Arch Linux

bright-user

Member

From: Austria

Registered: 2020-12-13

Posts: 4

Can I install firefox from mozilla.org?

Hi,

I am new to Arch Linux, I want to setup and use, firefox.

Is it okay if I just download the firefox.tar.gz from mozilla.org.
I have already downloaded the archive, I can run firefox using:
./firefox archlinux.org

without any problems, but my question is if it's safe or not? why I don't see anyone do the same, what was the reason people don't download firefox.tar.gz from source?

freedomd1v3

Member

Registered: 2020-12-01

Posts: 12

Re: Can I install firefox from mozilla.org?

Is it okay if I just download the firefox.tar.gz from mozilla.org.
I have already downloaded the archive, I can run firefox using:
./firefox archlinux.org

without any problems, but my question is if it's safe or not?

Of course it's ok to use it this way. However, it's better to download it from repository.

why I don't see anyone do the same, what was the reason people don't download firefox.tar.gz from source?

Because in Arch Linux, maintainers don't patch software mostly at all. In most cases it's vanilla. So it's the same as downloading from source + you will always get updates when you update your system using pacman. As the result, there's no point of doing so.

bright-user

Member

From: Austria

Registered: 2020-12-13

Posts: 4

Re: Can I install firefox from mozilla.org?

Because in Arch Linux, maintainers don't patch software mostly at all. In most cases it's vanilla. So it's the same as downloading from source + you will always get updates when you update your system using pacman. As the result, there's no point of doing so.

ah okay,
great thank you for the responses. it's identical to pacman. with updates now I see.

twelveeighty

Member

Registered: 2011-09-04

Posts: 1,456

Re: Can I install firefox from mozilla.org?

(I'm going to assume you're not trolling here.)

You are free to do whatever you want on your system.

The key questions are 1) how much time do you want to spend building, testing and installing it yourself 2) where do you turn if it's not working and 3) if you fix a problem, do you want others to benefit from your fix? I use the supported version from [extra], because one or more seasoned developers have spent their free time tweaking settings and/patches to make sure it works with the rest of my system and in the rare chance that I find an issue with a fix, I can submit that on our bug tracking system so others can benefit as well.

There are distros that are more source based, but the same principles apply, imo.

eschwartz

Fellow

Registered: 2014-08-08

Posts: 4,097

Re: Can I install firefox from mozilla.org?

The advantage of the mozilla.org version is you get very fast updates, as soon as Mozilla releases them, and you're using binaries they tested to work identically across many linux distros.

The advantage of using pacman -S firefox is you *also* get very fast updates, those updates are cryptographically secured and verified, and they still work fine.

Using pacman for updates to *all* your programs helps ensure a consistent experience, doesn't use bandwidth when you don't expect it to, and guarantees the safety of the download. Did you verify the checksums of the mozilla.org tarball? Did you check that their checksums were signed by the mozilla.org signing key? How do you know which key is the mozilla.org signing key?

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