http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/pinkerton/archives/008047.html says the same thing. It also changed my .doc association from Word to TextEdit. It's easy enough to change back to your preffered browser (Camino, Firefox, etc), but it should have saved/respected your choice during the upgrade.

Yes, this was quite annoying - file associations reverted all over the system. BBEdit lost all its associations, Safari became my default browser, and more. Still working on fixing everything.

Yes, I have seen this exact same behaviour when peforming a standard upgrade from 10.3.8 -> 10.4. I also noticed that the Finder preferences changed (executables now displayed as *.app).
I had to change the default browser back by going to the Safari -> Preferences -> General). This can also be done in Camino, but not in Firefox itself, at least I did not find an apparent way.

Robert

Funny, if Microsoft did that with an upgrade to Windows, everyone would be screaming. Yet Apple seems to get away with it.

Yeah. Apple's been doing quite a bit of Microsoft-ish stuff recently.

Well, Firefox does something similar - almost.

Whenever you upgrade to a new version, it offers to change your home page to that Google start page thingie, and *checks* that option by default. So, if you're not paying attention for a few seconds, your home page is changed.
This really should be opt-out instead of opt-in, IMO.

- Michael

mscha, yeah, that's a bug, but it's a bug that impacts users of our software, not someone else's software and with some warning it's easy to avoid. Apple's bug has a direct impact on Firefox users and there doesn't seem to be any way to avoid it and I consider that to be considerably worse than the bug in our update mechanism (which shouldn't be a problem in our next release).

- A

I understand why Apple would set all preferences to defaults. It's a completely new OS, and there is no telling which apps might be broken. Firefox isn't, but Apple cannot rely on this. This is, however, a small price to pay. I find the behavior of Firefox to change setting on install far more annoying. Firefox is installed on a functioning system, and cannot claim that it is taking precautions against broken apps.

Adaxl, it sounds like it's an unfortunate bug and has nothing to do with Apple taking any kind of precautions. If it was a bug, then it was a bug that has a fairly extreme impact on Firefox users on Mac. If it wasn't a bug, then it's downright rude.

When I upgraded from windows 2000 to windows XP, my defaults weren't all reset. When I upgraded from windows 98 to windows 2000 before that, my defaults weren't all reset. Even my move from 95 to 98 didn't do anything like that. If it wasn't a bug, it was terrible behavior for Apple to have done that.

- A

It's not something against Firefox if that's what you're insinuating, which seems to be that way from the tone of your update. Tiger resets your default browser to Safari regardless what you set it as before the upgrade and it's not permanent.

I had mine set to Camino in Panther and when Tiger set it to Safari, I simply just open Camino and set my default back. The reset is a trivial thing that shouldn't warrant anything more than a slight annoyance and I'm surprised at the big fuss it has generated. How hard is opening a browser preference window after your Mac reboots? Besides, it's only something you set once.

It's unfortunate that Apple has moved the default browser and mail preferences to Safari and Mail respectively and they really shouldn't have but if the Camino team managed to include a default browser preference option in their browser, why not the Firefox team? Make it a Mac only preference option.

I'd also like to add that my .gif and .jpg files had been reassociated to Photoshop CS instead of Preview. That annoyed me a lot because PS has that splash screen and needs to load all those palettes before it can load the pic whereas Preview is almost instantaneous. They're not out to get you!

Aulia, I'm not suggeting it was aimed at Firefox. That it was so broad sweeping even more of an indication that it was a bug rather than a feature. I'm pointing out that it has a very negative effect on Firefox, especially given that we don't yet (coming in 1.1) have a pref inside of Firefox to make it the default and the user has to find it, again, in the Safari prefs. The reason we didn't have this pref in Firefox 1.0 is because it's an undocumneted API and we're having to hack it like Camino did.

I think it is a big deal when an OS ships with a bug that unsets all your defaults and sets all of its software as default. If it's the case that this wasn't a bug, but rather a landgrab for Apple applications, then it's an even bigger deal since that violates not only the user expectation but the entire "bond" between the OS developers and the application developers which says that we're going to play nice with eachother and respect the user.

- A

Aulia, one other question, why defend them? It's either a bug or bad behavior. In both cases, it's pretty lame.

