Firefox Updates

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop SLED Applications
1

What is the policy for updating Firefox on SLED? Does it get the ESR releases? Does it stick with just the ESR release that it was shipped with?

Thanks!

2

[QUOTE=boblmartens;16827]What is the policy for updating Firefox on SLED? Does it get the ESR releases? Does it stick with just the ESR release that it was shipped with?
[/QUOTE]

Can’t speak to actual policy, but historically it has been getting ESR releases and updated.

As with all packages Firefox only gets updated on versions of SLED that are still being supported. E.g currently SLED 11 SP2 and SP3 are supported. SP3 came out a few months ago so updates for SP2 will stop in a few months. The release notes don’t have a date yet, https://www.suse.com/releasenotes/x86_64/SUSE-SLED/11-SP3/ but the SLES release notes say SP2 support ends 2014-01-31 https://www.suse.com/releasenotes/x86_64/SUSE-SLES/11-SP3/

Last time I checked the latest version of Firefox works fine if you grab the .tar.gz version, just unpack and run.

3

Thanks, that is enlightening. It looks like we are still in the overlap stage for Firefox 17 ESR and Firefox 24 ESR so I’ll hold out for a couple of weeks and see what happens. Right now I’m running SLED 11 SP3, so I’m thinking it will pop through at some point.

4

As an update, it looks like Firefox has continued to stick with 17 ESR for the time being. If I have been able to parse the ESR roadmap it sounds like Firefox 26 should usher in the era of Firefox 24 ESR. I will be watching that intently.

5

24ESR has been around since September. Current version is 24.1.1ESR
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/
24.1.1ESR works on SLED 11 SP3 if you download, unpack and run it. Couldn’t say what would happen if you let 24ESR use your existing Firefox profile then tried to use it with 17ESR again.

6

[QUOTE=mikewillis;17634]24ESR has been around since September. Current version is 24.1.1ESR
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/
24.1.1ESR works on SLED 11 SP3 if you download, unpack and run it. Couldn’t say what would happen if you let 24ESR use your existing Firefox profile then tried to use it with 17ESR again.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I’m aware that I could do that. I’m more curious when it is going to be coming through the update channels (if every). I’ll just continue to watch.

7

Well SLED 11 SP3 just got Firefox 24ESR.
http://download.novell.com/Download?buildid=W7YjDYFCJgM~
If you set your own global preferences the place to put your file has changed from /usr/lib64/firefox/defaults/preferences/ to /usr/lib64/firefox/browser/defaults/preferences/
This version of Firefox respects $XDG_CACHE_HOME, which is brilliant news if you’re using it in an environment where you want to put the cache and such bits outside of the user’s home directory.

8

[QUOTE=mikewillis;18172]Well SLED 11 SP3 just got Firefox 24ESR.
http://download.novell.com/Download?buildid=W7YjDYFCJgM~
If you set your own global preferences the place to put your file has changed from /usr/lib64/firefox/defaults/preferences/ to /usr/lib64/firefox/browser/defaults/preferences/
This version of Firefox respects $XDG_CACHE_HOME, which is brilliant news if you’re using it in an environment where you want to put the cache and such bits outside of the user’s home directory.[/QUOTE]

Just in time for the holidays!