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Firefox profiles: Private, focused spaces for all the ways you browse

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Firefox profiles: Private, focused spaces for all the ways you browse

#191

Post by celsoazevedo »

notafox wrote: post #190
celsoazevedo wrote: post #45

Finally. I know that profiles have been supported for a long time, but about:profiles wasn't that user friendly and on macOS, profiles could also mess your dock icon, wouldn't open in the foreground, etc. It wasn't a good experience. I think the new profiles will cause some confusion (at least initially) because these profiles are not listed on the old about:profiles page and the old profiles are not listed on the ne…

Forget about UI, just use CLI ./firefox -CreateProfile "profile-name /home/user/.mozilla/firefox/profile-path/" ./firefox -profile "/home/user/.mozilla/firefox/profile-path/" Create a separate icon for each profile and forget about:profiles interface. Disclaimer: I don't use macOS, but I'm sure it's similar to Linux in that regard. You'll need to change paths, of course.

That's great for part of HN users, just not for most Firefox users. I guess that's they already had the old interface and are making it more user friendly with the new UI :-)

Re: Firefox profiles: Private, focused spaces for all the ways you browse

#192

Post by notafox »

BrenBarn wrote: post #60

I've used profiles for a long time, but they have some annoyances. One thing I really want is a comprehensive system for transferring/syncing only certain data between profiles. Profiles contain some data that is specific to, well, a particular browsing profile (like open tabs), but also data that is really more specific to me as a person (like font preferences). And then each extension can have its own settings or d…

Have you tried user.js?

You store browser preferences in it and firefox copies said preferences to prefs.js on startup (overwriting on conflict).

Re: Firefox profiles: Private, focused spaces for all the ways you browse

#193

Post by notafox »

iamcalledrob wrote: post #6

Glad to see improvements here -- switching between profiles has always been a weak spot for Firefox!

You don't need to switch. Just open whatever profile you want directly.

No need to go to about:profiles. Use a separate shortcut with a -profile option added.

Re: Firefox profiles: Private, focused spaces for all the ways you browse

#194

Post by Brybry »

notafox wrote: post #187
bluebarbet wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>from terminal [opening URLs in instances using profile paths] works exactly as expected regardless of how many profile instances are currently running or their state. That's interesting. It didn't work a couple of years ago, perhaps it's been fixed. Still leaves that initial GUI profile setup.

You don't need GUI to create profiles. ./firefox -CreateProfile "profile-name /home/user/.mozilla/firefox/profile-path/"

This is a good catch and does indeed work.

  -CreateProfile "profile-name"
also works and will use the default profile path.

Re: Firefox profiles: Private, focused spaces for all the ways you browse

#195

Post by bluebarbet »

notafox wrote: post #187
bluebarbet wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>from terminal [opening URLs in instances using profile paths] works exactly as expected regardless of how many profile instances are currently running or their state. That's interesting. It didn't work a couple of years ago, perhaps it's been fixed. Still leaves that initial GUI profile setup.

You don't need GUI to create profiles. ./firefox -CreateProfile "profile-name /home/user/.mozilla/firefox/profile-path/"

Useful. This is not documented in the manfile or command help text, at least for the ESR release.

Re: Firefox profiles: Private, focused spaces for all the ways you browse

#196

Post by ElectricalUnion »

floralhangnail wrote: post #169
debazel wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This combined with "Always Open Site in Container", that pins a site to a specific container makes it almost invisible to me when moving between profiles. I have several sites I only want to open with specific profiles and this workflow is a pain with Chrome. (click link with wrong profile, copy url, close tab, open a new browser, select profile, paste url, open site with correct profile.)

I really like the "Always Open Site in Container" along with "Limit to Designated Sites" once it's set up, but I wish there was a way to make it accept wildcards otherwise I have to manually add localhost:8080, localhost:8081, etc. Manually adding a dozen or more becomes painful.

I find that for dev workflows (even outside firefox containers) to not mix up badly, you end up needing to split localhost anyway - so for example, binding to specific IPs inside 127.0.0.1/8 (it's a whole /8, you're usually not running out of that), or, depending on how badly you need ::1/IPv6 bindings, service.localhost6 or service.localhost6.localdomain6 style names instead of just localhost.

