alternative portable versions of thunderbird and firefox

[fang-face]

partly inspired by this thread i recognized that and wondered why there are no other portable versions of firefox and thunderbird listed in the database or the forum (besides the paf- and X-versions).

portable thunderbird

• http://www.thunderbird-forum.de/...
• caschy's version
• with GnuPG and EnigMail included: http://www.gnupt.de/wp/?p=261
• comparisonof those versions

portable firefox:

• gnupt version
• caschy's version, here as well
• comparison caschy/ paf

i did not use/ test all of these. caschy's loader does not stay in the background while ff/ tb are running, in opposite to the paf-version. i don't know if that's "good" or "bad" (leaving traces in case of crash). it seems (! i did NOT test thoroughly) that this problem does only occur with the paf-version.

EDIT: the pages are in german.

[JohnTHaller]

Any portable Thunderbird app that doesn't have a launcher stay in the background will leave your account name (which may be your email address) in HCKU. Both Firefox and Thunderbird will leave multiple traces in APPDATA and HKCU as well.

Keep in mind that PortableApps.com has received permission from Mozilla for the packages (including repacking the app, the launcher structure, naming and graphics), making them legitimate, legal apps for distribution. I am unaware of any other group with such permission. Any group repackaging Mozilla apps portably without express permission would be running afoul of the Mozilla trademark guidelines and distributing an illegal app.

If you're wondering, Caschy's version is much more limited feature-wise, closed source and done without Mozilla's permission.

[webfork]

Any portable Thunderbird app that doesn't have a launcher stay in the background will leave your account name (which may be your email address) in HCKU. Both Firefox and Thunderbird will leave multiple traces in APPDATA and HKCU as well.

Based on the GnuPT Portable package, the GnuPT.de site's version appears to have a launcher that cleans up the registry junk, although I don't know how thorough it is.

Keep in mind that PortableApps.com has received permission from Mozilla for the packages (including repacking the app, the launcher structure, naming and graphics), making them legitimate, legal apps for distribution. I am unaware of any other group with such permission. Any group repackaging Mozilla apps portably without express permission would be running afoul of the Mozilla trademark guidelines and distributing an illegal app.

Based on a (probably) bad reading of the MPL and what happened with the IceCat project (http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/), it appears to be legal to distribute Mozilla Thunderbird's code as your own, but you can't call it that and you can't use the copyrighted components (including graphics) without permission and you must distribute the code. These groups are obviously not doing that, but I couldn't find anything on the net about Mozilla going after them for license infringement. Still, if there's a problem with the software in a version Mozilla didn't authorize, the community and developers who really do maintain the code are not likely to care or help if its not their version. This is part of what keeps projects with open code in one place unless they become dormant / unmaintained.

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Related: FAQ: Is my version of Firefox illegal? - viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16846