94212 - Mac OS X, Mac OS 9 don't share profiles

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(MailNews Core :: Profile Migration, enhancement)

Description

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

I like many others have more than one OS installed on my computer.  I have Mac
OS 9 and Mac OS X, some have Win and Linux, etc.  

Why not modify Mozilla's handling of profiles to allow for the same profile to
be used on more than one computer.  For example, I store my profile on: 
Macintosh HD:Users:Robert:Library 

for Mac OS X, and I set Mozilla in Mac OS 9 to use the same profile.  

That way no matter what I boot in I can have the same preferences, bookmarks and
mail.  It's better than using Roaming Access since it doesn't use a server, it
just allows you to use the same profile with ease.  Right now the only way to do
it (as I am aware) is to create a new profile, and manually change the directory
to the one that has the profile already.    And I don't think that is very easy
for the average user, and I don't know how reliable that is.  By just making it
easier to use the same profile in Mozilla and Fizilla it would make Mozilla
stand out over other browsers.

Comment 1

[Greg K.]

I suppose Mozilla could be made to do this, but it's really the OS's responsibility. I was 
surprised at there being absolutely no correlation between OS 9 and OS X user accounts 
on the same machine under OS X 10.0. This problem arises for any application that runs in 
both environments and stores files in the user's Documents folder (or any other user 
folder in that tree, for that matter).

I am interested in seeing if Apple addresses this problem in OS X 10.1 before seeing 
Mozilla expend effort on it.

Comment 2

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

I tried having Mozilla and Fizilla use the same profile folder and that failed.  
It can read the bookmarks without a problem, but mail produces an error.  Also 
cookies don't work in that configuration.


It's really up to Mozilla to do this.  The OS is not so much a factor as Mozilla 
and Fizilla don't seem to get along very well.  I doubt it would be too much to 
make them get along.

Comment 3

[Greg K.]

I'm sorry, but I don't agree that it's Mozilla's job to manage user data across
what are in truth two seperate user accounts. Mozilla's not the only program
that will have this problem.

It's not like OS X and OS 9 even store user directories differently. Look in
HD:Users. You'll see your OS 9 accounts (if you have any; I do) and your OS X
accounts. Right there. In the same place. It is the job of both OS 9 and OS X to
share user account information on the same machine.

Given that there are OS 9 user accounts and OS X user accounts, how exactly
would Mozilla determine which OS 9 user account corresponds to your OS X user
account? Just looking in "HD:Documents" isn't good enough...in truth, that
directory is a theoretical alias to "HD:Users:[default]:Documents" anyway.

Comment 4

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

If both versions (Mozilla and Fizlla) use the same profile, it causes a mail 
error, bookmarks work though... so it is definately a Mozilla problem.  (you are 
right some other programs have the same problem.)  And I think it could be fixed, 
if someone with some experience with this type of thing takes a look.  

Comment 5

[Arthur]

Cc'ing myself. I'd say this depends on 7067.

Comment 6

[carl krall]

I haven't tried this since the 0.9.4 builds, but back then you could make them
share, and it was very simple to do. I discovered it by accident, but repeated
the accident on other computers.

In OS X drag the Mozilla profile from the OS9 Documents folder to ~/Library or
wherever you want it. 

Then start Mozilla and it would use the one on the OS 9 partition. My guess is
that X created a symbolic link along with copying it. This was back in 10.1, so
don't know if the behavior would be the same, seems like Moz security is
tightening up to the point where it's impossible to manually edit a profile.

If a current build of Fizzilla rejects the idea, you could try changing the
salted numbers to *'s, using eight of them, or manually editing the directory in
the Mail Accounts window.

Comment 7

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

-> wontfix

MAc Classic is now unsupported