Bugzilla

To give you another reason why some people use the file user.js: I can't speak for support in other languages but in German-speaking Firefox support we often recommend to use user.js instead of about:config and Gijs wrote the main reason, probably without knowing that he wrote about a good reason to use user.js: :P

> (In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #8)
Once things break it's a nightmare to figure out /why/ things are broken, because generally they just copied some instructions off a random webpage 3 years ago and forgot all about doing that, they just wonder why a particular Firefox widget is fubared and either switch to Chrome/Safari/Edge/whatever or cause us / sumo / mozillazine to spend ages debugging for a problem that, fundamentally, shouldn't exist.

That's exactly what happens if people apply changes via about:config: they forget that they changed things and what they changed. In the user.js file people can add notes what the options do. So people a) find all their changed options (which is, by the way, much more difficult with the new about:config!) and b) they can have notes about all their changes.

Of course, with user.js people still _can_ forget that they changed things and what the options do. But wihthout user.js people will forget (almost) for sure.

Bonus point: It's very easy to apply changes to more than one system. Since about:config does not have an export/import feature it's a really nice feature for people who prefer to have the same settings on all their systems.

I hope this comment is helpful.

To give you another reason why some people use the file user.js: I can't speak for support in other languages but in German-speaking Firefox support we often recommend to use user.js instead of about:config and Gijs wrote the main reason, probably without knowing that he wrote about a good reason to use user.js: :P

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #8)
> Once things break it's a nightmare to figure out /why/ things are broken, because generally they just copied some instructions off a random webpage 3 years ago and forgot all about doing that, they just wonder why a particular Firefox widget is fubared and either switch to Chrome/Safari/Edge/whatever or cause us / sumo / mozillazine to spend ages debugging for a problem that, fundamentally, shouldn't exist.

That's exactly what happens if people apply changes via about:config: they forget that they changed things and what they changed. In the user.js file people can add notes what the options do. So people a) find all their changed options (which is, by the way, much more difficult with the new about:config!) and b) they can have notes about all their changes.

Of course, with user.js people still _can_ forget that they changed things and what the options do. But wihthout user.js people will forget (almost) for sure.

Bonus point: It's very easy to apply changes to more than one system. Since about:config does not have an export/import feature it's a really nice feature for people who prefer to have the same settings on all their systems.

I hope this comment is helpful.

To give you another reason why some people use the file user.js: I can't speak for support in other languages but in German-speaking Firefox support we often recommend to use user.js instead of about:config as _best practice_ and Gijs wrote the main reason, probably without knowing that he wrote about a good reason to use user.js: :P

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #8)
> Once things break it's a nightmare to figure out /why/ things are broken, because generally they just copied some instructions off a random webpage 3 years ago and forgot all about doing that, they just wonder why a particular Firefox widget is fubared and either switch to Chrome/Safari/Edge/whatever or cause us / sumo / mozillazine to spend ages debugging for a problem that, fundamentally, shouldn't exist.

That's exactly what happens if people apply changes via about:config: they forget that they changed things and what they changed. In the user.js file people can add notes what the options do. So people a) find all their changed options (which is, by the way, much more difficult with the new about:config!) and b) they can have notes about all their changes.

Of course, with user.js people still _can_ forget that they changed things and what the options do. But wihthout user.js people will forget (almost) for sure.

Bonus point: It's very easy to apply changes to more than one system. Since about:config does not have an export/import feature it's a really nice feature for people who prefer to have the same settings on all their systems.

I hope this comment is helpful.