Firefox ESL browser is still not updated in Centos repos- why?

[meisterlr]

Hi-

Why aren't the repos for any version of Centos (or RHEL or Rocky for that matter) being updated with the current ESR version of Firefox web browser? 102.14 is the latest available via yum/Centos 7 repos. Latest ESR should be 115.x (or higher). What is the reason for the delay? Several web apps (like Slack) will no longer support versions 104 and earlier as of tomorrow, Sept. 1. See "Browser support lifecycle schedule": https://slack.com/help/articles/1500001 ... rs#linux-1

Please explain/provide timeline/contact info to get this information. Thank you.

[TrevorH]

You would need to ask Red Hat. CentOS and all Rocky etc rebuilds only rebuild what Red Hat supplies as part of RHEL. I checked on RHEL 7, 8 and 9 and all are still 102.14..0.

Please explain/provide timeline/contact info to get this information. Thank you.

This is a volunteer website and all replies come from volunteers. There are no guarantees for any of these distros except RHEL where you pay for the privilege of being able to be demanding.

[meisterlr]

Hi-

Yes, I note same with all RHEL repos. Will all respect, this is not about being demanding- it's about RHEL repos not keeping up with ESR versioning and causing users to get locked out of certain web apps (when using 104 or earlier versions of Firefox).

Would I need a RHEL subscription or is there a specific contact email I can use (if you happen to know)?

Thank you.

EDIT: going with the basic customerservice@redhat.com. will update here with result/reply for anyone else interested.

[TrevorH]

Your time line is also off. The firefox docs say that the ESR version is maintained for at least 12 weeks after the initial release of the next version. FF 115 ESR was released approximately 8 weeks ago so there is still another month of 102 left to go. I notice that 102.15 was released 3 days ago.

[jlehtone]

That Slack site writes:

The support cycle for Firefox follows Mozilla's Rapid Release schedule and excludes the Extended Support Release (ESR) schedule.

What does that mean in practice? If Slack were concerned about security, then they would support only FF 117 and the ESR, but apparently they still accept FF 105 that has been dead for 10 months.

All RHEL (7, 8, and 9) are on FF 102 ESR, so the issue is not only on CentOS 7. Who should bow to whom between Red Hat and Slack?

[owl102]

Even Firefox ESR installations on MS-Windows are not yet updated to version 115 automatically:

There are two more planned releases of Firefox 102 ESR, and then it will go out of support on September 26, 2023. Users will then be automatically upgraded to the Firefox 115 ESR.

From one major version to another, such as the version 52 to version 60 migration, the updates will be implemented only after version X.2.0 is released. For example, users of version 52 will be updated only when version 60.2.0 has been published.

[TrevorH]

I just checked Debian 11 and 12 and they are both on ESR 102.x as well.

[Whoever]

Hi-

Why aren't the repos for any version of Centos (or RHEL or Rocky for that matter) being updated with the current ESR version of Firefox web browser? 102.14 is the latest available via yum/Centos 7 repos. Latest ESR should be 115.x (or higher). What is the reason for the delay? Several web apps (like Slack) will no longer support versions 104 and earlier as of tomorrow, Sept. 1. See "Browser support lifecycle schedule": https://slack.com/help/articles/1500001 ... rs#linux-1

Please explain/provide timeline/contact info to get this information. Thank you.

Today is September 1 and Slack is running fine in Firefox 102 on my Gentoo desktop. I think this announcement means that, if there is a problem with 102, they won't fix it. However, they are not intentionally breaking 102.

[steve12]

What does that mean in practice? If Slack were concerned about security, then they would support only FF 117 and the ESR, but apparently they still accept FF 105 that has been dead for 10 months.

[TrevorH]

I see that firefox has been updated to ESR 115.3.1 in both RHEL 8 and 9. RHEL 7 is still on 102 but I suspect that's jsut because it takes a huge amount more work to make something brand new and shiny work on a distro from 2014 when it was written for 2023 distros. It most likely needs newer versions of all the packages needed to build it (it uses rust and various devtoolset things).