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There's countless people who have screamed that they want to switch from chrome, but can't because profiles don't work the way we want them too. And it's two se

There's countless people who have screamed that they want to switch from chrome, but can't because profiles don't work the way we want them too. And it's two seemingly small changes that need to happen too. 1. Make the UI around profiles better 2. When I click a link anywhere outside of the browser, open it in the last active window. Number 2 is the most important honestly

bayindirh 3y ago
Many people don't know that Profiles is carried over from Netscape 3.x days (IIRC). Code powering Profiles is probably is much more convoluted than people have realized. Addendum: The earliest reference I can find is around 2000 (https://math.vanderbilt.edu/schectex/wincd/tips_netscape.htm https://math.vanderbilt.edu/schectex/wincd/tips_netscape.htm), which coincides with Netscape 3/4 era.
- reddalo 3y ago
  And, if I remember correctly, the whole Profile things was initially hidden in Firefox. I remember you couldn't easily switch profile without using the command line.
  - bayindirh 3y ago
    Yes, it was there, but not really supported. We had to (ab)use the feature for some stuff, but everything was read-only and locked down by enterprise profiles, so it was not a big problem for us. I think profiles are not supported as first class citizens, still. Shall that be improved? Yes. Will that be easy? I don't think so.
- KennyBlanken 3y ago
  If they have the resources to constantly revamp the Firefox and Thunderbird UIs, they have the resources to rewrite the profile system.
  - bayindirh 3y ago
    Did you see the code? Do you know how deep it goes? I don't have the definitive answer, so if you have some insight, I'll love to hear it. UI is top of the proverbial iceberg. It's relatively easy to modify it.
  - xp84 3y ago
    UI reboots are so sexy though -- if this is like any company I've been involved with, they hire/promote a new design boss every couple years, and that person spends 6 months making a sexy Illustrator/Sketch/Figma (in that order over the years) document showing how hott things would look if we changed all the fonts and aped whatever widgets had been redone in last year's iOS. Instant greenlight. Try getting that kind of C-suite buy-in for a boring under-the-hood fix!
    - doubled112 3y ago
      This constant redesign with no real improvement cycle irritates me to no end.
      - bayindirh 3y ago
        Actually Thunderbird Supernova and Firefox’s latest iteration all very good both in space efficiency and performance. I’m saying this as a lover of 90s dense interfaces, like Eclipse.
Sander_Marechal 3y ago
I'm using Firefox on Linux and 2 is how it's been working for me for a looong time now. Clicked links in external programs always open in the last active Firefox window for me. Is this OS or even window-manager specific?
- glandium 3y ago
  I think they mean they have windows open in different profiles (profiles, not containers), and want the last active one to pick up links from external apps... I, for one, would like the last active container to be used.
  - snowe2010 3y ago
    You can do that with sidebery. Firefox’s default container plug-in is just a baseline. Other plugins do a much better job.
  - xp84 3y ago
    Interesting. I like the option which Edge gives, which is I select the profile that gets URL opens from outside the browser (my "main work profile") and add site-level exceptions that route certain sites to the right profiles (example: LinkedIn links should open in my personal profile, Demo Server accounts open in the dedicated demo profile). If I relied on "last active" I would frequently get things opening up in the wrong place just because say, last time I was in a browser I happened to be in a my personal profile, and 30 minutes later, I click a link in work Slack.
    - glandium 3y ago
      Yeah, I can see how that can end up messy, but filtering by url also doesn't always work. To give one example: I may open google docs in different containers because I have several accounts (personal and work). So, if I receive a link to a doc that was shared to me, and open it from the mail client... it won't necessarily end up in the right container. It can end up working fine when you use the menu to open in another container, but on many sites, the original url is redirected to a login page or whatever and opening in another container is not going to be helpful at all because you've now lost the original link you needed to open.
mcfedr 3y ago
Yes this! This is the main thing stopping me moving. The ux is currently horrible because you have to run multiple copies of the browser
Zardoz84 3y ago
Containers are enough for your use case. I know that for some usage cases, are enough. But for nearly 90% users, they are enough and even better that profiles.
- intothemild 3y ago
  You sure? What I want to do is sandbox my accounts, specifically my work account. Here's a sceneario I click a link in slack, I want the link to open in the work container. How do I do this? Because using containers, It will default open in the default container, i then have to right click the tab, and say "open in work container" .. which then opens that tab again, in the Work Container. What I want is to not have to do that extra work. Click link -> Work Container. You can't, at least, not default... you need to add extra plugins, like Multi-Account containers or whatever the plugin is called. That's a LOT of work for the average user. Compared to profiles where when you click the link, it opens in the last active window, which remembering windows are profiles, will be most likely the right profile. So if im working constantly on my work profile window, i click slack, and then click a link, its right back where i want. The problem with container tabs, is that its tabs, not windows. So is there any way i can say to firefox "this new window is WORK Containers please"
  - bayindirh 3y ago
    Looks like there's an extension which adds a new protocol handler, which allows firing the container you like for a given link from the command line. It's available at https://github.com/honsiorovskyi/open-url-in-container https://github.com/honsiorovskyi/open-url-in-container and Mozilla Extension store, so you can directly install it. I think you can register a new "application" to open links, not set at default, and use Right Click -> Open With -> Firefox (WORK CONTAINER). Will that work?
    - intothemild 3y ago
      This is exactly the reply I was expecting. The "yes it works but here's some extra things you need to do to make it work". No average user is going to do that. To me containers still don't replace profiles.