Re: Firefox profiles: Private, focused spaces for all the ways you browse

#197

Post by notafox »

Brybry wrote: post #194
notafox wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need GUI to create profiles. ./firefox -CreateProfile "profile-name /home/user/.mozilla/firefox/profile-path/"

This is a good catch and does indeed work. -CreateProfile "profile-name" also works and will use the default profile path.

Keep it mind, though, if you don't specify path, the profile directory name would be:

    random_string + '.' + "profile-name"
That could prove inconvenient for navigation.

If you want predictable, non-random directory names, you'll have to specify it.

Re: Firefox profiles: Private, focused spaces for all the ways you browse

#198

Post by 1718627440 »

celsoazevedo wrote: post #189
1718627440 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you all talking about? What is wrong with the existing ProfileManager?

If you look at about:profiles and compare it to the new UI or to what Chromium has offered for years, then I think you'll understand that the new UI is much better for the average user. There are also improvements for operating systems like macOS, where profiles always worked, but switching between them wasn't exactly a nice experience. You can still use the old profile manager. At the pace Mozilla moves, it will be…

The old UI != about:profiles. I never knew about:profiles even existed for a long time, why I was already happy using the profiles UI for years. I mean the profiles UI, that pops up at startup.

> If you look at about:profiles and compare it to the new UI or to what Chromium has offered for years, then I think you'll understand that the new UI is much better for the average user.

No I think this looks way worse, than the native UI, they have had for decades and hope they don't remove the old UI, so it startup doesn't become slower and more annoying.

Re: Firefox profiles: Private, focused spaces for all the ways you browse

#199

Post by 1718627440 »

WorldMaker wrote: post #180
1718627440 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with the existing ProfileManager?

Beyond its UI having basically been frozen since Netscape Navigator 4-ish modulo XUL shenanigans? The new Profile Manager (that doesn't yet entirely replace the old one, both exist side-by-side for the moment) uses icons and colors to better differentiate profiles at a glance. Additionally links to the new Profile Manager are now in the Account menu and feel a bit more like an "account chooser" (comparable to Chrome'…

> that doesn't yet entirely replace the old one

That's what I fear happening, and I will not like it.

> comparable to Chrome's experience

If I wanted to have "Chrome's experience" I would have used Chrome. Profiles is one way Firefox has been vastly better. Selecting the last used Profile is one press on Enter on startup and selecting a different one is a matter of pressing up/down a few times and pressing Enter or typing the first few (unique) characters of the profile name and pressing Enter. I can't think of a UI that would be faster, I think this has already reached the maximum UX for decades. This all works nicely, because it looks, feels and behaves like a native window (don't know if it is).

> lot less like a power user feature hidden behind a page address that people might not know ("about:profiles").

Why is everyone comparing it to the "hidden debug site" instead of the old profiles UI? Yeah no shit, about:profiles is not discoverable to the average user, much like all the other about: pages, but why would anyone not debugging the browser use it over the normal profiles UI?

> Beyond its UI having basically been frozen since Netscape Navigator 4-ish modulo XUL shenanigans?

I don't think this is a bad thing. I vastly prefer native(?-like) UI, way more over yet another Metro-UI clone with sluggish behaviour and no keyboard bindings.

Re: Firefox profiles: Private, focused spaces for all the ways you browse

#200

Post by 1718627440 »

lynndotpy wrote: post #183
1718627440 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean? Firefox has had profiles for decades. What is wrong with the Profile Manager?

The user experience was abysmal, it was practically a non-feature. Can't be invoked quickly using two keyboard shortcuts, does not divide into simple and portable folders, etc. This update seems to fix those problems, by copying Chromium's UX.

> The user experience was abysmal, it was practically a non-feature.

I disagree. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45844108

> Can't be invoked quickly using two keyboard shortcuts

Yeah true, you have to instead click on the Firefox logo or type Firefox into the application launcher.

> does not divide into simple and portable folders

I have used the same profile folder over SSH across Linux and Windows, so I don't think that's true.

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