[SOLVED] Firefox 52 ESR end-of-life

ChuangTzu · 09-05-2018, 04:03 PM

Slackware sticks to Firefox ESR, so when 60 becomes the new ESR ergo Slackware will use it. This is nothing new, it happens every time there is a ESR switch. Not sure what all of the hubbub is about, some addons are gone, many have been ported to the new Firefox, for others alternative addons exist.

If people don't like the direction of Firefox, then contribute to it, or to Seamonkey etc... Regarding, Seamonkey, I love it, and i have my doubts about it continuing with Firefox moving on, how long can they support legacy code.....

a4z · 09-05-2018, 04:13 PM

52esr seems to be on the end with today
60.x is the current, and only, ESR

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

if people like it or not.., for the current 'stable' version it seems we are talking about an unsupported peace of software on which you can not relay anymore anyway.
so if your extensions need to change today, or tomorrow, they will have to change

bassmadrigal · 09-05-2018, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChuangTzu

Not sure what all of the hubbub is about, some addons are gone, many have been ported to the new Firefox, for others alternative addons exist.

Probably for two reasons:

Requires new compile time dependencies. Would they be added to Slackware or would you be unable to recompile your own Firefox from the source directory unless you install 3rd-party packages?
This is probably one of the most disruptive upgrades for Firefox in recent years (or maybe ever... it's been a while since I tracked Firefox upgrades). This could cause breakages for many people's workflows. (I know, I know... https://xkcd.com/1172/) Yes, there's alternatives for some addons, but generally you try to not make these kinds of disruptive changes in something that is labeled stable.

If I had to guess, I imagine this will be added to Slackware just for the security aspect of the older version being EOL, but the above situations do make this harder to know for sure.

upnort · 09-05-2018, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Slackware sticks to Firefox ESR, so when 60 becomes the new ESR ergo Slackware will use it.

In the past Pat has not always updated Firefox. For example, 14.1 is still supported but using 45.9 ESR.

Quote:

This is nothing new, it happens every time there is a ESR switch.

Unlike previous ESR versions, this version bump causes much breakage. The discussion is not about past Slackware practices or Mozilla goals. The discussion is about the breakage. While this date has long been known for EOL support for 52 ESR, that does not change the breakage. There are notable add-ons still not replaceable in 60 ESR. Tab Mix Plus for example. There are some nominal replacements, but much remains missing without that add-on. That is what the hubbub is about.

Didier Spaier · 09-05-2018, 04:49 PM

I am puzzled.

From https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/, clicking on Get Firefox 52ESR loads this page: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo...ns/all/#legacy. From there, clicking on one of the Download links starts the download of 60.2.0, instead of 52.9.0.

[rant]/me wondering: how long Firefox will be able to compete with Chromium? Maybe in a not so distant future the choice will be between chromium and lynx...[/rant]

Anyway I (and Slint) will stay with Firefox 52ESR as long as security fixes are brought to it.

abga · 09-05-2018, 04:57 PM

Here's a little bit of history around the changes Mozilla took to protect their browser and to annoy all the contributors that were developing the extensions (add-ons) and helped make Firefox so popular:
https://www.howtogeek.com/333230/why...ite-extension/

At the end there's a sheet tracking the add-ons that were ported to the new WebExtension API together with some alternatives:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...Sww/edit#gid=0

Personally, I'll loose (no alternative available) at least half of my over a dozen extensions I'm very happy with ATM in 52 ESR if I switch to 60 ESR and due to this I'm preparing to switch to Pale Moon.

bassmadrigal · 09-05-2018, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Anyway I (and Slint) will stay with Firefox 52ESR as long as security fixes are brought to it.

According to the following

Quote:

The ESR will also have a two cycles (12 week) overlap between the time of a new release and the end-of-life of the previous release to permit testing and certification prior to deploying a new version.

Now that 60.2 is out, if they follow the above, there will be no more security updates for 52ESR.

upnort · 09-05-2018, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Anyway I (and Slint) will stay with Firefox 52ESR as long as security fixes are brought to it.

