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Firefox has supported multiple profiles for ages. Just run it with -P. It allows you to have separate history, extensions, bookmarks, everything. The new panel

Firefox has supported multiple profiles for ages. Just run it with -P. It allows you to have separate history, extensions, bookmarks, everything. The new panel containers are also handy. They allow you to have shared history and bookmarks but separate cookies and sessions. You can be logged into the same site on different accounts in two tabs in the same window.

freeone3000 9y ago
There's no easy way of switching between them, starting a new firefox instance requires running from a command interpreter with -P specified, even the selection window isn't great. The containers feature is the alternative you want to propose here.
- remedan 9y ago
  Well, you could add about:profiles to your bookmarks. But I agree that the UX around profiles in FF is a bit clunky. But containers don't have separate extensions, bookmarks and history so they can't completely replace profiles.
  - wheresmyusern 9y ago
    exactly. i cant believe nobody here seems to know about profiles or about:profiles. its the perfect solution. my setup is tree-style tabs (recently made to work with 57) and a different profile for each task (one profile for each language im learning, one for music, and one for each research topic i might be pursuing). whats your setup like?
    - Santosh83 9y ago
      But does about:profiles work bug-free for you? From my experience it has had a long standing bug: when you select a different profile to the one you're currently using and click the "Open profile in new window" button, it actually loads the current profile again in another window. I read on a forum somewhere (forget the link) that this was an acknowledged problem and would be fixed sometime in future. So at least until then, about:profiles is no replacement for using the -P command-line switch to start the profile manager. Using multiple profiles seamlessly is one area Firefox can and should seriously improve, or Chrome's "User" feature will always have the edge.
      - wheresmyusern 9y ago
        i havent had this problem, no. have you tried it in 57?
- acqq 9y ago
  You can make OS links (e.g. different shortcuts on the desktop to different profiles) to start with different -p [profilename] then starting different profile is just a click away. I do it all the time using such configurations. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Shortcut_to_a_specific_profile http://kb.mozillazine.org/Shortcut_to_a_specific_profile Also don't forget to add -no-remote option to each of the links to enable starting such browsers in parallel. Sadly it's not mentioned behind the URL above.
  - Santosh83 9y ago
    This works fine, but the problem is that it is not near as layman friendly as Chrome's "Switch User" feature that is available a click away on every Chrome window. Only tech aware people will fiddle with command-line switches and create shortcuts, yet even an average user would like to use multiple simultaneous profiles/users. Firefox needs to improve on Chrome here. The erstwhile "Profile Switcher" addon provided a nice UI but is sadly gone after the WebExtensions transition and I cannot find an equivalent so far.
- Myrmornis 9y ago
  I went deeply into trying to use containers as a profile replacement, replacing Chrome with the new Firefox beta for one month, and I can report that it is not the right direction to go in: - New tabs do not inherit current container - No way to make Ctrl-T do this by customization (I investigated extensions (can't remap Ctrl-T) and even system-wide Ctrl-T remapping with Karibiner; neither gives you what you want) - History is shared across containers. So e.g. work URLs mixed up with personal. That's contra to one of the main purposes of Profiles. - External applications do not open a tab in the current container. So e.g. clicking in a link in work slack will fail because it will not open in a tab which has work cookies / google account etc. Evidently Containers are not designed as a Profile replacement. I'm not sure what they are for but I don't think it's a need that I have. As I understand it using the long-standing Firefox profiles feature is the way to go, but personally I switched back to Chrome after a month of the new Firefox Beta because of the convenience of Chrome profiles. I should try Firefox profiles, but I exhausted my experimentation energy on Containers.
  - mr_johnson22 9y ago
    > - New tabs do not inherit current container Middle-clicking or Ctrl+clicking the New Tab button does inherit the current container. It also opens the new tab to the right of the current tab instead of at the far right of the tab strip. These actions are one in the same, so any extension that opens a tab to the right of the current tab (like Always Right or All Tabs Helper) also make the tab inherit the current container. It's strange that such a useful feature is barely advertised at all in the UI, but it's there. But your other criticisms of using containers as profiles are spot-on.
e40 9y ago
Just playing with profiles and I can't see in way to make the different windows stand out, which are in different profiles. Anyone know how to make the windows visually distinct?
- Santosh83 9y ago
  Yes, use a different theme for each profile?

