A boon for organizing browser clutter.
  • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    326·
    2 months ago

    uhhh, this has been a thing for a long time already. I don’t know whats new here. put about:profiles in your url bar for anyone uses a firefox based browser.

  • 1984@lemmy.todayEnglish
    271·
    2 months ago

    Feels super strange to read this. They had profiles for what, decades now? It just required a simple command line flag.

    I mean, this is better, but… Yeah.

  • N3Cr0@lemmy.worldEnglish
    328·
    2 months ago

    about:profiles always worked for me. And the profile manager. I don’t need a 3rd ui for switching profiles.

    • Baron Von J@lemmy.worldEnglish
      34·
      2 months ago

      The new one is a much better experience. It works like profiles in chrome now. The old one is still there for you to use if you prefer.

      • Hawke@lemmy.worldEnglish
        36·
        2 months ago

        It works like profiles in chrome now.

        Is it gonna pop up obnoxiously every time you start the program?

        Is it gonna demand that I create a new profile every time I sign in to Google?

        • Baron Von J@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          2 months ago

          Is it gonna pop up obnoxiously every time you start the program?

          Your choice, there’s a checkbox to ask every time or not

          Is it gonna demand that I create a new profile every time I sign in to Google?

          I don’t recall anything like that, though I don’t recall that in Chrome either.

  • daq@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    213·
    2 months ago

    I think containers (that Firefox already has) are a much better way to handle this. Profiles, art least the way they are implemented on chrome, feels like a massive downgrade.

    • Beej Jorgensen@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      23·
      2 months ago

      It depends on how much separation you need. If you want different bookmarks, history, or settings per, then I believe you need profiles to make that happen.

      • daq@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        Ah, makes sense. I don’t mind sharing history and have never used bookmarks or customized any settings.

    • Nalivai@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      2 months ago

      You can use containers all you want, just don’t create another profile and you’re golden.

      • daq@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        43·
        2 months ago

        This is what I do now, just trying to figure out why ff keeps spending time on profiles. Do they have any advantages over containers?

        • SuperUserDO@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          6·
          2 months ago

          For highly technical users containers are going to do everything we need.

          For non technical users who need separation, profiles are a standard known framework.

          • fitgse@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            3·
            2 months ago

            My non technical spouse prefers profile to separate work and personal. She uses different themes for each profile so it is very obvious which is which.

            Also one of the extensions she likes interferes with a work site she is required to use. She has that extension installed in the personal profile but not work profile.

        • Pup Biru@aussie.zoneEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          containers are for general browsing; profiles are for the whole browser

          profiles allow you to have different addons installed, different configurations between addons in different profiles, different browser settings (eg a SOCKS proxy for work profile, or a different default search engine, default fonts, etc… or for technical users you can have a profile with experimental settings turned on)

        • Nalivai@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          Different set of cookies, different set of preferences, bookmarks, history, etc. If you need to completely separate two instances, for example one for work and one for everything else, you can only do it with profiles

  • Kissaki@feddit.orgEnglish
    15·
    2 months ago

    The screeshots shows functionality that the current profile/profile launch UI already has. Choose, create, ask on startup.

    Right now it’s hidden behind a startup parameter. But honestly, I would prefer a UI between the current one and the new one. That screenshot looks like it would reduce usability through big spacing and suboptimal alignment. At least judging by my preferences.

    https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles?redirectslug=profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles&redirectlocale=en-US#w_start-the-profile-manager-when-firefox-is-closed

    I guess adding a picture is nice. But does it have to be that huge and prominent?

    • stoly@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      2 months ago

      This only works on Windows. For Macs and maybe Linux, you have to run this command to bring up a different profile:

      /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -p

      As best I can tell, there’s no way to make this into a shortcut that you could just click on. This change will be good and allow me to launch them without invoking that command in terminal several times after rebooting my computer.

      • 4am@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        I made this into a shortcut on Mac OS Panther the year Firefox came out (2004). This has been possible on all operating systems for decades

      • setsubyou@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        On Mac:

        If you want an icon you can double click on your desktop, you can put you command in a file with the extension “.command” and mark it as executable. Double clicking it will run the content as a shell script in Terminal.

        If you want something that can be put into the Dock, use the Script Editor application that comes with macOS to create a new AppleScript script. Type do shell script "<firefox command here>" then find Export in the menu. Instead of Script, choose export to Application and check Run Only. This will give you an application you can put in the Dock.

        If you want to use Shortcuts, you can use the Run Shell Script action in Shortcuts too.

        Finally, if you want something that opens multiple firefoxes at once, chain multiple firefox invocations together on one line separated by an ampersand. There is an option you have to use (–new-instance I think?) to make Firefox actually start a complete new instance.

