Why does @firefox have to keep profiles hidden in “about:profiles” like they’re illegal to have. It’s quite literally the 1 feature stopping me from using it over Vivaldi. That and vertical tabs, of course
Firefox has my very favourite vertical tab system of any browser in the Tree Style Tab addon: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/
I’m not too sure how to simplify jumping between profiles though. I haven’t used it so I can’t vouch for it, but maybe the Profile Switcher addon would work for you? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/profile-switcher/
I really wish vertical tabs could make it in as a core feature to Firefox. Currently I have to rely on manual user style sheet changes to hide the horizontal tab bar.
I second the recommendation for Tree Style Tabs, however Sideberry did work better for me (don’t recall why, sorry).
One downside is that they don’t hide the horizontal tab bar on the top. AFAIK you can manually hide it by editing the userstyle css file.
https://github.com/null-dev/firefox-profile-switcher makes firefox profiles like chrome
https://github.com/mbnuqw/sidebery gives you vertical tabs
Why exactly do you want to switch profiles?
If it’s cookies, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/
I use profiles. For me it‘s useful for switching between personal, work and presentation „mode“, because I use a different set of bookmarks and extensions for each one.
Here’s a tip to make using Firefox profiles easy.
- go to
about:profiles
and create a profile. Let’s call this one “better” because it has the Betterfox css added. (an example) - On Linux typing
firefox
in a terminal will launch the default profile. Typingfirefox -p better
will launch the “better” profile. If you’re on OS X or Windows just find out what the equivalent command would be to execute the launch. - Go to wherever you need to in your operating system to create custom keyboard shortcuts. For me that’s Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Custom Shortcuts. Create a new shortcut with the following information.
Name: Firefox profile better
Command: firefox -p better
Keys: enter the keys you want to use
How to choose keys;
My desktop environment uses super(windows) + b to launch the default browser, which happens to be Firefox. So for me it makes sense to use something like super + shift + b for consistency, and easy to remember. If you have a profile with Arkenfox css it could be super + shift + a. Regardless, try for a mnemenic and consistent solution.
Now whenever you want to launch a new instance of a Firefox profile just tap the keys you assigned.
- go to