from Hacker News

Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives

by mfsch on 1/23/24, 4:00 PM with 167 comments

by lolinder on 1/23/24, 4:54 PM
> Getting the latest version with features and security fixes is key to having a good experience whenever you use Firefox. Now, our new APT repository is directly connected to the Firefox release process, so you will receive the latest updates whenever we make them available. Tip: you will still need to restart Firefox for the latest version.
In the past when I've installed Firefox through a .deb, it has had this annoying habit of requiring me to restart my browser whenever it updates in the background. I'll be going about my day and all of the sudden every URL will redirect me to about:restartrequired [0] and I'll have to shut everything down to keep going.
It's not clear from this announcement if they've fixed that or not. If they haven't, I'll probably just continue to install Firefox from the .tar.gz files they provide [1]. If you drop them in a directory you have write permissions to, Firefox can auto-update itself the same way it does on Windows, without any forced interruptions.
[0] https://otechworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/restart-fi...
[1] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux#w...
by amiga386 on 1/23/24, 7:26 PM
I was already using the ~mozillateam PPA, because fuck Snap, but it'll be great to have an offical Firefox repository.
Ubuntu, if you're listening: fuck Snap. I'm never going to use it. I stripped from all my Ubuntu machines. If you try and force it upon me, I'm moving to Debian, no matter how much hurt that causes me.
by m45t3r on 1/23/24, 5:26 PM
This is a welcome addition for Chromebooks, because now you can install latest Firefox (not ESR) in Crostini without using Flatpak.
Sadly Mozilla still doesn't offer `aarch64-linux` builds for Firefox in their official channels, so for those that have a ARM64 Chromebook will still need to use something else to get Firefox running (I use Nix, but it needs some complicated setup to work with hardware acceleration, for example, using nixGL).
by b5n on 1/23/24, 7:16 PM
I just use whatever is in debian testing or unstable, but it's trivial to download firefox _directly_ from mozilla which will then keep itself updated to the latest version.
This just chucks firefox in /usr/local but its straightforward to edit and use ~/, opt, etc., just make sure the created symlink is somewhere in $PATH. Desktop integration will depend on your DE/WM, but should be pretty simple to figure out if not automatic.
```
    wget -O firefox-latest.tar.bz2 \
      "https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest-ssl&os=linux64&lang=en-US"
    tar xjf firefox-latest.tar.bz2
    sudo rm -rf firefox-latest.tar.bz2 /usr/local/bin/firefox /usr/local/firefox
    sudo mv firefox/ /usr/local/
    sudo ln -s /usr/local/firefox/firefox /usr/local/bin/firefox
```
by rinze on 1/23/24, 4:11 PM
As a user of the PPA packages (https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/ubuntu/ppa), now I'm confused. Are these the same packages? Should I switch? I'd have appreciated at least a mention in the article.
by eduction on 1/23/24, 7:05 PM
Debian/Ubuntu is also the sole chosen distro for Spotify and Signal first-party native packages.
I try to use Fedora whenever possible so have noticed that Debian tends to be the first choice, even for "client" type software, which makes sense considering the popularity and cross compatibility of Ubuntu+Debian.
(You can generally still get stuff on Fedora - they do their own Firefox package of course, Signal is a flatpak, etc)
by declan_roberts on 1/23/24, 6:49 PM
This is a great update from the Mozilla team! Please continue the hard work.
The only thing missing is a continued commitment to privacy and liberty.
What has changed since the infamous “We Need More Deplatforming (2021)”[1] article by CEO Mitchell Baker? I absolutely can not move past this and I think Mozilla needs to make a strong commitment to our civil rights.
1. https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/we-need-more-than-deplat...
by nairboon on 1/23/24, 5:12 PM
So, we have come full circle? There used to be a .deb repo, then there wasn't and now we have one again.
by ur-whale on 1/23/24, 4:44 PM
The missed the key 5th benefit:
Allows you to
```
    sudo apt-get purge snapd
```
without annoying unwanted consequences.
by wkat4242 on 1/23/24, 5:52 PM
Oh good!! Snap free <3
by p4bl0 on 1/23/24, 6:23 PM
Is there really a point these days in having the very last release rather than the ESR version packaged by Debian? If so what are the benefits for end users?
by diego_sandoval on 1/23/24, 6:32 PM
When I reinstall Linux Mint, I uninstall the apt package and install Firefox from the tarball using a custom script I made [1].
This way, I get the official Firefox package without Mint adding their own stuff on top of it, I get the official Firefox icon and not Mint's icon theme variation of it, I don't need to edit keyring files or import GPG keys, and it updates automatically without forcing me to restart the browser.
[1] https://github.com/sandov/sc/blob/master/install_scripts/fir...
by cricalix on 1/23/24, 7:27 PM
Huh. I just migrated off of the Flatpak to the .tar.bz2 version because I ran into the fact that the Flatpak version has no functioning mDNS resolution. The impact of that is all the stuff that expects .local to work.. doesn't. Can ping etc from shell, but Firefox just goes "Nope, no idea, doesn't exist, give up now". Lots of discussion on multi-year old bugs, but no fix that I could find. I generally solved it by doing everything on .home.arpa (and run step-ca to have TLS), but there are some things that just default to mDNS announcements and produce URLs referring to .local.
by rawfan on 1/23/24, 4:39 PM
Very welcome addition by Mozilla. Thanks!
by Aissen on 1/23/24, 5:36 PM
I have been using Mozilla builds of Firefox on Linux for years, and they tend to just be higher quality. They talk about the performance engineering that goes in the build process briefly, but IMHO stability is also improved. It's also updated on restart (see the About window), so you never get issues because changing the libs that can be dynamically loaded right from under a program is never a good idea.
My only wish would be that they finally propose official Linux/aarch64 builds, for example for Asahi Linux.
by morsch on 1/23/24, 8:38 PM
PSA if you want to upgrade to these from snap (and I would encourage you to do so), do your research:
Ubuntu likes to replace installed debs with snaps without consulting the user and you need to configure it not to do so.
And the profile folder for the snap is in a different place than for the deb, so make a copy of it etc.
I'm not going into full detail as these things are easily found via Google as long as you're aware of them.
by nequo on 1/23/24, 5:06 PM
They don't seem to be packaging the LTS version, Firefox ESR. Am I missing something? Is there a separate Mozilla repository for that?
by esaym on 1/23/24, 5:54 PM
Perhaps I'm missing something, but like 6 years ago, I downloaded firefox on linux from mozilla which came as a tar file that I extracted into my home directory and made shortcuts to. It has been working fine and auto updating ever since :shrug:
I don't see what the point of this is.

