Apr 27, 2015
9:53 PM EDT
Other than the issue with out-of-date web-facing apps, Debian 8 seems pretty solid to me after a couple of days use.
ljmp

Apr 27, 2015
10:10 PM EDT
Iceweasel is just branding -- it's not a fork -- there's no actual difference beyond the icon, the name, and the user agent. If you want to run FF branded as FF, just download the binary.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/

It runs fine on Debian without any modification, or new libraries, or what have you...

I agree with Debian -- but also with Mozilla... the branding is important, but freedom from (tm) is too...

I mostly run Debian [stability is more important than latest release IMO] -- and the user agent has only been a problem on 2 or 3 sites. For those sites, changing the user agent is very easy.

---

seatex wrote:out-of-date web facing ... pretty solid...


That's the point of Debian. It's not out-of-date. It's stable. Kind of like a 'cozy' house is a neatly kept small house.

If you want the latest software, run Ubuntu and fill sources.list with PPAs.

Although, I hear Debian is heading toward PPA support --- hopefully not because of a lack of package maintainers.
jdixon

Apr 28, 2015
7:05 AM EDT
> I agree with Debian -- but also with Mozilla... the branding is important, but freedom from (tm) is too.

Exactly. And for Debian, freedom trumps branding. Like it or not, that's what Debian is. If you don't like it, you should probably look at Ubuntu or Mint.
750

Apr 28, 2015
2:54 PM EDT
> Exactly. And for Debian, freedom trumps branding.

Maybe for the old Debian, but there seems to be a new Debian going around these days...
jdixon

Apr 28, 2015
7:09 PM EDT
> Maybe for the old Debian, but there seems to be a new Debian going around these days...

Possibly. Everything changes over time. But assuming I know what you're talking about, they've got a long history of making stupid decisions and eventually correcting them. Let's give them time to work this one out.

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