This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Why aren't Firefox for Linux downloads made available as a .deb package?

  • 2 replies
  • 4 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by nar321

nar321
nar321
more options

Downloads for a Windows machine are Easy to install. Downloads for a Linux machine aren't easy to install. If said downloads where made available as a.deb package they (from a computer user's standpoint) would become just as easy to install. A.deb package is one of four ways that Linux installs downloads and in my humble opinion is the easiest. Otherwise I am forced to wait for the latest Firefox to become available in the "Package Manager". Currently using Linux Mint Nadia>

Downloads for a Windows machine are Easy to install. Downloads for a Linux machine aren't easy to install. If said downloads where made available as a.deb package they (from a computer user's standpoint) would become just as easy to install. A.deb package is one of four ways that Linux installs downloads and in my humble opinion is the easiest. Otherwise I am forced to wait for the latest Firefox to become available in the "Package Manager". Currently using Linux Mint Nadia>

Chosen solution

Surely the fact that some of the more popular Linux distro's(Debian, Ubuntu and it's varitions,Linux mint) can and do work with .deb should count for something. Yes, I can (and do) wait for the Upgrade Manager to say a Firefox upgrade is available. It is not my fault that Linux allows 4 ways of installing. This lack of a way of installing certainly can and does impede true cross platform compatibility, just sayin.

Thanks for the response, even if it doesn't help.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (2)

James
James
  • Top 25 Contributor
  • Moderator
more options

As you know, only some of the Linux distros out there even use .deb packages, never mind any dependency issues.

Firefox packages are generally provided by the users Linux distribution. There were talks in past where Mozilla was going to provide a place for users to easily find builds made by their distro or more generic package builds but that has not happened.

The tarbal version from is rather easy and quick to install as it is basically extract and run Firefox (even without using CLi). The hurdles you may have depends on if you want to make launchers/shortcuts to firefox script on panel, menu or desktop for example or to make sure the folder has read/write permissions for software update as a easy way around permissions is to put program folder in a folder in /home.

I know Mozilla experimented with RPM builds back in 2011 mainly for Nightly?Aurora builds then (never for a release) and they have stated Autopackage might be a option in past.

nar321
nar321 Question owner
more options

Chosen Solution

Surely the fact that some of the more popular Linux distro's(Debian, Ubuntu and it's varitions,Linux mint) can and do work with .deb should count for something. Yes, I can (and do) wait for the Upgrade Manager to say a Firefox upgrade is available. It is not my fault that Linux allows 4 ways of installing. This lack of a way of installing certainly can and does impede true cross platform compatibility, just sayin.

Thanks for the response, even if it doesn't help.