I've just upgraded from 1.8.7 to 1.8.8 and for some reason my
preferences were reset to the defaults.  I also noticed this behaviour
when upgrading from 1.8.6 to 1.8.7...

I downloaded the .tar.gz and created my own RH9 .rpm which I then used
to upgrade my system (as root).

Then running as a non-root user I found that my preferences -- the two
that I noticed were default currency (for both New Accts and Reports)
and the open account -- were both reset the the GnuCash defaults.

I suspect this is obvious as my machine defaults to Australian currency,
but I am running GC in the UK.  If I was using the same currency as my
LOCALE I guess this would not be obvious...

My ~/.gnucash/config-1.8.auto file has the date of the upgrade (which
I guess is a result of me resetting the currency).

Derek suggests that "this is definitely not a feature, and AFAIK it's not
deliberate", so it must be a bug.