Comment 43 for bug 94494

Russell Philips wrote:
> I don't think the problem is so much the 'one-click install' that some users expect. It's the security implications of installing software that's exempt from automatic updates through apt.

Doesn't Firefox/Thunderbird have this same issue? I don't think (fta or someone else on ubuntu-mozillateam can correct me if I'm wrong) automatic-updating is an issue... the issue is Ubuntu's (justified) desire for Songbird to use system-wide installed libraries (GStreamer, XULRunner, etc.) instead of private copies (like Songbird currently uses). Continued use of private copies in Songbird puts an unfair maintenance burden on the ubuntu-mozillateam guys who have to backport security fixes to multiple codebases, etc.

John Vivirito wrote:
> As i understand it upstream songbird has stbility flaws and lack of upstream maintaining the app. You really should check with fta on IRC in #ubuntu-mozillateam for more info.

I think that's a bit of an unfair characterisation.

While criticisms of stability might be fair (I'd like to point out that a ton of work in the past 3 releases have gone into 'crasher' bugs), we can only fix the crasher bugs we know about (e.g. blanket statements of "stability flaws" aren't useful; crash reports and bugs filed are).

The claim of lack of upstream maintenance, as far as I can tell is completely unfounded. We've taken many patches to our own code, upstreamed all of our GStreamer patches, upstreamed many of our XULRunner patches (not all have been accepted upstream), and consistently put out new releases every 3-4 months. While Songbird, undoubtedly, has many flaws.... I think this is not one of them.