[tor-talk] TorBirdy prevents Thunderbird loading multi-OS bug: Is TorBirdy dev. dead?

[KevinB at ruggedinbox.com]

On 2015-02-25 05:16, Griffin Boyce wrote:
> Jacob Appelbaum wrote:
>> On 2/24/15, KevinB at ruggedinbox.com <KevinB at ruggedinbox.com> wrote:
>>> This issue has been ongoing for months now.
>>> 
>>> I think I read Ioerror write he isn't interested in fixing the bug 
>>> for
>>> Windows, but Sukhbir is willing (yet unable to even reproduce the 
>>> bug).
>>> This bug is NOT only for Windows, it's for many OSes.
>>> 
>>> Is TorBirdy going the way of Vidalida?
>>> 
>>> All of these bug reports seem to be the same issue?
>>> 
>>> #14099 (Windows 7 & FreeBSD)
>>> #14130 (Xubuntu)
>>> #14007 (Windows 7 & Ubuntu)
>>> #13722 (LinuxMint)
>> 
>> TorBirdy development is not dead by any means - relevant updates will
>> be posted to the bugs as progress is made. I've personally not been
>> able to reproduce this bug - which is part of the issue with solving
>> it.
> 
>   and #13982.
> 
>   Yeah, it's a huge problem - happened to a friend, and ultimately led
> to me not redistributing TorBirdy.
> 
>   But solving this bug is not as straightforward as it seems, as Jake
> points out.  Especially for Windows, it's not always easy to know what
> else the user is running and where the conflict might be.  In my
> friend's experience, it completely broke Thunderbird, and he had to
> back up his emails and reinstall.  When that happens, it's not even
> easy to figure out what version of Thunderbird they were running.
> 
>   Really curious as to the reason this bug happens, and how often,
> because right now it seems like kind of a mystery.
> 
> ~Griffin
> 

That is why I wrote the original message. This bug is most definitely a 
blocker for many people. I imagine lots of users try to install 
TorBridy, find once they do Thunderbird no longer loads its GUI, so they 
freak out(!) (as most users aren't advanced, I imagine). Even if they 
manage to find the bug reports and learn to create a new profile, that's 
not a fix, and I bet less than 10% of new users will even find the bug 
reports (I think most will curse the Tor Project and had a very bad 
taste in their mouth).

I understand it's hard to fix Jake, but I think there should be more 
awareness about this huge issue. At least for new users that are hit 
with the bug and don't know how to get their email program to even 
load...

Right now there's very little awareness of the bug, and those that are 
hit with it are left with no recourse is they don't find the bug reports 
(so they learn to have to create a new profile to even get Thunderbird 
GUI to load).

Thanks Jake, for everything you're doing! I am not trying to 'dis' you, 
I am just trying to get wider awareness of this huge issue to try and 
get more help (I am not a programmer so I'm of little help). I love 
TorBirdy, but for a long time I've been unable to use it, because I 
really don't like having to create a new profile -- it's just to messy.