Why isn't Mozilla SeaMonkey available in the repositories? How can I install it?

I wanted to install SeaMonkey on Ubuntu 13.04, but was surprised to see that it was nowhere to be found.

Am I missing something? How can I install it?


SeaMonkey was removed of the repositories, seen in the publishing history, for the following reason:

requested by micahg; unsupportable for five years without dedicated maintenance, contact #ubuntu-mozillateam to help; LP: #987713

This means, that since Ubuntu can't offer support for 5 years to the package they decided to remove it. Looking at the bug report we see more details:

Since we have no one stepping up at the moment to maintain this for 5 years, I think it makes the most sense to remove it from precise. We can always backport from later releases if someone volunteers to help with this.

For volunteers, please join #ubuntu-mozillateam on irc.ubuntu.com to discuss.

They offer a way to still installing the package, but in this case there's no support from Ubuntu:

SeaMonkey package is available in Ubuntuzilla depot (tested successfully on Ubuntu 13.04):

To install, type the following commands:

echo -e "\ndeb http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com C1289A29
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install seamonkey-mozilla-build

More info: SourceForge.net: ubuntuzilla

Alternatively, you may use Joe Lesko's PPA ( Seamonkey Development )but it doesn't support Raring Ringtail yet.

I really hope that someone will step up to maintain this high profile software. I wish I had the time to do it... :-/

If you really wants this package again in the main repositories, you should join and see what you can do to help.