Re:Dotfiles being hidden is a UNIXv2 mistake (2012)
by sillystuff on Thursday August 11, 2022 @04:16PM
(#32431181)
And, once you have more than a trivial number of changes in about:config, you search for something that will allow you to have sane configuration management, and discover, the 'user.js' file.
Any setting in about:config can be set in user.js and your user.js file can be diffed, grepped, version controlled, edited with your favorite editor, and copied between profiles/machines.
Sadly, Mozilla is moving a lot of config out of about:config/user.js and into multiple random sqlite files, so sane config management is getting harder with each new release.
Same problem with Firefox; hamburger->settings will take you to a GUI that contains maybe 0.01% of all the settings Firefox actually has. You have to be "in the know" to know that about:config exists. I think the first time most firefox users find out about about:config is when they're angrily searching the web for a solution to their problems, which is basically how I discovered dconf-editor too. You don't find either of these by searching through the GUIs like a normal computer user, nor will you find them by poking around in your dotfiles like a seasoned console jockey.