this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2024
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Multi account containers (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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So I've been using Firefox's container function for a while now and recently discovered the multi account container extension. What does this add over the built in containers? I've seen a lot of people say they need multi account containers but are disappointed that it's an extension so I'm curious what it adds.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

What do you mean "built-in containers"? AFAIK, there's no way to interact with the built-in containers without an extension to expose it. That was at least true when it launched (e.g. the Facebook container extension was awesome), and I've been using the multi-account containers extension ever since.

Here's how I use it:

  • no container - no logins at all
  • "personal" - my email and related things
  • "work" - work email and related things
  • "shopping" - online stores
  • "financial" - banking and investments

And so on. Each group has limited access to cookies to scrape. I also have accounts at the same service in different containers and can have them side-by-side.

If this is now built-in, awesome! But I was under the impression that you need some form of extension to access it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't have nay extension installed that interacts with containers. In settings I enabled container tabs under general and if I right click on the new tab button I can open a container tab, so it appears to be built in. I can also create custom containers for example I have one for google services. So if I understand you correctly the extension doesn't do anything else special?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Ok, I did some digging and I think I figured out the difference. The multi-account containers add-on adds the following:

  • always open in container option - and sync-ing settings across devices
  • integration with VPN
  • UI for managing them in the extension button area

The first one is the major feature for me since I use it on my work laptop, personal laptop, and desktop, and having the "always open" setting sync across devices has value. I don't use the VPN feature, but I think you can set certain containers to always use a certain VPN configuration.

I just always used the add-on from the start because I thought there wasn't a UI for it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

There is no container option in new Firefox profile. It appears only after when you've installed Multi container extension. Firefox from Arch Linux repo.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

It is there on a new profile in the fedora package. Maybe something fedora enables?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

That can be possible. I remember seeing the option in a clean profile while using Ubuntu.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

I don't see it on a new profile on macOS, so yeah, it's probably something Fedora is doing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Ah, makes a ton of sense. I guess I assumed OP was a new user or something, but it seems they used the extension in the past.

I can confirm, I just created a new profile and there is no Container option anywhere. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

FWIW I recently stopped using the extension due to large resource usage - especially painful if you have many tabs open and FF opens many processes for each container tab, eating up more RAM. I just use FF Nightly for personal stuff and regular FF for work.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

@RmDebArc_5 I love containers, that's one of Firefox's strong points IMHO, I use it *a lot*. My main complaint is that it doesn't handle domains, which is a pain for example with Medium.com, Google.com etc. websites, you have to manually add them all 😓

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

I removed the Facebook account containers extension recently, and it seemed it also removed the multi-account containers extension? I still had containers and could use them however, but I discovered something was up when I could no longer use the ctrl+. shortcut to choose a new container tab.