GNUzilla and IceCat
![[GNU IceCat logo]](icecat.png)
Introducing GNUzilla and IceCat
GNUzilla is the GNU version of the Mozilla suite, and GNU IceCat is the GNU version of the Firefox browser. Its main advantage is an ethical one: it is entirely free software. While the Firefox source code from the Mozilla project is free software, they distribute and recommend non-free software as plug-ins and addons.
In addition, GNU IceCat includes some privacy protection features, included in a separate addon:
- Some sites refer to zero-size images on other hosts to keep track of cookies. When IceCat detects this mechanism it blocks cookies from the site hosting the zero-length image file. (It is possible to re-enable such a site by removing it from the blocked hosts list.)
- Other sites rewrite the host name in links redirecting the user to another site, mainly to "spy" on clicks. When this behavior is detected, IceCat shows a message alerting the user.
To see these new features in action, some test pages are available.
Downloads
Official releases of IceCat are available from ftp.gnu.org, or any GNU mirror. Please use a mirror if possible. Besides the sources, a binary release for GNU/Linux / x86 (32 bit) is available.
Test releases of IceCat are available from http://gnuzilla.gnu.org/download.
If you are running a GNU/Linux distro based on Debian, for i386, you may install IceCat using one of the prebuild binaries tarball packages available here: https://bitfreedom.noblogs.org/downloads/icecat/
Binaries for PowerPC are here: http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/manulix/icecat-gnu/
The changed files for the development sources are available through the gnuzilla project at savannah. You can check them out via anonymous SVN:
svn co svn://svn.savannah.gnu.org/gnuzilla/trunk/icecat svn co svn://svn.savannah.gnu.org/gnuzilla/trunk/privacy_ext
The remove.nonfree script in the repository is used to remove questionable files from the Mozilla distribution. We welcome volunteers to review this script and research which removed files are actually source files under a free license, and thus need not be removed.
GNUzilla keeps the triple licensing used by Firefox and Mozilla in general, in order to facilitate the reuse of code.
.deb packages
If you are running a .deb based GNU/Linux distro, you may find useful to use the launchpad repository available here: https://launchpad.net/~gnuzilla-team/+archive/ppa It is recommended to use it whenever it is possible, it this way you will not have to worry about update manually the packages. The langpacks in the PPA are the same available for download.
BLAG packages
Packages for BLAG users are available here: http://cbiot.fr/blag/.Fedora packages
Packages for Fedora 14 users are available here: http://cbiot.fr/blag.f14/.Free addons
We maintain a list of free addons. Fredrik Hubbe's web site can be used to test free plugins.
Free plugins
GNUzilla runs its own plugin finder service at gnuzilla.gnu.org. To specify this at runtime, visit the url about:config in your browser, find the pfs.datasource.url attribute, and change the host to gnuzilla.gnu.org. Also change the protocol from https to http, if necessary. Be careful not to change the rest of the string (after the first single /).
Be sure the plugin.default_plugin_disabled attribute is set to false.
Langpacks
You can find langpacks for IceCat at this url: http://gnuzilla.gnu.org/download/langpacks/ These langpacks are generated automatically from the original Firefox ones, if you notice problems in your locale, please let us know at the <bug-gnuzilla@gnu.org> mailing list.
Mailing lists
General discussion of these projects take place on the mailing list bug-gnuzilla@gnu.org (it's not just for bug reports, despite the name). Feel free to subscribe or browse the archives.
To subscribe to the GNU IceCat mailing list, either use the mailman web interface or send empty email with a Subject: header line of just subscribe to bug-gnuzilla-request@gnu.org.
Found a bug? Have a suggestion? Please report it to the mailing list, trying to specify all the information that could be involved (platform, program version (the command icecat --version will report this), and build tools version if building from source code). Please report both the behavior you expected to the actual behavior you observed.
Help wanted
Development of GNU IceCat is a volunteer effort, and additional contributors are welcome: developers, testers, documentation writers, or any other area. Please write the mailing list. For information about contributing to the GNU Project in general, please read How to help GNU.
Here are some specific enhancements it would be great to have:
- Check addons for license statements, and/or write to addon authors about making their license explicit, as explained on our free addons page.
- Enhance the privacy feature with a new feature which allows to block a list of URLs. The list of URLs to block should not be hard-wired. It should be user-configurable. But it should NOT start out empty. By default, it should contain malicious URL patterns we know about.
-
Recognize the license of any JavaScript program which is executed in
the browser.
We can imagine scope to be defined in a comment tag as: /* scope: XXX */
XXX can be one of these:- page: whole page.
- current: current tag.
- subtree: current tag and any other tag having the current tag as an ancestor.
- By default block the mouse motion event. Allow it only on an user-configurable list of web sites.
- Implement a white-list policy for third-party cookies. Third-party cookies are disabled by default, except for a list of web sites. The list must be user-configurable.
- Review and research the files in the remove.nonfree script, as described above.
- Create .xpi files for free plugins.
- Implement the standard X11 -geometry option.
The primary maintainer of GNU IceCat is Giuseppe Scrivano. We thank the Hitflip team for the IceCat logos.
Origin of the name
The name “IceCat” was coined to show our relationship to the Mozilla Firefox browser. Ice isn't Fire and a Cat isn't a Fox, so it is clearly a different package (we don't want Mozilla blamed for our mistakes, nor cause confusion with their trademarks), but is equally clearly intimately related (of course nearly all of the work comes from the Mozilla foundation effort, so we want to give credit).
The gNewSense BurningDog browser and the Debian IceWeasel browser are similarly derived from Firefox, also with the intent of being free software. Technically, however, these projects are maintained entirely independently of IceCat. (Previously, this GNU browser project was also named IceWeasel, but that proved confusing.)
About GNU and the GNU Philosophy
The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop a complete Unix-like operating system which is free software—free as in freedom, not price. Its principal sponsor is the Free Software Foundation.
The free software philosophy is the root and motivation of the guidelines and goals of the whole free software movement, a worldwide community.
Please join us!
Please send FSF & GNU inquiries to
<gnu@gnu.org>.
There are also other ways to contact
the FSF.
Please send broken links and other corrections or suggestions to
<bug-gnuzilla@gnu.org>.
Copyright 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice, and the copyright notice, are preserved.
Updated: $Date: 2012/02/11 20:24:16 $