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

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Profiles vs. Containers: Different Use Cases

  • Many distinguish profiles (separate user contexts: bookmarks, extensions, passwords, themes) from containers (separate site/system context: cookies, logins, tracking).
  • Typical pattern: profiles for work/personal/clients; containers inside a profile for multiple logins (AWS, Microsoft, Gmail) or isolating “sensitive” sites and tracking.
  • Some prefer profiles to segregate “dangerous” or highly-permissioned extensions, which containers can’t isolate.
  • Others say containers are “just right” isolation; profiles feel like overkill (like VMs vs. Docker).

What’s Actually New vs. Old

  • Profiles have existed for many years (including Netscape days); the change is a friendlier UI: icons, colors/themes, profile switcher in menus, shortcuts/desktop icons, and Chrome-like “account chooser” behavior.
  • There’s a hidden flag (browser.profiles.enabled) that exposes a Profiles menu before full rollout.
  • New UI aims to remove reliance on about:profiles or -P/--ProfileManager for basic usage.

Legacy vs. New Profiles and Migration Confusion

  • There are now effectively “legacy” profiles and “new UI” profiles; they live in separate folders but aren’t surfaced symmetrically:
    • New UI often doesn’t list old profiles; about:profiles may not list new ones.
    • Users worry about future removal of the old manager leaving profiles “stranded.”
  • Some report thinking profiles were “deleted” when enabling the new UI; one commenter says their profile truly vanished and had to be restored from backup.

UX, Discoverability, and Integration

  • Long-running split: some found the old profile UX fine (startup dialog, CLI flags, separate taskbar icons), others say it was obscure enough to be “practically a non-feature.”
  • Complaints include: needing multiple clicks to switch, not being able to hotkey-open another profile, Windows taskbar grouping different profiles together, and confusion over links from external apps opening in the “wrong” profile.
  • macOS and Flatpak users mention previous quirks with dock icons and paths; the new UI improves this for some.

Power-User Workflows and Wishes

  • Heavy CLI use: -P, --profile <path>, -CreateProfile, --allow-downgrade, plus per-profile launch scripts and pinned shortcuts.
  • Some want fully scriptable profile creation/selection and an easy “send tab to profile” feature.
  • Broader wishlist: disposable/temporary profiles, finer-grained sharing of prefs between profiles, and a more systematic “namespace”-like model for isolation (cookies, network, history, extensions, etc.).

Critique of Mozilla’s Communication

  • Several call the blog post misleading or “AI-slop”-like: it markets profiles as new, uses vague marketing language, and doesn’t clearly state what changed.
  • Many say the support doc explains the feature better than the blog announcement.