Firefox seems to dedicate less resources to Linux than OS X and Windows. That may be in keeping with their market share, but its certainly not doing their fellow Open Source brethren any favors.
Additionally, distros tend to want to manage the package building themselves. Some groups want to add in tweaks or configuration templates. Others want to include their own pages or optimizations. We can't logistically consider trying to manage all that centrally, nor would we want to take the control away from those distros.
So, I agree, you do get a slightly less comfortable distribution mechanism for the browser. You get additional control and choice depending on the distro you chose though.
What Mozilla does endeavor to do is make sure that the core code works well on all three platforms. That is where we feel it is most valuable to dedicate our resources.
Why can't Firefox do what Skype and Miro do (below)?
* If the user string contains Windows, provide an MSI. In these OSes, if you click on a MSI package, it installs.
* If the user string contains OS X, provide a install image. In these OSes, if you click on an install image, it installs.
* If the user string contains Debian or Ubuntu, provide a dpkg. In these OSes, if you click on an dpkg, it installs.
* If the user string contains Fedora, RHEL or SuSE, provide a rpm. In these OSes, if you click on a rpm package, it installs.
* Anything else gets a menu with all the above options.
How about they wait until available through their distribution's package manager?
Most people don't wait 6 months. They use articles like the one mentioned, and are more likely to encounter poor-quality Firefox as a result.
This is a real problem with running Firefox on corporate networks. The users don't have admin rights, so they can't click "Update" when Firefox wants to update itself. And administrators can't push the updates out through WSUS. Therefore, the most vulnerable vector on your computer (the browser) gets to remain in an un-updated state.
I think there is a group that repackages Firefox into msi format, which helps a lot. But as far as I know it's independent from Mozilla.
Not every piece of software comes is Ubuntu or Fedora's default repositories.
My time is way too valuable to be used to read bugtraq and hunt down security patches for every piece of custom software I have installed on my box. Or, as is the case, hundreds of boxes.
This already works for .exe and .dmg versions, there is nothing stopping it from also working for the .dpkg and .rpm versions.
In locked down environmentsthat case, the admins can supply the nice properly packaged MSI / dmg / rpm / dpkg version that Firefox provides to the users via their deployment tool.