as it is summarized in this piece I just read:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/new-versions-of-firefox-prepare-for-its-big...
If this is entirely accurate, this may be where I'm forced to get off the FF bus. It sure sounds like a deal-breaker to me. If the use of add-ons I consider critical will be gone, then I'm gone too. Previously, I had thought that the signed extensions thing might become that divide, but there remained an "out", a way around that via a switch in About:Config. No such provision this time, it appears. And I don't care for the other key design changes that were mentioned, either. This is perhaps the biggest failing in software development: when something is just fine the way that it is, they simply cannot leave it be ! In my opinion, there are also UI factors that are more important than so-called browser security, to the extent that that is truly a risk -- which I believe tends to be overstated.
This will presumably apply to Portable FF, as of v. 48 (?) So, I'm wondering what my alternatives may be, other than "locking down" for awhile at 47x or 4601 ? I see that there is an ESR variant of portable FF, so maybe that would buy me an extra couple of version cycles, before it too becomes ruined ? And then there is a portable Pale Moon (which seems to have its own extensions compatibility issues), or possibly some other surviving FF forks that I'm not aware of ?
I'm hoping you will give some announcement re these major changes, on the portable side, before they become a fait accompli, and users may not realize what they are getting into.