URL: http://www.mozillazine.org/weblogs/hyatt/#85471617
Date: Not supplied
A lot of people seem to be missing the point of Phoenix, as evidenced by the
responses on Mozilla News[1] and MozillaZine[2]. Let me emphasize something
here: if you think Mozilla's current UI is acceptable, then you are clearly not
the target audience for Phoenix.
Here is a quiz to test whether or not Phoenix is the right browser for you.
- The link toolbar is:
- critical to my day-to-day use
- vital when using Bugzilla! Doesn't everybody use Bugzilla?
-  link what?
- The sidebar is
- indispensable since i run at 1600x1200 resolution
- not cool enough, since i can't float and dock all my panels and have
splitters between all panels and see web page progress for individual HTML
panels and check my email entirely from within sidebar and...
- a waste of real estate
- Form auto-fill
- is not useful for me unless I can fill out 20 pages of personal information
first
- should just happen automatically
- Downloads
- should take place in a tree view with progress meters in the columns!
- should be clearly visible and understandable.
- Toolbars should
- be dockable to all four corners of the screen, be able to float outside the
window, be fully customizable such that I can make my own custom commands, be
able to edit existing buttons' commands, be able to create my own toolbars, be
able to put toolbars on the same line, and be able to edit the submenus and
context menus of items (including the items on the menu bar) and browse my file
system and cook me dinner and wash my car and walk my dog and do my taxes and
mow my lawn and...
- be customizable within reason
- Composer should
- always come with my browser. I want composer options all over my UI.
Everywhere!
- not be part of a Web browser.
- Mail should
- be part of my browser program. Aren't they the same app? There is a
difference?
- be a separate application.
Now to those people who want the full-blown functionality of the Mozilla trunk,
you can still get that with Phoenix. The idea is to relegate more features to
the "optional add-on" category. If you want the link toolbar or the sidebar or
mouse gestures or any other features, you can download and install them
yourself. I expect Phoenix will have a little add-in manager that will
facilitate this process. There is currently an expectation on the part of an
alarming number of people that every feature implemented by anyone should
automatically be part of the default Mozilla install/download.
Why?
A layered approach scales better. You can then have a browser that can become
as complex as you want to make it, but the choice is left in your hands. The
geek features aren't inflicted on you by default.
Finally, remember that Phoenix's UI is not controlled by Netscape. This is an
opportunity for some of the core Mozilla Navigator developers to build the
browser that they have always wanted to build, without having to compromise the
user interface to satisfy the various conflicting pressures exerted by factions
within Netscape.
[1] http://www.mozillanews.org
[2] http://www.mozillazine.org