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by levosmetalo 4623 days ago
Wrong, the stub is an annoying experience if you are behind a company firewall, or with slow connection. And the point about bandwidth saving doesn't make sense either, since instead of putting Firefox installer in a file share and be done, now I have to put there a stub, instruct everyone how to bypass the proxy, if possible, and then everyone has to download it again and again.
3 comments

A stub can save bandwidth by only downloading the components needed for your system, instead of having to pack in every possible optional dependency.

The alternative, expecting all users to know precisely which components they need, is absurd and never works. And we all know you can't reliably do configuration detection in a web page to that extent either.

Well, in that case, you can easily put (or link to) the full download, can't you?

Or am I missing something?

You are missing his point that it's not easy to find.

"Systems & Languages" doesn't tell me anything about being able to find the offline installer there. Either changing the phrasing to something more explicit like "Other downloads", and/or adding a title attribute explaining what can you find there could be a good improvement.

Also, giving a hint at the "thank you" page (ex. Having trouble? Try the offline installer) would be a nice addition.

Well, if I understand his post correctly, his process was "putting Firefox installer in a file share and be done." Well, this process still works.

> You are missing his point that it's not easy to find [...]

That, on the other hand, is a valid point.

Well, to be honest, I completely ignored the "putting Firefox installer in a file share and be done" part, because there are infinite reasons why an offline installer is needed (and also because I already saw people killing themselves in this discussion).

Entering in much detail of a specific use case is not really a helpful way to leave feedback, but it's understandable since users have the perception that their use case is completely ignored/forgotten.

If you feel like this, you should really file a bug (http://bugzilla.mozilla.org). If you need help with the intricacies of our bugzilla, ping me (I'm Yoric on irc.mozilla.org or irc.freenode.net).
When chrome got released, the instantaneous feel of downloading a stub which then pull the rest was enjoyable. I understand your points, but it's not 100% annoyance, it has a little value.