Multi-Account Containers to “Exchange messages with programs other than Firefox”

I wish they fixed the long standing, annoying sync bug that makes Firefox download 7000+ containers every once in a while. Some of us hosed our sync accounts in one way or another (through the container duplication bug in m-a-c itself [1] or the temporary containers extension [2]) and it&#x27;s impossible to recover - once you reach the storage quota on the sync server, the sync server refuses all write operations and delete call apparently counts as a write.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mozilla&#x2F;multi-account-containers&#x2F;issues&#x2F;1885" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mozilla&#x2F;multi-account-containers&#x2F;issues&#x2F;1...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;stoically&#x2F;temporary-containers&#x2F;issues&#x2F;371" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;stoically&#x2F;temporary-containers&#x2F;issues&#x2F;371</a>

There&#x27;s no obvious reason to grant the nativeMessaging permission during extension installation for an optional feature, nativeMessaging can be declared as an optional permission since Firefox 87 [1], and Firefox Multi-Account Containers 8.0.2 only supports Firefox 91 or newer.<p>There could be a bug related to declaring nativeMessaging as an optional permission, though that is not mentioned in the pull request [2], so this was probably an oversight.<p>EDIT: the minimum supported version was bumped to Firefox 91 in a subsequent PR apparently not for technical reasons, but just to follow guidelines [3], and then they forgot to reevaluate the need for the new default permission before a release.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;docs&#x2F;Mozilla&#x2F;Add-ons&#x2F;WebExtensions&#x2F;manifest.json&#x2F;optional_permissions" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;docs&#x2F;Mozilla&#x2F;Add-ons&#x2F;Web...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mozilla&#x2F;multi-account-containers&#x2F;pull&#x2F;2157" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mozilla&#x2F;multi-account-containers&#x2F;pull&#x2F;215...</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mozilla&#x2F;multi-account-containers&#x2F;pull&#x2F;2188" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mozilla&#x2F;multi-account-containers&#x2F;pull&#x2F;218...</a>

I think this is a great step. I hate when Mozilla does things other than make their browser better. This seems like a feature pretty unique to Firefox (or if there is another implemention I&#x27;m not aware of, it&#x27;s probably not as tightly integrated) that can make them money.<p>People can complain about the Mozilla VPN or Brave&#x27;s BAT but at the end of the day they have to fund themselves somehow. I&#x27;d rather it to be through very interesting new ways of using a browser rather than through Google&#x27;s money. Up until now I&#x27;d see the VPN as a lazy cash grab but now it seems like an actual premium feature.

I would really like Firefox to implement granular permissions per extension. So, if I can choose to not give this extension permission to talk to external programs. And hopefully the extension authors wrote it in a way that it degrades gracefully.

This is very cool. You can now set a different proxy for every container!

You don&#x27;t really need this extension to use containers -- it just adds some convenience, but the main functionality (creating containers, opening tabs in containers, moving tabs between containers, ...) is in Firefox core.<p>There are also other convenience extensions that use containers -- like Simple Tab Groups, which allows creating groups and assigning them to containers. I use it and have no need for the &quot;Multi-Account Containers&quot; extension.

Annoying change. Saw it yesterday and did not dare to accept. Good it comes up on HN, I might have forgotten.<p>I have never looked into extensions. Could I just repackage it without requesting the additional privilege? Well, if the code called it unconditionally even if I don&#x27;t really need it the extension would stop working.

It&#x27;s possible to benefit from containers without using the extension:<p><pre><code> https:&#x2F;&#x2F;support.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;kb&#x2F;containers#w_for-advanced-users</code></pre>

This is actually something I wanted, kinda. I like that they integrate the container proxy extension with the regular container extension, I just would rather they not try to sell the VPN thing so much.

I am super satisfied with the Containerise extension <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addons.mozilla.org&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;addon&#x2F;containerise&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addons.mozilla.org&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;addon&#x2F;containerise&#x2F;</a>) as alternative for Multi-Account Containers. It lets you map whole classes of domains to unique containers, which is an awesome and robust solution for logins involving a lot of redirects. Here are some example mappings which also catch all real subdomains (but not &quot;fakeamazon.com&quot;):<p>@^(.+\.|)amazon\.(de|com) , Amazon<p>@^(.+\.|)spotify\.(de|com) , Spotify

There is also this extension: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addons.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;addon&#x2F;container-proxy&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addons.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;addon&#x2F;container-pro...</a>

Related issue: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mozilla&#x2F;multi-account-containers&#x2F;issues&#x2F;2210" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mozilla&#x2F;multi-account-containers&#x2F;issues&#x2F;2...</a>

I see - once again, instead of just letting people fund the damn browser, Mozilla is continuing with its tried-and-true strategy of randomly integrating things into other things.

Not at all related to this but posting for visibility.<p>Firefox never updates automatically for me and I&#x27;ve uninstalled, removed my account and other basic troubleshooting steps I&#x27;ve found through Googling never help.<p>I have to run the installer with every update. And that would be fine but it resets some settings that don&#x27;t sync with your profile, as an example, it always changes language spell check back to US English from British or Australian English. Its giving me the shits.<p>How do I fix the above?