Contextual Identities on the Web • Hacker News Board

Re: Contextual Identities on the Web

#81

Post by sp332 » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 4:15 PM UTC

lucb1e wrote: post #77

sp332 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can edit your shortcut or .desktop file to open "firefox -P" instead of "firefox". Each time you click it, it will ask which profile you want the new window to be in.

Had I known this earlier... I had the same reaction as the person you replied to, I hadn't thought of using profiles. I knew something called profiles existed, but I thought it was not in use anymore (at least not properly supported). I never connected the dots. Still sounds like a pain to manage though, compared to this new feature.

Yeah it's not a great user interface, and it's definitely buried. Aside from the Developer Edition which uses a different profile by default, it seems to be ignored by Firefox devs. Probably because they don't want to support all the people who get confused by the terrible UI!

Re: Contextual Identities on the Web

#82

Post by y4mi » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 4:17 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #72

BugsBunnySan wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but afaik, switching those profiles in Firefox is (currently) really difficult. So much so that it almost feels the same as if you didn't have the capability to do it...

You can edit your shortcut or .desktop file to open "firefox -P" instead of "firefox". Each time you click it, it will ask which profile you want the new window to be in.

can you open several profiles simultaneously as well?

Re: Contextual Identities on the Web

#83

Post by lucb1e » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 4:17 PM UTC

arenaninja wrote: post #9

Very cool feature! I remember a friend of mine having a use for this as far back as 8 years ago. I hope you're happy now Richard!

Same here, although I'm not sure I can beat 8 years!

Re: Contextual Identities on the Web

#84

Post by enscr » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 4:17 PM UTC

Is it like the Chrome "People" (or profiles or user) feature ? Suggesting that "user won’t need to use multiple browsers" seems like a problem that didn't exist if you used chrome.

Re: Contextual Identities on the Web

#85

Post by lucb1e » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 4:18 PM UTC

siscia wrote: post #24

I am wondering what will happen to all the web ads company if this feature get deployed and use wildly.

Revenue will go down even further, that'll happen. Same as with ad blockers, except they cannot detect it this time around (at least not easily, it would be a bug if they could).

Nothing changes really, ad revenue should already have been going down for years with how many ads we see every day. Almost everyone should automatically block them out mentally by now, and I think I recently heard this is starting to happen more and more now.

Re: Contextual Identities on the Web

#86

Post by sp332 » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 4:22 PM UTC

y4mi wrote: post #82

sp332 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can edit your shortcut or .desktop file to open "firefox -P" instead of "firefox". Each time you click it, it will ask which profile you want the new window to be in.

can you open several profiles simultaneously as well?

Yes. Each window is stuck in one profile, but different windows can be in different profiles.

Re: Contextual Identities on the Web

#87

Post by lucb1e » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 4:23 PM UTC

kirkdouglas wrote: post #26

It seems that Firefox is becoming relevant again.

It has always been relevant for me. Chrome has nowhere near as powerful customization and privacy features, and Opera has nowhere near as much support. Firefox has always been the best browser for both power users and privacy conscious people.

If you were going for something minimalistic and good for business/home usage, Chrome might be a better choice indeed. I can definitely see the advantages and I've installed it for my family back when it was substantially faster than Firefox (by now Chrome got a lot heavier and Firefox, uh, I guess they must have become a bit lighter but I don't know). I guess I should switch them back to Firefox again, but it might not be worth the learning curve.

Re: Contextual Identities on the Web

#88

Post by Nadya » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 4:27 PM UTC

I am always confused by the lack of user customization in features like this. Why am I limited to four containers? Why can't I rename them?

Four is not enough (personally, though I imagine it would be for most people) and remembering which identity is under "Work" and which is under "Shopping" is just an annoyance when none of my identities would be for "Work" or "Shopping". It would be faster and less annoying to sign out and sign in as another account. Being able to name my containers after my psuedonyms and have a container for each psuedonym would make it infinitely more useful and intuitive for me - rather than a mental burden not worth the hassle of using.

Re: Contextual Identities on the Web

#89

Post by lucb1e » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 4:27 PM UTC

aestetix wrote: post #43

Mozilla and Contextual Identities.... hmm.... did they just forget about Persona?

Not the same thing, I guess that's why you're being downvoted (and the snarky remark) but the person didn't comment so we'll never know...

Re: Contextual Identities on the Web

#90

Post by lucb1e » Thu, Jun 16, 2016, 4:30 PM UTC

mtgx wrote: post #46

If they're going to use per-tab containers, doesn't it make sense to have per-tab sandboxing as well, to ensure there's no data leakage?

They have been busy implementing that for months if not years now I think. I thought it was coming in August or something.