On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 09:43:32 +0100
Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> wrote:
I was curious so I investigated. The dependency was added in this
commit¹ with the message "Require firefox extensions that match
epiphany
functionality: keyring, adblock." Looking at the commit log, an
earlier
commit sheds some more light²: "Install iceweasel instead of
epiphany :(
See bug#682481."
So, GNOME proper includes the Epiphany browser, but Debian's GNOME
metapackage omits it due to the lack of security support. Iceweasel
is
used in its place, and the XUL* extensions are also depended upon so
that users have the same level of functionality as Epiphany has.
It's what I pointed out in thread about Iceweasel/Icedove
http://lists.debian.org/20131003164457.46dfc0e9@eunet.rs
Browser development is stalled if we exclude Firefox and Chromium
that
have enormous number of bugs. Konqueror is no longer security
supported,
now looks like Epiphany also, *Links* are to feature poor... On the
other hand, web sites aggressively utilize new features, which is
almost
always overhead. If you know of some useful alternative please tell
us.