Disaster strikes - SeaMonkey removed from ports tree

T

trev

Without warning, like most disasters, SeaMonkey was deleted from the ports tree overnight. No note in UPDATING which I check before each port upgrade run.

I'm using the same mail spool dating back to Netscape Communicator on Windows NT in 1996.

Fear not, I've rescued my SeaMonkey port from the previous day's snapshot and archived it forever :)

Just a heads-up for any other diehards...
 
I just tried installing and using it yesterday.
Interestingly, that was the first time ever...
It failed it's purpose like others.
 
freshports.org
03.07.2019. www/seamonkey: remove port

Upstream has poor history of delivering security fixes on time.
2.49.4 was released almost 1 year ago. While 2.49.5 with 60.2
backports is planned[1] it's at least 1 month away while ESR60
will reach EOL in 2 months. By the time 2.57.0 arrives it'll
also be vulnerable.
 
I've never found a SeaMonkey replacement or indeed replacements.

I did briefly try ThunderBird (email) and Firefox (web) but ThunderBird trashed my mail spool (twice in two weeks) which is something that has _never_ happened through Netscape Communicator, Mozilla Application Suite, SeaMonkey.

As for SeaMonkey being "unmaintained upstream" that's strictly not true. It is being maintained, it just has not had an release after SeaMonkey was removed from Mozilla Foundation infrastructure as there have been replacement infrastructure issues.

See more:
o https://blog.seamonkey-project.org/2019/02/18/all-humors-aside/
o https://wiki.mozilla.org/SeaMonkey/StatusMeetings/2019-06-30
 
I was planning to upgrade my FreeBSD 11.0 box to 12.0 but will wait to see if Seamonkey returns.
I was able to get Opera to run but it is flawed. Chromium has errors and FireFox also is missing.
 
I was able to compile Seamonkey from ports but I can only start it by typing /usr/local/bin/seamonkey. Otherwise I get a "Could not find the Mozilla runtime".
Chrome and Opera seem to work ok today.
 
Code: 
trev@shadow [/tmp] $ ls -l /usr/local/bin/seamonkey
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  34 27 May 12:08 /usr/local/bin/seamonkey -> /usr/local/lib/seamonkey/seamonkey

I start it from my TWM menu thus:
Code: 
"Seamonkey"     f.exec "/usr/local/bin/seamonkey &"

Never been an issue.
 
Indeed - I was using the Netcsape Communicator beta on Windows NT in 1996. When it was open sourced around 2000, Mozilla rewrote most of it and renamed it the Mozilla Application Suite. Of course Mozilla discontinued that in 2006 to concentrate on Firefox and Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey was born. Due to a recent, I gather required, move off Mozilla infrastructure releases have stalled while new infrastructure is setup, a process which has not been what one might call smooth.

I have donated to the SeaMonkey Association and live in hope that releases will resume in the not too distant future.
 
That really sucks. I was just about to re-install it and it's gone! For those of us running on limited hardware, Seamonkey was a compelling Firefox replacement. I've not found any other browser that provides as much with such a minimal resource requirement. I hope the powers that be can figure out a way to reinstate Seamonkey.....soon.

It's always something...ugh.
 
Thanks for the heads up. Gotta pin that port first thing after breakfast. If it does not return, what then? Firefox with the auto-disable of the MITM warner?
 
I believe that the new rust-based build code cannot be adapted into Seamonkey. The upshot is that Seamonkey will not receive any security updates/bug fixes going forward.
 
I've seen seamonkey compile problems before. That's why i switched to thunderbird, which works fine for me.
I think thunderbird has the best calender function also.
 
shepper said:
I believe that the new rust-based build code cannot be adapted into Seamonkey. The upshot is that Seamonkey will not receive any security updates/bug fixes going forward.
Click to expand...

Any evidence for your conclusion?
There are SeaMonkey 2.53, 2.57 and trunk branches bring worked on, compilations for Linux, Windows, macOS but alas not FreeBSD are available at http://www.wg9s.com/
 
trev said:
Without warning, like most disasters, SeaMonkey was deleted from the ports tree overnight.
Click to expand...

Actually there was a warning, albeit only in commitlog:
Code: 
Revision 497995  Fri Apr  5 22:21:12 2019 UTC
www/{palemoon,seamonkey}: put on a deathbed

No point in keeping abandonware only to delay Mk/bsd.gecko.mk cleanup.
SeaMonkey is unlikely to escape the rabbit hole of technical debt and
PaleMoon is unlikely to be friendly to BSDs (or packagers in general).

Fear not, I've rescued my SeaMonkey port from the previous day's snapshot and archived it forever :)
Click to expand...

The real problem is, it doesn't build anymore with 11.3
 
I wonder if I could pull off a 11.2 to 11.3 freebsd-update with my locked Seamonkey package?
Sounds like a disaster waiting.
 
Phishfry said:
I wonder if I could pull off a 11.2 to 11.3 freebsd-update with my locked Seamonkey package?
Sounds like a disaster waiting.
Click to expand...
Since is not a major version update (you are using the same ABI) there is no need to lock or run pkg-static upgrade -f. So Seamonkey should work OK on 11.3.
 
PMc said:
The real problem is, it doesn't build anymore with 11.3
Click to expand...

Oh yes it will :)

You just need to tweak the Makefile thus:

MOZ_OPTIONS+= --enable-application=suite --disable-startupcache

and she's apples as they say here downunder.
 
Phishfry said:
I wonder if I could pull off a 11.2 to 11.3 freebsd-update with my locked Seamonkey package?
Sounds like a disaster waiting.
Click to expand...

I upgraded my 11.2-STABLE to 11.3-STABLE via source and Seamonkey is still ticking along without any issue or need to rebuild.
 
Well that gave me some breathing room. freebsd-update upgrade -r 11.3-RELEASE had no qualms with packages.

I really only have one primary desktop this affects. I tried using netsurf and iridium for daily use. Neither pleases me.
netsurf is great for html man pages. It really seems to choke for much internet content.
 
Alas, with the latest ports tree updates, the SeaMonkey build on 11.3-STABLE is still successful, but it now core dumps when run. I restored from my trusty backups - those things you don't need until you do need them, rather like insurance.

Curiously, SeaMonkey is still compiling and running in my FreeBSD 12-STABLE environment as of yesterday.

The other major difference between 11.3-STABLE and 12-STABLE is that the base llvm compiler is at v8.0.0 on 11.3, but v6.0.1 on 12-STABLE which seems a tad odd.
 
trev said:
The other major difference between 11.3-STABLE and 12-STABLE is that the base llvm compiler is at v8.0.0 on 11.3, but v6.0.1 on 12-STABLE which seems a tad odd.
Click to expand...
11.3 is released recently and 12 is released on 2018.
 
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