Could be time to switch back for the same reasons.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/macbook-air-chrome-16-firefox-9-benchmark,3108-18.html

It's not longer "do not evil", it's "let someone else do the evil for us!"

Easier != Better

Can any automated tool measure these kinds of best practices?

No. The - for the sake of politeness, let's call them "people" - who invested time and effort into devising these schemes have actually built a complete chain of negative productivity by doing so. Remarkable.

I hear being a card-carrying Lunar Republican will get you on the No Fly list.

Hehe, yeah. TBH I doubt they'll even be able to try that particular blag since TFA says that West Yorkshire Police are now actually selling their own forensic tool based on the allegedly stolen information.

Honestly, this should make you chuckle and smile and say "Wow!"

"Why" might be in there somewhere but if it's your first port of call, you're a lost cause - hand in your geek card.

The Ribbon is an abomination.

However, interesting little suggestion in TFA is that there is a "quick access toolbar" which basically looks... like an Explorer toolbar. You can customize anything onto it you like. And you can minimize the Ribbon, folding down into something that looks... like a menu.

So, it /may/ be survivable.

I agree that's the sensible sounding advice I've given many times over the years.

However, Mozilla removed the menu.

"Help" is no longer something clearly visible along a familiar menu bar. It's now an entry in the second column of a panel that comes pops down from the orange part of what many users will assume to simply be the title bar - not something interactive.

"Go to the orange Firefox button" you'll have to say, then "find help". I don't even know how to get to "About" any more in default Firefox and I've customized my interface back to what it used to look like, so I can no longer find out.

Unfortunately six of the plugins I rely on (yes, those plugins that are supposedly the #1 reason to use Firefox over less customizable browsers) don't yet even support Firefox 5. Everytime that "update Firefox" box comes up, I check, find six plugins outstanding, and back out of it.

Update too fast and you will leave users behind.

Of course, not necessarily but if you want to trade high technology in the US, you obviously have to do a thorough cost:benefit analysis.

Benefit of US custom - Drain of constant legal battles over the fact you used a linked list, put files in a tree structure, let a portable device communicate with something, had a rectangle with a round corner... and so on.

Arms race is exactly it. Recall that interview with Peter Chou from HTC a week ago or so where - over the bust-up with Apple he notes HTC's purchase of S3 and acquisition of some 200-odd patents. He's clearly disappointed to have to play this retarded game just to participate in the US market but nonetheless the way he characterises that acquisition sounded, to me, exactly as if he was counting up rounds of ammunition.

"We have over 200 pate^H^H^H^H warheads. Do you feel lucky?"

April 1st 2006 was the high-point of Slashdot's history.

It's what they make rainbows out of, I believe. It's apparently very spicy.

I heartily endorse this comment.