- A

Hey Asa: it's an OS upgrade after all, quite a lot of software had to be updated. I also think it's quite normal that Tiger resets the default browser. After all, you don't know if the user just migrates his preferences onto a new machine and Firefox isn't even present (migration assistant on a blank install). Moreover, Tiger provides a new property list format (binary) that is no longer XML-based, probably these are the reasons for resetting quite some values to their defaults.

Whenever I install a new OS version, I am fully prepared to customize a lot of settings, no matter if it's Windows, Linux, Mac OS or Solaris. In fact, I think this is quite a normal process. Per default, Apple provides only one browser with Tiger, and it's set as default. For anyone who wants another default, it's easy to fix.

On another note, thanks for all the work you have put into this project, I really appreciate it. I am looking forward to Firefox's ongoing evolution (become a better Mac app, gain even more market share on Windows, etc.)

Now why are users getting all worked up? Why call the company "lame" over a bug?

Been using Mozilla/FireFox for the longest time, and really liked it because of RSS. Safari was awesome too but lacked RSS. So until Tiger, I kept using FireFox, but now since Safari has been updated, it's my favorite browser. It works well with iPhoto and other new features in Tiger. Can you look up words in a built in dictionary in FireFox? Not to my knowledge.

[Trying to make a point, FF is an excellent browser! No flaming or defending!]

Plus, they are trying to showcase their new features and want their users to get the full effect. They want people to check out Safari's RSS feeds, dictionary in browser, and ability to do many things that are intergrated between Safari and other applications like iPhoto, or Spotlight in OS X [10.4]. I'm almost 99% sure this is a bug! If Safari was made for Windows and other operating systems, then I might be worried that it was intentional and trying to gain user base.

I'm pretty sure I can say that most of us here are really good with computers. All you have to do is make FireFox default again. Safari>Preferences>General. No Biggie! Now about everyone losing their defaults, I have not lost anything except for FireFox being default.

Just to let you know:
My graphics [.jpg/.gif] are still using Preview and not Photoshop CS. That could be just me. But also, AdiumX was not replaced with iChat .. when I click on a aim:goim?screenname or yahoo messenger links in FF, Safari, or Opera.

This behaviour from Apple sucks so much. Respect for the user comes first of all. Why Mac users are more prone to accept this crap from Apple is beyond me, but it seems to be a fact from my experience.

Maybe some of us accept it because to us it's such a trivial change that requires little action to correct. Carbon 12 may be on to something here. I got my image files defaulted to Photoshop, (s)he didn't. So it is most likely a minor bug that apple needs to address. I certainly don't remember my defaults being reset to Apple's own apps when upgrading from jaguar to Panther.

Asa, you said "I'm not suggeting it was aimed at Firefox.", yet the tone, if not the wording of your entry, certainly suggests that you are. It doesn't disable Firefox as the default, it just reassigns it to Safari. You can still change it back.

Apple has a feedback page so if you have any gripe about this bug, feel free to give Apple your 2¢.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

I think most of you are missing my point. This is either a bug, in which case it's unfortunate that they shipped something that clearly does not respect the user, or it's intentional, in which case it's an abuse of their position as the OS and it shows both disrespect for the user and for application developers.

You can argue with how important (or not important) either one of those would be, but I'm really surprised to hear that some of you think that it's perfectly OK, or even preferable that an OS vendor would override the user's settings intentionally, or allow a bug of that significance to ship in a release as important as Tiger.

Any argument that this was "the right thing" to do, is gonna fall on deaf ears here so don't bother. It wasn't the right thing to do. It was a bug or it was an OS vendor abusing its position.

I've made literally scores of OS upgrades on Mac and Windows, and I've never had the OS just reset my preferences like that. If my upgrade to windows XP would have unset all my carefully set image handling (carefully split between photoshop, my browser, and an image preview app) and I had to redo that work, I'd be kind of ticked off. If it reset it all to MS Paint, I'd be even more aggravated. If it did this to more than one of my categories of files, I'd be making a much bigger deal out of it than I have of this.

I guess I just have higher expectations of OS vendors than you all.

- A

I think it is neither a feature nor a bug. A more likely explanation is that since Internet Explorer is no longer included the default browser is set to Safari so that upgrades are seemless for those folks (there were plenty of them) still using IE as a default.

