[bug#68577] [PATCH 1/2] gnu: icecat: Improve inheritance.

[Clément Lassieur]

On Mon, Jan 22 2024, Mark H Weaver wrote:

> Hi Clément,
>
> I see now that in November, you added 'torbrowser', which inherits from
> 'icecat-minimal'.
>
>> commit 756ba0429e84ee0f8ce30484439b78c00c61d286
>> Author: Clément Lassieur <clement@lassieur.org>
>> Date:   Sun Nov 12 02:23:27 2023 +0100
>> 
>>     gnu: Add torbrowser.
>>     
>>     * gnu/packages/tor.scm (torbrowser): New variable.
>>     (torbrowser-assets): New variable.
>>     * gnu/packages/browser-extensions.scm (noscript): New variable.
>>     (noscript/icecat): New variable.
>>     
>>     Co-authored-by: André Batista <nandre@riseup.net>
>>     Change-Id: I73dc53905e4a028108bb34aae07e44256cf16c85
>
> Did you consult me on this change?  I don't remember seeing anything
> about this in my mailbox.

Well

- You didn't reply to
  https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=66408, which was an
  Icecat substantial change, sent on October 8.

- It took you 50 days to reply to
  https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnuzilla-dev/2023-11/index.html
  (And it's not like this mailing list was full of messages.)

- My Tor Browser work was started and pushed before I got your first
  reply.

- The Tor Browser thread is from 2020, so you had plenty of time to look
  at it.

- You are not on the Mozilla Team:
  https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/etc/teams.scm.

So I believe it's perfectly understandable that at that time (Novembre -
December 2023) I didn't think it was worth CCing you.

Please note: now that you have replied to me at least once, I'm CCing
you again for the Mullvad work.

> This change concerns me, because it compels me to coordinate with you
> when making nontrivial IceCat updates.  As things stand now, it seems
> that the 'icecat' and 'torbrowser' packages must be updated together,
> in lock step.

In common, we have:
  - the translation packages
  - a few phases

And we are both ESR based.  I don't worry too much about it and worst
case scenario is I'll use our own translation SHA.

That being said, I'm convinced that it's better (at least for Tor
Browser and Mullvad Browser) to not inherit the Icecat package.

> Also, do 'torbrowser' and 'mullvad' both comply with the requirements of
> the GNU FSDG?

I think so, if you think there is something else to do to comply, please
inform us.

> For example, do they support EME?

Of course not.

> Do they steer the user to nonfree software, e.g. nonfree addons.

No.

Well I should probably get rid of Mozzarella because there is a non-free
software there and it looks unmaintained. 
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnuzilla/2024-01/msg00000.html
https://gitlab.trisquel.org/joeall/mozzarella

>
>       Thanks,
>         Mark