[tor-bugs] #3792 [TorBrowserButton]: Pre-launch Firefox and have it wait for Tor to connect

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#3792: Pre-launch Firefox and have it wait for Tor to connect
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 Reporter:  phobos            |          Owner:  mikeperry                    
     Type:  enhancement       |         Status:  assigned                     
 Priority:  major             |      Milestone:  TorBrowserBundle 2.3.x-stable
Component:  TorBrowserButton  |        Version:                               
 Keywords:  tbb-usability     |         Parent:                               
   Points:                    |   Actualpoints:                               
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Comment(by greg):

 Replying to [comment:24 arma]:
 > Replying to [comment:21 mikeperry]:
 > > we still will likely want to launch the browser in parallel to Tor and
 have it poll for when it can actually open a window to improve further.
 >
 > It can't be quite in parallel, since Vidalia needs to learn the
 controlport from Tor so it can pass it to Firefox when it launches
 Firefox.
 >
 > But that should only be a minor delay.

 Hi all. Thanks to Roger for the CC.

 My name is Greg, and I authored the paper listed above.

 ~40% of the users listed this as an issue. I understand that for technical
 reasons, Tor and Vidalia can't launch at exactly the same moment. But if
 their launches can be at all parallelized, it would not only solve this
 ticket, but have a great impact on several other problems.

 For example, in a study I ran, users would start the Tor Browser Bundle.
 Vidalia would tell them they were "connected to the tor network", but the
 custom Firefox would not have yet launched. So they'd erroneously decide
 that all their traffic was anonymous, and open up Chrome, Firefox, or
 *shudder* IE.

 IMHO, anything that reduces that delay will be helping eliminating one of
 the biggest usability issues in the TBB. I just downloaded the latest TBB,
 and it seems like the time between Vidalia connecting and TBB opening is
 _much_ shorter. Is this just a fluke, or has the new TorButton code
 mentioned above gone live?

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/3792#comment:25>
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