Closed Bug 287499 Opened 21 years ago Closed 21 years ago

Restore ZIP install packages (zipped builds) for Firefox/Thunderbird

Categories

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
General
Platform:
x86
Windows XP
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
major

Tracking

()

Status:
VERIFIED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: nomoreregistrations, Assigned: bugzilla)

References

Details

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050223 Firefox/1.0.1 Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050223 Firefox/1.0.1 Millions of Firefox users routinely went into trouble to go to ftp.mozilla.org and manually download ZIP packages for Firefox/Thunderbird releases instead of using web links to download exes. Take a hint: ZIP releases are very important to us. Please provide ZIP packages for Firefox 1.0.2 and Thunderbird 1.0.2 as well as all future releases. Thank you. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Go to ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/1.0.2/win32/en-US/ Actual Results: There are only hated, buggy and unnecessary setup executables there. Expected Results: Nice, flexible, clean and easy to use ZIP packages should be present.
This doesn't address any of the *valid* reasons the packages were discontinued.. This is very like to just be wontfixed unless you do.
Not unless there are 10,000 votes here. I am so angry at the moment, if I try to address issues now, every second word would be the F word.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 283676 ***
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 21 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
No, bug 283676 is about different problem. That bug describes the fact that different files are used for ZIP and EXE builds both releases and nightly. This bug is about the fact that ZIP builds for releases are no longer provided.
Status: RESOLVED → UNCONFIRMED
Resolution: DUPLICATE → ---
abusing privleges will result in your account being closed. This bug is a dupe and will remain a dupe no matter how many times you reopen it. Patches > Votes.. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 283676 ***
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 21 years ago → 21 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
If you will read the comments on the bug I duped this to, you will notice Asa points out the intent of getting rid of archived/compressed versions of the builds. Please reference http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/007797.html for details on making your own zip builds. This is /still/ a duplicate.
From bug 283676: ------- Additional Comment #3 From Asa Dotzler 2005-02-25 14:36 PST [reply] ------- we want to stop shipping zipped and tarball builds. it's installers only from here on out.
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
Please look up definition of the word "duplicate". That bug describes different problem, and it will be resolved when that different problem is resolved, and the fact that single comment in the bug touches the subject this bug is about does not make it a duplicate.
Status: VERIFIED → UNCONFIRMED
Resolution: DUPLICATE → ---
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 283676 ***
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 21 years ago → 21 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
Wolf, could you describe why you think this bug is a duplicate of bug 283676? Do they describe the same problem? Or do you have some other criterions for marking bugs duplicate?
Status: RESOLVED → UNCONFIRMED
Resolution: DUPLICATE → ---
Sorry for spamming but I really don't see the reason behind zip and tarball packages, when we have the installers working great. I highly recommend resolving this as WONTFIX.
Alright, fine.. Let's do it this way then, i'm told its not a dupe by another QA as well, but rather wontfix.. Rationale for the wontfix: -- ZIP packages have a different filelist which cause Firefox Installer updates installed on top of the Zip Build to crash. -- ZIP Packages were never intended for end-users, they're for testing only. They're no longer release quality and bugs must be fixed for the zips to be stable again. They're also still available in a nightly form, which maintains that definition of potentionally not a release quality package, while still giving you the bits that are the release. -- In light of the sub-release quality of the zip packages, Mozilla.org no longer wants to ship ZIP packages of releases. Its simply a matter of fact that the zip packages result in busted upgrades. You can roll your own zip package that is suitable to distribute using instructions provided at the link in Comment #6. They are: "What are your steps for building a custom rollout installer? Can't you just add this step to the front of that process? Step pre-1. Download the installer, run it, uncheck start Firefox at the end of the install, zip up the Firefox install directory." --> WONTFIX.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 21 years ago → 21 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
You can run the installer with the "-ira" command-line option and it will automatically skip the running step at the end.
