Re: Request for assistance maintaining LibreWolf

[Ian Eure <ian@retrospec.tv>]

Hi André,

André Batista <nandre@riseup.net> writes:

>> > At the same time it is not really meant as a general 
>> > notification
>> > system, so usefulness for you depends on whether some 
>> > committer will
>> > merge the commit adding librewolf team (with you in it).
>> 
>> Ian, what about teaming up with other Firefox derivative 
>> maintainers?
>> I’m thinking notably of André and Clément who’ve worked on Tor 
>> Browser
>> on Mullvad Browser, Mark H Weaver who’s been maintaining 
>> IceCat, and
>> perhaps Jonathan who’s been taking care of IceDove (Cc’d)?
>> 
>> Of course, each of these package is different but they’re in 
>> the same
>> area so it probably makes sense to share reviewing efforts 
>> here.
>
> I was reticent on this mainly because (i) I have never actually 
> used
> LibreWolf and I don't have a clear picture of it besides it 
> being a
> "Firefox + Arkenfox - Mozilla Branding" [1](?); (ii) I expect 
> that most
> of these security (aka urgent) patches will land on the same day 
> on a
> regular basis for all 4 browsers and given Mullvad and 
> TorBrowser
> sources will be late in the game, I'll probably not be able to 
> do such
> a timely (yet again, urgent) review, which could add to Ian's
> frustration, instead of relieving it; and (iii) AFAIUI, 
> LibreWolf moves
> at a faster pace, which adds to my concern of not being able to 
> keep up
> in the long run.
>
> That being said, given those patches have remained unreviewed 
> for weeks
> in a row, I guess I can at least help improve the current 
> situation and
> give commiters some more confidence that a given patch will not 
> break
> hell loose when commited and so I'm willing to help with these 
> reviews.
> However, I cannot promise to maintain it if/when Ian's lead 
> happens to
> go missing.
>

This sounds reasonable to me, and I would greatly appreciate any 
assistance that could be provided.  My hope is that with some 
closer working relationships with existing Guix folks and more 
contributions, I can apply for commit access and maintain 
LibreWolf autonomously.  Perhaps next year.


> One question in that regard: is there any difference between 
> reviewing
> through QA's web interface and sending mail commands to debbugs'
> control? Is any of them preferable? I'd rather use the mail 
> interface if
> that's enough.
>

There’s no major difference, whichever you prefer.  I think email 
is more likely to keep threads grouped.


> Cheers.
>
> 1. No disrespect meant to the project or its users, just my own
> current cluelessness exposed. I'll read the docs on it to 
> understand
> it better though.
>

None taken, and you’re on the right track.  LibreWolf ships 
several improvements combined into one package, including 
hardening the default preferences, disables the numerous 
anti-features that ship with Firefox (full page ads on update, 
Pocket, telemetry, DRM, etc).  They also don’t have the onerous 
trademark and logo requirements, which lets distrbutions ship with 
the upstream branding.  The combination of better defaults, 
relaxed branding requiements, and closely tracking upstream make 
it a very compelling choice, IMO.  I’ve been daily driving it for 
several years.

Thanks,

  — Ian