5 ms·

I would: - Prioritise getting the new extension framework fully functional. And continue innovating on the capabilities that are exposed. Especially on mobile

I would: - Prioritise getting the new extension framework fully functional. And continue innovating on the capabilities that are exposed. Especially on mobile where the new fenix engine is still limited to a small whitelist of extensions - Sort out the multi-profile story. Container tabs are great, but the chrome model is also a great fit for many workflow (e.g. different people in a house or home vs. work profiles). - Try and work on making Gecko easily embeddable again. Webkit/Blink gets all the attention because it's easy to embed into things. I suspect Gecko needs to compete in this market if it hopes to survive. It needs to have more than one company invested in it. This ship has probably sailed now as they've fired most of their Rust and Servo teams. But IMO they ought to have created a rust-based cross-platform UI framework. They tried to do it web-based with Firefox OS but that was too slow. But with a Rust solution I think they could have owned both the mobile and desktop application spaces, which could potentially have made them a bootload of money and been a huge win for linux.

ssorallen 5y ago
Chrome’s Profiles are the #1 reason I use it over Firefox. If Firefox had as complete of an implementation as Chrome then I would consider switching, but until then Firefox is a non-starter for me. I use all 3 of these profiles all day every day for work: * one personal profile logged into personal Google * one work profile managed by the company, logged into company Google * one development profile with all the debugging extensions installed, like React and Redux tools (they require access to all pages all the time)
- cryptonector 5y ago
  What's wrong with Firefox Containers?
  - thomasedwards 5y ago
    It doesn’t sync your entire experience. I have a completely different setup for each profile, and then I use Containers _within_ each profile. They’re not the same thing.
- benjamir 5y ago
  headscratch I used profiles with Ff for ages... what is the difference to Chrome's?
  - thomasedwards 5y ago
    When I open Chrome, I can open any profile straight away from the menu. On Mac, there’s just one Chrome icon. When I open Firefox, I have to go to a page that looks like a developer debug mode, and then open a new profile in a new Firefox instance. I now have two Firefox icons in my dock. I normally work with three profiles, so now I have three Firefox icons in my dock all called Firefox. 66.6% of the time I press the wrong one. The problem is that Firefox has to be at least as good as Chrome to succeed. Being _almost_ as good as Chrome means people will just use Chrome.
  - cassianoleal 5y ago
    In Chrome there's an icon you click to switch. Honestly, if someone would create a FF extension that was just that, it would probably cover 90% of what's considered superior in Chrome.
    - Crono 5y ago
      Its called "Profile Switcher for Firefox": https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/profile-switcher/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/profile-switc...
      - cassianoleal 5y ago
        That looks quite good. It's a little over the top with having to install external software though.
    - weaksauce 5y ago
      have you used container tabs? those are effectively "different profiles" for what most people consider them. It's still shared extensions and history and bookmarks but you can login with different accounts in different tabs and it keeps that separate.
- BlackLotus89 5y ago
  Why not use the firefox profiles? I also use multiple profiles. My setup is as fallows. firefox -ProfileManager Create 2 profiles work and private. Change the theme of work to orange and private to black. Create two .desktop files and append to the Exec line -P work (or private) and the Name to include (work) I have work on desktop 5 and private on desktop 8 and 9. Works like a charme for me. Additional bonus. Use container to add additional seperation.
  - maxloh 5y ago
    But it is just 2 clicks to do the same thing in Chrome (and those two clicks are really fast thanks to Fitts's law).
  - cassianoleal 5y ago
    Or, just open `about:profiles` and press buttons.
  - zelphirkalt 5y ago
    They probably don't know, because Firefox doesn't bump your nose into the fact, that it has profiles.
  - nicoburns 5y ago
    In Chrome I can switch from one profile to another as fast as opening a new tab (i.e. instantly). Can Firefox do that?
    - BlackLotus89 5y ago
      With containers you can. It's literally opening a new tab. If you have two profiles open at the same time like described you can easily switch desktops. The clear seperation of work and private browsing sessions helps me as well.
      - notreallyserio 5y ago
        What is easy here? In Chrome, on macOS, it's command-` to switch windows and command-shift-m to open a new window in with a specific profile. Also, links always open in the profile that is currently in the foreground. Is that possible in Firefox? Last I heard it isn't, but I haven't checked in a while.
- baq 5y ago
  about:profiles
- tenacious_tuna 5y ago
  I use Firefox's container tabs all the time, which segment exactly the same way as profiles (albiet with the same extension pool). Personally I prefer having blended tabs in a single window, or having additional segregation; I keep Amazon punted out to it's own container, as well as social media. I know it won't stop all the cross-identificaiton, but it should at least help.
zamalek 5y ago
> Especially on mobile where the new fenix engine is still limited to a small whitelist of extensions Fenix is bloody fantastic. I would double-down on this and really push the fact that (even with the limited extension list) it has uBlock Origin.

