Bug#864851: firefox-esr: Please revert Jessie build to use Gtk+ 2.0

[Mike Hommey]

On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 02:26:26AM +0300, Mert Dirik wrote:
> Package: firefox-esr
> Version: 52.2.0esr-1~deb8u1
> Severity: wishlist
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> Version 52 of firefox-esr jessie is with gtk+-3.0. I would be glad if you
> reconsider building it with gtk+-2.0.
> 
> Here is my reasoning:
> 
>  - Firefox 52 still can be built with gtk+-2.0
>  - It is the Firefox version to be used until mid 2018.
>  - Jessie is already late in its lifecycle (soon to be oldstable). It will be
> even older in mid 2018.
>  - All the previous Iceweasel and Firefox versions that has been in jessie were
> built with gtk+-2.0
>  - There is no benefit changing the gtk version this late since Stretch release
> is imminent and users who can benefit from using Firefox with gtk+-3.0 can
> upgrade to Stretch
>  - I use an extension that doesn't work with gtk 3.0 and it is not likely to be
> ported. I would like to use it as long as I can. There may be dozens of users
> like me in a similar situation :)
> 
> Even though my main motivation is for selfish reasons I think building the new
> Firefox with old gtk is more appropriate for (old)stable distribution since it
> is still a suppported build option and it is a more conservative jump from
> Firefox 45.
> 
> Please consider building with gtk+-2.0.

This makes sense, but firefox-esr hasn't been tested against gtk+-2.0
ever, neither on Debian nor on Mozilla end. AFAIK RedHat do such builds,
but I don't know if they carry extra patches.

What does the security team think here? We had this discussion in the
past, but IIRC back then it wasn't a given that building against
gtk+-2.0 might be a possibility.

Mike