791667 - Misleading error message "Thunderbird is already running..."

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Description

[Sergio]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:15.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/15.0
Build ID: 20120828083103

Steps to reproduce:

I suspended the system (Linux Fedora 17 i686).


Actual results:

When thawing Thunderbird didn't come up (this looks like an issue but it isn't and neither is the subject of this bug report). So when I clicked its launcher an error dialog popped-up with something like (didn't write it down but the problematic message is literal):
"Thunderbird is already running. If you want to open another window please close it first or *restart your system*."
The highlighted *restart your system* is completely wrong! At least not in Linux, maybe in Windows or a mobile phone, but in Linux we just kill the process, restarting the system is waaay overkill for Thunderbird just failing to open its GUI.


Expected results:

Some sensible error message tailored to the operating system like "...please close it first or stop its process in the task manager..."
I haven't used Windows for ages but maybe even for it the message should be fixed (that's why I put this report under 'General' instead of 'OS Integration'.

Comment 1

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

This error message is for user that don't know much about processes and such stuff.
I thought that "linux is only used by geeks" is no true anymore.

Comment 2

[Sergio]

Sorry for only answering now, your response had gone into my trash folder :-p

I see the point, that 'restart your system' is a catch all message but it's so overkill that I can't help but feel that it could be improved.
Like many people, even in Windows, should know about the task manager.

Thanks.

Comment 3

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

It's of course overkill for people who now a bit about their OS and I would agree that the message should be changed but on the other side i know that people like a grandmother could have problems with a changed Error Message.

Note: The error message is shared with other Gecko Products (Firefox, Thunderbird, Seamonkey) and is used on every OS (Windows, OSX, *nix)