Decide how to use the multi-lingual Tor Browser in the alpha/release series
Now that legacy/trac#12967 (moved) is fixed, we should decide on how we want to make use of a multi-lingual Tor Browser. For the hardened series we just ship one build with all locales. We could do that for the alpha and the release series as well but maybe there is a smarter way to strike the balance between usability (downloading just the localized bundle I want) and resource scarcity (hosting all the localized bundles on our infrastructure).
Mike had the idea a while ago to ship the most important bundles localized while putting all the other locales in a generic bundle (see: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-dev/2015/tor-dev.2015-08-10-18.01.log.txt). I think I like that idea. Is that still something we want?
Designs
- #40924
- tor-browser-build #40627
- tor-browser-bundle-testsuite #40065Sponsor 131 - Phase 3 - Major ESR 102 Migration
- #41368Sponsor 131 - Phase 4 - Browser Release Management
- #41369Sponsor 131 - Phase 4 - Browser Release Management
- #41371Sponsor 131 - Phase 4 - Browser Release Management
- #41370Sponsor 131 - Phase 4 - Browser Release Management
- #41372Sponsor 131 - Phase 4 - Browser Release Management
- tor-browser-build #40641Sponsor 131 - Phase 3 - Major ESR 102 Migration
- #41377Sponsor 131 - Phase 4 - Browser Release Management
- tpo/web/tpo #330
- #41378Sponsor 131 - Phase 4 - Browser Release Management
- #41414Sponsor 131 - Phase 4 - Browser Release Management
- #41417Sponsor 131 - Phase 4 - Browser Release Management
- #41435Sponsor 131 - Phase 3 - Major ESR 102 Migration
- tor-browser-build #40687Sponsor 131 - Phase 3 - Major ESR 102 Migration
- tpo/ux/research #107Sponsor 30 - Objective 3.6
- tpo/ux/research #109Sponsor 30 - Objective 3.6
Activity
added AffectsTails in Legacy / Trac TorBrowserTeam202006 in Legacy / Trac component::applications/tor browser in Legacy / Trac owner::tbb-team in Legacy / Trac priority::medium in Legacy / Trac severity::normal in Legacy / Trac status::new in Legacy / Trac tbb-usability-stoppoint-wizard in Legacy / Trac type::task in Legacy / Trac ux-team in Legacy / Trac labels
I assume the advantage of shipping packages for each locale is the smaller download size. But the impact of including many locales is not too high. Here is some data from some alpha builds I made yesterday:
locale-specific package: 63M tor-browser-linux64-5.5a3_ar.tar.xz 76M tor-browser-linux64-5.5a3_ar.mar
"ALL" package with 15 language packs: 67M tor-browser-linux64-5.5a3_ALL.tar.xz 82M tor-browser-linux64-5.5a3_ALL.mar
The size increase over a locale-specific package is about 4MB for the .tar.gz files and about 6MB for the complete MAR files. That does not seem bad at all. Should we just switch to the "ALL" package? Or are we planning to increase the number of Firefox language packs we ship?
We can greatly reduce the footprint on the web server and mirrors by producing multi-locale packages.
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From legacy/trac#17616 (moved) (resolved as a duplicate of this ticket):
However, for better consistency and not breaking TBB downloaders in future, please consider producing also stable TBB bundles with language "ALL".
If you go for "ALL" bundles only, could you please consider adding web redirects from language specific links to to "ALL"? At least from "en-US" to "ALL"? This would help not breaking TBB downloaders.
Trac:
Cc: mcs, brade, mikeperry to mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.orgGreat task! Solve all Localization problems in one ticket! It is still being solved by IT industry for now ;) But due to the security nature of the project there are some key moments that make a solution more definite:
- Tor Browser emulates some "common" browser to the web, and it's better for it to handle all locale-specific features of the web (not only language), because it is being built potentially for everyone (or not?).
- Fingerprinting problem leads project to bundle in future (?) Unicode fonts with it to be OS-independent (a lot of megabytes each).
- Best UI is MUI that can switch on the fly and has "same as system" option.
- Localized versions (Mozilla style) are needed anyways if you want people that know only one language to use it. Localized site, localized installer, localized app - no "select language" dialogs (in English!). MUI installer with OS language detection might be used.
- To reduce size TBB can download LPKs (xpi) from your site when user switches language in UI (and can restart automatically to apply), but users in restricted locations cannot switch this way.
Hope that differences in UI will not be exposed to the web - it's the main concern.
Trac:
Cc: mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org to mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv@riseup.net
Trac:
Reviewer: N/A to N/A
Cc: mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv@riseup.net to mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela
Trac:
Cc: mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela to mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela, lnlTrac:
Cc: mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela, lnl to mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela, lindaTrac:
Cc: mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela, linda to mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela, linda, arthuredelstein
Trac:
Cc: mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela, linda, arthuredelstein to mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela, linda, arthuredelstein, emmapeel
Trac:
Cc: mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela, linda, arthuredelstein, emmapeel to mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela, linda, arthuredelstein, emmapeel, antonela
Replying to gk:
Mike had the idea a while ago to ship the most important bundles localized while putting all the other locales in a generic bundle (see: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-dev/2015/tor-dev.2015-08-10-18.01.log.txt). I think I like that idea. Is that still something we want?
It does seem like an easy next step that what we do now, and it would help some of our users now without inconveniencing the others much.
Are there reasons not to do it? :)
Trac:
Cc: mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela, linda, arthuredelstein, emmapeel, antonela to mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela, linda, arthuredelstein, emmapeel, antonela, intrigeriSee legacy/trac#32711 (moved) for one additional benefit of this.
We recently merged legacy/trac#32676 (moved) for the Tails use-case, but this ticket would provide many more benefits, too. Maybe we should start with legacy/trac#22710 (moved).
Trac:
Keywords: TorBrowserTeam201608 deleted, TorBrowserTeam202002 added
Cc: mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela, linda, arthuredelstein, emmapeel, antonela, intrigeri to mcs, brade, mikeperry, whonix-devel@whonix.org, ilv, isabela, linda, arthuredelstein, emmapeel, antonela, intrigeri, cohoshmentioned in issue legacy/trac#17514 (moved)
mentioned in issue legacy/trac#17616 (moved)
mentioned in issue legacy/trac#20628 (moved)
mentioned in issue legacy/trac#21245 (moved)
mentioned in issue legacy/trac#21920 (moved)
mentioned in issue legacy/trac#22710 (moved)
mentioned in issue legacy/trac#25260 (moved)
mentioned in issue legacy/trac#32676 (moved)
moved from legacy/trac#17400 (moved)
mentioned in issue #22710 (closed)
changed milestone to %Tor Browser: 10.5
added Backlog label
changed milestone to %Tor Browser: 11.0 Issues with previous release
added Tails label and removed 1 deleted label
added Roadmap::Future label and removed Backlog label
