It doesn't make a lot of sense to backport big architectural overhauls to long-term stability releases, no.

bz pointed out elsewhere in this thread that while ESR releases will get critical security updates backported to them, they won't be receiving any major architectural updates/refactorings that inherently improve security. So in that respect, ESR releases will be more limited security-wise than the mainline release.

You'll be happy to hear that Asa isn't the only decision maker at Mozilla, nor is his opinion held at any higher esteem than anyone else's there. Nice troll, though.

So you're going to switch from one browser that rapid releases to another browser that rapid releases, over......rapid releasing?

For the umpteenth time stated in this thread, Firefox 10 defaults to addons being compatible.

Firefox 10 defaults to addons being compatible by default, FYI.

You do realize that you're replying to a core Firefox developer, right?

So a license update to make the MPL simpler and *more* compatible with other open source licenses is somehow discouraging re-use? Do explain.

[citation please]

How exactly would Microsoft "gobble Firefox up"? It's an open-source browser put out by a non-profit organization.

It's still supported on an opt-in basis. But given that it was prone to numerous security holes and was unused by the vast majority of the web-facing population, the decision was made that it made more sense for those who need it to explicitly turn it on (whitelisted, no less) rather than exposing all users to the risks that come with it.

I would disagree with that statement. While Firefox has lost a bit of market share to Chrome, most of Chrome's gains have come at the expense of IE. Look at the trends.
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/12/internet-explorer-stops-its-slide-as-chrome-nears-firefox.ars

Mozilla does a lot more than just make a web browser.

Mozilla has a pretty extensive automated test infrastructure that runs on every checkin. Also, the major work is done on different project branches and made stable before landing on mozilla-central (the mainline Nightly branch), hence the better stability of the Nightly builds.

Except that there's an Adblock Plus extension for Chrome too...