Re: IceCat as default browser in Trisquel

[Giuseppe Scrivano]

Rubén Rodríguez <address@hidden> writes:

> I've been working to include IceCat as the default browser for Trisquel
> 5.0 and up, and I had to make several modifications that I'd like to
> discuss. You can read the current compilation helper file here:

lovely!


> http://bzr.trisquel.info/package-helpers/helpers/natty/make-icecat
>
> First of all, the script removes a compilation flag that disables the
> accessibility support. Is there a reason for that flag to be there?

not really.


> The next change is adding some transitional packages to make it replace
> abrowser or firefox on updates, that's an internal Trisquel change.
>
> After that, xul-ext-ubufox is added to the dependency list, and we drop
> the reference to flash in the description (which I think is pointless).
>
> Then we remove the cookie watcher method in the privacy extension, since
> it is annoying and third party cookies are disabled via config settings
> anyway. Is there documentation on what the privacy does exactly?

it is described only on the GNUzilla project home page.  I agree it
tends to be boring and it needs a way to be disabled.


I think that any change that is not strictly trisquel related can be
included in the GNUzilla project.  Feel free to submit as many patches
as you want.


> * Change plugin find service url to our own one
> ** E.g: http://trisquel.info/sites/pfs.php?mime=flash
> * Change default search engine to DDG
> * Disable "missing plugin" info bar
> * Enable http pipelining and other performance hacks
> * Disable third party cookies
> * Enable extensions updating
> * Set custom vendor chains
> * Redirect addons web site to our own: http://trisquel.info/en/browser
> * Change help and dictionaries download URLs

Your page looks much better than the GNUzilla version, I wonder if there
is a way to share this information and don't waste twice efforts
maintaining two lists.  Maybe it is a problem for plugins, as you'll
want to make it distro specific, but it is different for the free-addons
list, where we can share 100% of it.

Many of the changes your reported can be included in IceCat.


> Some of those settings may now be redundant, they were inherited from
> abrowser. The last changes we make after that are to set a custom
> default layout and bookmarks.
>
> Note that one of the listed changes is to make xul-ext-ubufox a
> dependency. That installs our own modified version of ubufox, which
> handles some integration with the system like enabling the plugin
> search to work with our finder service (which provides apt hints to
> install gnash, icedtea or totem/vlc plugins). This extension is still
> work in progress.
>
> One other change I'm studying is removing https-everywhere:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/address@hidden/msg03955.html

You can remove the browser/branding/unofficial/extensions/address@hidden
and it will disappear.


> The privacy extension seems to cause some problems too:
> https://trisquel.info/en/forum/icecat-javascript-and-google

The privacy extension doesn't do any of these things, I am afraid google
cares about the specified User-Agent string..


> Wow, that was long. I hope it was useful too! :)

Good work! :-)

Cheers,
Giuseppe