End of the Iceweasel Age

[Gerowen]

Just noticed my Debian machine, when updated, replaced Iceweasel with "Firefox ESR".  Here's the article I found talking about the transition.  It's actually kind of weird seeing the Firefox icon on a Debian box, lol.  I did a forum search for the term "iceweasel" and didn't find any posts discussing this.

 

Source: https://lwn.net/Articles/676799/

 

For roughly the past decade, Debian has shipped the Mozilla desktop applications (Firefox, Thunderbird, and Seamonkey) in a rebranded form that replaces the original, trademarked names and logos with alternatives (Iceweasel, Icedove, and Iceape). Originally, this effort was undertaken to work around incompatibilities between the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG), the Mozilla trademark-usage policy, and the licenses of the Mozilla logos. But times—and policy wordings—change, and Debian now seems poised to resume calling its packages by the original, upstream Mozilla names.

It is important to understand that, despite the similarities in name, Debian's Iceweasel is not in the same category as GNU IceCat, which is an actual fork of the code. Iceweasel consists of binaries rebuilt by Debian with only minimal alterations—most obviously to remove the Mozilla branding, but other functional changes as well (such as using system libraries and hooking into the Debian package manager).

The rebranding issue originated in 2004. At that time, the Mozilla trademark policy only permitted usage of the Firefox logo on downstream packages that adhered to a set of strict "Distribution Partners" guidelines that prohibited changing the search engines, extensions, directory structure, and other details—clearly making the Distribution Partner rules (and the less stringent "Community Edition" rules) incompatible with the DFSG.

Confusingly enough, the Community Edition rules would have allowed Debian to use the name "Firefox" but not to use the name "Mozilla Firefox" nor to use the Firefox logo. Yet another wrinkle for DFSG compliance was that the actual graphics files for the logo, as the FAQ page explained, were distributed under non-free license terms (prohibiting modification) anyhow. Furthermore, and perhaps even most problematic, the policy required redistributors to seek Mozilla's approval for any other modifications to the package. And Debian's Firefox packagers needed to make modifications, starting with rather fundamental necessities like integrating with the distribution's package manager, rather than using Firefox's built-in updater.

It was proposed that Mozilla could grant a trademark license to Debian, outside of the generic, public trademark policy, but Debian Project Leader (DPL) Branden Robinson contended that such an agreement would run afoul of section eight of the DFSG, which prohibits licensing agreements that are specific to the Debian project and, thus, are not transferred automatically to Debian users. After considerable debate, bug #354622 was opened in February 2006 by Mozilla's Mike Connor, and the Iceweasel name change was implemented to close it.
Re-discussion

It is now 2016, however, and most users or developers could be forgiven for forgetting that Mozilla ever had "Distribution" and "Community" partner programs, much less what all of the details were. The Mozilla trademark guidelines have morphed considerably over the years and, in particular, they have become far more open. The logos and product names are no longer subject to separate terms, and the current guidelines only state that "making significant functional changes" prohibits a downstream project from using the Mozilla trademarks.

On February 17, Mozilla's Sylvestre Ledru opened bug #815006, stating that "the various issues mentioned in bug #354622 have been now tackled" and including a patch that renames the packaged version of Iceweasel to Firefox.

 

Article continues with links to discussions and other resources at the source; link: https://lwn.net/Articles/676799/

[Gerowen]

I had actually gotten quite used to Iceweasel's icon too,

[Gerowen]

Just an observation.  As of right now, Thunderbird has not had its original branding reinstated; it still shows up as "IceDove".

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

It sounds like the Mozilla Foundation is trying to overcome the downturn in Firefox usage by relaxing its licensing.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky