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Comment by jedberg | Hacker News Reader

I didn't see multi-account containers mentioned:

https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers#readme

That one changed my life. It allows me to log into different AWS accounts at the same time. Also different Gmail accounts at once (like my kids' email and mine).

Also it gives you a massive boost in privacy since cookies don't follow you around since they are restricted to one container.

Combined with Container Tabs Sidebar:

https://github.com/maciekmm/container-tabs-sidebar

You get the tree style tabs with automatic organization by container.

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The final feature I am waiting for is a way to control browser extensions per container. No extension should be running when I login to my bank or insurance portal.

For such use cases I use different browser profiles. It is a bit tiresome to set up, but afterward it works.

For example, I have a profile for watching videos via Amazon and Netflix, which uses dark mode and some high-resolution extensions, but not tree-style-tabs which I use with my normal browser profile.

For a non-mainstream-feature I thought that rather easy. Open about:profiles, click "create new profile", enter a name, and then use the "Launch profile in new browser" buttons on that page to use that profile.

I have one for work and one for non-work and it's great!

In addition, you might want to add an entry to your system menu or place shortcut somewhere to start a new instance:

  /usr/bin/firefox -P my-profile --no-remote

If you want more fine grained control, check out https://github.com/dyne/tinfoil

I actually have some scripts for managing not just profiles but extensions. Hopefully I can get it cleaned up in time to put on Github.

Profiles are cumbersome in Firefox. Chrome has much better support for Profiles.

Funnily enough, I have extensions disabled in incognito mode, so I use the temporary incognito window for banks and other risky stuff.

As my extensions include ublock0, umatrix and cookie autodelete normal tab close behaviour usually eradicates everything.

This, also as an expansion on this idea, I would love to see per container password management or atleast per Multi-Account container password management.

This combined with Container Proxy helped me a lot WFH. I can have my Work tabs going through the proxy and let all my other tabs use my normal internet connection.

For per-domain, or even per-subdoamin proxy routing, I highly recommend FoxyProxy[1]. It works with containers as well.

It was broken by the Firefox Quantum update, by after a long and patient wait the original author rewrote the addon to work acceptably again.

[1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/foxyproxy-sta...

I stil think profiles (personas in chrome) are better and more flexible. I can completely have different browsers, extensions, themes, for different contexts. This beats containers for me.

Firefox --no-remote

One significant advantage of the Firefox model is the ability to bind domains to a container. I cannot open my Internet Banking in the same container as the hacking forums I might frequent, it will automatically launch in the correct container. I use Chrome personas a lot (I have 8 on the go currently) because, frankly I like Chrome more, but container URL isolation is a better implementation of workload isolation. IMHO. I'm constantly opening URLs in the wrong container because I just ctrl+T and start typing.

Actually you've inspired me to use a 'timewaster' blocking extension to prevent some URLs from loading in my main personas. Might achieve the same thing.

I've created a little app for myself that opens the right (Firefox) profile when another application tries to start the browser. It's registered as the default browser so it handles all the cases.

I guess I could also write a userscript that handles the links being opened from the browser itself. Like the timewaster extension you mentioned but also starts the right instance in background.

That sounds as a good idea, how does that script look like?

Simple command line program that looks at its arguments and decides what browser to open. Nothing fancy.

To each their own.

I don’t need a whole separate Chrome install just so I can open an AWS console in each one. Seems like a lot of overhead for two tabs.

Correct, you don't. Chrome profiles use the same installation of Chrome. There is no real overhead, and the only limitation is that profiles must use different windows.

I’m aware it’s a single installation of Chrome. But it runs a second copy for the other other profile. That’s a lot of resource overhead.

Also requiring another window is a lot of extra mental overhead to keep track of all the windows.

For example right now I have 12 Firefox containers running. They are 15 tabs in a single window.

With Chrome profiles, I’d need 12 windows, most with just one tab.

I don't have a use for Personas in Chrome, but it's regrettable that profiles in Firefox aren't more user friendly, because I need different proxy/root certificates settings.

Accessing my company's VPN requires proxying all internet traffic and accepting their own special root certificate, via McAfee's crap and thus can theoretically MITM my communications.

