[Pacabel]

It's good that Firefox can be customized, for sure. But I'm finding that after each major release these days, I need to perform more and more customization just to bring it back to a usable state.

I want a practical browser that does what I need it to. Yet with each new release of Firefox we tend to see further useful functionality stripped away, additional config panel options removed, and the UI dumbed down in one way or another. So whenever an update happens, it's off to searching for add-ons to basically undo whatever unhelpful changes the developers have just made.

Add-ons and customization should be there to enhance and already good piece of software. They shouldn't be there as band-aid that's applied to fix the numerous mistakes and bad decisions of the software's developers.

[Spittie]

Funny, we're having the exact opposite experience.

I find that with every release of Firefox, I need less and less addons. Better dev tools? Okay, goodbye Firebug. Download popover instead of a different window? Goodbye DownloadStatusBar. Australis? Goodbye Firefox-button mover and FXChrome (I use Tree Style Tabs, but FXChrome make everything else look prettier anyway).

[sanxiyn]

I gave up on config panel removals and UI dumb downs and now configure Firefox solely using about:config. I recommend you this approach. You will get much less annoyed.

[Pacabel]

You're right, that is generally a better option these days. Unfortunately, it still does suffer from the same problem, to some extent. Settings are sometimes renamed, and then it takes some time and effort to track down the new name, assuming the setting (or an equivalent) still even exists.