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by carapace 2235 days ago
It happened today! I just tried to open a new tab to look something up but the page comes up with this:

> Sorry. We just need to do one small thing to keep going.

> Firefox has just been updated in the background. Click Restart Firefox to complete the update.

> We will restore all your pages, windows and tabs afterwards, so you can be on your way quickly.

I was in the middle of something. I had a thought, a question occurred, and I wanted to look something up on the Internet real quick. So I hit ctrl-t for a new tab. But that isn't the "new tab" command right now. Firefox has entered into an invisible quasi-mode that remaps ctrl-t to "restart firefox". But not quite. It actually remaps to a command that locks firefox like a grab: it's unusable, it refuses to load and display any more pages until I click that "Restart Firefox" button.

Interrupting my flow by remapping keyboard shortcuts to non-dismiss-able modal dialog with one button ("Click here and only here you idiot monkey" is what that says to me) is super-arrogant. It's patronizing and disrespectful. Saying "sorry" before you shove me doesn't make it any better, it just sounds obsequious.

I switched to Vivaldi yesterday. (The opening-a-tab thing today that I'm currently bitching about was to find something in my old history in FF.) I don't actually like it any better but it hasn't spat in my face so far.