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Phoenix 0.5 Has Arrived
mattrix was among the legion of readers to submit news that "Phoenix 0.5 (Naples) has been released. New stuff since 0.4 includes multiple homepages, download fixes, history, size, memory, accessibility and performance improvements and more. Get it now for Windows or GNU/Linux (i686). Background info: Phoenix is a web browser based on the Mozilla engine, but smaller and faster than Mozilla Navigator." Multi-tab startup page seems worth the upgrade to me, all else aside.
Wasn't the name supposed to be changed for this release?
Hail to the king, baby!
From the changelog:
"Performance improvements
0.5 is certainly our fastest release ever. You might especially notice a boost if you have a blank page (about:blank) as your homepage."
Does this mean that Phoenix renders a blank page faster than any other browser?
New stuff since 0.4 includes multiple homepages
So, where are Phoenix' other homepages?
..(win32) over the earlier (0.4) release.
nothing fscked up.
seems to work just as nice as before.
great job.
if somebody is still holding back.. try it, you'll be glad, especially if you like to have your browser SIMPLE & FAST.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Phoenix is a nice browser. But it's still an 8.9M download for Linux. Does XUL really have that much overhead? How far can this be squeezed down?
I don't care that they think they'd be competing with Chimera, there *NEEDS* to be a Mac OS X version that's keeping up with development.
On that platform we need MORE browsers, not fewer, in the hopes that ONE will actually be good: fast, stable, compatible, and feature complete.
Mozilla is feature riddled but has compatibility issues (TrekBBS.com; MS using propietary plug-in format for WMP on Mac OS) and S-L-O-W. Chimera is fast, not entirely stable, but lacking features or their poorly implemented (History, Location bar).
I though we were supposed to see the debut of the new name for .5, what gives?
-Reid
The best place to discuss Phoenix is at the Mozillazine Phoenix forums.
Extensions are available here -- including radial context and mouse gestures.
Themes are available here and there's a beautiful page of similar-but-different themes here.
And don't forget to head on over to themes.mozdev.org for some tasty chrome! Orbit 3+1 is my personal favourite.
"Yeah, well, Dracula called and he's coming over tonight for you and I said okay."
The reason i prefer mozilla on win32 is quicklaunch. With quicklaunch enabled in my system tray, it launches significantly quicker than even pheonix. If pheonix was quicklaunch enabled (heck, the code's already there, right?), it would be my browser of choice on w32. Until then, I'll stick with the "big mo".
Jake
Could someone enlighten me to any differences between this broskwer and The K Meleon Browser? I have been using the latter a lot recently and am wondering why phoenix gets so much more press..
I wish the mozilla team would clean up the skins mess . I downloaded 1.2 recently and couldn't get a single downloaded skin to work. The same happened when I last downloaded phoenix a few weeks ago. I though the idea behind the 1.x release was to stabilize the APIs. If so, why is it so damned hard to have skins that work across multiple releases?
-josh
The Mozilla project's goal is not to make a browser for end users. It's essentially a technology preview. Always has been - always will be. It shows off Gecko, XUL, the portable runtime, and a few other nifty things. Phoenix is an implementation of all that technology; it shares a common codebase but there are massive changes and additions that make it a new and separate project. All this work has made Phoenix an excellent replacement for Internet Explorer on any version of Windows -- Mozilla isn't.
The one thing I wish someone would write is a XUL based file manager. Something on the order of Phoenix. That's all that needs to be added really and you could mostly leave explorer unused on a Windows box. It would be nice to be able to use the same user interface to do things on Windows/Linux/Unix/Mac/etc... Microsoft was worried about Netscape becoming the desktop, and it could still happen.
With the steady increase in computer power (led by the Moore company I believe) and larger disk drive space, why does anyone need a SMALLER browser? I had to upgrade my memory when I bought WinXP - that's how I knew it was better than the OLD windows. I think Mozilla should concentrate on their browser better, like making the GUI translucent, including the latest version of Flash, and packaging those handy (and FREE!) software packages that speed up your internet connection. For myself, I'll stick with IE - the browser that gets BIGGER all the time, and therefore BETTER.
