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Comment by znpy | Hacker News Reader

I've been doing this for years using both Firefox' and Thunderbird's multiple-profile features.

Just run "firefox --no-remote -ProfileManager" and here you go.

So the serious question is: how is this any different from using multiple profile?

Multiple profile also have the pro/con that they are actual different processes, so there's no information leak between profiles whatsoever (well, unless some serious hacking happens).

Edit: being different processes with different profiles, they also have different configuration folders, different cookie sets, different password storage locations etc...

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Just run "firefox --no-remote -ProfileManager" and here you go.

I'm sure Grandma and Joe SixPack will do that... Not everybody is tech savvy. I'd say the majority of FF users don't even know there's a profile manager.

Reminder of the thing it's being compared to:

> The containers feature is enabled in Firefox Nightly 50 by default with the about:config pref `privacy.userContext.enabled` set to true.

Grandma and Joe SixPack aren't running Firefox Nightly with about:config tweaks either.

The writing is a bit ambiguous here, but "true" is the default setting in Firefox nightlies currently, so no about:config tweaks needed. The preference is also available in the preferences UI in the "Privacy" section.

Of course, most people are probably not running Firefox nightlies either.

Of course, but the point is that Mozilla is making this easier for the average folks. Eventually it will appear in stable releases.

To be fair, grandma and joe sixpack don't even know firefox exists.

Maybe not in the US, but in Germany Firefox is the most popular browser.

There's this for them: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/profileswitch...

I'd been using the command line way for a long time, until I found this. Now the first thing I do is install it in every new office computer, and then I have a Work and Personal firefox profile, completely separate from each other. At home we have mine and my wife's profiles on the laptop.

+1, and I would like to add:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en/firefox/addon/change-window-ic...

To answer your question, it's probably quicker and takes up less HD space :) And now we can have profiles and container tabs in those profiles, or just use profiles or just use container tabs, how cool is that.

> And now we can have profiles and container tabs in those profiles

Yo Dawg!

We heard you like profiles, so we put profiles in your profiles so you can use profiles while you use profiles!

I actually have a use-case for this. I have a "webdev"-profile where I've got none of my usual webpage-breaking privacy extensions, I do have Tree Style Tabs there, because when coding I tend to open a ton of tabs, and well, then I use the Container Tabs, since I need to be able to see my webpage as logged-out user, as logged-in user etc.

I was using ParrotSec OS for a few months and it had this as the default for opening Firefox, it would prompt you to ask which profile you wanted to use, it was somewhat handy. Firefox can be set to always open the profile manager on startup by default. But what they're saying now is per tab vs per window.

I tried using container tabs with Nightly, but it just doesn't offer the full seperation that multiple profiles does. Having a different color on each tab with container tabs is nice, but not as obvious as being able to set entierly different themes as you can with seperate profiles.

I do think container tabs makes it easier for the everyday user to enjoy some of the benefits of seperation, though. Most people aren't goint to want to deal with settup up multiple profiles, choosing profiles, and all that jazz. This is certainly a cool feature for FF to add in.

For years I have been wondering when there'd be an easy way to do run multiple profiles in Firefox.

At least in OSX I haven't figured out how to make an icon I can click that will open a specific profile and running the command from terminal leaves a termnial window open.

I know it is not hard, but it makes the multiple profile thing cumbersome enough for me to never have adopted it.

To answer your question directly: It is easy to use and integrated into the UI. It also works across tabs instead of just across windows.

Command+Space >> "automator" Enter >> Choose "Application" >> search for "shell" and double click "Run Shell Script" >> type "/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox --no-remote -ProfileManager" into the shell script box >> Command+S to save the app as whatever you would like

Is it really this difficult to create a custom launcher?

It means you only have to do customization once. And you don't have to juggle multiple windows.

It has a lower bar of entry.

Of course, that also means that you can only customise once.

I use separate Firefox profiles in order to have different add-on configurations, e.g. in my daily driver NoScript is set to whitelist mode, while in my special JavaScript-permitted profile it's in blacklist mode.

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