Linux Firefox Portable Profile Launcher

[Goatmilk]

Has anyone of you tried out this program, and is it recommendable?

GitHub - RMXP/Linux-Firefox-Portable-Profile-Launcher: Launch Firefox on Linux using a profile on an external drive.

Launch Firefox on Linux using a profile on an external drive. - RMXP/Linux-Firefox-Portable-Profile-Launcher

github.com

One thing I truly miss in Linux are portable programs that you could simply copy on an usb stick and move from one computer to the other - which comes particularly handy with browsers. I cannot even remember when I had my last regularly installed browser on Windows 7 (guess it was a K-Meleon from 2012 or so). Now that I got my desktop computer back I sure would like to have a movable browser again. I read that there are ways to install portables on Linux, but none of those sounded very confidence-inspiring to me (that is, not easy enough to be foolproof). Besides, installing portables kinda defeats the purpose.

Then I found the above site, and if I understand it right, it makes Firefox write its profile on a flash drive (or, presumably, any location you want), and you can go and move it between two Firefoxes on two different computers.

Would it be worth the hassle or would it be much easier to simply move a bunch of json-files back and forth?

I tried to copy the profile folder, but somehow it simply doesn't work like in Windows 7. Also, I don't even have an specific Firefox profile - all I would need to move are my bookmarks, my passwords and my about:config preferences. Oh, perhaps the extensions, but those wouldn't be much of an act to install in both Firefoxes.

What do you think? A portable? The profile launcher? Or simply moving a few json files (would have to find out which ones?)

 

[KGIII]

One thing I truly miss in Linux are portable programs that you could simply copy on an usb stick and move from one computer to the other -

We call them binary files and AppImages, among other things.

 

[Trml]

I tried to copy the profile folder, but somehow it simply doesn't work like in Windows 7.

You can do that, if you point firefox at launch to it, e.g. firefox --noremote --profile ~/.mozilla/firefox/abcD567.max/ - if that's the profile folder you copied.
I have not tried but see no reason it could not be on a USB stick (other than it will write the cache to it, being very slow).
edit: I don't recommend using a USB to store your profile. Apart from reliability and speed, I just learned that mozilla is implementing a new profile wizard and from what I read it looks like it does not work with any profiles saved outside the default ~/.mozilla/firefox/ folder anymore. So, you'll run into serious problems with such a custom solution soon.

all I would need to move are my bookmarks, my passwords and my about:config preferences.

Firefox native way to set up a free sync account with mozilla. It allows you to synchronise a chosen set across your multiple firefox instances. It's not good for extension syncing and about:config preferences - for the latter there are other (more involved) ways.