Re: Fedora Linux 38 blocker status summary

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



On Tue, Feb 14, 2023 at 2:25 AM Kevin Kofler via devel
<devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Neal Gompa wrote:
> > We're not getting rid of Firefox.
>
> At least that is an answer, unlike the complete radio silence on:
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1920298
>
> Still does not explain why Firefox has to be the default though.

It was decided years ago that all desktops would have some Fedora
similarities, backgrounds, browser etc.

> But the thing is, this inevitably leads to:
> * unnecessarily including a redundant web engine on the Spin (because, as I
> explained, QtWebEngine cannot go away), a huge package increasing the
> download size for all users of the Spin, whether they want Firefox or not,

But there's also 2 other web engines other than firefox and
QtWebEngine (qt5-qtwebkit and webkit2gtk3) as well as a DB server and
the gcc toolchain which I would bet the average user either don't use
or don't need to have installed from the outset.

I bet there's a lot of low hanging fruit that could slim down KDE
rather than just moaning about Firefox which I suspect a lot more
people use by default that a lot of the other components.

> * a non-native browser experience (with controls/widgets based on the XUL
> implementation and the GTK look&feel) instead of a native Qt/KDE one, and
> * a hindrance in getting critical QtWebEngine showstoppers fixed in time for
> the release, because they are not considered Blockers if they do not affect
> the default browser:
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2001261#c7
>
> > It's the premier open source browser,
>
> That is arguable, considering that Chromium is also Open Source (*) and that
> there are many users of Chromium derivatives (though not necessarily Open
> Source (*) ones).
>
> But either way, it is not a KDE browser. The KDE Spin should be about
> shipping KDE applications wherever possible.
>
> > well-supported
>
> So is QtWebEngine. Chromium gets a lot of development, and Qt backports
> security fixes and important bug fixes to the stable QtWebEngine branches.
> Even the LTS releases of QtWebEngine are publicly available under the LGPL
> from git.qt.io.
>
> > and well-liked by the community,
>
> So "well-liked" that it has a fraction of the market share of Chrome and
> other Chromium-based browsers nowadays.
>
> I think there need to be more objective criteria for picking a default
> browser than allegedly being "well-liked by the community".
>
> > and most things on the Internet will at least accept Firefox as a browser.
>
> "Most things on the Internet" will also accept any Chromium-based browser,
> such as Falkon. The latest QtWebEngine is in fact more standards-compliant
> than Firefox, see the evidence under:
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1920298
>
> Falkon even works for some sites that only officially support Chrome and do
> not work with Firefox. (E.g., the Microsoft Teams web interface. Last I
> checked, when I tried it with Firefox, it offered me only to download the
> desktop client. With Falkon, I can connect in the browser just fine.)
>
> Now, admittedly, one issue is that Falkon is currently stuck on QtWebEngine
> 5, hence on 5.15 LTS, which gets security backports, but not feature
> backports, so a handful websites are now causing problems with it. (It is
> unfortunate that the web has evolved to such a moving target that web
> developers are unwilling to support even supported LTS versions of browsers.
> They are also complaining about having to support Safari iOS branches,
> Firefox ESR, etc.) For Falkon, that issue should be solved as soon as a Qt 6
> port of Falkon is released.
>
> > It also works on all Fedora architectures, unlike anything Chromium-based.
>
> QtWebEngine works on all architectures for which a Fedora KDE deliverable is
> actually shipped:
> * The KDE Spin is shipped only for x86_64 on the main mirrors.
> * On alt.fedoraproject.org, the KDE Spin is shipped only for aarch64.
> * Kinoite is shipped only for x86_64 and aarch64.
>
> So the KDE Spin needs to support only x86_64 and aarch64, both of which are
> fully supported by QtWebEngine (and we also build -freeworld for both of
> them at that other repository nowadays, I fixed that a couple years ago).
>
>         Kevin Kofler
>
> (*) I personally prefer the term "Free Software", but since you talked about
> the "premier open source browser", I am replying with your terms.
> _______________________________________________
> devel mailing list -- devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To unsubscribe send an email to devel-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
> List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue
_______________________________________________
devel mailing list -- devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe send an email to devel-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue




[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
[Index of Archives]     [Fedora Announce]     [Fedora Users]     [Fedora Kernel]     [Fedora Testing]     [Fedora Formulas]     [Fedora PHP Devel]     [Kernel Development]     [Fedora Legacy]     [Fedora Maintainers]     [Fedora Desktop]     [PAM]     [Red Hat Development]     [Gimp]     [Yosemite News]

  Powered by Linux