Phoenix 0.5 Has Arrived 346
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.
Name change (Score:4, Interesting)
nice browser, but still too big (Score:5, Interesting)
Damn (Score:1, Interesting)
Galeon (Score:1, Interesting)
Name Change? (Score:3, Interesting)
Pheonix vs Mozilla on Win32 (I prefer mozilla) (Score:5, Interesting)
Jake
Differences from K-Meleon Browser? (Score:4, Interesting)
Could someone enlighten me to any differences between this broskwer and The K Meleon [sourceforge.net] Browser? I have been using the latter a lot recently and am wondering why phoenix gets so much more press..
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:icons (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:nice browser, but still too big (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't get me wrong - I don't use windows at all. But builds of mozilla and phoenix ports are consistently larger than their windows counterparts. Why?
Re:Pheonix vs Mozilla on Win32 (I prefer mozilla) (Score:4, Interesting)
My guess is that the work pattern is different on a Win32 desktop, and that you normally start an app, use it, then close it before you start another. Is it due to the lack of virtual desktops, or some other UI-related issue? I would not think it's resources, as Windows should swap out unused apps just like other OS:s.
Re:Name change (Score:5, Interesting)
I would guess either a) They are waiting to change the name with 0.6 -or- b) They are testing the patience of Phoenix Technologies [phoenix.com]
Either way, I don't like the idiotic request from PT. It's not like these two are competing technologies. And phoenix is a generic word. What are they going to do next? Patent the word "Technologies"?
In any event. Phoenix is a straight up IE killer, and it's all that matters.
Re:Differences from K-Meleon Browser? (Score:5, Interesting)
and am wondering why phoenix gets so much more press.
IIRC KM was almost dead for quite a time. Both browsers are more or less the same. Phoenix uses XUL for its interface, KM doesn't. KM uses its own scripting that is very easy to do, so KM becomes easily costumizable by everybody. I use Phoenix now, because KM repeatedly crashed, and it corrupted also my bookmarks-file (especially letters like ä, ö, ü, etc and arabic or chinese characters were rendered unreadable (I use one bookmark-file for all browsers).
Re:Pheonix vs Mozilla on Win32 (I prefer mozilla) (Score:4, Interesting)
Yep, exactly... people are whining because Mozilla doesn't start as fast as IE because its binary is 2x the size and actually takes much longer to be loaded off disk. Quicklaunch just adds that same amount of delay to the startup time after you log into your computer by preloading the massive binary. Phoenix on the other hand seems to take about as long to load the first time from a cold boot as IE does. And if you already have pheonix loaded it takes steps to speed it up even more and spawns a new thread from the existing browser.
My guess is that the work pattern is different on a Win32 desktop, and that you normally start an app, use it, then close it before you start another. Is it due to the lack of virtual desktops, or some other UI-related issue? I would not think it's resources, as Windows should swap out unused apps just like other OS:s.
My guess is that you're right about the work pattern. In older versions of windows resource handling was so poor that it seemed common to close apps when you weren't using them - of course this is all fixed now - but here's the rub: with quicklaunch enabled you aren't even conserving resources by closing Mozilla! Also worth noting is that virtual desktops are available as a powertoy for XP... but again the work pattern issue rises - people don't know how to use a modern system effectively.
Who knows, maybe people will wise up eventually.
Free software for creating ICO images (Score:3, Interesting)
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 [google.com] turn up a whole bunch of $20-$30 products before this GPL tool for windows and linux [winterdrache.de]?
Re:Anti-Aliased Fonts for Phoenix on Linux/i386 (Score:1, Interesting)
Windows/Linux sizes? (Score:1, Interesting)
Is Phoenix as small as it's going to get?
No, we have plenty more to trim out and we're slowly getting to it. Our current targets are 5mb for Windows and between 7 and 8mb for Linux,
Just what is it that makes the Linux apps so much bigger (openoffice.org also springs to mind)?
Re:Performance improvements (Score:2, Interesting)
-Kaplan
Re:Windows/Linux sizes? (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Re:slashdot front page big fonts? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
My unscientific benchmark (Score:2, Interesting)
On Windows XP SP1 with a wireless connnection to a DSL gateway:
Startup time and RAM used on launch of about:blank as homepage:
IE 6.0 SP1 (IE) - ~ 1 sec - 1,258 KB
Phoenix 0.5 - ~ 1 sec - 2,712 KB
Mozilla 1.2.1 - ~ 2 sec - 15,568 KB
Open time and RAM used to launch Slashdot:
IE - ~2 sec - 8,272 KB
Phoenix - ~2 sec - 13,044 KB
Mozilla - ~3 sec - 17, 676 KB
Conclusion:
Who cares! They are all fast enough, the RAM usage doesn't seem to make a difference. If you don't like IE, there are any number of alternatives. I just wish they all shared favorites/bookmarks. God, it's not rocket science, it's only hyperlink's. Even Phoenix and Mozilla don't share bookmarks, how messed up is that.
Re:Modern theme (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:My Phoenix is Hiding in the Ashes (Score:3, Interesting)
Not what I'd expected to spend the morning doing, but I learned something about the way mozilla/phoenix do things and its always a Good Thing to learn new stuff.