by lazyweb on 1/24/24, 3:07 PM

Has anyone tried mirroring their apt repo yet? Using apt-mirror on Debian stable, I'm seeing errors:

  Processing indexes: [PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPapt-mirror: can't open index packages.mozilla.org/apt//dists/mozilla/main/binary-amd64/Packages in process_index at /usr/bin/apt-mirror line 891.

Config section in /etc/apt/mirror.list:

  deb https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla main
  clean https://packages.mozilla.org

Edit - probably apt-mirror showing its age and adding a second forward slash. I'll look into it soon-ish.

by bee_rider on 1/23/24, 6:12 PM
I wonder if they’ll keep this up permanently.
Tempted to switch (maybe I can remove my system’s Snap infection), but redoing bookmarks and extensions (and getting my ublock config and OneTab bookmarks) is a pain. And I’ll have to figure out how to not lose my passwords this time.
What a pain.
by hysan on 1/23/24, 9:27 PM
Does FF still not use KDE’s native file picker without installing a (not readily available) package to modify it? I stopped trying to use FF on Linux a long time ago, but seeing a headline with Linux in it made me perk up.
by chrsw on 1/23/24, 5:38 PM
This seems like great news. Managing software through one distro supported interface is less mental burden on me, the user. For developers, it's more work, I get that.
by botanical on 1/24/24, 3:38 AM
Why do people have such strong opinions against snaps? I've been using it for the better part of a year and don't mind it at all. I don't understand why linux people are so strongly opinionated on things like this, it's a packaging system not a sports team. This aversion is really weird to see.
Snaps allow for the base system to be stable while having the latest version of an application in a sandbox.
by mobilemidget on 1/23/24, 6:11 PM
They write "advanced compiler-based optimizations"; I guess that doesn't fall under open source?
by Timber-6539 on 1/23/24, 6:24 PM
Takes 7 steps to install Firefox this way as opposed to apt-get install.
by aquova on 1/23/24, 5:10 PM
Is there more technical information than this article provides? Did Firefox not have a .deb package until now? It's been a few years since I used Ubuntu, but I find that really surprising. I'm not sure what this new package is or how it differs.