        • stoly@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          On Windows, I had two shortcuts–one each for a profile. It became my workflow and annoyed me when I couldn’t do that on a Mac. I didn’t always want my work profile to open by mistake, check into systems, etc. when I only wanted the home one, for instance.

          • 4am@lemmy.zipEnglish
            1·
            2 months ago

            Why couldn’t you do that on a Mac? You can edit the shortcut path and add the flags and parameters there.

            • stoly@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              2 months ago

              I was never able to figure a way to do this. I could link to the executable but not modify the shortcut to allow for flags.

      • Kissaki@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        The “Use the selected profile without asking at startup” checkbox in the dialog is not there on mac?

        • stoly@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          I hadn’t known that this was a method. My entire workflow has been changed.

  • Dragomus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    173·
    2 months ago

    Uhm … is this perhaps for the android browser then?

    The desktop browser has had this for a long long time, though in recent builds a bit hidden. I still use various profiles, very handy.

          • embMaster@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            Yes, and also no. Usually, I’d call something a feature if non tech savvy users can use it easily. If it’s hidden behind the command line, most users probably can’t use it. So, to me and colloquially, I wouldn’t call it a feature. Although I get the argument for it.

            • Axolotl@feddit.itEnglish
              1·
              2 months ago

              You can type in the search bar of the browser about:profiles to access it

        • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          Is a hidden feature still a feature?

          I’ve been using this daily for many years. It’s behind a CLI flag, is that hidden ?

  • Reygle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    93·
    2 months ago

    Ironically, in the article it’s pictured running on Windows, which now has a built-in mechanic for automatically screen shotting everything you do and keeping records.

    Yay.

  • theherk@lemmy.worldEnglish
    71·
    2 months ago

    I find multi account containers to be the best workflow ergonomics when it comes to separating logins and sessions. I think having the same bookmarks, theme, etc. is actually nice. But I’m sure many really enjoy profile swapping.

    • Pup Biru@aussie.zoneEnglish
      6·
      2 months ago

      profiles also allow different addons and addon configurations, default fonts, browser config, etc… it’s kinda like having a whole other user account or a whole other copy of the browser, rather than just cookie and storage isolation

        • Pup Biru@aussie.zoneEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          totally; and i think that’s very fair for the large majority of use-cases… most people don’t need different browser settings: they just need different local storage

  • TastehWaffleZ@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    I wish there was a feature like this on YouTube. I’d love a profile for watching educational videos, a profile for feeding me cool videos when I’m high, and a profile for when my kids want to watch stuff. I’m tired of vibing and listening to music videos only to get hit with a language learning podcast or Disney songs.

    It’s insane that they have an incognito mode that still serves up ads even though I have premium.

    • earthworm@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11·
      2 months ago

      You can create different accounts under different email addresses.

      Once you’re logged in, you can switch between accounts from the dropdown menu.

      I’ve done this in the past to separate French YouTube recs from English ones.

      • TastehWaffleZ@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        I did this as well but the other accounts get ads because the premium only applies to my first account. Terrible user experience and Google go hand in hand

        • scytale@piefed.zipEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          In my anecdotal experience on my tv, the algorithm bleeds through accounts as well. Like a video that is more related to the content on one account is recommended on the other.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      They do have categories and I’ve tried to put different channels in different categories, but the thing is just so hard to use I gave up.

      It’s quite surprising how bad Google can be at UX.

      • TastehWaffleZ@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        It really is wild how a company can be so massive yet unable to do basic UI. I got a notification that someone replied to a YouTube comment I made so I clicked the notification and it opened up YouTube’s landing page. I tried to find notifications and couldn’t so instead I tried to find a page that has my comment history.

        I had to look it up and apparently you can’t even find it on YouTube, you have to go to a separate website, my activity.google.com.

    • katy ✨@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Youtube > Profile picture > Settings > Add or manage your channel(s) > create a channel

      You basically get a new “profile” with your own subs, history, profile picture, and comments and premium/channel subscriptions apply to all of them

    • Pika@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      I agree, I would love seperate “recommendation profiles” so like if I am in the mood for music, swap to music, if I want education, I can swap to that, feeling lets play? swap to gaming, horror could be creepypasta or horror games.

      All under the same parent account so the premium status could apply while google would still be able to leech data off the main profile, the only difference is the curated content given is based off the profile.

      edit: HOLY CRAP APPARENTLY THIS EXISTS ALREADY; you just need to make a sub channel under your parent account and the benefits share. I didn’t realize recommendations were isolated with that.