by what metrics? it uses less RAM, runs faster JS, renders faster, is easier to write add-ons for, is more in line with the HTML5 feature-set...
> Mobile Firefox on Android doesn't exactly offer a very pleasant experience.
compared to what? the stock browser? mobile chrome? in my experience it blows both of those out of the water.
> They've wasted resources on unnecessary and unwanted efforts like Persona and Firefox OS.
Persona was a three person, part-time team for under a year. It is used pretty widely, and has sufficient community support to continue past Mozilla's devs moving off of it. It and Firefox OS, imo, are the two most promising things that Mozilla is doing right now. Mozilla's mission is to stave off a walled-garden web wherever it rears its ugly head. I can think of no areas where this is in a worse state than mobile OS's and "login with X".
> They basically gave up on Thunderbird.
True. Probably their biggest mistake of the last three years, imo
> Asm.js is not a very sound approach, especially compared to technology like Native Client.
a very hotly debated topic by most of the leading voices in the field; far from a settled issue.
> Rust seems promising, but won't be seriously usable until at least Rust 1.0, which still seems a long way off. As the year progresses, I get more and more doubtful that it'll be out during 2014, like was claimed earlier this year.
fair enough. i don't currently doubt they'll just make it in 2014 tho