If you are using Windows [which is where the above applies], does that firefox download token make a difference to your privacy?

But does that identifier ever get transmitted anywhere? How is this unique identifier used to track me?

There's only a few use cases for a unique identifier, zero for one that is never used.

Look at the highest comment on that thread from car_analogy, he lays out a plausible scenario at what the consequences of Mozilla tracking downloads could be.

Except that scenario is not plausible at all.

Why would you be downloading a network installer only to move it with USB to another supposedly "secure" machine just so THAT machine can then do the downloading part instead of just downloading the binary on that machine in the first place?

Secondly who is downloading Firefox binaries off of Mozzilla website for a "secure" machine? That only happens if you are running Windows and at that point your pants are already soiled.

Most plausible is that some IT department would have same installer on all the machines and then Mozzilla would know that all these machines belong to same organization, but if your IT department is running network installer for every instance for Firefox they install then please fire your IT department.

Literally all this info does is to tell Mozzilla that you installed a Firefox or if you are some kind of weirdo who moves some 10kb web installer from friend to friend to install Firefox they might know that all these people at some level know each other, but again this only applies to Windows users.

I just don't understand why HN is making this out to be some Firefox killer.

and instead, they move to a totally untested unknown fork like LibreFox who is ran by who exactly? Almost sounds like an intelligence operation.

Why Mozzilla with two z?

Kids, please start using Debian again.

   apt-get install firefox

I think that one's only on sid (unstable). For the rest of us it'd be

    apt install firefox-esr

THIS is why Debian exists.

Thank you. I am done with Firefox. I switched to Chrome on Windows and Safari on IOS. There is no point of using Firefox when they do all kinds of shady and bullshit things.

Can you explain WHY that matters?

The linked post has a lot of useful info that will answer your question on more that 1 way. Give it a read.