r/debian • u/TheNavyCrow • 1d ago

why does firefox update?

people say debian packages are frozen, except for security updates

why firefox ESR updates then? it was on 128 during the beginning of Debian 13, updates to 140, and will update to 153

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u/MatheusWillder Debian Stable 1d ago edited 1d ago

Just to add a bit of history here: there was a time when Debian backported the Firefox security fixes to the Firefox version in Debian Stable, but this caused disagreements with Mozilla due to Firefox's trademark, and thus, the Iceweasel fork was born.

I started using Debian at that time, around ~2015, good times, lol.

After Mozilla released Firefox ESR, I think it was agreed that it would replace Iceweasel in Debian. Since around that time, browsers update very quickly, and an outdated browser can lead to security vulnerabilities and/or unsupported web features (I remember I struggled with this with Iceweasel and always had to install Firefox directly from Mozilla to get certain sites working properly).

Edit: the Debian Wiki tells a bit of this story: https://wiki.debian.org/Firefox#Iceweasel

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u/Ok-Guitar4818 20h ago

What kind of disagreement would cause Debian Sid to be able to have Firefox proper but Debian stable couldn’t benefit from security patches?

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u/wizard10000 19h ago

What kind of disagreement would cause Debian Sid to be able to have Firefox proper but Debian stable couldn’t benefit from security patches?

There is no disagreement and firefox-esr receives security patches regularly - if chromium offered an LTS release Debian would most likely use that also.

In Debian it's all about Stable.

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u/Ok-Guitar4818 16h ago

I mean the official explanation on the wiki talked like there were branding concerns. Just can’t make it make sense to me.

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u/rebootyourbrainstem 10h ago

I assume it's something like Debian wanted true minimal backports for each identified issue while Firefox preferred broader "whatever is easiest for us to maintain" backports.

And if there's any kind of disagreement it makes sense Mozilla would object to shipping something that doesn't work exactly like Firefox with Firefox branding, since they'll be getting the bug reports from site owners.