Re: Default profile settings in mozilla-thunderbird

[Alexander Sack]

	You are following the good way going for /etc, the problem here is
Mozilla itself.  Being ported from MS Windows, it doesn't quite know how
to behave itself in a multi-user system; 

Don't see the point. Mozilla knows howto behave in a multi-user 
environment! In addition mozilla had to learn howto work on a 
single-user envs (multi profiles) too! So they know what they are doing. 
BTW mozilla is not ported to linux, it is a suite running on 
multiple-platforms. Thus a cross-plattform tool. It does not contain so 
much differences from win to linux & vv. Of course, when new features 
are adapted that need platform specific coding (this occasions are 
really rare) they will push the windows development first. Since Windows 
users are those many poor little bastards out that really need help. 
Without a browser like mozilla(-firebird) all wxx users would be forced 
to stay with one of the worst apps available today ... an app where 
nobody is able guarantee that it won't show up a severe bug sometimes, 
that finally kills you:). An app that will definitly enter history: .. u 
know ? :-D

So mozilla folks do right to help those poor WXX users.

    In some installations of Mozilla 1.5 (don't know about Firebird or
Thunderbird) there is an Advanced Preference to force it to use global
configurations, meaning from /etc.
mozilla & its next generation standalone-apps (fbird, tbird) do hold all 
global configuration within their own tree. For debian that would be:
/usr/lib/mozilla-thunderbird/default/prefs. the prefs folder is linked 
to /etc/mozilla-thunderbird/prefs/. You may edit the entries there to 
change default settings. This will always works. You won't have to force 
it. These settings should not become silently overwritten when upgrading 
the next time. To do something that really works for you is a matter of 
if you know what you are doing & where you wanna get after having done so.

The switch in the advanced preference dialog says to inherit from system 
options. This tries to determine as many settings from debian system 
settings. AFAIK this is a debian only feature to integrate mozilla with 
the debian distribution.

 But I haven't yet discovered why it
is there for some users and for others not.  Scary.
 

Not too scary. The official mozilla download doesn't have it. The debian 
package does.

        Oh for true native apps!  Even MS has dealt better with MS Office for
the Macintosh than this port of Mozilla for GNU/Linux!
 

I ... won't say a thing :-X .

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