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Introducing GNUzilla and IceCat
GNUzilla is the GNU version of the Mozilla suite, and GNU IceCat is the GNU version of the Firefox browser. Its main advantage is an ethical one: it is entirely free software. While the Firefox source code from the Mozilla project is free software, they distribute and recommend non-free software as plug-ins and addons.
In addition, GNU IceCat includes some privacy protection features, included in a separate addon:
1. Some sites refer to zero-size images on other hosts to keep track of cookies. When IceCat detects this mechanism it blocks cookies from the site hosting the zero-length image file. (It is possible to re-enable such a site by removing it from the blocked hosts list.)
2. Other sites rewrite the host name in links redirecting the user to another site, mainly to "spy" on clicks. When this behavior is detected, IceCat shows a message alerting the user.
To see these new features in action, some test pages are available.
Downloads
The changed files for the development sources are available through the gnuzilla project at savannah. You can check them out via anonymous SVN:
svn co svn://svn.savannah.gnu.org/gnuzilla/trunk/icecat svn co svn://svn.savannah.gnu.org/gnuzilla/trunk/privacy_ext
The remove.nonfree script in the repository is used to remove questionable files from the Mozilla distribution. The GNU project welcome volunteers to review this script and research which removed files are actually source files under a free license, and thus need not be removed.
GNUzilla keeps the triple licensing used by Firefox and Mozilla in general, in order to facilitate the reuse of code.
GNU/Linux
Official releases of IceCat are available from ftp.gnu.org, or any GNU mirror. Please use a mirror if possible. Besides the sources, a binary release for GNU/Linux / x86 (32 bit) is available.
.deb based GNU/Linux distro (like Ubuntu)
If you are running a .deb based GNU/Linux distro, you may find useful to use the launchpad repository available here: https://launchpad.net/~gnuzilla-team/+archive/ppa It is recommended to use it whenever it is possible, it this way you will not have to worry about update manually the packages. The langpacks in the PPA are the same available for download.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnuzilla-team/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install icecat
PowerPC
Binaries for PowerPC are here: http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/manulix/icecat-gnu/
Test releases
Test releases of IceCat are available from http://gnuzilla.gnu.org/download.
Free plugins
GNUzilla runs its own plugin finder service at gnuzilla.gnu.org. To specify this at runtime, visit the url about:config in your browser, find the pfs.datasource.url attribute, and change the host to gnuzilla.gnu.org. Also change the protocol from https to http, if necessary. Be careful not to change the rest of the string (after the first single /).
Be sure the plugin.default_plugin_disabled attribute is set to false.
Free addons
The GNU project maintains a list of free addons. Fredrik Hubbe's web site can be used to test free plugins.
Langpacks
You can find langpacks for IceCat at this url: http://gnuzilla.gnu.org/download/langpacks/ These langpacks are generated automatically from the original Firefox ones, if you notice problems in your locale, please let the IceCat Developers know at the <bug-gnuzilla@gnu.org> mailing list.