1926556 - Provide a way to install the Firefox .deb/.rpm package with fewer steps

Status: NEW

(Release Engineering :: Release Automation, enhancement)

Description

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

At the beginning of 2024, we officially published Mozilla's Firefox .deb package[1]. Since then, we have requested users to copy-paste commands defined on this SUMO page[2]. We made this choice for the sake of security. We are not the only ones who made that choice[3]. With that said, we could also provide another (easier) option. That's actually what Tailscale (a VPN provider) does[4]: the offer either a simple or a secure option. It's up to the user to decide which one to choose.

[1] https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/4-reasons-to-try-mozillas-new-firefox-linux-package-for-ubuntu-and-debian-derivatives/
[2] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux#w_install-firefox-deb-package-for-debian-based-distributions-recommended
[3] e.g. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/linux
[4] https://tailscale.com/download/linux

Comment 1

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

other examples:

• https://rustup.rs/
• https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager
• https://github.com/docker/docker-install/
  ...

Comment 2

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

Attachment: Screenshot - What Google tells people before downloading Chrome for the first time

After writing bug 1918128 comment 1 and looking into what Chrome does. I wonder whether we should just embed the repo setup in the .deb package instead of a shell script. That would enable us to fix bug 1918128 without asking people to run a script at every Ubuntu upgrade.

Instead of a shell script, Chrome lets you download their .deb package once and it takes care of the rest of the setup.

[1] https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/chrome/?platform=linux

Comment 3

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

Edit: duplicated comment from comment 2.

Comment 4

[Gabriel Bustamante [:gabriel]]

(In reply to Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo] from comment #2)

Created attachment 9432855 [details]
Screenshot - What Google tells people before downloading Chrome for the first time

After writing bug 1918128 comment 1 and looking into what Chrome does. I wonder whether we should just embed the repo setup in the .deb package instead of a shell script. That would enable us to fix bug 1918128 without asking people to run a script at every Ubuntu upgrade.

Instead of a shell script, Chrome lets you download their .deb package once and it takes care of the rest of the setup.

[1] https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/chrome/?platform=linux

We could do that yes. This would require the .deb to be available in the bedrock download page.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/desktop-nightly/linux64/en-US/