I am using Red Hat 8 and I like the fact that I can open a browser in my current workspace even if there is an instance of the broswer open in another workspace. Right now I am using Monzilla 1.0.1 which came with my install. I would like to use Netscape but I can't stand the profile manager. I know you can choose to not display it when you start up the browser, but if I have Netscape open in one workspace and I try to open an instance of the browser in another workspace the manager still pops up and forces me to use another profile because my original profile is already in use. Is there a way around this? This is preventing me from upgrading from Monzilla 1.0.1.

Thanks in advance!

well, just do a ctrl + N...but the newest mozilla 1.3 doesnt do that anymore.

The problem is that I want to open another instance of the browser but in a different workspace . CTRL + N would work for Netscape if I wanted to open another instance of the browser in the same workspace.

Well I figured out how to do what I want myself and I figured that I would share what I have in-case someone else has the same issue. I am current using Gnome. I was trying to upgrade to the latest version of Netscape and link it to the web icon on my task bar. The problem I had as you can tell above was how to bypass the profile manager so that I could open multiple instances of the browser in different workspaces. What was happening was that after I opened one browser in one workspace and then switched workspaces and tried to open an other instance of the browser the profile manager would tell me the profile was already in use and I couldn't open the browser.

To fix this I noticed that the icon on the taskbar was calling a file called htmlview which then called a file called mozilla, both of which were located in /usr/bin. I first modified the file called mozilla to reference my netscape installation for all the dll's and stuff. I still don't fully understand what that file does at the moment. I then saved the file as netscape so that I didn't overwrite the original file. I then modified the file called htmlview so that it referenced the netscape file instead of mozilla. There were only two lines that needed to be modified.

Now I am able to startup Netscape with out the profile manager and I can open as many instances of the browser in as many workspaces I want. It behaves exactly like the initial install of Mozilla that came with Red Hat. If any of you have another/cleaner way of doing this, please share.

Regards,
rhsam

save the below script in say /usr/bin directory as netscape. chmod it to 755 and point the netscape button on the panel to this script. Note that my netscape browser is installed in /usr/local/netscape. Works fine for me and I can as many browsers as I want without going through profile manager box.
modify the location of your netscape

good luck!

#!/bin/sh

if /usr/local/netscape/netscape -remote "ping()" 2>/dev/null
then
# Uncomment one of the following lines according to the desired behavior:
# - replace the current page
#location=""
# - open in new window
location=",new-window"
# - open in new tab
#location=",new-tab"
exec /usr/local/netscape/netscape -remote "openURL($1$location)"
else
exec /usr/local/netscape/netscape "$@"
fi
exit 1

Thanks for your script! I'll give it a shot. I would like to bypass the profile manager all together.

Thanks,
Rhsam