Phoenix

6 min read Original article ↗

Phoenix is a suite of configurations & advanced modifications for Mozilla Firefox, designed to put the user first - with a focus on privacy, security, freedom, & usability. https://phoenix.celenity.dev

Phoenix

Phoenix is a suite of configurations & advanced modifications for Mozilla Firefox, designed to put the user first - with a focus on privacy, security, freedom, functionality, & usability. A detailed list of Phoenix's features & enhancements can be found here.

Want to join the Phoenix Community?

We'd love to see you over on Matrix (Recommended) and Discord!

Phoenix works by leveraging Firefox's AutoConfig & Enterprise Policies functionality, and is installed on top of your standard, official Firefox installation. This allows us to go above and beyond what a simple user.js file can offer, without the security risks a fork can introduce. For example, forks often fall behind on Firefox updates, which can leave users open to severe, detrimental vulnerabilities. Phoenix's approach allows users to continue receiving immediate updates, directly from Mozilla.

Phoenix's approach also provides users with a seamless experience that is accessible and easy to use. Gone are the days of creating override files, manually keeping track of updates, resetting old preferences, & adding your user.js file to each and every profile you make. Not only is Phoenix the most effective & comprehensive approach to configuring Firefox, it is also the most accessible & easiest to use.

Phoenix's changes to Firefox are carefully considered based on extensive research & studying of Firefox's inner workings. Phoenix is designed to maintain website compatibility and to avoid breakage as much as possible, while still substantially improving privacy & security compared to vanilla Firefox & most other web browsers. For users who are fine with breakage and want to go even further in enhancing their privacy & security, Phoenix also offers an Extended config. This is completely optional and primarily recommended for advanced users. For more information on Phoenix's compatibility with websites and known issues, please see here.

Additionally, Phoenix disables various anti-features & strives to put the user back in control of their browsing experience. Phoenix also includes quality of life enhancements, performance improvements, and other 'goodies' where possible and where it doesn't compromise user privacy or security.

At the end of the day, above all else:

Phoenix is designed from the ground up to always put the user first.

📖Glossary

Click me

💪Motivation

Believe it or not, in the not so distant past, browsers were designed to put the user first. There's a reason that another word to refer to them is user agent...

Sadly, this time has passed. The majority of browser marketshare is now controlled by Google, an ad surveillance company. In all fairness to Google, they do put their customers first - it's just that their customers are the advertisers they siphon data to, not users like you and me. And this is the company behind the engine powering nearly every modern web browser in the world. Talk about a conflict of interest...

Unfortunately, most of the competition is no better - Just take a look at Microsoft & the 800 ad companies they share your data with...

It doesn't have to be this way.

🚀Install

Phoenix currently provides official support for:

  • Android
  • Arch Linux
  • Debian (& derivatives...)
  • Fedora Linux (39-41)
  • NixOS
  • macOS
  • Ubuntu (& derivatives...)

At the moment, only Debian based distributions are that Phoenix is in their official repository.

Take a look at the Repology table.

If your distribution is in the table, you just need to run:

sudo apt install phoenix

If your Debian based distribution is not in the table or you are on the other platforms, please see:

Install

👋Uninstall

For Debian based distribution run:

sudo apt remove phoenix

For the other platforms see:

Unistall

🔥Extended

For advanced users who would like to go above & beyond when protecting their privacy & security, at the cost of occasional breakage, Phoenix offers an Extended config. For a list of features specific to Phoenix Extended, please see here.

See:

Extended

💡Specialized Configs

It should also be noted that Phoenix contains specialized configurations for Apple Maps, Discord, Element, Google Maps, Twitter, and YouTube. These configs are designed to be used in their own, separate Firefox profile, and provide means to safely and easily use these services, like you would any other app on your device.

See:

Specialized Configs

📛Manual Installation

By default, Phoenix is installed & updated via your operating system's package manager. This allows for fast, easy updates & fixes as needed, right with the rest of your system!

However, if this is not desirable for you & your situation, or you would simply like to use Phoenix on an unsupported operating system, you can follow this tutorial:

Manual Installation

🤔Using Extended or a Specialized Config Manually

With a manual installation of Phoenix, if you would like to use Phoenix's Extended config, or one of our specialized configs, you'll need to follow:

Using Extended or a Specialized Config Manually

⚖️Licensing

Phoenix is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later (GPL-3.0-or-later) where applicable.

🏛️Notices

This is not an officially supported Mozilla product. Phoenix is in no way affiliated with Mozilla.

Phoenix is not sponsored or endorsed by Mozilla.

💜Attribution

Huge thank you to the following projects & individuals for making Phoenix possible. Please show them support!

And of course...