[logn]

> caveat emptor: when firefox upgrades it usually wont change these settings for you

It's not so bad. You can sort prefs by user-defined, they're in bold, and each one has a reset-to-default option.

Also you can do a whole browser reset which preserves only passwords/bookmarks. Instructions: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-a...

And firefox profiles might be handy for this too (from the command line add --ProfileManager or -P <profile name>).

[gry]

Yes it is. Everything you've described of my two brothers can't do.

[technomancy]

Well considering they don't browse HN or GitHub it's hard to see what the problem is.

[JoshMnem]

You can put the settings in a user.js file that goes in your Firefox Profile folder. Example: https://github.com/j127/firefox-tweaks/blob/master/user.js