Linux and Software Freedom

All of this would seem to ignore a significant point: how the new update model affects Linux users and maintainers and how removing the version number from the About box and moving to automated updates affects the users' right to know exactly what is changing in their computer.

It is my understanding that the various components get spread out as per the Linux filesystem standards when Firefox is installed from a .deb or other package file (depending on its construction). The automatic update is looking for the local folder install like I can download from getfirefox.com but would not properly update a package based install and would actually need root permissions to properly update on Linux without drastically changing the location of the install.

Furthermore, there is the extreme possibility that Firefox would break on systems such as Debian Stable. Yes, I know they have Iceweasel but some users prefer the Firefox branding and the up-to-date versions. Rapid automatic updates could result in breaking library dependencies due to a hidden update and have a broken unusable Firefox.

Lastly I'd like to point out that background automatic updates are detrimental to Software Freedom and it seems that this version number removal coupled with an automatic update system could be a move by Mozilla to distance itself from the ideals of Free Software. Users should be constantly aware of anything happening to their computers. This idea would put Mozilla in control of the software people have on their own machines taking freedom from them. This is not the goal of community driven software. If this is the path you're going to take, either make Firefox closed source like Opera or Chrome or respect the wishes of the community. The open source ecosystem doesn't need another split like the one between OpenOffice and LibreOffice.