Running multiple versions of Chrome

Question

Is it possible to run multiple different versions of simultaneously on Linux? I know I can do this with Firefox using the -no-remote -P switches but what about Google Chrome?

Answer 1

A simple hack is to use Chrome's Incognito mode Ctrl + Shift + N.

You can run Chrome using different profiles by using the --user-data-dir flag. For example, save this script as chrome.sh:

#!/bin/sh
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
  echo "Usage: $0 profile_name"
  exit 1
fi
PROFILE_NAME="$1"
GOOGLE_CHROME="/usr/local/bin/chromium"
USER_DIR="~/.config/chromium/${PROFILE_NAME}"

exec "$GOOGLE_CHROME" \
  --enable-udd-profiles \
  --user-data-dir="$USER_DIR"

Create a new folder such as ~/.config/chromium/test

You can use the newly created profile by running chrome.sh test

Answer 2

You can run instances of both Chrome and Chromium (the open source version of Chrome).