(remove tongue from cheek)
That's not a soda... it's a caffeine delivery device!
0.5 will be the last release to be called Phoenix. Version 0.6, expected in January, will have a new name. And they really mean it this time.
If you want to use anti-aliased fonts with Phoenix 0.5 on Linux for x86, you can grab pre-built Xft-enabled binaries.
Xft Enabled RPMs and tarballs built under RedHat 8.
Xft Enabled tarball built under Debian unstable.
If you aren't running RedHat 8 or Debian unstable, then you may have to do some work to get these pre-built binaries to run.
I am running the Debian unstable Xft-enabled Phoenix 0.5 binary. It works just fine, and looks ever so good.
They're changing the name, maybe after that happens? Maybe for the 1.0 release? Who knows when they're going to change the icon... why the hell does it matter?
But more importantly: you can use any icon you want. Make a shortcut to the Phoenix exe. Then open properties and simply click the 'Change Icon...' button and find one that suits you.
It's not like these two are competing technologies.
Actually, they are. Phoenix FirstView Connect is a stripped-down web browser. Mozilla.org Phoenix is a stripped-down web browser.
Phoenix is a straight up IE killer
And Phoenix Technologies' product is a straight up Pocket IE killer. So will be Gecko, once the Weenies reduce its footprint.
Will I retire or break 10K?
you can use any icon you want. Make a shortcut to the Ph??n?x exe. Then open properties and simply click the 'Change Icon...' button and find one that suits you.
But why does this Google query turn up a whole bunch of $20-$30 products before this GPL tool for windows and linux?
Will I retire or break 10K?
I installed exactly according to instructions, wiping my old 0.4 installation and running the ProfileManager to create a new profile.
/. editors all wanted to get their copy first before everyone here took down the servers?
Window sizing is still a mess, and if I quit the browser in fullscreen mode, the next time I start it up and then go to fullscreen, the titlebar is rendered over the top of the screen making the window unmovable until I re-exit and restart the program.
Also, there is STILL no fullscreen button available in the toolbar customization options, forcing me to leave the mouse and go to the keyboard (F11) whenever I want to do that.
Oddly, in bugzilla I've seen references to a fullscreen button, but I have no idea what they are talking about.
It's also interesting that I submitted this story 10 hours ago (moments after the DL was available) and it was rejected. I suppose the
And finally, kudos to the Phoenix/Mozilla folk. It used to be that I always had to switch back to IE because there were things that only IE could do and I had to get them done. Starting with the 0.4 Phoenix release, I starting having to open up Phoenix from time to time to get things done because IE couldn't do them. Finally about two weeks ago I removed the IE icon from my quicklaunch because I just didn't use it any more -- Phoenix now does so many things that IE cannot do: Tabbed browsing, Password managing that actually works, spyware control though a decent cookie manager, no popups (!), obnoxious blinking banner add removal, bookmarks-menu-navigation all lined up on one toolbar, etc.
How about creating a new section on slashdot called Software Updates. That way every little version number changed can be published and discussed. (Like with Linux Kernels, OS X Updates, Mozzila and the like updates). This way it has the advantage that more of the smaller updates can be published without taking up the main space and still keeping the discussion on the topic. And this should get rid of a lot of "Why do you post every Minor version change" comments and the like.", It also has the advantage of beeing seen for a longer time on the sub pages.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
If, like me, you've been using Mozilla's mouse gestures feature for a while you're probably hooked. The good news it that they are available for Phoenix as well:
http://texturizer.net/phoenix/extensions.html#gest ures
Unfortunately there is no menu option to trigger them with the right mouse button (they default to being activated by the left button). If you want them on the right mouse button you will have to edit your prefs.js file. On Windows (depending on what version you are running) this can be found in C:\Windows\Application Data\Phoenix\Profiles\???\???\prefs.js
Before editing the prefs.js file you will need to install the gestures XPI, then restart your browser and shut it down again (this will create the default mouse gesture preferences in the prefs.js file). Now open the file in a text editor and look for the following line:
user_pref("mozgest.mousebutton", 0);
Change the number to 2 for right mouse button (or 1 for middle mouse button) and you're done.
