If I'm not mistaken, wasn't there an obscure piece of software that can change these short-cuts? I'm not sure if it's FireFox specific or for Mac or Windows (no help at all, sorry ;), but I'm pretty sure I used it some years ago. - Vincent van Wylick

On a Mac I take it. In windows, Ctrl+Q does nothing. - Mohamed J

Third comment from the bottom at http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive... might be applicable to Firefox. I'm not on a Mac to verify. - Mohamed J

Have you tried customizing this setting in OS X System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts ? - Alex Barbara

The whole notion of that applications like the browser (or your computer) are routinely "started" and "stopped" is not user-friendly. One does want to be able to do that, but for many it's much less common than the undesirable situation where you need to reset (i.e. quit/restart) because the app is bloating. Session restore tries to get around this, but it's still duct-taped on, hence super-easy way to quit. It's a bit like if you bought a kitchen table from Ikea, and it not only came in a box, but, once assembled, tended to spring back into its box at unexpected times. - j1m

Just download the source, make the small change you need, and recompile! :) - Gabe

@j1m make your computer suspend-able instead of power shutdown, you won't need that start/stop anymore... besides, I hear complaints about problem of start/stop paradigm mostly from computer-illiterates which are main cash cow for Apple Inc. so I have no wonder -- you can't teach them anythign anyway, so let'em suffer with Macs and Ipods ;) - A.T.

I'm complaining about the start/stop paradigm. Are j1m and I computer illiterates? - ⓞnor

Firefox, unlike other apps on the Mac, wasn't honoring the keyboard shortcuts that Mac OS lets you set. ⌘Q may be different; I haven't tried. I ended up writing an extension to redefine some of the keyboard shortcuts. Bleh. - Amit Patel

@e3r well, you don't complain about turning engine key in your car on and off all the time, do you? you don't blame light switch for necessity to turn on and off your whole adult life... but the notion of starting and stopping program makes you complaining, huh? - A.T.

I agree with j1m that the notion of opening and closing apps is bogus. Opening and closing “files” is also bogus. Palm OS was nice. I do like Firefox session restore. Mac's Quick Look is another bandaid. - Amit Patel

silpol, I'm frequently annoyed by having to turn my car on and off. In this case the bigger issue is that I accidentally exited Firefox -- I've never accidentally turned off my car, because they made that an appropriate separate action from shifting, steering, etc. - Paul Buchheit

People frequently try to turn their cars on when they're already on though. :-) Prius owners (and presumably owners of other pushbutton hybrids) can easily turn their car off when they mean to turn it off because the action is identical and reversible. - Kevin Fox

Another option is to simply set browser.tabs.warnOnClose to true, since I'm assuming you'll most likely have multiple tabs open anyway - Aviv

Do you mean Apple-Q? - Sam Pullara

Yes, Apple-Q. I thought it as called "option", though now I notice that there is a different key labeled "option", and other people seem to be calling it "command". - Paul Buchheit

Is there a problem with starting it again? If you use the session feature, you shouldn't lose your place or anything. And Aviv's suggestion is a good one. - Tanath

If starting/stopping an app was instantaneous, that would be fine too. - Amit Patel

Just did it again! I actually have browser.tabs.warnOnClose set, but it doesn't seem to do anything, possibly because I also have the "save session" option set (but as Amit points out, that's far from instant, and of course things are never quite the same when they come back). - Paul Buchheit

This any use? http://www.macosxhints.com/article... - Slappy Line

I just don't use tabs. I open every browser window in a separate process, then I don't have to worry about that. - Gabe

I finally found a workaround to this horrible nightmare. For me, it didn't work to set a global keyboard shortcut in OS X that would change the "Quit Firefox" keybinding, command-Q would continue to do its damage. It also didnt' work for me to turn on browser.tabs.warnOnQuit and set it to true (in about:config or preferences). What did work is install Tab Mix Plus and force it to prompt me whenever FF exited before it saved my session. - Huy Zing

Paul, have you seen this? http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008... Comment #19 looks helpful. Haven't tried it myself though, sorry. - Diego Barros 

I do it often enough, that I'm happy I have Tab Mix Plus extension - which I use to improve the tabs, & save all tab sessions, on close. - clarke thomas