[tor-reports] Pearl Crescent Report – May 2015

[Mark Smith]

Tor-related work that the Pearl Crescent team did in May 2015
(Kathy Brade and Mark Smith):

* Updater for Tor Browser:

The majority of our development time this month was spent on rebasing 
and fixing the Tor Browser updater patches so they apply and work on top 
of the Firefox ESR 38 codebase.  This effort is part of:
   "Rebase Tor Browser patches to ESR 38"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/15196

Miscellaneous updater tickets that we also spent time on:
   "Strange errors with full Linux update when disk records are enabled"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/15857 (fixed)
   https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1159826 (Mozilla bug)

   "Windows: staged update fails if Meek is enabled"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16014 (in review)

   "Many users seem to be failing incremental updates to 4.5.1"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16028

   "Many update downloads for 4.0.8"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16029

   "Avoid writing to the Windows registry for 'in use' files"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16236


* Tor Browser and Torbutton:

We helped with bug triage, performed code reviews, and worked on various 
fixes in an effort to improve Tor Browser 4.5.x and 5.0 alpha.

We also spent some time testing the 4.5.1 and 5.0a1 candidate builds.

Tickets that we fixed:
   "disabling Torbutton breaks the Add-ons manager"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/15984 (fixed)

Tickets for which we did code reviews:
   #1517, #13670, #15837, #15933, #16150.

Other tickets that we spent some time on:
   "Torbutton changes for ESR 38"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16200 (in review)


* Tor Launcher:

We created a fix for this issue:
   "Make it easier to visually distinguish 'proxy' and
       'bridge' configuration screens"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/15145


* Miscellaneous Activities:
    We participated in the weekly Tor Browser dev meetings on IRC and
    in various design discussions on IRC and on the mailing lists.


* Planned for June:
     - Assist with Tor Browser 4.5.x and 5.0 alpha issues and respond
       to user feedback.

     - Continue to help with the porting of Tor Browser patches to
       the Firefox ESR 38 codebase, and ensure that the patches for
       the areas we have worked on in the past work correctly in an
       ESR 38-based browser.

     - Help address new fingerprinting and tracking issues that have
       been introduced between Firefox 31 and 38.

     - Fix any updater issues that occur in the field, and continue
       to improve the updater user experience.

     - Help with Tor Browser, Tor Launcher, and Torbutton usability
       issues as time permits.

-- 
Mark Smith
Pearl Crescent
http://pearlcrescent.com/