FC6 through the rear view mirror - the firefox puzzle

[Aaron Konstam]

On Tue, 2007-02-06 at 07:23 -0800, David Boles wrote:
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> Aaron Konstam wrote:
> > On Mon, 2007-02-05 at 18:50 -0700, Craig White wrote:
> >> On Mon, 2007-02-05 at 09:43 -0600, Aaron Konstam wrote:
> >>> On Mon, 2007-02-05 at 03:07 -0800, Les wrote:
> >>>> On Sun, 2007-02-04 at 18:34 -0700, Craig White wrote:
> >>>>> On Sun, 2007-02-04 at 20:06 -0500, Tom Horsley wrote:
> >>>>>> On Sun, 04 Feb 2007 15:07:23 -0700
> >>>>>> Craig White <craigwhite at azapple.com> wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>> By the way - Item 6 - firefox plugins aren't part of fedora packaging
> >>>>>> Yea, but building firefox so it's tool that downloads plugins believes
> >>>>>> it ought to install them in the directory firefox actually looks in is
> >>>>>> part of the packaging :-).
> >>>>> ----
> >>>>> huh?
> >>>>>
> >>>>> As a user, it installs plugins in your user directory
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Craig
> >>>>>
> >>>> Or ~/.mozilla/plugins or /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins or ....?  As someone
> >>>> just starting with Fedora Core 6, I had a difficult time getting the
> >>>> plugins installed and working, and then two time later updates messed me
> >>>> up, and the last time I am not sure what messed it up.  But because I am
> >>>> using my old 466Mhz Celeron with 256Mb of memory I don't want to waste
> >>>> developers time with a bugzilla against this old, slow, memory
> >>>> constrained system (even though it is more powerful that the CRAY that
> >>>> was used in the 60's.)
> >>>>
> >>>> Regards,
> >>>> Les H
> >>>>
> >>> Now I will tell you a secret. If you go into about:config you will see
> >>> that the configuration: 
> >>> browser.download.hide_plugins_without_extensions is set as true by
> >>> default. Only when it is set to false can you see what you want to see
> >>> it the: Edit->Preferences->downloads->view & Edit Actions.
> >>> With this set as true you are flying blind with plugins.  Why does not
> >>> fedora distribute this with the configuration set properly. Hos wold you
> >>> know about this.
> >> ----
> >> the problem with your rant is that you have done any research to
> >> validate your argument.
> >>
> >> browser.download.hide_plugins_without_extensions is set to 'true' as
> >> default on all distributions of Firefox - whether Linux, Macintosh or
> >> Windows
> >>
> >> Of course you can continue ranting about this if you wish - it's just
> >> not going to do any good unless it is somehow cathartic for you.
> >>
> >> Craig
> >>
> > That is true  but it should not be. Following your advice I posted a
> > bugzilla on this. Why would any one want a firefox where you could not
> > see the association of file types with plugins and handling programs.
> 
> 
> You should have said this to Mozilla. That is the default setting that comes
> from them.
> 
> If you care to learn more about    about:config    go here:
> 
> http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_:_FAQs_:_About:config_Entries
> 
> The site is slow to load.
> 
If I had infinite time I could search the list of 100's(?) of config
items on the list at that web site to find the one that would do what
this does. I asked this list at least four times how I could see and
change the items in the Download window and until recently no one could
answer. Admit it did you know that this config item would do this? I
would bet not. But many times on this list people have asked how they
could configure their firefox plugins and handling application. If you
don't know about this config option you are flying blind. I don't know
why anyone would distribute a browser configured this way. Mozilla knows
better since this defect is not present in mozilla. It seems to me if
this was pointed out to the Fedora they would see the wisdom of changing
this configuration

-- 
Aaron Konstam <akonstam at sbcglobal.net>