The Firemonger Project

IZ Reloaded writes "The Firemonger Project is an attempt to create a multilingual easy-to-use compilation CD with Firefox, Thunderbird and an excellent selection of plugins (Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Shockwave and Sun Java), extensions (Adblock, Googlebar, Hotmail tabs, SessionSaver, ScrapBook and more), Firefox and Thunderbird themes, related programs (Firetune and Backupfox) and a comprehensive beginner's guide. Everything you need to start up with and get the most out of Firefox and Thunderbird. There's also a lite version for download."

Comments

What?

[RedNovember]

You mean to tell me that this has never been covered before on Slashdot? Are you kidding?

Or am I just being naive? I guess the slogan is true - Slashdot. The News 24 Hours After Everyone Else Or Your Money Back!

As an aside - why not mention Portable Firefox or FFDeploy? They fit the same category of spreading firefox.

Re:What?

[Steinfiend]

I can't tell you how much I have to recommend PortableFirefox, not only for use on a USB key, but also for use on machines without admin privilages. Take for instance a work machine locked down so tightly and with IE only installed. As long as you have the abillity to run an exectuable you can run PortableFirefox.

If you are used to running IE6/Firefox on your latest uber Quad Processor 12GHz Pentium 7 machine, you don't really get the full difference between the two. However, run IE6 and Firefox on a slightly older machine (P3 128mb etc) and you'll soon realize what you thought was a slow network connection is in fact a slow rendering engine.

If you couldn't guess, this is exactly what happened to me!

Re:What?

[jp10558]

If that's the case, you likely would be amazed by Opera.

Re:licenses???

[Stian Engen]

Many distros doesn't include these plugins because of politics. (only GPL software)

Re:Excuse me

[Stian Engen]

I's rather give friends / family / coworkers a CD, than giving them a list of URLs and installation instructions. Not to mention the convinience of having all this software on an easy to share CD

Re:Excuse me

[cronotk]

Sure they have an internet connection, but this CD offers a few more advantages:
1. Some ppl just don't find the things that they're looking for - that's not a problem anymore
2. You definetely won't have any problems with the copatibility of the extensions and themes
3. Some ppl who never used Firefox or Thunderbird before may try them out now, since they have everything they want on the CD

I think this is a great Idea. It's especially easier for ppl who were unable to find all needed extensions on the Mozilla-homepage or just had stress with incompatibilities.

Re:Excuse me

[malkavian]

Modem connections? They're still around, and it's a pain in the derriere to download Firefox, plus extensions, plus thunderbird.
All on one CD, chuck it in the drive and go. Much better solution.

AdBlock?

[CdBee]

AdBlock represents a possible problem as it hasn't been updated in quite a while and in its current iteration doesn't work with Firefox 1.5.

There is a spin-off project called AdBlockPlus which would make a more logical choice.

Re:AdBlock?

[DeepThoughts]

Umm... Does Firefox 1.5 beta1 qualify as "Firefox 1.5"? Becaus if so AdBlock works just fine. I upgraded to Firefox 1.5 beta1 from 1.0.7 and AdBlock never stopped working.

Re:Why not Improve it first?

[nooby_god]

There is still a lot of features lacking in Thunderbird, partly because I do not see many people incorporating other GPL software into it (are there still licensing issues, or is it fully GPL/LGPL now?). Thunderbird and Firefox like most of the Mozilla Foundation's projects are licenced under a GPL/LGPL/MPL tri-licence. You can pick whatever licence that fits your needs.

Re:licenses???

[cloudmaster]

No, the "home" version they had for a while - when they did separate personal and professional versions - just didn't install gcc by default, because home users didn't need gcc typically. Neither one installed the Sun JDK, but I'm pretty sure there was a JRE on there (which would be within the license). Then again, at that time there was no useful gcj, either, so gcc would not have been a competing tech at the time. It's just barely a competing tech now, for that matter... :)

Re:licenses???

[zootm]

Either make sure you have a meta-package that installs *all* of the things I might need to compile something, or have it there by default.

If you're talking about libraries, that seems pretty extreme — "all of the things I might need to compile something" is a crazy target. I've found that for many or most things, the "build-essentials" package on Ubuntu is fine, possibly with some of the libraries you need also (which is a matter of searching Synaptic for them, and that's fine with me — they're certainly not something which is useful to the average target user).

Who distributes GPL-only software?

[jbn-o]

I don't know of any free software operating system that includes only software licensed under the GNU GPL. Which free software operating system does this? Not even the GNU Project advocates for distributing only GPL-covered software. Part of GNU is made up of software licensed under the MIT X11, new BSD, and other free software licenses.

Drop TBE!

[DrIdiot]

Drop Tabbrowser Extensions from the package.

Honestly, if they're going to put together a compilation of Firefox extensions, they might want to choose good ones that don't add bloat.

Tabbrowser Extensions is NOT recommended by the MozDev team. I've used it, and I've actually noticed that it slowed down my browser. This isn't a thing where I got a timer and timed it. This is a thing where I sat there thinking "wow, am I really on cable?"

Next thing you know, people are going to install this package and come to the Firefox team complaining how slow Firefox is.

The alternative: Tab Mix Plus

Re:Drop TBE!

[dlichterman]

Thats what our forums are for http://firemonger.org/forums/