Firefox

After writing the ffremote.py script to help open links in the correct Firefox instance, I decided that it would be really nifty to develop a simple GNOME Panel applet to manage browser instances. (Again, not browser windows, but browser instances—completely separate Firefox processes running with distinct profiles and settings.)

When you click on the applet's icon, a menu is presented which lists the running browser windows and their associated profiles, as well as profiles which are not currently running. If you click on an item representing a running browser window, the window will be raised to the foreground. If you click on an item representing a non-running profile, a new Firefox instance will be launched with the selected profile.

I'm often running multiple instances of Firefox on my desktop. Not just multiple windows, but multiple instances, with each associated with a different Firefox profile. I do this so I can have one instance running with the default profile for normal web use, and another completely separate instance running in an alternate profile loaded with development tools such as Firebug. This way, I can use different settings for certain development work, and if the development tools go haywire and interfere with the browser, they don't affect the Firefox instance I use for "normal" web browsing. I selected a different theme for the development instance, so I can visually tell them apart on the desktop.