freeone3000 9y ago

There's no easy way of switching between them, starting a new firefox instance requires running from a command interpreter with -P specified, even the selection window isn't great. The containers feature is the alternative you want to propose here.

remedan 9y ago
Well, you could add about:profiles to your bookmarks. But I agree that the UX around profiles in FF is a bit clunky. But containers don't have separate extensions, bookmarks and history so they can't completely replace profiles.
- wheresmyusern 9y ago
  exactly. i cant believe nobody here seems to know about profiles or about:profiles. its the perfect solution. my setup is tree-style tabs (recently made to work with 57) and a different profile for each task (one profile for each language im learning, one for music, and one for each research topic i might be pursuing). whats your setup like?
  - Santosh83 9y ago
    But does about:profiles work bug-free for you? From my experience it has had a long standing bug: when you select a different profile to the one you're currently using and click the "Open profile in new window" button, it actually loads the current profile again in another window. I read on a forum somewhere (forget the link) that this was an acknowledged problem and would be fixed sometime in future. So at least until then, about:profiles is no replacement for using the -P command-line switch to start the profile manager. Using multiple profiles seamlessly is one area Firefox can and should seriously improve, or Chrome's "User" feature will always have the edge.
    - wheresmyusern 9y ago
      i havent had this problem, no. have you tried it in 57?
acqq 9y ago
You can make OS links (e.g. different shortcuts on the desktop to different profiles) to start with different -p [profilename] then starting different profile is just a click away. I do it all the time using such configurations. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Shortcut_to_a_specific_profile http://kb.mozillazine.org/Shortcut_to_a_specific_profile Also don't forget to add -no-remote option to each of the links to enable starting such browsers in parallel. Sadly it's not mentioned behind the URL above.
- Santosh83 9y ago
  This works fine, but the problem is that it is not near as layman friendly as Chrome's "Switch User" feature that is available a click away on every Chrome window. Only tech aware people will fiddle with command-line switches and create shortcuts, yet even an average user would like to use multiple simultaneous profiles/users. Firefox needs to improve on Chrome here. The erstwhile "Profile Switcher" addon provided a nice UI but is sadly gone after the WebExtensions transition and I cannot find an equivalent so far.
Myrmornis 9y ago
I went deeply into trying to use containers as a profile replacement, replacing Chrome with the new Firefox beta for one month, and I can report that it is not the right direction to go in: - New tabs do not inherit current container - No way to make Ctrl-T do this by customization (I investigated extensions (can't remap Ctrl-T) and even system-wide Ctrl-T remapping with Karibiner; neither gives you what you want) - History is shared across containers. So e.g. work URLs mixed up with personal. That's contra to one of the main purposes of Profiles. - External applications do not open a tab in the current container. So e.g. clicking in a link in work slack will fail because it will not open in a tab which has work cookies / google account etc. Evidently Containers are not designed as a Profile replacement. I'm not sure what they are for but I don't think it's a need that I have. As I understand it using the long-standing Firefox profiles feature is the way to go, but personally I switched back to Chrome after a month of the new Firefox Beta because of the convenience of Chrome profiles. I should try Firefox profiles, but I exhausted my experimentation energy on Containers.
- mr_johnson22 9y ago
  > - New tabs do not inherit current container Middle-clicking or Ctrl+clicking the New Tab button does inherit the current container. It also opens the new tab to the right of the current tab instead of at the far right of the tab strip. These actions are one in the same, so any extension that opens a tab to the right of the current tab (like Always Right or All Tabs Helper) also make the tab inherit the current container. It's strange that such a useful feature is barely advertised at all in the UI, but it's there. But your other criticisms of using containers as profiles are spot-on.

e40 9y ago

Just playing with profiles and I can't see in way to make the different windows stand out, which are in different profiles. Anyone know how to make the windows visually distinct?

Santosh83 9y ago
Yes, use a different theme for each profile?