2) I do not understand the description of the "fullscreen bug" post below. When I go to fullscreen, there is no window titlebar, because it is IN FULLSCREEN MODE. Why would you want to move a full-screen window around? Where would you move it to? When I exit in fullscreen and then start phoenix up again, and then go to fullscreen mode again, it looks the exact same. I have the option to minimize, close, or 'restore' the window in the upper right,which brings back the titlebar, and that works perfectly. What, exactly is the problem?
This is a fantastic browser so far... so much smooter than original mozilla or galeon, which I've loved for a long time now. The installation of new themes and extensions works almost flawlessly, excepting that occasionally replacing one theme with another results in only a half-success and requires more than one attempt. All of the new menu additions from the extensions site worked perfectly.
I am very impressed, considering this is still a .5 release. Rock on, Mozilla people. Keep these .1 releases coming.
"We must still have chaos within in order to be able to give birth to a dancing star." --Friedrich Nietzsche
I don't mean to be a troll, but in my experience, Phoenix is no real improvement over Mozilla in terms of startup speed, at least for OS/2. Phoenix starts up about three seconds faster than Mozilla on a 200MHz 80586 with 64MB of RAM running OS/2 Warp v3, which isn't saying much when Mozilla takes damn near a minute to open.
Slashdot has NEVER claimed to be unbiased. From the FAQ:
If you're not happy about that, you don't have to keep coming back.
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$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Slashdot uses antiquated HTML and CSS practices. Slashdot specifies font style and size explicitly. You can change font size with text zoom, which is CTRL + mwheel[up,down] or CTRL + [+,-].
In Preferences|Fonts and Colors, you can also specify minimum font size and DPI. Small fonts will not remain proportional if they're page-specified smaller than your minimum. Changing DPI will alter the number of pixels occupied per point size. Be wary of this, as most pages make the bad assumption that your browser renders fonts at either 72dpi (Mac) or 96dpi (PC). Slashdot is among these.
Font sizes have been the bane of W3 design since the <font> tag appeared, largely due to it. Calculating point size for monitors is convoluted to begin with. A point is 1/72 of an inch. Apple simplified this by making 1px equal 1pt. Pixels are, everywhere else, one-dimensional coordinates with color value, with no intristic dimensions or aspect ratio. So, on a PC, it's anyone's guess how many pixels per inch your screen is.
With CSS, we gain the ability to specify anything, including font sizes, in pixels, points, percents, millimeters, ems, exs, "absolutes". Most of them are out the window when DPI isn't knowable. Percentages, "absolutes", ems, and exes are relative, so they are usable. Ignoring Netscape 4, which got everything wrong: Percentages were fucked up by IE, absolutes by Opera, leaving ems and exs. One em is the height of the capital letter 'M'. One ex is the height of the lower case letter 'x'. Clear as mud?
I hope that was helpful and educational. I hope slashdot moves to XHTML 1.1. It's embarrassing that such a prominent site, proponent of standards, bemoaner of poor implimentations, should itself be guilty of poor HTML and CSS practices.
I'm as mimsy as the next borogove but your mome raths are completely outgrabe.
Do you remember when the Aqua Mozilla themes were pulled? Apple didn't want skins that LOOKED like Aqua but didn't ACT like Aqua. The real concern was Mozilla on MacOS behaving inconsistently with the GUI it imitates.
Mozilla on MacOS X now has a custom front end, native to Aqua. Chimera is dependant on the Aqua front of Mozilla. If or when Phoenix ports to MacOS X, they and Apple will want Phoenix to have a native Aqua interface.
It's kind of stinky, but it's the best name brand policy both for Apple and Phoenix on MacOS X. However, I agree with you. Phoenix is leagues ahead and above of Mozilla, Chimera, IE5.5:mac, and Omniweb, in order of 0wn4g3. MacOS X needs Phoenix.
