Gentoo's bindist Firefox Aurora and Firefox's Aurora

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ElleStone
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Gentoo's bindist Firefox Aurora and Firefox's Aurora

Post by ElleStone »

I see from this post: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-95 ... urora.html
that emerging Firefox when using the bindist flag (which I did) results in Firefox being renamed to Aurora.

This page: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/aurora/
invites one to download and try the latest Firefox Aurora.

Is there any connection other than the name between Gentoo's "bindist" Firefox/Aurora and Firefox's Aurora?

Also, does using the Gentoo "branding" flag (which I did) in any way alter how Firefox looks? (this is probably a "duh" question). Even allowing for the name change, Gentoo's "bindist" Firefox looks a bit odd, for example with gigantic icons at the bottom. For a moment I thought somehow I had actually installed some other browser, until I realized that the menu options all looked familiar.

A slightly confused,
Elle Stone
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Post by ElleStone »

Hmm, Firefox 17 default start page does just have large icons at the bottom. As the first thing I normally do with a new Firefox install is set "about:blank" as the home page, I guess I just never scrolled down that far before.

However, the original question remains: the bindist version of gentoo Firefox uses the name "Aurora"; so is the Aurora browser downloadable from Mozilla simply an unbranded Firefox? Or something else? It doesn't really matter, I'm just curious.

Elle
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Post by Ant P. »

USE=bindist — since it implies you intend to redistribute the compiled package to others — disables the proprietary "Firefox" branding, which needs special trademark agreements which Gentoo (and its users) don't have access to. What you get instead is the Mozilla-approved fallback branding that they ship with prebuilt betas.
ElleStone
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Post by ElleStone »

What you get instead is the Mozilla-approved fallback branding that they ship with prebuilt betas.
Ah, now it makes sense. Thanks! I had never heard of Aurora before. Wikipedia says: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of ... x[quote]In April 2011, the development process was split into several "channels", each working on a build in a different stage of development. The most recent available build is called "Nightly Builds" and offers the latest, untested features and updates. The "Aurora" build is up to six weeks behind "Nightly" and offers functionality that has undergone basic testing. The "Beta" channel is another six weeks away. It provides improved stability over the nightly builds and is the first development milestone that has the "Firefox" logo.[/quote]
Elle
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