firefox --Profile /path/to/separate/folder
this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
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This is the answer. I use firefox profiles a lot. They do not only give you the separation of the profiles, but also makes it easier to manage. Want a profile for work? Make one, sign up for firefox sync with your work e-mail, now log in also on your work phone, and your profile is there too. Do the same thing for your personal profile/e-mail/phone.
Also, you can manage your profiles at about:profiles.
Unfortunately that is not what I am looking for. I am already using named profiles. Like i stated in my original post as well as my answers below, this only works from Inside Firefox, however from the operating system pov it is still treated as the same application. Which means:
a) When i share the work profile, i also share all other profiles, as they are all Firefox b) When I quick access firefox via spotlight, i end up at the nearest, random profile / instance of firefox. c) There is no way to differentiate the profiles on an application level. d) I can not assign the instances to different desktops, as they are all Firefox.
I think it should also be possible to use named profiles
Would FF Profiles work? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data
This doesn't answer your question, since it already seems answered, but an additional step that may be helpful is to use a completely separate firefox derivative browser for one of those tasks.
I personally use Firefox for most of my daily browsing, but I have LibreWolf installed with separate configuration options (different proxy, etc). I could do the same with multiple Firefox profiles, but I prefer the separate icon as a reminder that my workflow is different in this particular browser.
I thought about this solution, as it is the "cleanest", however I need on total 4 firefox derivatives. Unfortunately, when looking deeply into the options, i haven't found 4 that are similarly trustworthy, well maintained etc. Also i have my firefox config fully figured out, it works and is as private as i want them, without some maintainer forcing their opinion on my use cases. Plain firefox is the easiest to configure, as it's like a blank start. However i might be wrong here and am open to suggestions :D
Other options: Firefox Beta, Firefox Developer Edition, and Firefox Nightly. Beta and Developer are very stable, and honestly Nightly is pretty stable as well (but it updates a lot). Possibly you could replace it with Librewolf.
That sounds like an interesting idea, I'll test that out, thanks!