GNU IceCat

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GNU IceCat

Developed by	Gnuzilla team
Latest release	3.0.4-g1[1]
OS	GNU/Linux
Type	Web browser
License	MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license
Website	gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/

GNU IceCat, formerly known as GNU IceWeasel,^[2] is a web browser distributed by the GNU Project. IceCat, which is made entirely of free software, is a fork of Mozilla Firefox. It is compatible with the GNU/Linux operating system.

The GNU Project aims with IceCat to provide a version of the Mozilla Firefox browser which is kept in synchronization with upstream development of Firefox while removing the proprietary artwork and software plugin repositories used in the official release by the Mozilla Corporation, which are classified as non-free by certain free software advocates.^[3]

Contents 1 Differences from Firefox 2 History 2.1 Origins of the name 2.2 Releases 2.3 Change of name 3 Distribution 4 Licensing 5 Google Summer of Code 2008 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Differences from Firefox

It is fully free software, as it removed the non-free artwork. The plugin finder service also offers only free plugins. IceCat also includes additional security features^{[citation needed]}, such as the option to block third party zero-length image files resulting in third party cookie, also known as web bugs^[4] (This feature is available in Firefox 1.0, 1.5, and 3.0, but the UI option was absent on 2.0).^[4] IceCat also provides warnings for URL redirection.^[4]

In version 3.0.2-g1, the certificate of CAcert.org, a certificate authority, has been added to the list of trusted root certificates. Concern about that decision has been raised in a discussion on savannah-hackers-public^[5].

[edit] History

[edit] Origins of the name

The Mozilla Corporation claims that trademark law requires it to enforce the Firefox trademark according to its stated policy^{[citation needed]}, and therefore denies the use of the name "Firefox" to unofficial builds that fall outside certain guidelines.^[6] Unless distributions use the binaries supplied by Mozilla, fall within the guidelines, or else have special permission, they must compile the Firefox source with a compile-time option enabled that creates binaries without the official branding of Firefox and related artwork, using either the built-in free artwork, or artwork provided at compile time.^[6]

This policy led to a long debate within the Debian Project in 2004 and 2005. During this debate, the name "Iceweasel" was coined to refer to rebranded versions of Firefox. The first known use of the name in this context is by Nathanael Nerode,^[7] in reply to Eric Dorland's suggestion of "Icerabbit".^[8] It was intended as a parody of "Firefox."^[4] Iceweasel was subsequently used as the example name for a rebranded Firefox in the Mozilla Trademark Policy,^[6] and became the most commonly used name for a hypothetical rebranded version of Firefox. By January 1, 2005, rebranding was being referred to as the "Iceweasel route".^[9]

The term "ice weasel" appeared earlier in a line fictionally attributed by Matt Groening to Friedrich Nietzsche: "Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."^[10]

Debian was originally given permission to use the trademarks, and adopted the Firefox name.^[11] However, because the artwork in Firefox has a proprietary copyright license which is not compatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines, the substituted logo had to remain.^[12] In 2006, Mozilla withdrew their permission for Debian to use the Firefox name due to significant changes to the browser that Mozilla deemed outside the boundaries of its policy, changes which Debian felt were important enough to keep, and Iceweasel was revived in its place.

[edit] Releases

In August 2005,^[13] the Gnuzilla project adopted the IceWeasel name for a Firefox distribution^[13] using free artwork.

The first Gnuzilla IceWeasel release was based on the 1.5.0.4^[14] version of Firefox. There was no release based on Firefox 1.5.0.5 or 1.5.0.6. The previous version was 2.0.0.13-g1, released in April 2008 (as GNU IceCat), and the current branch, based on Firefox 3, was announced on July 1, 2008.^[15] Releases usually keep up with the Mozilla Firefox source code.

[edit] Change of name

On 23 September 2007, one of the developers announced that the next release would be branded IceCat. The reason cited was that Debian was already using the name Iceweasel for its rebranded Firefox fork (since November 13, 2006), and to avoid confusion because both forks are independent of each other.^[2] The name change took place as planned and IceCat is the current name.^[4]

[edit] Distribution

IceCat is available as a free download for the 32-bit, i386 architecture. Both binaries and source are available, though the current build is available only for GNU/Linux.

[edit] Licensing

Gnuzilla is available under the MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license that Mozilla uses for source code. Unlike Mozilla, IceCat's default icons are under the same tri-license.

[edit] Google Summer of Code 2008

There have been some suggestions made for the Google Summer of Code for 2008 to improve IceCat.^{[16][citation needed]} These include:

• Porting IceCat to the Firefox 3 codebase
• More support for free plugins such as Gnash
• Privacy features changes

The proposal to port IceCat to the Firefox 3 codebase was accepted and completed by Giuseppe Scrivano. ^[17]

[edit] See also

• GNUzilla
• Mozilla Firefox
• History of Mozilla Firefox
• Comparison of web browsers
• Mozilla Corporation software rebranded by the Debian project

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Homepage of Gnuzilla and IceCat
• Kerner, Sean Michael (2006-09-27). "Firefox Not Really Free?", internetnews.com. 
• Kerner, Sean Michael (2006-10-06). "Firefox Set Free in IceWeasel", internetnews.com. 
• GNUzilla Watcher - GNUzilla and IceCat blog

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