Firefox 42 will not allow unsigned extensions

https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2013/01/29/putting-users-i...

"Users should have the choice of what software and plugins run on their machine."

https://blog.mozilla.org/theden/2014/12/15/introducing-a-sma...

"Firefox is dedicated to putting users in control of their online experience"

More recently:

https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/06/02/firefox-puts-you-in...

"Firefox Puts You in Control of Your Online Life".

The slogan, as found on https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ , is now "Firefox is created by a global non-profit dedicated to putting individuals in control online." I believe it used to be "users" - see above - but was silently changed. I suppose these "individuals" are the people at Mozilla...?

They've seen Firefox's UI change for the worse in so many ways, even in the face of wide opposition.

They've seen unwanted bloat, like Hello and Pocket, forced upon them, again in the face of wide opposition.

They've seen their requests for bug fixes and performance improvements go unheeded, sometimes for years.

The easy use of extensions has been the only thing keeping many of these people using Firefox. They've been using many extensions to undo, as much as is possible, the unwanted changes that Mozilla has made.

I use Firefox Nightly, and was recently surprised when, after an update, some custom extensions I had written myself were not loading, and could not be easily enabled. When I found out it was due to this, and I had to start adjusting about:config settings, it was nearly the last straw for me.

I don't want to use another browser, but it's like Mozilla is doing everything in its power to make using Firefox a bad experience for me. I know I'm not alone. We've already seen Firefox' share of the browser market drop from well over 30% to a level of around 10% today, if it isn't actually lower than that.

It's truly sad to see what's happening to what was once such a great browser.

That said I can see how users don't like Mozilla's attitude. I've actually noticed it as far back as Firefox 3.5. I know users didn't like the changes post Firefox 2.0. It's too bad Firefox wasn't componentized enough to separate UI from the layout engine and JavaScript engine.

I myself like Australis but I'm also someone who's loved Chrome from the beginning. That said I think it was a mistake to turn Firefox into Chrome. They should've released Australis as a separate browser like they did with Firefox in the Mozilla Internet Suite days. That way they wouldn't have alienated so many users and their core user base would've been secure while they experiment with big user facing changes.

These days I'm more disappointed in what they didn't add to the browser like built-in ad-blocking and tracker blocking. I understand they have this view that the web needs ads but that doesn't mean it needs third-party ad networks. Just like popups they degrade the user's experience. More importantly they also compromise the security and privacy of the user. Clearly they are a practice that should be fought against. That they haven't tells me they are no longer an advocate of the user but the site owners.