Right, so the reasoning seems to be "We were making bad zip releases and so therefore it's a bad idea to make zip releases." Here's another thought: why not fix the zip releases? As the comments indicate, it seems to be entirely possible to have zip installers. I mean, there are bugs in Firefox too, but you don't seem to be discontinuing that, right? The fact of the matter is that people need zip releases for various reasons. Sometimes the installer is simply not an option or not the best option. What of a person who has access to one computer and doesn't have admin rights to that computer? It seems he is completely out of luck!
Not a duplicate? After being marked so three times? After a threat to close my account if I continue to insist it is not a duplicate? > This bug is a dupe > and will remain a dupe > no matter how many times you reopen it. Nice work, Wolf. You really excel at what you do. If it was so difficult to make you realize such an obvious falsity in your DUPLICATE resolution, I don't even want to address more complex but ultimately no less false rationale in your WONTFIX. Bye, bye. Keep up the good work.
> why not fix the zip releases? People who want the MoFo to push zip versions of releases (which is all that's stopped happening) need to file bugs on the specific aspects of doing this, if they aren't filed already, and then fix them. After that, come back to this bug and ask again. :-) Gerv
(In reply to comment #15) I would hope that at least at some point in your lifetime, you would gain the maturity necessary to realize that personally insulting people gets you absolutely nowhere, except annoying them and their friends, whereby putting your argument/point at the value of 0. If you wish to make a logical and valid point, you have to issue logical and valid reasoning behind it. If you had bothered to read either the bug I originally duped this to, the comments linked to by Grey and the 3 or 4 following that, and the blog article I linked you to, you /might/ just have an idea why this is WONTFIX. Dupe or wontfix, I care not, if you have an issue with the zip releases for milestone builds going away, don't make a bug /demanding/ them back, go find out what the issue is, and do something about it. I am sure if you are an intelligent person, you can at least figure out that continuing to whine isn't helping you any. Follow Gerv's suggestion, find out what causes the issues, file bugs on it, then fix it.
well, since the last few releases of Firefox on Windows were so bad I could not conveniently use them I use only the nightly zip archives. Easy to get/install, no problems with administartor permissions, work better for me. I did not find any problems with them. If you did, please file bugs on them and meke this depend on these bugs, not wontfix.
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
Depends on: 283676
The goal of this bug report is to reverse decision to discontinue ZIP packages for release versions of Firefox/Thunderbird. That is different from fixing whatever technical problems may currently exist with ZIP files for Firefox and Thunderbird releases. If it was said that no ZIP files are available for current releases for technical reasons but ZIP files would be back once those technical reasons solved then there would be no reason to file this bug. Tristor, first you tell me that if I read comments to bug 283676 I would understand why this bug is a duplicate, then you tell me that if I read comments to the same bug 283676 I would understand why this bug is a wontfix. Everything goes, I guess. As long as you get to shut me up. Oh, and then you give me a lecture about personally insulting people. Just look at how this bug started. You and your friend attacked me and tried to shut me up with insults and threats from the very beginning. I will not try to persuade you or your friend that WONTFIX is as wrong a resolution for this bug as your DUPLICATE was. From the way you behaved it is obvious you are heavily biased at least against this feature and will not be persuaded no matter how obviously wrong your arguments are (just look at how you defended obviously wrong DUPLICATE resolution).
(In reply to comment #16) > People who want the MoFo to push zip versions of releases (which is all that's > stopped happening) need to file bugs on the specific aspects of doing this, if > they aren't filed already, and then fix them. After that, come back to this bug > and ask again. :-) How about having the people who found problems with the zip releases and then decided to discontinue them worry about filing those bugs and then making this one depend on them? After all, I have to use zip releases on several machines and have absolutely no problem with them. For my purposes they're not buggy in the first place.
