[Nix-dev] firefox package questions

Roland Koebler rk-list at simple-is-better.org
Mon Jun 19 12:25:43 CEST 2017


Hi,

I have recently installed NixOS on a PC and noticed some unexpected
things with Firefox on NixOS:

- Up to date versions:
  Currently, NixOS only contains outdated Firefox-versions (53.0.3, 52.1.2esr);
  there are newer official versions since about 1 week.
  How long does it usually take until the newest version gets packaged?

- Name:
  I installed firefox-esr, but the started Firefox called itself "Nightly".
  I searched the mailinglist, and it looks like it is called "Nightly"
  because it is built by NixOS/Hydra.
  I think this is irritating for most users; since the name probably
  cannot be changed to "Firefox", it would be nice if it would be
  mentioned e.g. in the Nix-manual (or maybe in the Firefox-About-Dialog?).

- Data choices:
  After starting Firefox, it tells me:
  "Nightly automatically sends some data to Mozilla so that we can
   improve your experience. [Choose What I Share]"

  When I click on "Choose What I Share", I get to the data-choices-
  preferences-dialog (Preferences -> Advanced -> Data Choices),
  but this dialog is empty.

  So, does the NixOS-Nightly-Firefox automatically send data?
  Is there a way to prevent this?
  And is this documented somewhere?

- Parallel install of esr and newest version:
  I would like to install both firefox and firefox-esr and access both
  in the same environment (without switching environments).
  Would it be possible to e.g. add a "firefox-esr"-executable-symlink by
  firefox-esr, so that it works as follows?
  - $ firefox
    starts the newest version if both firefox and firefox-esr are installed,
    or the newest or the esr version if only one is installed
  - $ firefox-esr
    always starts the esr-version


thanks
Roland



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