bayindirh 3y ago

Many people don't know that Profiles is carried over from Netscape 3.x days (IIRC). Code powering Profiles is probably is much more convoluted than people have realized. Addendum: The earliest reference I can find is around 2000 (https://math.vanderbilt.edu/schectex/wincd/tips_netscape.htm https://math.vanderbilt.edu/schectex/wincd/tips_netscape.htm), which coincides with Netscape 3/4 era.

reddalo 3y ago
And, if I remember correctly, the whole Profile things was initially hidden in Firefox. I remember you couldn't easily switch profile without using the command line.
- bayindirh 3y ago
  Yes, it was there, but not really supported. We had to (ab)use the feature for some stuff, but everything was read-only and locked down by enterprise profiles, so it was not a big problem for us. I think profiles are not supported as first class citizens, still. Shall that be improved? Yes. Will that be easy? I don't think so.
KennyBlanken 3y ago
If they have the resources to constantly revamp the Firefox and Thunderbird UIs, they have the resources to rewrite the profile system.
- bayindirh 3y ago
  Did you see the code? Do you know how deep it goes? I don't have the definitive answer, so if you have some insight, I'll love to hear it. UI is top of the proverbial iceberg. It's relatively easy to modify it.
- xp84 3y ago
  UI reboots are so sexy though -- if this is like any company I've been involved with, they hire/promote a new design boss every couple years, and that person spends 6 months making a sexy Illustrator/Sketch/Figma (in that order over the years) document showing how hott things would look if we changed all the fonts and aped whatever widgets had been redone in last year's iOS. Instant greenlight. Try getting that kind of C-suite buy-in for a boring under-the-hood fix!
  - doubled112 3y ago
    This constant redesign with no real improvement cycle irritates me to no end.
    - bayindirh 3y ago
      Actually Thunderbird Supernova and Firefox’s latest iteration all very good both in space efficiency and performance. I’m saying this as a lover of 90s dense interfaces, like Eclipse.

Sander_Marechal 3y ago

I'm using Firefox on Linux and 2 is how it's been working for me for a looong time now. Clicked links in external programs always open in the last active Firefox window for me. Is this OS or even window-manager specific?

glandium 3y ago
I think they mean they have windows open in different profiles (profiles, not containers), and want the last active one to pick up links from external apps... I, for one, would like the last active container to be used.
- snowe2010 3y ago
  You can do that with sidebery. Firefox’s default container plug-in is just a baseline. Other plugins do a much better job.
- xp84 3y ago
  Interesting. I like the option which Edge gives, which is I select the profile that gets URL opens from outside the browser (my "main work profile") and add site-level exceptions that route certain sites to the right profiles (example: LinkedIn links should open in my personal profile, Demo Server accounts open in the dedicated demo profile). If I relied on "last active" I would frequently get things opening up in the wrong place just because say, last time I was in a browser I happened to be in a my personal profile, and 30 minutes later, I click a link in work Slack.
  - glandium 3y ago
    Yeah, I can see how that can end up messy, but filtering by url also doesn't always work. To give one example: I may open google docs in different containers because I have several accounts (personal and work). So, if I receive a link to a doc that was shared to me, and open it from the mail client... it won't necessarily end up in the right container. It can end up working fine when you use the menu to open in another container, but on many sites, the original url is redirected to a login page or whatever and opening in another container is not going to be helpful at all because you've now lost the original link you needed to open.

mcfedr 3y ago

Yes this! This is the main thing stopping me moving. The ux is currently horrible because you have to run multiple copies of the browser

Zardoz84 3y ago

Containers are enough for your use case. I know that for some usage cases, are enough. But for nearly 90% users, they are enough and even better that profiles.

intothemild 3y ago
You sure? What I want to do is sandbox my accounts, specifically my work account. Here's a sceneario I click a link in slack, I want the link to open in the work container. How do I do this? Because using containers, It will default open in the default container, i then have to right click the tab, and say "open in work container" .. which then opens that tab again, in the Work Container. What I want is to not have to do that extra work. Click link -> Work Container. You can't, at least, not default... you need to add extra plugins, like Multi-Account containers or whatever the plugin is called. That's a LOT of work for the average user. Compared to profiles where when you click the link, it opens in the last active window, which remembering windows are profiles, will be most likely the right profile. So if im working constantly on my work profile window, i click slack, and then click a link, its right back where i want. The problem with container tabs, is that its tabs, not windows. So is there any way i can say to firefox "this new window is WORK Containers please"
- bayindirh 3y ago
  Looks like there's an extension which adds a new protocol handler, which allows firing the container you like for a given link from the command line. It's available at https://github.com/honsiorovskyi/open-url-in-container https://github.com/honsiorovskyi/open-url-in-container and Mozilla Extension store, so you can directly install it. I think you can register a new "application" to open links, not set at default, and use Right Click -> Open With -> Firefox (WORK CONTAINER). Will that work?
  - intothemild 3y ago
    This is exactly the reply I was expecting. The "yes it works but here's some extra things you need to do to make it work". No average user is going to do that. To me containers still don't replace profiles.