If I understand the situation correctly then this is really a non-issue for the following reasons: A) The actual release build is no different from a version of the nightly done off the correct code base. B) Those nightlys are still being released in .zip form. C) The "release zip" then effectively was just the nightly renamed to not have the nightly naming convention. If these are all true, and all the people who have killed the release zips seem to claim they are, then all that is needed is that the identity of this nightly just needs to be published for each of the FF and TB releases. What I'm saying is, all the places that the release is announced, especially the geek locations (blogs and the like) the identifying information for this existing zip release should also be announced. This is only a short term solution, as in the end run there is no reason that the zip install and the installer should hit the disk any different. The fact that they do means the INSTALLER IS FLAWED. Blame has been assigned to the zips, but the zip obviously can't do things wrong, all it does is drop files exactly where you tell it to. So the INSTALLER should be fixed, and once it is, the regular process of copying and renaming the appropriate nightly build can resume.
Welcome to the club. We are searching mozilla ftp for three days for promised nightly zip equivalent to Firefox 1.0.2 release. No luck yet.
I am sorry if I can't be more helpful in helping you find a way to resolve your problem. The fact of the matter, sir, is I am not biased against zip installs. I don't use them, but I see a purpose in them all the same. Whether they are or aren't released is not under my purview. Wolf and I are simply trying to do our jobs, which is to triage bugs so that the developers don't have to wade through unneeded cruft to get to what the problem is. I am not trying to shut you up, at all. That is not my intention, nor do I believe it to be the intention of any other QA person here. Whether you are rude or not is up to you, I was merely making the suggestion that it might work better your position if you were polite about the way you do business. I don't know much of the backstory behind /why/ zip installs are no longer available, I know as much information about it as you know through the links I have given you. Whether the issue is in the installer or in the zips, I know not. I would, however, assume that Gerv knows. I believe I have said all I need to say on the matter.
As I understand the issue, the zip file and the installer contain different files. This should not happen but it does. One can unzip the installer as well (described here http://mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=6281#36 ) I have not tested this. If this was included in the installer as an option it could replace the zip releases easily. However, some poeple who tried it say it does not work. The update process is tuned to official release installers and may break with anything else, especially zip files. To work around this one could disable the update (or put there a big fat warning that it is not supported and included only for testing) in the unofficial buiulds, and copy some nightly zip files into the release directory so that they stay for the people who want them. Since finding the nightly builds that are close to the release builds appears easy only for the developers and they are deleted after a short time anyway, I guess this step is neccessary for people to find the zip builds they are looking for. The nightly builds do not have the nice official release graphics but this is a minor issue.
<I>What of a person who has access to one computer and doesn't have admin rights to that computer? It seems he is completely out of luck!</I> That is precisely the problem I run into at work. I cannot run installers, but I can run self-executables from within zip files. I guess I will forever be stuck with Firefox 1.01 at work. I just hope that 1.02 isn't a critical update, as I may never get to find out anyway....
I think the workaround is to 1. purchase a home computer that runs the same operating system that your work computer runs, 2. install Firefox on your home computer, 3. zip up the appropriate folder in Program Files. However, step 1 (purchase a home computer) tends to discourage users from migrating from IE.
The zip file is the only method that works for installing Firefox on Windows 95 OSR 2 machines. (Yes, I know that Windows 95 is an unsupported OS platform. However, Firefox works on it, except for crashing occasionally.) Please return to the previous practice of making zip files available for download. Thank you, LF, aka firefox.to.linuxfreak@spamgourmet.com
If a compatible zip file can be created by running the installer then why not have the method for releasing the official zip build be having someone from the dev team run the installer and zip up the folders? That way QA just has to check the installer builds and once they are good, the zip is a trivial transform on the original build. There's no reason why every user who wants a zip build should have to perform this step themselves when the dev team can do it once for everyone.
*** Bug 287966 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Summary: Restore ZIP install packages for Firefox/Thunderbird → Restore ZIP install packages (zipped builds) for Firefox/Thunderbird
*** Bug 288474 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Most funny thing is that ff.exe depends on ie6 if installed under non xp windows...
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