Firefox was an effort to simplify things. The one large app was getting bloated. Now they have the Gekko core, with several applications built off of it.
I find it astonishing that such a major flaw as erasing the whole Program Files folder taking a year to fix not only doesn't raise any eyebrows
Ah, the famous installer problem in beta 0.8, first entered in the bug tracking system on 12/16/2003 (#228672) and fixed in all builds after 02/06/2004. It involved a custom install over another folder (like Program Files) and specifying a clean install. It was really a UI problem since it didn't make it clear that Firebird wouldn't make its own folder to clean install in. The "clean install" feature was there because the product was beta.
People later found a case for the uninstaller deleting files if you stupidly installed Firefox directly in to the Program Files folder, and on uninstall specifically agreed to delete "C:\Program Files." This bug was basically hidden by the previous installer bug, because most people didn't get to this stage if they''ve already wiped out the Program Files folder on install. This one did linger until just after 1.0 release, and there was a lot of furor in Mozilla for letting that happen. Most thought it should have been a stopper for 0.9. Unfortunately, others were for rewriting the installer (which eventually happened), so it delayed the quick fix.
Basically it boils down to Mozilla didn't do enough to protect stupid users from themselves. That doesn't excuse it, it was still a bad bug, but it's not as generally serious as some make it out to be because it required specific stupid actions on the part of the user.
Ah, the problems people have going to version 1. I remember Windows version 2. Firefox 0.8 was more ready for prime time.
However, at 1.5 it's definitely better than IE in every way except one: it doesn't render bad HTML as well as IE does.
So, who was more stupid, the user who took for granted that Mozilla knew what they were doing and trusted a crappily written uninstaller, or the Mozilla folks who couldn't drop everything until the problem was fixed?
How ironic, that I'm not "stupid" because I'm one of the rare ones that call Mozilla on the carpet for this, but instead I get called a Redmond shill. There's just no way of winning with the True Believers.
....if you stupidly installed Firefox directly in to the Program Files folder
I'm confused. Just where would you install something? In "My Pictures"???