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An Update on Firefox Containers

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: An Update on Firefox Containers

#21

Post by nicklaf »

Any reason why new tabs shouldn't create an entirely new, isolated container by default? And then allow the user to close tabs implicitly by performing a merge operation with some existing container (say, dragging with the mouse with a hotkey held down onto an existing tab group representing a single container)?

And alternatively, "merging" with the empty container, which would retroactively implement incognito mode on that tab, and incidentally coincides with the desktop metaphor for dragging things into the recycling bin... this metaphor can be extended by password protecting the recycling bin of "lost" incognito tabs.

Re: An Update on Firefox Containers

#22

Post by zie »

irickt wrote: post #10
wodenokoto wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have a container for each of my major social network / email accounts, like one container for each of twitter, Google and Facebook.

Yes, and then do your browsing in non-containers so that browsing is isolated from the account logins, and vice versa.

Or use the multi-account container addon: Which will get you a new container, in a new tab with 1 click.

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

Re: An Update on Firefox Containers

#23

Post by zie »

nicklaf wrote: post #21

Any reason why new tabs shouldn't create an entirely new, isolated container by default? And then allow the user to close tabs implicitly by performing a merge operation with some existing container (say, dragging with the mouse with a hotkey held down onto an existing tab group representing a single container)? And alternatively, "merging" with the empty container, which would retroactively implement incognito mode…

I agree this would be awesome, in the meantime they have an extension that gets you most of the way there: push button get new tab in a new container.

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

Re: An Update on Firefox Containers

#24

Post by clairity »

i love containers, but keyboard usage is still not ideal (i had submitted a feature request for this via github a while back).

they landed on using ctrl-. (control-period) to open the containers dropdown and then you have to tab to the container you want. not only does this require two hands, but even tanvi in the blog post admits this is not discoverable at all.

ideally, you could have a single hand command (like cmd-shft-1, cmd-shft-2, etc) that would open blank containers of the corresponding type, with the (awesome?) address bar auto-focused. then for discoverabilty, you could put the corresponding number next to each menu item with a mouseover tooltip providing the full keyboard shortcut.

even without the single-hand shortcut, the numbering could be useful for selecting a container: ctrl-. then "2" for a personal container or what have you.

but at the very least, let us also use the up and down arrows to select conainers. tabbing is one of the least obvious options here.

(yes, i've spent entirely too much time thinking about this! =)

Re: An Update on Firefox Containers

#25

Post by wongarsu »

slitaz wrote: post #19

This pollutes the term container, which up to now they were assisted by kernel security features.

Containers are also an abstract data type who's primary purpose is to contain other data [1], Containers are a concept in type theory related to collections [2]. Web Containers are the parts of a web server that interact with Java Servlets [3]. OLE Containers are a technology for embedding content in editors such as Word [4]. AVI is a multimedia container format that can contain audio and video encoded in various codecs (as is MP4) [5].

Operating-system-level virtualization never had a monopoly on the word container, and as long as there's no potential for confusion I don't see why it should.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_(abstract_data_type) 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_(type_theory) 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_container 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_Linking_and_Embedding 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Interleave

Re: An Update on Firefox Containers

#26

Post by room271 »

I switched to containers almost two weeks ago and they are great, the kind of thing that makes you think how did I browse without this before?

I've separate containers for: work, home, facebook, shopping. It's particularly useful for google accounts, as I have gmail for work, home, etc.

And the ergonomics - e.g. being able to sort tabs by container, or hide work tabs in the evening - is great.

Re: An Update on Firefox Containers

#27

Post by colemickens »

So is "Containers" being removed from Firefox? Or it will only live in Nightly ever? So confusing.

edit: From some experimenting, it looks like "Firefox Multi-Account Containers" extension extends the "Container Tabs" feature in Firefox. (This is an assumption based on the fact that the Options/Preferences now tell me I can't disable "Container Tabs" since "Ff MA Containers" is using it.

Re: An Update on Firefox Containers

#28

Post by gavinpc »

clumsysmurf wrote: post #15

I love this feature, but it seems missing a critical thing. You can say 'always open websites A1, A2, A3 in container Y' but you can't say 'container Y only hosts websites A1, A2, A3'. After time the container gets polluted with cookies from links clicked on website Ax. Hopefully this gets fixed soon. Edit: replaces 1 website with multiple websites Edit 2 : Another useful feature, would be cookie policy per container…

Haven't used the feature, but can you whitelist cookies on a per-container basis? If so, then I'm in. If container Y is only going to open website X, then just block all other cookies.

Re: An Update on Firefox Containers

#29

Post by HanyouHottie »

clumsysmurf wrote: post #15

I love this feature, but it seems missing a critical thing. You can say 'always open websites A1, A2, A3 in container Y' but you can't say 'container Y only hosts websites A1, A2, A3'. After time the container gets polluted with cookies from links clicked on website Ax. Hopefully this gets fixed soon. Edit: replaces 1 website with multiple websites Edit 2 : Another useful feature, would be cookie policy per container…

I think this is the only sane way to deal with cookies: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-autode... (or Self Destructing Cookies before Firefox 57)

Re: An Update on Firefox Containers

#30

Post by Teever »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #18

design (coloring of tabs for banking etc) seems to be heavily borrowed from QubesOS. For those not running Qubes using isolation like this is a really great step forward in steering users awareness and training them to properly isolate. I applaud these decisions by Mozilla since for avg users it can be daunting to think for themselves about where the trust boundaries are.

I'm pretty sure that using colour to distinguish between features is a fundamental aspect UI design.
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