AUR Package of the Week : Firefox-Branded

By | 2010/01/04

I’m happy to present the AUR Package of the Week, and also the first package of the new year! Today I thought I would showcase the old and trusted browser, Firefox, with a slight twist from the package available in the main repositories.

Installation

The version of Firefox available in the main repositories is distribution-restricted based on the Mozilla license. You may notice that the version you install is lacking the Firefox branding and name. Again, this is due to a clause in the license. The license say that while Firefox is Open Source software, the name and the branding are not. Unless you’ve made an agreement with Mozilla, it is outside of the license to distribute the browser along with the name and logo. It is fine, however, to get the source from Mozilla and retain the logo and other branding.

With that said, to install a branded Firefox browser use the command:

yaourt -S firefox-branded

Compilation

As is the case with many other packages in the AUR, this one will require compilation. I’ve found Firefox to take a bit of time to compile, but its not nearly as bad as some other packages. Your mileage may vary.

Conclusion

Firefox has long been the flagship of the free software world. I think this is changing with the release of so many other new (WebKit) browsers, but Firefox still retains the market lead. I have found that, while I have become a fan of Chrome, that Firefox is always dependable as a fall back browser.