Ghost Browser - Hackdot

Re:Ghost Browser by danso on Friday August 12, 2016 @03:54AM (#12273986)

Just out of curiousity: how many people here use Google Chrome's multiple-user feature? Non-techie people generally don't know about it, but I'm surprised I don't see it being used by the (few) webdevs I know personally.

I have a Chrome user account attached to my main Gmail account. I've created another Chrome user account that's tied to my school email, so that I can keep school-related things isolated to that account. But I can operate both Chrome account simulataneously without issue or conflict; I just set the theme of my school-focused browser to match the school colors. It takes very little effort and so I wonder what's the point of using a separate niche browser?

The multiple Chrome user system is especially useful for web development. I'm not a fan of having 20 webdevs plugins (such as React's special debugger) running on everything that I visit. So I make a new Chrome user just for dev plugins, with the devtools configured exactly as I need them. Sometimes when I'm debugging a live site, I need a stock browser experience (I.e. No Adblock)...so that gets its own Chrome user. You don't have to set up a new Google account to create a Chrome user; that's only necessary if you want your plugins/settings to be stored in the cloud. Otherwise it's literally a 3-click process to create new users and switch between them.

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Re:Ghost Browser by Sylos on Friday August 12, 2016 @04:38AM (#12274130)

I occasionally use Firefox's equivalent feature for creating a stock browser to troubleshoot things, but I'm not a webdev, so that's usually rather to troubleshoot whether my array of tracking protection, cookie blocker etc. addons is causing the webpage to irreparably break, or if it's just the webpage that is broken (or both).

For general use, I just don't have separate enough use-cases to weigh up against the organizational overhead. Most of my entertainment-stuff happens in RSS Readers anyways and the rest is pretty much just programming-related, so can all stay together in one browser profile...

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Re:Ghost Browser by moontear on Friday August 12, 2016 @04:00AM (#12274002)

Pretty much the same process plus a profile for my wife ;-)

Chrome makes it really easy to switch users. For IE development I have to use a workaround with Sysinternals "runas" and multiple Windows user profiles - at least the same workaround works with other programs as well e.g. Outlook.

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Re:Ghost Browser by spatulan on Friday August 12, 2016 @04:52AM (#12274170)

I use the equivalent thing on Firefox. Partly so I can use or not use different groups of addons quickly and easily, but also so I can be logged into the same websites multiple times on different accounts.

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Re:Ghost Browser by mgcross on Friday August 12, 2016 @08:59AM (#12275212)

I use maybe a dozen Chrome user accounts. Personal Gmail, agency Gmail, and accounts for clients. Client accounts include saved credentials for Gmail, analytics, webmaster tools, social media, WP admin, etc. The client Gmail accounts are generally "stub" accounts for admin use. When I need to update a WP site or change a gravatar pic, I just open the Chrome user from the People menu.

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Re:Ghost Browser by adpirz on Friday August 12, 2016 @04:20AM (#12274071)

This is exactly my setup for my work / personal. We run Google Apps, so I have my Google work email and a different theme then my personal account. Makes it easy to distinguish. I also recently discovered that you can edit the name under the people toolbar, so you can even label it as "personal" and "work".

Good tip on the creating local users though, will definitely do that for webdev!

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Re:Ghost Browser by jazoom on Friday August 12, 2016 @06:56AM (#12274578)

Or you could just do 1 click on the Chrome plugin that disables all other plugins. 1 click re-enables them all later.

Sorry, I don't remember what it's called and I'm not at my computer at the moment.

And thank you for bringing this up. I never thought of doing it your way. I might just start.

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Re:Ghost Browser by govindpatel on Friday August 12, 2016 @06:18AM (#12274425)

well I dont use Chrome's multiple user feature. May be because I dont usually play with multiple account and when I sometime need to open other account, then I just open an incognito mode window and just check it from there.

Well all I wanted to say that there are not many people who will need such browser in real life, and some people already have some workaround, which they prefer. and probably others will download and use this. (just my view)

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Re:Ghost Browser by chiefalchemist on Friday August 12, 2016 @01:09PM (#12277181)

I use it all the time. Life without it would be intolerable. I'm not sure why the others don't have something similar.

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