Could Firefox change their default search engine to Bing? Without losing users and causing a huge flame war? I doubt it. Google should stop paying just to see that flamewar, would be fun. 'Losing' firefox wouldn't be a massive blow, people who use firefox know how to change the default search engine. All that will happen is that they'll be a massive amount of hate directed at firefox for trying to force bing down the…
I imagine the vast vast majority of Firefox users don't know how to change the default search engine, and probably wouldn't care to do so even if they did. Sure there will be a few thousand angry people shouting on forums and mailing lists and threatening boycotts, but the other 90+% of the Firefox user base will be totally unaware of this. Firefox is not a geeky niche product anymore, but the default browser of huge…
I imagine it would be disconcerting in the same sort of way that having rusty water shoot out of your shower for a second or two every morning would be. It's not the end of the world, you don't know how to fix it, but after a couple seconds it's not like it really matters.