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I usually have different instances of my web browsers to attend to various types of usages, on Windows that means using portable versions of Chrome and Firefox. The existing portable versions of Firefox and Chromium for Linux are outdated and lack immediate support, compared with the portable apps for Windows. I am wondering if there is any way to make the current versions of Firefox and Chromium provided by Ubuntu work as "portable", which by that I mean running as the equivalent of a Windows portable app, detached from the default browsers.

Neptunno
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4 Answers4

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Would using Mozilla Firefox with multiple 'profile' work? Each of these would have separate settings, plug-ins, history, etc.

Use this to setup additional profiles:

firefox -ProfileManager

Then this to set a particular profile:

firefox -P <profile>
david6
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  • I shall try Firefox profiles as soon as possible and then test to see if it is enough for me. Thanks! – Neptunno Aug 11 '12 at 03:23
  • Well this seems to be the best solution so far, because I am able to have a profile for each set of addons. I'll stick with it until I find some way to run two instances of the browser independently. – Neptunno Aug 11 '12 at 13:01
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I think its impossible to use two ubuntu firefox at the same time. you could choose your first or the alternative profile but you cant run them at the same time. To enter firefox in a shell will open the allredy running firefox instance, but no new one.

One idea could be to use the ubuntu firefox and a static linked firefox (if it is still avaible).

gemue2010
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As a last resort and if you chose to use Chromium you could set up multiple online profiles and just create multiple instances of the program and sign into each one of them individually.

This remembers your bookmarks, settings, extentions, history and everything else.

Of course this will be a last resort due to the length of time it might take to setup all of these online profiles but it's worth a shot if all else fails.

**Start a new window by right-clicking the icon and selecting "Create a new window with a temp profile" and sign in from there on each instance.

Joshua Waldon
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  • Hum, I believe it is possible to do the same as well with Firefox using multiple Sync accounts. It can be useful to have at least two different profiles at hand, despite the work involved. – Neptunno Aug 11 '12 at 12:59
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If you launch then from the terminal you can get as many instance as needed.

Just open a terminal and type:

chromium-browser
Eliah Kagan
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LnxSlck
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  • And will I be able to maintain any changes made to this other instances, such as browser configurations or adding extras, for a next time? – Neptunno Aug 11 '12 at 03:22
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    I believe so, yes. – LnxSlck Aug 11 '12 at 03:23
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    Running another instance of chromium-browser or firefox in a terminal just signals the already-running instance to spawn a new window, and exits. It does not create a separate instance (unless you run it as a different user account, or with an explicitly specified different profile). – Eliah Kagan Aug 11 '12 at 04:03
  • @EliahKagan indeed... – Neptunno Aug 11 '12 at 12:54