[Pkg-privacy-maintainers] Bug#1027673: torbrowser-launcher: Please provide a regular package for torbrowser

[Daniel Sanders]

Package: torbrowser-launcher
Version: 0.3.3-6
Severity: wishlist
X-Debbugs-Cc: daniel.ted.sanders at gmail.com

Dear Maintainer,

Can you please provide a regular package for tor-browser in addition to
the current "launcher" one ?

The launcher has real usability issues. Tor-browser is the only program
in debian that I am aware of for which we have to download the application
at launch time rather than at installation time. I really wish it can be
installed just like firefox or any other regular package.

First of all, this only works if the launcher knows the correct URL of
the software, and at this very moment (2023-01-01) it is broken because
the URL has changed (cf bug #1025765). So I am currently unable to use
Tor-browser on debian.

But even when the launcher is working, this has real usability issues.
I am using Debian on the top of Qubes-OS and hence the place where
tor-browser is copied by the launcher is erased each time I restart
the virtual machine (or qube) where it runs. It means the launcher has
to download and install tor-browser almost every time I want to use it.
This takes some times, and wastes network bandwidth. And this would be
even worse for users who do not have a broadband internet connection.

I guess other advanced users who are not using Qubes-OS may have similar
issues because tor-browser is being treated differently from every other
package on debian. The program ends up being installed in the users home
directory, which is yet another very non-standard way of doing things.
I like keeping my home directory as small and simple as possible with
only configuration files, and having tor-browser copied in the home
directory also breaks this principle.

Arch Linux do not provide tor-browser in the standard repositories, but
fortunately it is possible to very easily build a custom package for
tor-browser through AUR so it ends up working like any other regular
package: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/tor-browser
Once you build the package manually, your can install it in a
regular location, so it does not have to be downloaded at launch time
or installed in the users home directory.

It would be greatly appreciated if you could provide a regular debian
package for tor-browser so it can be installed and used just like
firefox or any other regular package·

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 11.6
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 5.10.0-19-cloud-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU thread)
Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages torbrowser-launcher depends on:
ii  ca-certificates    20210119
ii  gnupg              2.2.27-2+deb11u2
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2   0.110-6
ii  python3            3.9.2-3
ii  python3-gpg        1.14.0-1+b2
ii  python3-packaging  20.9-2
ii  python3-pyqt5      5.15.2+dfsg-3
ii  python3-requests   2.25.1+dfsg-2
ii  python3-socks      1.7.1+dfsg-1

Versions of packages torbrowser-launcher recommends:
ii  tor  0.4.5.10-1~deb11u1

Versions of packages torbrowser-launcher suggests:
ii  apparmor  2.13.6-10

-- no debconf information