243178 - usability request: add a setting to force all new instances to use the currently running profile

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 177996

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Description

[Jay B. Hancock]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040207 Firefox/0.8
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040207 Firefox/0.8

This is a usability bug causing complaints from my end users.  I'm submitting it
as a bug, because it is a frequent annoyance and causes degradation in the
observed quality of the product (I know Mozilla would like their product to be
accepted by end users).  

In using GNOME, thunderbird, evolution, xterm with links, etc., there are
multiple ways one can launch a Mozilla instance.  It very much annoys me (and
likely other users) that the profile box pops up for each independant launch.  

My current workaround is to always copy links and paste them directly into the
browser instance.  

I can see the following elements in a solution:
- Upon launch of mozilla, detect if the current user has already launched a
browser instance.
- When the dialog box appears, offer a "use currently running profile" option
and also a checkbox "always use currently running profile".
- Add an option under preferences allowing the user to choose the default
action: "always ask", "never ask", and perhaps a "maybe ask..."
- If by default, use the currently running profile.  Add a menu item to "switch
profile".


Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start one instance of a browser (only one profile has been created so far).
2. Click on a link in Thunderbird, Evolution, Xterm, etc.

Actual Results:  
3. Observe the profile chooser box.


Expected Results:  
3. Open the link in a browser window (User thinks: I just want to continue my work!)

Comment 1

[Ali Ebrahim]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 177996 ***