Ubuntu
firefox-3.0 package

what is the firefox on hardy support plan?

Asked by Paul Perkins

Mozilla stops supporting Firefox 3.0 next month (January 2010). So, no more security patch updates from them. But Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron is still supposed to be supported much longer, its LTS successor is not even released yet. So is Ubuntu going to take over security patching of FF 3.0 themselves, switch to 3.5 as the official Hardy Heron FireFox, or hope all their "stable" version customers don't mind running an insecure web browser for a year or so, or what?

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#1

Maybe in 8.04.4.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardyReleaseSchedule

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#2

http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/pending-sru.html
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/

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Soul-Sing (soulzing) said : 		#3

No, canonical will always release security updates, also for firefox! Afaik via the regular sec. updates, if canonical comes with the newest firefox within 8.04.4 is still questionable....
if you want to install the newest firefox next to the "old"one.: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/firefox
update this version with: gksudo firefox===>and via the updatemanager inside firefox.

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Paul Perkins (catmatist) said : 		#4

None of these links contain anything that answers the question for me.

To this point, security updates to FireFox 3.0.x in Ubuntu 8.04 have been based on security updates from upstream (Mozilla project). But as I understand it, the stream of security updates from upstream is about to stop. In theory, the Ubuntu organization could create new security updates to FireFox itself, but in practice, that is the kind of work that Ubuntu usually finds a way to avoid.

Note that I am not asking for FF 3.5 in Hardy, I just want to know what the plan is. Surely there IS a plan somewhere! In the real world, "stable" does not mean "old", it means "no surprises".

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Soul-Sing (soulzing) said : 		#5

I did ask this via freenode: #ubuntu-mozillateam. Moment.....

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Soul-Sing (soulzing) said : 		#6

team confirmes as said by you: " Firefox 3.0.x will be EOL'd by upstream soon (January)"

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#7

This why I was speculating 3.5 might come with 8.04.4, according to release schedule 'January 21st?'.
The other links can be used for monitoring what's in the pipeline.
As Paul says they've got to have a plan ;-)
Although, it'd brake the rules 'no new versions - only sec updates or bug fixes'; hence maintainers might proceed to patch it.
Next newsletter will be on January 3rd, 2010:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter

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JimP (d1version) said : 		#8

I found this question after reading this:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Releases/Firefox_3.0.19
Reading the responses here leaves me none the wiser as to what the plan for 8.04 is when the first security bug is found after the final release of Firefox detailed in the link. Has this been dealt with somewhere else where I've not been able to find? Can anyone provide a link if it has?

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