Firefox can be configured to not accept such root certificates. So I'd need a company profile and a personal profile.

But unfortunately opening profiles in Firefox is a pain. And my MacOS doesn't consider the opened windows as part of the same app, but on the other hand you can't assign them a specific icon, so switching between them is a pain.

If Chrome's profiles allowed me to disallow custom system-wide root certificates, I would switch to it. But Chrome has no such settings.

You can install Firefox developer edition in parallel for your work. It has a blue icon that separates it.

+Beta +Nightly, each with a different icon

It's annoying that Firefox has the same feature (profiles) since basically forever, but no UI for quick access. I assume it's coming as they now show the signed-in user in the toolbar.

I'm in the same boat. I got excited when i heard about containers in Firefox but was disappointed when i actually used it for the reasons you mentioned.

I'm still on Chrome mostly because of this, even though profiles are a crutch and, for example I cannot force Chrome to open specific URLs in specific profiles--this would be a killer feature for me.

They both have their usage. But I found switching profiles in Chrome is way more convenient: you can just click the top right button and choose another one.

For Firefox, in pre-57 era, there was an add-on called "Profilist" which can do the same (and better), but unfortunately you can't use it (or do something similar) more in web-ext.

With this

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account...

you don't have to click anything — press `Ctrl+.`, and a number button from 1 to (however many containers you have configured.)

I switched it to a different combination so it can be used with one hand.

I meant different profiles (with actual config folders for each profile), not accounts

Same here. I use different Chrome and Firefox profiles for different tasks. One for work, one for banking, one for news+HN,..., and last but not least one for fully automated tasks with the kantu browser macro extension.

If you want to log in to multiple AWS accounts, the best solution I have found is a thin shell script wrapper around `aws-vault login` [0] that opens Chrome with a dedicated profile. aws-vault stores an API key in your local keychain, fetches a temporary session key on demand, and logs you in automatically.

I've put the shell script I use here:

https://gitlab.com/snippets/1979112

You should be able to adapt it to Firefox pretty easily.

[0] https://github.com/99designs/aws-vault

Add in uMatrix and https everywhere and it's a whole new world

I heavily use this - it has made my work flow so much better as I can separate work/personal/NearBeach etc.

Don't multi-account containers just separate cookies (and maybe other storage mechanisms)? I'd expect that a lot of people want separate bookmarks and extensions, too.

I think you have to use multiple profiles to do that, which is kind of clunky. Anyone know of they have plans to make managing and using multiple profiles smoother?

Different use cases. I need to log into a bunch of AWS accounts. I don’t need whole profiles for that. I just need isolated cookies per tab.

Also the privacy is nice having every tab in its own container.

I use it for multi account login. 10 different aws accounts open at once.

> Also different Gmail accounts at once (like my kids' email and mine)

This has been a standard feature for Google accounts for at least 2(?) years.

more like 10y, but it breaks down when you get deeper in the google maze

If that's the case I want several years of my professional life back. I spent years clumsily juggling Google account sessions.

+1 for this. I use it with notion(and pinned tabs) so I can have multiple workspaces with multiple emails

Isn't this the default behavior / reason for containers to exist?

The default behavior only isolates Facebook properties from the rest. For some reason you need a plug-in to do other containers.

I believe you're thinking of the "Facebook Container" addon - it's "official", in that it's made by people at Mozilla & has their corporate blessing, but it's not installed by default.

AIUI, the only "container" functionality built-in to the browser is... infrastructure, I guess you'd call it: Firefox provides all the tools for addons to do stuff with containers, but doesn't actually do anything with them itself.

Plus cookies auto delete it's a breeze.

> I didn't see multi-account containers mentioned

Probably because that's not related to remote work and school?

Although I personally don't use it, it certainly is. Many people will have different personal and work accounts on certain services, and in this times, they will both be used on the same machine.

Except it definitely is related. Keeping personal browsing and work-related browsing separate without containers is near impossible. At one point I resorted to using different browsers for work vs. personal just to keep things separate.

It’s more related than most of the items on the list.

It allows you to load your work and personal tabs in different containers, or school and personal.

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