Iceweasel Website Links For
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Information About

Iceweasel




  Developer Gnuzilla team
  Latest Release Version 2006
  Operating System Linux
  Genre Internet Suite
  License Mozilla Tri-license
  Website http://wwwgnuorg/software/gnuzilla/


IceWeasel is the Web Browser from Gnuzilla . The GNU Project aims with Gnuzilla to provide versions of Mozilla programs which are made of entirely Free Software .

Gnuzilla IceWeasel removes the artwork and plugins of Mozilla Firefox 1 classified as Non-free by free software advocates. (Though Gnuzilla claims to have removed the talkback plugin, there is no way to include this in unofficial builds since the source code is not available.) Gnuzilla Iceweasel is a Fork of Firefox, but its maintainers plan to continue to synchronize with upstream releases in the future.

The current release of Gnuzilla IceWeasel is based on the 2.0.0.6 version of Mozilla Firefox,2.


FEATURES


For free software proponents, the main advantage of using GNU IceWeasel is an ethical one: it is made of entirely free software. Gnuzilla Homepage

Differences from the official Firefox release:
  • Contains only Free Software

  • --- Replacement of the Proprietary artwork with free artwork

  • --- Removal of the proprietary Talkback crash reporting system (due to its non-free "binary only distribution" licensing)

  • --- Use of a Plugin finder service that offers only free plugins

  • Added privacy features — protection from:

  • --- 3rd party zero-length image files resulting in 3rd party Cookie ( Web Bugs ). Gnuzilla Homepage Note that in Firefox 1.0 and 1.5 3rd party cookies can be disabled completely via the UI. However the UI option was removed in 2.0.

  • --- URL Redirection (warning only)



HISTORY


Origins of the name

Mozilla enforces trademarks vigorously and claims the right to deny the use of the name "Firefox" to unofficial builds.3 Unless distributions use the Binaries supplied by Mozilla or else have special permission, they must Compile the Firefox source with an option enabled that gives Firefox a different name and does not use the official logo or other artwork.4

This policy led to a long debate within the Debian Project in 2004 and 2005. During this debate, the name "Iceweasel" was coined to refer to rebranded versions of Firefox. The first known use of the name in this context is by Nathanael Nerode5, in reply to Eric Dorland 's suggestion of "Icerabbit".6 It was intended as a parody of "Firefox." Gnuzilla Homepage Iceweasel was subsequently used as the example name for a rebranded Firefox in the Mozilla Trademark Policy7, and became the most commonly used name for a hypothetical rebranded version of Firefox. By January 1, 2005, rebranding was being referred to as the "Iceweasel route".8

The term "ice weasel" appeared earlier in a line fictionally attributed by Matt Groening to Friedrich Nietzsche : "''Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.''"9

Debian was given permission to use the trademarks, and adopted the Firefox name.10 However, because the artwork in Firefox has a proprietary copyright license which is not compatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines , the substituted logo had to remain11. In 2006, Mozilla withdrew their permission for Debian to use the Firefox name, and Iceweasel was revived in its place.


Gnuzilla IceWeasel release

In August 2005,12 the Gnuzilla project adopted the IceWeasel name for a Firefox distribution13 using free artwork.

The first Gnuzilla IceWeasel release was based on the 1.5.0.414 version of Firefox. There was no release based on Firefox 1.5.0.5 or 1.5.0.6. The current version of IceWeasel is 2.0.0.6, released on August 2, 2007.


DISTRIBUTION


IceWeasel is available as a free download for the 32-bit , I386 architecture. Both binaries and source are available, though the current build is available only for Linux .


LICENSING


The Gnuzilla project didn't restrict their modifications to the code any more than the original. Gnuzilla is available under Mozilla's standard MPL / GPL / LGPL tri-license. Unlike Mozilla, IceWeasel's default icons are under the same tri-license.


SEE ALSO




REFERENCES



EXTERNAL LINKS