How to update Firefox once CentOS 5 is EOL

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jjscott13
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Joined: 2011/04/16 14:28:38

How to update Firefox once CentOS 5 is EOL

Post by jjscott13 » 2017/02/02 22:01:29

I see that CentOS 5.x will reach end of life on 3/31/17, which means no more updates. I have many systems in the field running CentOS 5 and the main application I need to update is Firefox. I would like to know if there is a way to install the latest version of Firefox once CentOS 5 reaches EOL, and if so, how to do it? Would I have to download the source and compile it on a CentOS 5 system? This is something have no experience with and would like to understand the level of difficulty and the level of risk involved…will there be potential stability issues with Firefox if this is the route I have to take?

Our company plans to update to CentOS 6.8, but they keep delaying the project and I’m just trying to understand my options and risk at this time.

Thanks

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TrevorH
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Re: How to update Firefox once CentOS 5 is EOL

Post by TrevorH » 2017/02/02 23:13:17

Mozilla offer a precompiled tarball version but I have no idea if that will operate on CentOS 5.

At the present time, I do know that the firefox SRPM is common across all 3 CentOS versions and it might be possible to download the SRPM for newer CentOS 6 or 7 versions and build that using mock for CentOS 5. Whether that will continue to build for CentOS 5 is another question. However you do it, this still will not address the elephant in the room which is that there will be no more security updates for the rest of the operating system so your plan is fine until the first serious security flaw surfaces in some other component.

If you are aiming to migrate, personally I would invest a small amount more effort into going straight to CentOS 7. CentOS 6.8 was billed as being the last "feature" release where new features were added. CentOS 6.9 (RHEL 6.9 is in beta already upstream) will be the first version in Production Phase 2 which only lasts for 1 year before it too goes into Production Phase 3 (where el5 has been for the last 3 years) and will be getting critical security updates only.

CentOS 5 already has numerous unfixed security vulnerabilities of less than a critical nature.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

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