Due to license incompatibility issues Debian is not allowed to distribute Mozilla Firefox including it’s original artwork. That means you’ll get a Firefox without the original artwork by Jon Hicks, if you install it using the official Debian package. You get a globe instead the Firefox icon and you get an about dialog box with a background that differs from the origial version.
While I’m not going to get into the license issue and comment on yesterdays news, I found myself in the position of having some spare time today so among other things I decided to get decent icons for Firefox, at last. I considered my options: I could either get an official binary that has to be unpacked manually every time a new version gets out our I could get some Firefox icons and simply change the window manager icons pointing to Firefox once. The latter would enable me to still use the official Debian packages along with any Debian specific bug fixes or adaptations. So I went with that option and downloaded the official German Firefox for Linux package from the German Firefox Localization Project‘s page. After unpacking the tar archive I found two perfect Linux icons for Firefox in the firefox/icons directory of the package. Now I’ve got the original artwork, at least for the icons. Changing the about dialog seems a bit much work and is also not really necessary as you could easily imagine yourself.
That said I could find myself switch to the unpacking effort in the near future as Debian always needs weeks to provide new packages after Firefox is officially released by Mozilla.org (Note: I’m referring to the German build here, otherwise I don’t have any clue as to how long it takes to get new Debian packages out.)
And in other news: I switched window managers and desktops yesterday night. From now on I use Gnome and waimea instead of XFCE4. Also I now use gdm instead of xdm. Let’s see how long it takes until I switch back … Actually I’m very pleased of the setup process and already made myself feeling at home. Configuration is a lot easier with Gnome. The only problem: Apps tend to load a bit slower now. That’s why I originaly choose XFCE4. It is relatively light wight and not as difficult to configure as Fluxbox. However it is not much longer so I can live with it for the sake a better user interface experience.
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