I mainly use this feature as a temporary profile/container in Firefox. It is valuable and convenient for me in that sense since I do not have to create a persistent profile for an ephemeral browsing session and it is always just a keyboard shortcut away.
I found a duplicate suggestion here: https://orionfeedback.org/d/3367-session-sharing-in-private-window
The lack of this feature means I end up using a different browser (Chrome) when I need to use a Private Window. It is holding out my ability to switch to Orion as a single browser.
While I agree having each tab be its own session is the technically more "private" option, in terms of use case, this is missing the forest for the trees. More often that not, I want session sharing (for example, logging into a website and then opening links from that website in a new tab. Such new tabs I would expect to share a session).
@Vlad what are your thoughts on mainting sessions per Private Window instead of per Private Tab?
CyberArchon Private tabs are more powerful and more privacy respecting. It is also the way Safari has executed this. Tabs that leak data between each other in a private window are a completely flawed execution for something called 'private'.
For session sharing in closed/different context Profiles may be a better solution.
Private tabs are more powerful
Depends on what dimension you measure this. For my use case, what I'm really looking for is a private session, and is what I consider more powerful for my use case. Chrome works like this.
flawed execution for something called 'private'.
I believe this is semantics. "Private Window" vs "Private Tab". When I hear private window (as the feature is called in Orion) then my belief is the scope of privacy should be at the window level not the tab level.
At the very least, can it be considered to have an option to share session data between private tabs (only for the life of the window -- not indefinitely!)
The current behavior also leads to slight inconsistencies. If you are logged in to a website in a private tab (e.g. reddit), and you command-click on a comments link, it takes you to a fresh private tab. but if you just normally click on comments, then reddit opens up in a new tab with the same session
CyberArchon That is an interesting one. Can you confirm if Safari behaves the same?
Vlad Yeah, Safari has this inconsistency as well
CyberArchon With 2000 other open issues, we are satisfied with being on par with the reference browser by the OS manufacturer and respecting HIG. There will be time and place to go beyond that just not now.
CyberArchon This means that Safari (and Orion) differentiate between when a new tab is initiated by a website (ie you left-click a target="_blank" link that opens in a new tab) vs when a new tab is initiated by a user (you command-click to force the link to open in a new tab).
If the user initiates the new tab, it won't carry over the session. If the website initiates the new tab, it will. At least that's what I've been able to gather.
Also, I just want to chime in here, as session-shared across different Private tabs is a feature that I am looking for (moving from Chrome to Orion).
While I ultimately agree that the current behavior of Private tabs (which matches the behavior of Safari Private tabs) is superior in terms of privacy, I do still wish this was a setting that could be toggled to change this behavior. It's not high priority for me, it just means I'll continue to use Chromium for private sessions, and Orion for everything else. Not the biggest deal.
