230884 - multiple operating system processes are not supported

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: General, enhancement)

Description

[solo turn]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007 Firebird/0.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007 Firebird/0.7

multiple processes are not very well handled. 

i.e.:
- on a terminal server, the same user can open more than one connection
  mozilla-firebird complains about "profile already in use".
- if mozilla and mozilla firebird are run in parallel it
  complains about "profile already in use"
- testing web-sites requiring user login is difficult.
  sometimes you want to be able to login with two users at
  the same time, it would be nice to fire up two firebirds
  (i.e. operating system processes) to log in as two different
  users.

if we want to have that features, we have to use internet explorer currently ...


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. click on icon on desktop
2. firebird starts one operating system process
3. click another time on desktop icon
4. firebird does "open new window" instead of starting
   another operating system process




Expected Results:  
1. clicking on icon on desktop starts a new operating system process.
2. "open new window" does not start a new operating system process,
   just a new bowser window opens.

Comment 1

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

this is intended behaviour, otherwise launching from external apps would 
require new profiles at logon.  And no, there are no plans to change this 
behaviour.  There is a compile switch that will allow you to disable this, 
search on mozilla.org for it.

Comment 2

[solo turn]

ok, i read http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=230884 which has really
nice ideas in it.

the common opinion there was:
- it would be nice to have multiple processes
- nobody came up with an implementation
  as it seemed troublesome.

i think many arguments are not valid any more, as e.g. thunderbird/firebird
solves the mail program related issues.

just poor microsoft did an implementation, showing that they can produce quality
code where their monopoly is at risk ;) IE is able to run multiple instances,
preferences are saved by the last instance closing (which is ok). other things
you do not notice (cache, bookmarks, certdb).

therefor it would be great this one could stay open, what do you think? a
compile switch is not a solution for web developpers knowing html/php and maybe
java.

compile switch:
can you post a link please? i did not find something fitting?

Comment 3

[Bogdan Stroe]

(In reply to comment #2)
> compile switch:
> can you post a link please? i did not find something fitting?

Maybe the one mentioned here:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=178806#c66

Comment 4

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

This is not a bug. We have no intention of implementing this.