I see that it has been asked before, but there was not answer. Does anyone know how to force Portable Firefox to go to Portable Thunderbird without making Portable Thunderbird your default email application?
Thanks in advance,
Dan
New: streamWriter (Jun 28, 2024), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, 2024)
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The reason there was no answer is because there is no good way to do it. You could try hacking the Launchy extension, but you'll still need to right-click on mailtos and then select. Or you could adjust registry settings on start/end, but that requires admin privs (won't work for guest or limitted accounts) and would leave the PC in a bad state if there was a crash.
Both of these answers have been given before. Neither are really a good solution.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Well, I'm actually testing a new launcher I wrote able to rewrite every config file. Using this launcher, I'm tring to force Firefox and Thunderbird to "talk" to each other using Launchy extension and rewriting its launchy.xml config file.
It seems working, so, stay tuned
But the issue was that it was still imperfect since you need to right-click and then select the action (clicking a mailto still launches the default mail client). Not to mention the fact that it's illegal to distribute FF with Launchy installed without Mozilla's permission.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Not to mention the fact that it's illegal to distribute FF with Launchy installed.
Why?
You can't make any alterations to the Firefox product for distribution -- including themes, extensions, configuration changes, homepage changes, install directory changes, etc -- without permission from Mozilla... or unless you switch to the Community Edition branding (no "Mozilla", no Firefox logo). Distributing an altered package without their permission is a violation of their trademark guidelines and, thus, illegal.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
This is what I did with MozUp Firefox: I've changed the browser's name in the "brand.properties" (in "LOCALE.jar\locale\branding\"), removing every reference to "Mozilla". I've also changed the icon and the logo, and now I'm free to do all alterations I want.
From what I understand, you need to compile it from scratch without the --enable-official-branding switch. This removes "Mozilla" and all the Firefox artwork leaving you with the unofficial bits. From there, you can customize as far as the Mozilla Community Edition Policy allows. It won't auto-update, though... only the official binaries can do that.
From my understanding of the policies, I don't think you can just take the official binaries and remove the Mozilla references from within the JARs and call it a Community Edition. But, I'm not 100% on that. I was planning on asking them about it in regards to TorPark for Steve. You'd have to check with Mozilla regarding your packages.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
If you're still calling the software "Firefox" or "Thunderbird", then yes, you have to adhere to the Community Edition policies (which say you can call the program by its official name but with "community edition" appended, but can't use the official artwork nor use Mozilla's name). If you completely change the name of the browser, then that becomes a fork and there's nothing Mozilla can do to stop you, since you'd be well within your rights under the GPL/LGPL/MPL.
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fatcerberus@yahoo.com [aim: fatcerberus]
I have no witty remarks or quotes to share at the moment.
Of course that's always an option. That's what Flock did.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Every since Mozilla Corp. was set up they have been enforcing everything about Firefox very strictly. Including 'unauthorized distributions'.
Yours
Steve Lamerton
I understand the need for trademarks, but Mozilla's going too far with it. You can't try to license an open-source product the same way as you would a closed-source one, or you'll tick off a lot of people. I'll be the first to admit that I almost dropped Firefox in favor of Opera because of it.
Also, yes, I know Opera isn't open-source, but any commercial software company that doesn't have a problem with an unofficial, "unauthorized" version of their program (I'm referring to Opera@USB, which apparently has been around for a while) is awesome in my eyes.
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fatcerberus@yahoo.com [aim: fatcerberus]
I have no witty remarks or quotes to share at the moment.
About the open source licensing thing, although, and I hate to say it, but it's true, I can kinda see where they're coming from (This coming from a complete digital liberal, here. Read into that what you will.
:P). I'm just thinking quality control. They probably could out a little more effort into it to making it a little more GPL friendly, but this was just probably worked when they first started. I would probably feel less secure about the quality otherwise, and we'd probably get the same problem we have with Linux (a million-and-one flavors, and hella small amount of cross conmpatability eventually)
just my $.2, to borrow a phrase.
Ashes
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Unlike Linux, where one guy (Linus Torvalds) wrote the kernel and a bunch of other people made distros to wrap around it, Mozilla's programs are complete products already. Sure, a bunch of other people could theoretically still abuse Mozilla's trademarks, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know "if you definitely want the official version, download it from mozilla.com." Linux is a bad analogy because there is no "official site" to download Linux--there is for Firefox.
Honestly, I wouldn't have a problem with the Community Edition guidelines (call it Firefox/Thunderbird, just don't use the Mozilla name/artwork) except they don't provide a suitable unofficial logo. It's too generic. If they're going to force you to use a different logo, they could at least provide a nicer default one.
Don't kid yourself; all Mozilla cares about is market share. The only reason they have these stupid guidelines is so their market share figures aren't tainted by "unauthorized" (get a clue, Mozilla: unauthorized doesn't exist in the free software world) versions.
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fatcerberus@yahoo.com [aim: fatcerberus]
I have no witty remarks or quotes to share at the moment.
I suspect the reason no one has attempted to answer the question is that it is not something that can be controlled via the Portable portion of the code.
FF has no options to specify the mail client. It uses the default client of the host operating system. Ask the question at the FF forum/discussion group http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=38 or put in a feature request at the FF developer site. Here is a tread at the FF Forum that asks a similar question http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=423170&highlight=default+e...
John, maybe this and a few other questions that are often ask could be put in the Frequently Ask Questions (Read Me First) thread.
Clair
Thank you both very much, that was what I thought. I was wondering if there was a way through the portable app code. I will put it in the Mozilla forums and request it.
Thanks again,
Dan