Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by asciimov 1037 days ago
My Profiles tips:

1. You can have multiple profile sessions running at the same time.

2. It is best to theme your alt profiles with a different color so you don't confuse them. For example, green one is for one profile and the red one another.

3. "firefox -p 'profile-name'" launches directly into a profile

4. "firefox -p 'profile-name' -private-window" launches a profile in a private window

5. I use keybindings on linux to auto launch different profiles.

As for why you should consider multiple profiles. It gives you the ability to separate concerns. I use a main account, one for work, one for testing stuff, another that has no extensions, and one for anything NSFW.

Too many of you don't keep NSFW stuff off your work profiles, I'm embarrassed for you during your zoom meetings when the url autocomplete briefly betrays your interests.

3 comments

> Too many of you don't keep NSFW stuff off your work profiles, I'm embarrassed for you during your zoom meetings when the url autocomplete briefly betrays your interests.

Umm, I keep NSFW stuff off my work computer. I'm not really comfortable with less separation than this.

> I keep NSFW stuff off my work computer

As you should, but I've worked with a lot of new people, and salesmen, that don't get this.

I use Mozilla's Container Tabs extension for most of this. Unless you specifically want to keep settings/extensions/etc in specific, separate profiles, they're a good in-between solution. In my case, having a single FF instance is desirable as I would juggle between too many profiles which would need similar extensions for completely switching profiles and windows to be a good experience.
I use container tabs in my main profile as well, as like you, I'd have too many profiles if I didn't.

My profile use is about big concerns and work modes. For example my work profile has some developer plugins, separate password managers, bookmarks, and snippets. Doing so keeps everything nice and removed from my home life.

Why do you not use containers?
I do use containers on my main profile.

Containers are for separating websites from one another, while profiles are for separating browser bits from one another. This includes settings, plugins, extensions, themes, bookmarks, snippets, password managers, etc.

Not OP but containers don't let me have a separate set of bookmarks. My work bookmarks have nothing to do with my personal bookmarks.