this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2025
166 points (100.0% liked)

Firefox

18237 readers
8 users here now

A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
166
Firefox's Profiles get a huge upgrade with easier Profile Creation, Switching and Customization (windowsreport.com)
submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
37 comments fedilink hide all child comments
all 38 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours 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] -2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

How is it better than about:profile?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

Because it's integrated into the GUI similar to how pretty much every other browser does it, of course .

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days 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 4 days 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] 3 points 4 days ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Having uBlock Origin everywhere has spoiled me I guess

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Yeah this website is shit

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

I did not, no.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days 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] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days 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 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Multi-account containers are already all I need.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 days ago

Multi-account containers are already all I need.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 days ago

Multi-account containers are already all I need.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days 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 3 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Under Linux you can also start a throwaway profile by running firefox -P $(mktemp -d) (note the capital P for path)

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days 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 4 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days 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] 1 points 4 days 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] 3 points 4 days ago

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

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

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days 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] 31 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 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] 3 points 4 days ago

Rookie numbers! 4 here.

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

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

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

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

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

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

@[email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

IIRC, ~~-p launches a profile by path, and -P launches the GUI for selecting/creating a profile.~~ this is wrong, -P specifies a profile path. I forgot how to open the manager.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Type in the terminal firefox --help to see all options. You can open the manager with firefox --ProfileManager. I used to create a profile this way and then either with -P or -p was using that profile.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

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