If one does a clean install (as I did) then one can set Firefox as default and there's no problem.

I think some people are over-reacting a bit on this one. Could the upgrade installer have been smarter (included an if . .. then statement to check whether IE was the default or another browser)? Yes, of course, but I'd rather real bugs were fixed rather than writing idiosyncratic installers.

Just my .02. I could be wrong of course.

It *would* be just like Hyatt to try to undermine Firefox on 10.4 :)

Being in software development yourself, you know that bugs happen. Surely there's been a release of Firefox that had an unknown page layout regression in it, despite everyone's best efforts. It doesn't mean that MF doesn't have respect for standards, web developers, or end users--it just means that a bug slipped through. Unfortunately OS bugs almost by definition affect makers of other software--just as many browser bugs affect other web developers. I'm sure Yahoo would be irked by a bug that reset people's home page to Google, and a web developer would be irked at the breakage of a page that used to work, just as you are irked by a bug that resets people's browser.

Of course you are disappointed; bugs are always disappointing to those affected by them. But to say that having a bug means that Apple doesn't respect the user seems unfair.

(As an aside, just to put things in perspective a bit: back in the day it was almost impossible to get anything but IE to consistently stick as the default browser--it drove us Chimera users, among others, crazy until it was fixed. So while this is annoying, I don't think it qualifies as "extreme")

I love Mac fan-boys.

Bottom line is - Apple screwed up. It's lame and dumb, whether a bug or design. If I were a Mac user and this had happened to me, I'd be pretty annoyed.

Luckily with Windows I don't have to upgrade me OS every six months.

As OS upgrade bugs go, this sounds like an annoying one, but not nearly as bad as some I can recall. The bug where Panther trashed certain Firewire hard drives, for instance, or the version of Mandrake Linux that physically damaged one brand of CD writer. (As I recall, both problems were technically bugs in the devices' firmware exposed by changes in the OS, but the perception was "Panther trashes firewire drives" or "Mandrake trashes CD drives.")

I'd rather lose a preference than data or hardware.

Er, no offense, but Firefox isn't exactly a paragon of virture in this regard:
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/48409524/m/901004888631/r/880008542731#880008542731

P.S. are we going to see the auto-update functionality fixed in the Mac versions before 1.1?

APPLE SHOULDN'T GET A PASS

I agree with the comment that if Microsoft had done it, everyone would be all over it saying how Microsoft just wants to dominate with its products only. Imagine the reaction if in a Win 2000 or Win ME to Win XP update, Microsoft reset your default browser to IE, your default office suite to Microsoft Office, and your default email client to Microsoft Outlook Express. Everyone would be screaming about it. And you know what? They would have been absolutely right to do so.

So there is no reason why Apple should get a pass for doing the same thing. No they are not lashing out at Firefox, just using their OS platform to try to push their own products down people's throats. That's what's bad about it. I am starting to really get pissed off at Apple. First they make iPods only compliant with iTunes, and now this. And you know something? I don't think it's a bug. Apple intentionally did this to try to push their own products. After all, that IS what we would have all assumed were it Microsoft doing it.

It's a bug. Apple redesigned their metadata and filetype systems in Tiger, which you can read about in Ars Technica's review. It seems like there are a lot of new features that they sort of implemented, but didn't really add any polish to, or just rushed to get it out the door. I don't know what they were thinking, but they either missed the idea of users having previously-configured associations or didn't put a high priority on importing them. It was a sloppy release in many ways, but I won't fill your blog up with all of that. I agree that Windows/Linux would never get away with erasing user settings on upgrades without upsetting everyone. On the other hand, I don't think they were targeting Firefox.

I don't want to appear a fool here, but I have been trying since Panther came out to change my default browser and I can't figure it out. There use to be a System Panel preference for various internet settings and it is gone. Other programs seem to ask if they should be the default for some file type.

How the heck do I set my default browser? Am I nutty? I have only ever been able to find instructions for Jaguar.

how insane.

After a year of searching the mozilla forums I finally found the answer. You have to open Safari to tell it that it isn't your default (Safari > Preferences > General) browser anymore. Didn't Microsoft get sued for doing that?