Hi, I agree with Pjotr and Clément, I do use mainly two programs on GuixSD, Firefox and Emacs. Packaging a custom Firefox was like the first thing I did when starting Guix. Even if we put a lot of efforts in Icecat, it it still lagging behind Firefox. Thus, having an upstream stripped Firefox seems like a good idea to me.
Mathieu Pjotr Prins writes: > On Wed, May 02, 2018 at 11:06:32PM -0700, Chris Marusich wrote: >> Clément Lassieur <clem...@lassieur.org> writes: >> >> > I find Icecat very buggy, even if I compare it to a home-made Firefox >> > package that inherits Icecat (and thus is very close to Icecat). For >> > example I can't even pay with my credit card with icecat-52-guix, >> > whereas I can with firefox-home-52-guix. (It looks like a javascript >> > issue.) Also, lots of videos don't work, and it's difficult to know >> > whether it's because of technical issues or because of DRM. >> >> This has not been my experience with IceCat. With two exceptions, >> IceCat has performed just as well as Firefox for me for everything I >> have done, including credit card payments. I sometimes watch YouTube >> videos using IceCat, but I don't view many other videos, so I can't >> really comment on how well IceCat handles videos. If it requires DRM, >> of course, it's not going to work in IceCat, which is a good thing. >> >> When I use IceCat over TOR, it doesn't always work. When I use IceCat >> with extensions (plugins? add-ons? I'm not sure what the right >> terminology is here) like NoScript enabled, it doesn't always work. But >> when I don't use TOR and I disable those add-ons, everything works just >> as well as stock Firefox. If you're still having trouble after >> disabling those things, can you describe the specifics of what you're >> having trouble with? >> >> The exceptions I have experienced with IceCat: >> >> 1) A website failed for me because IceCat enables Referer spoofing by >> default (network.http.referer.spoofSource in about:config). I had to >> disable that feature to use that website. >> >> 2) It used to be that IceCat would crash frequently for me. However, >> once I changed my gfx.canvas.azure.backends and >> gfx.content.azure.backends from "cairo" to "skia", this problem stopped >> for me. I don't know if this is still an issue , since I haven't ever >> switched it back to "cairo". See here for details: >> >> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2016-11/msg00008.html > > In my experience Icecat usually works. But sometimes it does not and > it is usually a JavaScript thing. It would be nice to have firefox > too. I agree with Clément that it is an important option for users and > it is still a dominant browser. Currently we only can install it as > binary blobs. Which are often broken in my setup. > > Pj.
