this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2025
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Firefox

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (8 children)

At the moment, running different profiles simultaneously is not possible

That's the one feature I really want from Firefox profiles!

[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yeah but you have to do it with separate launch arguments.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Or always start with profilemanager. But indeed, also a launch argument.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Or open about:profiles (which you can put conveniently in your bookmark bar).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Hopefully it's not an actual regression in the latest version, because that'd be terrible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Rookie numbers! 4 here.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Under Linux you can also start a throwaway profile by running firefox --Profile $(mktemp -d)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Would be nice if they just added a profile manager with a button though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I just have about:profile as the first on my bookmark toolbar. You can also make a shortcut to firefox --ProfileManager in your OS.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I feel like this hasn't been said enough: Multi-account containers are already all I need.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

oh don't mind me, I'm just word-for-word mindlessly parroting what others have said below

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Multi-account containers are already all I need.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Do you mean containers? At least it sounds like it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

The last time I looked at containers I think it was an add-on, but I don't think (and please correct me if I'm wrong), it filtered or made active the current viewable tabs.

In Opera there's an icon list on the left and depending on which one is selected those are the only tabs displayed, and/or made active. I'll take another look at FF containers.

Someone mentioned 'about:profiles' above, I think that may be closer to what I'm looking for, maybe that combined with containers can reduce my foot print to just Firefox, thanks for the suggestion

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I think you might be looking for tab groups? Which, incidentally, are also coming.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago

Multi-account containers are already all I need.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago

Multi-account containers are already all I need.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Anyone else get an obvious malware popup in this link? On iOS.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Having uBlock Origin everywhere has spoiled me I guess

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Yeah, it’s the thing I miss most about Android haha

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Yeah this website is shit

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I did not, no.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

How is it better than about:profile?