385783 - automation - create unbranded, "free software" builds

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Release Engineering :: General, defect, P3)

Description

[Robert Helmer [:rhelmer]]

The Mozilla release team creates unbranded, "free software" builds as part of each release, e.g.:
http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0.0.4/contrib/free-software/

We need to add this process to the automation framework (bootstrap).

Comment 1

[John O'Duinn [:joduinn] (please use "needinfo?" flag)]

There are a few differences between this free software release, and the
branded release, so we should be able to automate these free software builds as
part of the end-to-end automation also.

Comment 3

[Joseph Piché]

I believe this is an important thing to to as it could effect many linux distrobutions. However, I believe this free software build _nedds_ to have an explicit license file explaining exactly how it is free software and what license(s) it is covered under.

Comment 4

[Chris Cooper [:coop] (he/him)]

With the "recent" EULA changes, is this an issue any more?

Comment 5

[Joseph Piché]

Yes, this is still an issue. The EULA does not change any of the licensing terms and actually provides a more specific statement of the restrictions of Firefox. Section 3 states:

You may not remove or alter any trademark, logo, copyright or other proprietary notice in or on the Product. This license does not grant you any right to use the trademarks, service marks or logos of Mozilla or its licensors.

This has been interpreted by the community to mean that the name Firefox may not be used and thus any non-official build of the code must have a different name.

Comment 6

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

Section 3 of what? The EULA was removed.

These builds were made in Firefox 2 days because the FF2 binaries included Talkback, which was non-free software. That's since been replaced, there's no reason to makes these builds any more.

AFAIK we haven't even made such builds since Firefox 2, which is now EOL. So there's nothing to automate, and this bug should be closed.

Comment 7

[John O'Duinn [:joduinn] (please use "needinfo?" flag)]

(In reply to comment #6)
> AFAIK we haven't even made such builds since Firefox 2, which is now EOL. So
> there's nothing to automate, and this bug should be closed.

Correct...and closing.

Comment 8

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

The EULA's been removed, but you still can't significantly modify branded releases and redistribute them without permission. Having builds without official branding would still be useful for people who want to modify an official build (that includes PGO, the same build config, etc.), without having to worry about stripping out the branding themselves.

Whether that effort is something the MoCo release time is willing to undertake is a separate issue, though, and I suspect this will remain WONTFIX for that reason.

Comment 9

[Bartłomiej Brzozowiec (BartZilla)]

(In reply to comment #8)
> The EULA's been removed, but you still can't significantly modify branded
> (...)

Could you define "significantly", please?
I've been told on IRC (by you, among others) that changes as minor as flipping some pref(s) from "true" to "false" (or vice versa) are _not_ allowed. So, it seems that ANY changes are not allowed, "significant" or not.

Comment 10

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

You can remove "significantly" from what I said, if it makes you feel better.

Comment 11

[Chris Cooper [:coop] (he/him)]

Moving closed Future bugs into Release Engineering in preparation for removing the Future component.