Zen Haiku: Usability, General Topics & A Bit of Poetry by Chad Lundgren

Phoenix 0.5: Ready for prime time?

Esoteric disclaimer: This may not make sense if you're not a web geek. It may not even make sense then, depending on how hyper-specialized you are.

Top ten reasons to switch to Phoenix 0.5 as your web browser.

1. Font sizes can be easily changed to be huge enough to read without my contacts, or way down to itty bitty sizes if you're into font masochism. Better than the Accessibility workaround for Internet Explorer.
2. Pop-up ad killer built in to the browser. (This is true of Netscape 6 and Mozilla 1, but watch out for Netscape 7!)
3. Interface reasons. Phoenix has a Google search box. I rarely use the advanced features of the Google toolbar. Also, unlike Mozilla, it has a real home button, not a shriveled one as with Mozilla and a history button on the default toolbar.
4. It runs on Windows and Linux.
5. You can customize like nobody's business. My favorite is turning Flash off. No more eyeblasters. Once in a blue moon, I actually want to run Flash, and so I cut and paste the Address into Internet Explorer. All you have to edit one file:

"This file sets the display rules for web content and is located in the sub-folder called chrome in your profile folder. [...] there is an example file that exists by default, called userContent-example.css. Basically, you can just rename that file by removing the -example part." (Thanks to Phoenix Help for the explanation). Run a search for that file, and once you rename it, add this bit to it:

embed[type="application/x-shockwave-flash"] {
display: none !important;
visibility: hidden !important;
}

and restart Phoenix.

And you will be surfing much happier. I can use my old Yahoo email in peace, and not get mugged by eyeblasters. Nice payoff for a little work.
6. Shows pages faster than IE.
7. Has Java that works.
8. Faster and less bloated than Mozilla. Not a big issue on my newer computer, but a life-saver before I upgraded.
9. Surprisingly stable on my Windows 2000 computer for a program that's not a 1.0 release. Being based on Mozilla helps.
10. You love lizards, and the Phoenix icon makes you all kinds of happy.

Reasons NOT to switch.

1. The stable downloads are harder to find than the nightly builds on the Phoenix site. This is some iffy usability by the Phoenix folks.
2. The history bar (located on the main bar like it should be) doesn't remember that you want things to be sorted by last visited. A minor annoyance, but one I encounter fairly often.
3. Every once in a blue moon, I get a weird error about XUL on launching Phoenix. It always works the second time.
4. You can't turn the Bookmarks bar below the address bar off. Not a biggie for me, but some people are annoyed by that. I'd be annoyed if it were a third toolbar.
5. There is no install program. You'll need to unzip the files into a directory you make and create your own shortcut. Not a big deal for me, but it may annoy you.
6. You hate lizards, so the Phoenix icon gives you the willies.

Posted by Chad Lundgren on Monday, February 3, 2003 (Link)