Firefox @lemmy.ml Nemeski @lemm.ee 2w ago

Firefox's Profiles get a huge upgrade with easier Profile Creation, Switching and Customization

windowsreport.com Firefox's Profiles get a huge upgrade with easier Profile Creation, Switching and Customization

Firefox Nightly now lets you create, Switch & Manage profiles like Chrome with themes, avatars to seperate work and personal browsing.

Firefox @lemmy.ml ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆ @lemmy.ml 2w ago

windowsreport.com /firefoxs-profiles-get-a-huge-upgrade-with-easier-profile-creation-switching-and-customization/

39 comments

At the moment, running different profiles simultaneously is not possible

That's the one feature I really want from Firefox profiles!
- At the moment, running different profiles simultaneously is not possible
  
  Bullocks. I run 2 or 3 profiles at the same time. For over 2 years now. Just easier now.
  
  Yeah but you have to do it with separate launch arguments.
  
  @MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone Me too. At least I used to have a separate profile for PDF viewing, which had its own plugins installed. It can be done by using commandline options to select what profile to use, like in --profile or -P (i forgot which of them I used actually). Just created a script for it (Bash script in Linux) and associated PDF files with it as if it was a separate program.
  
  What they mean in the article is probably its not possible with the GUI only of Firefox. They totally ignored the commandline options.
  
  Rookie numbers! 4 here.
  
  Hopefully it's not an actual regression in the latest version, because that'd be terrible.
- At the moment, running different profiles simultaneously is not possible
  
  Bullshit. I've been multiboxing Firefox for years.
  
  You need to run firefox.exe -p to open profile manager and then create all the profiles you want. Then create shortcuts to each new profile. firefox.exe -p ProfileName
  
  This allows you to run a personal profile, work profile and porn profile simultaneously without crossing streams.
  
  Under Linux you can also start a throwaway profile by running firefox --Profile $(mktemp -d)
- It already just works, just go to about:profiles and launch as another profile. There's also have container tabs, so no need for a separate profile when you only need isolation.
  
  Would be nice if they just added a profile manager with a button though.
- Multi-account containers are already all I need.
- I feel like this hasn't been said enough: Multi-account containers are already all I need.
  
  And multi-account containers are not enough for me.
  
  What's your point? They are great and serve a purpose, but they are not the same.
- Multi-account containers are already all I need.
- That's unfortunate, I was hoping for a 'workspaces' like feature as in Opera. I run FF and Opera simultaneaously to segregate my tabs. It would be really nice if we could get something like that extended to profiles, so I could just run FF
  
  Do you mean containers? At least it sounds like it.
  
  I think you might be looking for tab groups? Which, incidentally, are also coming.
- Multi-account containers are already all I need.
This is excellent news. This is one of the biggest features that I've wanted out of Firefox for years, and one of the reasons I've kept Chromium as a secondary browser all this time.

I do remember seeing a community-made GitHub project that added a profile switcher to Firefox, which looked pretty good, but it also required installing an executable somewhere on the system, which I'm not exactly keen on.

I think Zen Browser has a built-in profile switcher, but it also changes a bunch of core UI elements... I just want Firefox with a profile switcher, lol.
- That just means it's in active development and will come to the beta browser soon, and then to the stable version.
- "for people"
  
  This doesn't mean a lot for people who don't know about people, or dont want to look it up.
Anyone else get an obvious malware popup in this link? On iOS.
- Having uBlock Origin everywhere has spoiled me I guess
  
  Yeah, it’s the thing I miss most about Android haha
- Yeah this website is shit
- I did not, no.
Cool. I've been thinking they should just make that available somewhere for quite a while now, since about:profiles was already pretty usable, it was just impossible to find for normal users. But that they're improving the user experience at the same time is quite welcome, too.
How is it better than about:profile?
- Because it's integrated into the GUI similar to how pretty much every other browser does it, of course .
  
  Noone asks you to open terminal and edit config files in editor
About bloody time. Containers are fine for on the fly use - for checking what pages look like logged out, or visiting a link that you don't want affecting algorithms etc. but for separating personal and work and whatever else, profiles are the way to go. It's actually already pretty easy to add 'about:profiles' to the toolbar but the more accessible they make it, the better.

I look forward to profiles also making it to the Android app 5 to 10 years from now.

39 comments