147421 - Profile Manager UI needs major reworking

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(SeaMonkey :: Startup & Profiles, defect)

Description

[Rob Stow]

Profile Manager is a shameless liar:  it lets you _think_ 
you have selected your profile folder, and then completely
disregards your wishes:
1.)  It adds a subfolder using "Profile Name" without warning
you that it is going to do so.  
2.)  It adds a "random_garbage.slt" subfolder without warning
you that it is going to do so.

I propose the following changes:
1.)  When you create a new profile, you should see 
  "Enter name of new profile FOLDER" instead of
  "Enter new profile name".     Ie., make it VERY
   VERY clear that you are providing a name for a 
   folder.
2.)  Replace the "Choose Folder" option with "Choose
    Location of Profile Folder".
3.)  Ask for confirmation before salting the path with
   "random_garbage.slt".   The salting is utterly 
   worthless as a security measure and is a pain in the
   ass for network/system administrators.   To console
   those who think salting is worthwhile, the warning 
   dialog can strongly advocate salting - so long as not
   salting is a clear option.

Comment 1

[Jason Bassford]

I agree.

Even if the behaviour of the Profile Manager is not going to be changed (and
salting and/or subfolder creation with the username continues), at the very
least the UI should be modified to indicate exactly what it's going to do.

The fact that the resulting behaviour is different from what the user would
expect makes it's behaviour misleading.  While "the masses" may not notice what
it's doing, I can't believe that there isn't a sufficient number of "techies"
who do, and who don't like it's misleading behaviour.

Comment 2

[Pete Boyd]

point 3.) is covered by bug 97180

Comment 3

[timeless]

this bug is not useful, it covers more than one idea, and I suspect all of them 
are covered in other bugs. The bugzilla rule is one issue per bug.

Comment 4

[Jason Bassford]

In that case, determine which bugs they are.  I believe that point 3) may be
covered in bug 97180 - but, as far as I'm aware, 1) and 2) are not covered
anywhere else and are legitimate issues with the wording of the Profile Manager
UI.  A change in wording is not two separate bugs, but one.

Comment 5

[Rob Stow]

Re: Comment #3:
A.)  This bug covers exactly one issue:  Profile Manager is a low-down dirty
rotten liar.  
B.)  It has exactly one "idea":  Make Profile Manager tell the truth !

The rest is just details about "why" statement A above is true and "how" to B.

Splitting it up into parts would be useless:  
1.)  It would make it much more difficult for Bugzilla users to grasp what the
real issue is.
2.)  There are three things that need to be done to make an honest man out of
Profile Manager and doing two of them but not the other would still leave
Profile Manager as significantly  less honest than Bill Clinton.  Ie., there is
one problem with a three part solution, and if you don't do all three parts you
haven't solved the problem.   

Comment 6

[Grace Bush]

confirming this request
reworded summary to reflect what I think reporter wants (please change if I have 
misunderstood)

Comment 7

[Rob Stow]

I don't think the rewording of the summary is sufficient,
and hence I am changing it back to the original.

I initially stated three things that need to be done to fix
Profile Manager.   The rewording of the summary accurately
describes the first two.  It doesn't begin to hint at 
the third item: the salting of the profile folders MUST be 
made optional.  

I am also changing it back to "bug" status.  This is NOT an
RFE - Profile Manager is in severe need of repair.

I only put the severity back to "major". However, from a
a network admin viewpoint I wouldn't have any problem
rating this as a "blocker": I wouldn't roll out Mozilla 
to my users until this is fixed.


Salting the profile folder was supposed to be a security
measure but it has absolutely no value in that regard.
It does, however, have a HUGE nuisance value when you 
are a network administrator.   

And, as I've said before, all three things need to be fixed
in order to make an honest man out of Profile Manager. Fix
two of them and not the other and Profile Manager will remain
useless.

However, having said all that, I am forced to "wash my hands"
of the whole issue for the time being.  I don't have any time
to work on this, so if someone who _IS_ going to work on it
wants to change the summary and the status, that is fine by 
me.   

Moz doesn't have any chance of making it onto my network
before the end of the year, so I'm going to work on something
that is more relevant to my home use:  improving the 
documentation and handling of prefs that currently cannot be
configured with Mozilla's menus.

Rob   

Comment 8

[timeless]

bugs are supposed to be focussed. if you refuse to focus your bug, then it will 
not be useful. if you want a place to discuss things that need major work then 
allow us to suggest that you use the newsgroups.

Comment 9

[Grace Bush]

#3 also covered by bug 70931