My understanding is there are no further updates as of today. The Mozilla folks might make exceptions to this specific ESR release, but they have indicated for some time they want to wash their hands and butts of the legacy version.

I'll be using 52 ESR for a while. I long have configured Firefox with security related add-ons and NoScript to limit JavaSh-t. While there might be security holes with that strategy, I am not panicing. I plan to start test 60 in some earnest but I already know the journey will be frustrating because of the lack of certain add-on replacements.

The Mozilla folks handled this transition poorly. They rake in millions of dollars per year. They easily could have monetarily supported the developers of the top most popular add-ons to ensure none of this would occur. They also failed to provide in a timely manner the necessary APIs that the developers needed to convert. The Mozilla bugzilla is filled with API requests. Because of the lack of API support they should have extended 52 ESR support well beyond the usual schedule. Nope, not handled well at all.

BTW, originally they did not want to support an ESR version at all.

abga · 09-05-2018, 07:02 PM

You mean hundreds of millions. At least they could have taken some of the common used features from the add-ons and adapt/integrate them into the core or hire the developers of those popular add-ons.
https://www.computerworld.com/articl...m-browser.html

Problem with Pale Moon is that it only accepts older versions of many of the add-ons that I cannot get for Firefox 60. I can control the options for those older add-ons in Pale Moon but I'm not sure they're active and I'm not getting the add-on control buttons(icons) in the status bar.
https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19727

I was joking about using lynx, I'm starting to change my attitude and get serious about it.

jostber · 09-06-2018, 01:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abga

Here's a little bit of history around the changes Mozilla took to protect their browser and to annoy all the contributors that were developing the extensions (add-ons) and helped make Firefox so popular:
https://www.howtogeek.com/333230/why...ite-extension/

At the end there's a sheet tracking the add-ons that were ported to the new WebExtension API together with some alternatives:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...Sww/edit#gid=0

Personally, I'll loose (no alternative available) at least half of my over a dozen extensions I'm very happy with ATM in 52 ESR if I switch to 60 ESR and due to this I'm preparing to switch to Pale Moon.

That spreadsheet is useful, thanks.

NonNonBa · 09-06-2018, 03:41 AM

Our BDFL's final statement:

Code:

Thu Sep  6 05:28:05 UTC 2018
Hey folks, in light of Firefox 52.x ESR reaching EOL a few hours ago, I'm
providing some updates. This required adding Rust and a newer version of
LLVM as optional updates for Slackware 14.2. And in case it doesn't work
for you (perhaps there's an extension you need that's not supported by 60.x
ESR), the last Firefox and Thunderbird 52.x EST have been moved to /pasture
as a fallback. If there are any more updates to those (but I don't think
there will be), I'll make those updates in /pasture as well.

brianL · 09-06-2018, 04:33 AM

Mmm, just upgraded to 62.0 using latest-firefox.sh, but now I'm wondering whether to revert to the "official" ESR version(s). I'm on the horns of a dilemma (whatever breed of cattle that is

).

ponce · 09-06-2018, 04:48 AM

I'm testing 63.0bX here: if anyone wants to try it too to build it seems to require the additional cbindgen (this last compiles with "cargo build --release" and produces a single binary).

Cesare · 09-06-2018, 10:23 AM

A full upgrade to 60ESR for Slackware 14.2, including the tools to build from source, and 52ESR in /pasture for those who can't or don't want to upgrade - we couldn't have asked for more. Thanks, Pat!

Regarding the localized build... I came to the same conclusion as ponce: the way it was done is no longer supported, and I didn't manage to find another way. Documentation on this subject is hard to find and often contradicting. However, Ruario's script worked fine, so I'll stick to that for the time being.

montagdude · 09-06-2018, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by montagdude

I use Tridactyl on the latest Firefox. It's okay but definitely not as good as Vimperator.

Searching for alternatives, I also found Vim Vixen and Vimium-FF. I'm using Vim Vixen now and it seems pretty much equivalent Tridactyl. I like the search (/ key) better, though. None of the ones I've tried so far have been as good as Vimperator at displaying keyboard shortcuts to links; when there are multiple ones close together, sometimes they cover each other so you can't read one of them very well.