I'm as mimsy as the next borogove but your mome raths are completely outgrabe.
Just what is it that makes the Linux apps so much bigger (openoffice.org also springs to mind)?
A number of reasons. One reason is that the msvc++ compiler can make a smaller (disk and memory footprint) and faster Phoenix binary than it's linux counterpart.Another reason is that there are code and compatability issues that prevent us from statically compiling more of the linux binary like we do for windows.
--Asa
As a further note -- if a story generates the usual array of comments, and if as many as half those comments are in some way related to the article, it must have "mattered" to enough of the people who come here regularly.
;)
After all, you don't have to read what doesn't interest you. Just like you don't have use IE if you don't like it. Even if Phoenix sucks and even if 0.1 releases are meaningless, it's still one more option for folk who don't like other browsers.
(See, I wasn't either off topic.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
That's yet another reason I stick with my beloved old NS 3.04. 99% of the time, it renders fonts as plain old LEGIBLE 12pt Times Roman. (And I'm GLAD it ignores CSS, because that means I don't have to put up with someone else's notion of readable printsize.)
In other browsers (incl. Mozilla) I'm much more often annoyed by spasms of tiny print. That may be fine for kids, but middle-aged eyes don't like it at all. Switch my default font size? Yeah, for every page I visit? cuz that's about what it would come to.
There's much to be said for leaving certain formatting elements alone. And I don't care how pretty your page is, if I can't easily read it.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Unfortunately not very well known, you can easily override all CSS, effectively disabling as much as you want. Customizing Mozilla, completely applicable to Phoenix. This page covers a lot. Place overriding CSS rules on userContent.css, with '!important' after the rules, before the semicolon. Opera provides for this mechanism very well.
I'm as mimsy as the next borogove but your mome raths are completely outgrabe.
Phoenix with the pie menus, tab extensions and popup blocking has spoiled me. It has changed my browsing habits and expectations enough to make using other browsers annoying at best and at worst, well, lets just not say it. When I do need to run another browser (say IE for those pages that don't work right) it takes me about two pages before I'm ready to shoot it.
BUT! Caveat Downloader!
I just downloaded Phoenix 0.5 and installed the RadialContext extension. (Linux)
And now phoenix won't start. Or, more exactly, it starts, shows one of those incredibly annoying "Did you know...." hints window and retreats into the background where it spawns a bunch of threads and stops. I'll be reporting this as a bug, but would like to find a way to fix it (if possible) first so I can use the browser I've come to rely on.
If I don't load the radial context stuff (as now) the browser works fine.
Sigh.
According to the 'ldd' output given by an Anonymous Coward, this comment's parent is incorrect.
Will I retire or break 10K?
See? Now was it really so hard?
If only all /. articles did not assume basic telepathy on the part of the reader.
Tim
You should try 12pt Verdana. Times is a sans-serifed font, and sans-serif has been proven to be harder to read on computer screens.
In other browsers (incl. Mozilla) I'm much more often annoyed by spasms of tiny print. That may be fine for kids, but middle-aged eyes don't like it at all. Switch my default font size? Yeah, for every page I visit? cuz that's about what it would come to.
In Mozilla, you shouldn't need to, because it can resize fonts specified in pixels. Both IE and Mozilla (IIRC) keep you font size the same, so you don't have the enlarge it on every page.
BTW, there should be an option to have a toggle button on the toolbar that enables/dissables css., along with image and javascript toggles, having to go into the prefs each time is such a pain I never bother.
i agree with you about using verdana over times-roman for on screen reading
however i think you got yr explanation mixed up - verdana is sans-serif (sans is french for without), and times roman is a serif font - serifs are the little things that hang off letters (like at either end of the top crossbar of a capital T in times roman) - they make a typeface more readable on very high resolution media such as paper but tend to make the typeface too 'muddy' on coarse resoultion media (such as CRTs and LCDs)
anyways, i'm sure you know all this and just mistakenly typed the wrong term - cheers
However, Opera has 16 search options for their search window from the pull down menu
and Phoenix has about 150 search options. See mycroft.mozdev.org
--Asa