Janne Blomqvist <[email protected]> wrote: > As a result of the new security policy of mozilla, that > relatively soon drops support for old releases,
I didn't note there was a new policy. Red Hat continued to backport to Firefox 1.5.x for the longest time, and didn't make the move to 3.0.x until major updates on 4 and 5, with a period of Beta test. This is also when XULRunner was segmented out, removing an inter- dependency with GNOME. I know the systems I had at the time, and the integration I was working on, benefited from not having to deal with a rebase on Firefox 2 -- which was really more experimental IMPO, and the 3.0 Betas were better (I know many people I know agreed). Understand any time Firefox is rebased, there can be _major_ integration issues with enterprise desktops. Firefox has a full object model, and can have mandatory and/or default preferences applies, including in LDAP stores (including in ADS as well, and with no more management difficult than MS IE -- long-time experience speaking here). So that must be factored in. If you're running thousands or even tens of thousands of enterprise desktops, that's an issue. ;) Mozilla is still releasing 3.5.x revisions alongside 3.6.x revisions, at least through August. I'm sure the planned end of 3.5.x had many reasons why the move was made to 3.6.4, along with many features that enterprises would like. No sense in rebasing to a release that won't be supported for some time. It's very likely 3.6.x will for some time with the focus on 4.x as the next, major release -- just like 1.5.x was. > at least Ubuntu has decided to track upstream more closely rather > than backporting fixes. See > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Specs/Lucid/FirefoxNewSupportModel > """ > In short or long term firefox is expected to move to a > changed branch policy; this most likely will involve even > shorter support for stable release branches. Numbers > discussed are: 4-6 weeks for minor security/stability > updates and 4-6 month for major version updates; at the same > time security/stability support for old branches will be > dropped. > In consequence, using our "old" way of backporting patches > for firefox becomes more and more unfeasible. The risks of > incurring distribution regressions is high, while the win is > debatable. > """ Ubuntu? Or Ubuntu LTS? Or both? Don't know what one means by "at least." It's "easier" to just rebase and forget the customers. Every rebase of Firefox could mean major changes to the object model. Now granted, the 1.5.x -> 3.0.x rebase was a major one, with a few, significant, incompatible changes in a number of key objects, and is not likely to be the same from 3.0.x -> 3.6.x. But customers pay for the ABI/API longevity of Red Hat Enterprise solutions and platform products, so anything to mitigate integration headaches for an upgrade is a value. > Does Redhat have similar plans for firefox in RHEL (and perhaps > Fedora too)? Red Hat product managers and maintainers have their policies. Your Red Hat representative is your first, best resource to get those types of questions answered -- or better yet -- help you plan your updates, upgrades and migrations. Fedora is far more likely to be in-sync with upstream. Fedora 11 and 12 shipped 3.5.x. One has to go back to 10 to see 3.0.x. Fedora 13 shipped 3.6.x. Fedora 12 has updated to 3.5.10, as 3.5.x is still being supported. Don't know what happens post-August when Fedora 12 is still being supported, but 3.5.x is not by upstream. Koji information for package Firefox: http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=37 Again, since Red Hat Enterprise Linux is an enterprise desktop solution, and deployed in mass numbers in several enterprises, changing the object model in a Firefox rebase is something that is to be avoided, despite the added headaches of backports and other details. Firefox has been rebased on 3.6.x, which is likely the last 3.x release (given current Firefox 4 developments). Again, if you have planning or other requirements for enterprise Linux desktops, contact your Red Hat representative. All people can do on here is speculate. ;) What Ubuntu, or even Fedora does, is of no consequence. Although I do see Fedora deployed in enterprises as well, but it's 2+1month EOL model (typically 13-16 months) caters well to the lifespan of upstream Mozilla releases. -- Bryan J Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance ------------------------------------------------------------ "Now if you own an automatic ... sell it! You are totally missing out on the coolest part of driving" -- Johnny O'Connell _______________________________________________ rhelv5-list mailing list [email protected] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/rhelv5-list
