Not really the same thing, for two big of reasons:
1) Getting your Mozilla extension signed is free, but you have to pay just to develop an iOS app
2) You can install unsigned extensions on nightly and developer builds, which seems perfectly reasonable. Stable and secure for the general public, bleeding edge + customizable for those who care.
> You can install unsigned extensions on nightly and developer builds
Have you tried using one? You get daily nag popups to install today's developer build. I'm trying not to switch to Chrome entirely, but every Firefox release makes it harder.
`sudo dnf update` is the first thing I do every morning, so that's never been a problem for me. That does seem annoying, though. Sometimes Mozilla is its own worst enemy...
> i can't just install a program _i wrote myself_ on a _device i own_ without having to get it signed
You're moving the goalposts.
But, because of the fact that you can run unsigned extensions on nightly builds, there is nothing stopping you from distributing your unsigned extension through github or bittorrent or anything else.
The original person you replied to said "Same with a Firefox extension." not a "nightly or developer build of Firefox extension".
If you can't get an extension on a regular build of Firefox, you might as well not be able to do it because for most users installing nightly or dev is a big problem.
1) Getting your Mozilla extension signed is free, but you have to pay just to develop an iOS app
2) You can install unsigned extensions on nightly and developer builds, which seems perfectly reasonable. Stable and secure for the general public, bleeding edge + customizable for those who care.