Get Out of My Way
A while ago I switched to Safari. It was a transition I had desired for some time; I yearned for its simplicity. But there were certain things in Firefox I was accustomed to, and every attempt to switch only reminded me of that. Now that I'm a year past the leap, the opposite is happening. Every time I open Firefox—usually from a need for simultaneous sessions—I am assaulted by the things that drove me away. Time has made their intrusions ever more pronounced and the most odious among them is the update.
Staying current with application updates is the duty of every good user, and making those updates easy is the duty of every good developer. But something must be said for unobtrusive.
Firefox updates involve dialog boxes, buttons, progress bars, waiting, and, if it's a browser update, a restart of the application. When does Firefox prompt you to install these updates? When you start the browser. Why are you starting the browser? If you're like most people, to visit a web page—not to install updates. And because my usage of Firefox is infrequent and extremely task-oriented, these updates are all the more probable and infuriating.
I want to stay up-to-date, Firefox, but when I'm cracking you open, that's the last thing on my mind. Save the update alerts for when I've gone idle or when I'm shutting you down. Anything else is just getting in my way.