"Dumbed down" ain't an opinion, Merc, it's a demonstrable fact. Go TOOLS >> OPTIONS in the Fox, then EDIT >> PREFERENCES in Moz. The difference is obvious and substantial. Firefox was designed with a fresh UI in order to attract the average not-too-bright IE user. [/url]
... or, alternatively, you could say that the Firefox Options are uncluttered by things you do not need. Someone who wants greater functionality can either do about:config or find an extension that exposes a wider array of options. The only thing I ever change in Firefox options is the default download location. That's it. Everything else gets left in its default setting.
Don't talk to me about extensions. Extensions are horribly time-consuming to search for, evaluate, download, and install, particularly if (like me) you have a number of systems in regular use. WTF should I switch to an inferior browser just so I can waste a whole lot of time trying to get back the effortless functionality that I already have with both Opera 8.5 and Mozilla?
You
don't have the functionality extensions give you, from Opera or Mozilla. 90% of the extensions that're out there have the same basic functionality regardless of the gecko browser you've chosen. If you don't want to wade through dozens of extensions, don't. Download the ones you like. Drag them into the extensions window on each of your PCs. Poof. Everyone is up to date. Or switch to
Portable Firefox, which allows one to keep extensions and bookmarks, along with the app itself. Install it to a pen drive. No more sychronization issues.
Neither Moz nor Opera have anything like Adblock. Neither have anything like Noscript or Linky or Magpie or the Bookmarks Synchronizer. Those tiny little extensions - each of which takes all of about 15 seconds to download and install - create a massive upgrade in browsing experience.
You can fuss and bitch about how much you like those other browsers, but the fact is,
I have a better browsing experience for the five minutes I took to install my extensions.
Opera, of course, is just broken. Doesn't share keyboard shortcuts, doesn't share UI elements, doesn't behave in the manner I expect a browser to behave. That's broken and wrong. Even Konqueror behaves better. What the fuck is wrong with the Norwegians?