ssorallen 5y ago

Chrome’s Profiles are the #1 reason I use it over Firefox. If Firefox had as complete of an implementation as Chrome then I would consider switching, but until then Firefox is a non-starter for me. I use all 3 of these profiles all day every day for work: * one personal profile logged into personal Google * one work profile managed by the company, logged into company Google * one development profile with all the debugging extensions installed, like React and Redux tools (they require access to all pages all the time)

cryptonector 5y ago
What's wrong with Firefox Containers?
- thomasedwards 5y ago
  It doesn’t sync your entire experience. I have a completely different setup for each profile, and then I use Containers _within_ each profile. They’re not the same thing.
benjamir 5y ago
headscratch I used profiles with Ff for ages... what is the difference to Chrome's?
- thomasedwards 5y ago
  When I open Chrome, I can open any profile straight away from the menu. On Mac, there’s just one Chrome icon. When I open Firefox, I have to go to a page that looks like a developer debug mode, and then open a new profile in a new Firefox instance. I now have two Firefox icons in my dock. I normally work with three profiles, so now I have three Firefox icons in my dock all called Firefox. 66.6% of the time I press the wrong one. The problem is that Firefox has to be at least as good as Chrome to succeed. Being _almost_ as good as Chrome means people will just use Chrome.
- cassianoleal 5y ago
  In Chrome there's an icon you click to switch. Honestly, if someone would create a FF extension that was just that, it would probably cover 90% of what's considered superior in Chrome.
  - Crono 5y ago
    Its called "Profile Switcher for Firefox": https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/profile-switcher/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/profile-switc...
    - cassianoleal 5y ago
      That looks quite good. It's a little over the top with having to install external software though.
  - weaksauce 5y ago
    have you used container tabs? those are effectively "different profiles" for what most people consider them. It's still shared extensions and history and bookmarks but you can login with different accounts in different tabs and it keeps that separate.
BlackLotus89 5y ago
Why not use the firefox profiles? I also use multiple profiles. My setup is as fallows. firefox -ProfileManager Create 2 profiles work and private. Change the theme of work to orange and private to black. Create two .desktop files and append to the Exec line -P work (or private) and the Name to include (work) I have work on desktop 5 and private on desktop 8 and 9. Works like a charme for me. Additional bonus. Use container to add additional seperation.
- maxloh 5y ago
  But it is just 2 clicks to do the same thing in Chrome (and those two clicks are really fast thanks to Fitts's law).
- cassianoleal 5y ago
  Or, just open `about:profiles` and press buttons.
- zelphirkalt 5y ago
  They probably don't know, because Firefox doesn't bump your nose into the fact, that it has profiles.
- nicoburns 5y ago
  In Chrome I can switch from one profile to another as fast as opening a new tab (i.e. instantly). Can Firefox do that?
  - BlackLotus89 5y ago
    With containers you can. It's literally opening a new tab. If you have two profiles open at the same time like described you can easily switch desktops. The clear seperation of work and private browsing sessions helps me as well.
    - notreallyserio 5y ago
      What is easy here? In Chrome, on macOS, it's command-` to switch windows and command-shift-m to open a new window in with a specific profile. Also, links always open in the profile that is currently in the foreground. Is that possible in Firefox? Last I heard it isn't, but I haven't checked in a while.
baq 5y ago
about:profiles
tenacious_tuna 5y ago
I use Firefox's container tabs all the time, which segment exactly the same way as profiles (albiet with the same extension pool). Personally I prefer having blended tabs in a single window, or having additional segregation; I keep Amazon punted out to it's own container, as well as social media. I know it won't stop all the cross-identificaiton, but it should at least help.

zamalek 5y ago

> Especially on mobile where the new fenix engine is still limited to a small whitelist of extensions Fenix is bloody fantastic. I would double-down on this and really push the fact that (even with the limited extension list) it has uBlock Origin.