Firefox & Thunderbird sharing profiles with WinXP

[enxio27]

How I get Linux Mint to see and use my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles that are on a partition that is shared between Mint and WinXP?

[karlchen]

Hello, enxio27.

The idea is intriguing and very bad. It is one of the "don't do it" ideas.
The Thunderbird configuration files hold pathnames. Pathnames in Windows and Linux Mint are not compatible with each other.
The way how Windows and Linux Mint organize access privileges are pretty different and not compatible with each other.
Result:
Do not store any part of your Linux Mint userprofiles on a filesystem which is not a genuine part of your Linux Mint installation. This includes the Firefox and Thunderbird profiles as well as profiles of other softwae products.

Kind regards,
Karl

[enxio27]

I suppose I could do without Thunderbird on Windows, but I really need for Firefox to be accessible to both. I'm almost certain I shared profiles between WinNT and RedHat back in the day. Is there something different about Mint that would make shared profiles not feasible?

[karlchen]

Hello, enxio27.

Redhat and Linux Mint have got quite a few differences, but with respect to the 2 main reasons to keep Linux profiles on Linux filesystems: no, none.

Firefox:
Keeping two (or more) Firefox profiles synchronized, even across different operating systems, is pretty easy: Use the Firefox internal "Sync" function. It allows you to synchronize: Add-ons, bookmarks, passwords, settings, history, tabs.
Beware: add-ons might pose a problem in case you use add-ons which are different between Windows and Linux. And yes, there are a few. Just check the default add-ons that Firefox brings along on Windows and those that it brings along on Linux.
Actually, in order to avoid conflicts with operating system dependent settings, file formats, I will never include add-ons and settings in the synchronization process.

Thunderbird:
I am not aware of a Thunderbird "Sync" function comparable to the function built-in to Firefox. Yet, it would be feasible, though involving some hassle to set it up right, to put the pure data files on a common filesystem. - Too much hassle for me. I simply created the same profiles twice. As a downside of my approach I will fetch all mails twice, once on the Windows side, and once on the Linux Mint side.

You might wait for other users' input. Maybe there is a better way, which I simply do not know.

Kind regards,
Karl

[toroka]

A partial solution for using Thunderbird under both Linux and Win is to set your Local folders to a third, Fat or NTFS formatted partition and direct all accounts' directories to that partition and directory. This is how I used to use, when at office I had MS. Now I do it similarly with my different Linux distros. More over I mount the mentioned partition into /mnt/a_partion. So, it does not matter, which distro I start, TB saves messages flawlessly into the same directory.

The easy thing if you use Linux only, that you have to simply copy a working profile directory to the other distro's .Thunderbird (and/or .Firefox) directory and edit a bit the ini file.