435657 - thunderbird installer should not default to official install directory for beta releases

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Looks like Andrew did some serious looking around in bug 375922 comment #8.

Especially now that we have "Shredder", ff bug 402999 looks like something we want to port. (Would be good to get all those other bugs he listed there for ff porting tracked too, I think tb wants them all, more or less.)

So, the bug: should suggest to install into C:\Program Files\Shredder instead of C:\Program Files\Thunderbird for alpha/beta releases.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

perhaps to late to do this for alpha. but would be nice for beta, makes participation easier for more users that we'd hope to bring to beta.

Comment 2

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Didn't this get fixed already? (sorry, no windows install to check here)

I think it's supposed to be unofficial for alphas only, so maybe the summary should be changed?

wanted‑thunderbird3- as we're not releasing any more alphas for 3.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

This is a signficant barrier to getting more users on beta

Comment 4

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

The installer treats Release (esr) and Beta the same and defaults to "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird". This makes it very easy to trash a working install, and profile due to profile downgrade protection. We can certainly do better for users than this. As noted in #maildev, the relationship between release and beta for Firefox (4 weeks) is very different than for Thunderbird (1 year).

The default install directory for the NSIS installer is determined by the product brand name as set in mail/branding/{thunderbird,nightly}/branding.nsi. To do this properly, a new directory under comm/mail/branding would need to be created. That means new icons and such. It's a non-insignificant amount of work, and not something to tackle one week before Thunderbird 102 goes to beta.

An alternative that can be completed before Thunderbird 102.0b1 is to just change the install directory for Beta. This change would be limited to the installer.

Comment 5

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Attachment: Bug 435657 - Install Thunderbird Beta into its own directory. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

Historically, Thunderbird Beta and Release builds would both install to
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird" directory as they both use the same
branding. This is problematic for anyone who just wants to test a beta and
be able to go back to a release version.
This patch adds "Beta" to the install directory as well as BrandFullName.

Comment 6

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

I'm a little concerned that this patch could have unintended side effects that manifest during an upgrade. I'm going to do some more testing before landing.

Comment 7

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Initial upgrade testing via AUS looked good. More testing should be done once this is on beta prior to shipping. I have a document describing various scenarios to check for reference.

Comment 8

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/399b3d2dbbcc
Install Thunderbird Beta into its own directory. r=mkmelin