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Phoenix

Phoenix is a suite of configurations & advanced modifications for Mozilla Firefox, designed to put the user first.

It is not a simple user.js like you might expect - but it is not a fork either. It is installed on top of your standard Firefox installation.

Phoenix strives to create the best browsing experience possible, and does so through significantly hardening user privacy & security, and protecting user freedom. We also include various other QOL tweaks, performance enhancements, & nice-to-have features where possible.

Important

⚠️ All users are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to check out our Wiki here, especially the Important & Limitations pages!!


Note

This project is hosted on both Codeberg (which will be the primary & preferred place to contribute), & GitHub.

📖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 ot the competition is no better - Just take a look at Microsoft & the 800 ad companies they share your data with...

But it doesn't have to be this way.

⭐Features

See here for a non-exhaustive list of features & enhancements Phoenix provides.

You should also check out our Comparison table, so that you can see what Phoenix offers and how it compares to similar projects in the space.

🚀Install

Phoenix offers easy to use install scripts for various platforms. All you have to do is have Firefox installed & ready, paste the command that corresponds to your platform of choice in your terminal, and you should be good to go. :)

🐧GNU-Linux

Important

⚠️ Firefox Flatpak & Snap packages are currently not supported.

Note

Phoenix only supports 39, 40 and 41 versions of Fedora.

sudo bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://phoenix.celenity.dev/install.sh)"

🍎macOS

Important

⚠️ You must have Homebrew installed, and you must grant Terminal the App Management Permission.

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://phoenix.celenity.dev/install.sh)"

🪟Windows

See Codeberg issue here & GitHub issue here

HELP WANTED!!

👋Uninstall

If Phoenix isn't right for you - no worries! We also have easy to use uninstall scripts. Please be sure to leave us feedback though so we can improve for the future!

🐧GNU-Linux

sudo bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://phoenix.celenity.dev/uninstall.sh)"

🍎macOS

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://phoenix.celenity.dev/uninstall.sh)"

🔥Complete Coverage

Out of the box, Phoenix in its 'base' configuration is already substantially hardened compared to vanilla Firefox & most of its derivatives.

However, we make it a point to balance privacy, security, & usability. We try to avoid breakage where possible.

If you're an advanced user, and would like to go the extra mile, at the cost of mild breakage & a little headache, you can install our Hardened config.

Tip

Unlike our base config, Hardened is profile specific. This means that you can use our hardened config as needed when you desire the extra protection, & revert back to our base through another profile for everything else.

Personally, if you're up for it, I would highly recommend trying out the Hardened config, and setting overrides as needed

Tip

Phoenix makes it very easy to set overrides through your about:config

You can see here for a list of known sites with issues & what you need to toggle to fix them.

Caution

This is not for everyone though, and if you want a 'just works' set-up with no issues or tweaking, just stick to the base config.

To install Hardened

1: Install Phoenix like usual, via the script for your platform of choice above.

2: Locate the Hardened user.js file on your device.

For GNU/Linux users, it is located at:

/etc/firefox/phoenix/userjs/hardened/user.js

For macOS users, it is located at:

/opt/homebrew/opt/phoenix-osx/userjs/macos/hardened/user.js

If you use any of the Firefox-UI-Fix CSS skins, you should instead use use the `user.js file at the following location:

For GNU/Linux users:

/etc/firefox/phoenix/userjs/ui-fix/hardened/user.js

For macOS users:

/opt/homebrew/opt/phoenix-osx/userjs/macos/ui-fix/hardened/user.js

3: Find your profile's directory. This depends on your platform, but an easy way to find it is by navigating to about:profiles, and it'll be the path listed beside Root Directory. For example's sake, we'll say our profile's directory is /home/user/.mozilla/firefox/153acxao.default-release. Yours will probably be different, and you should replace this path on the next step with your actual profile directory's path.

4: Simply move (or copy & paste) your user.js to your profile's directory! You can either drag and drop it manually, or run the command below. For example's sake, we'll say our user.js is located at /etc/firefox/phoenix/userjs/hardened/user.js. Yours may be different, and you should replace this path on the next step with the actual location of your user.js as described above.

mv /etc/firefox/phoenix/userjs/hardened/user.js /home/user/.mozilla/firefox/153acxao.default-release/user.js

Congratulations, you're done. Similar to the rest of the Phoenix project, your hardened config will automatically update with the rest of Phoenix via your package manager, and you can set any overrides you wish through the about:config. You can just sit back, relax, & enjoy.

📛Manual Mode (Not recommended)

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

Caution

This is the set-up we would highly recommend most users stick to if possible.

However, if this is not desirable for you & your situation, or you would simply like to use Phoenix on an unsupported platform, you can manually install Phoenix with the following steps:

1: Download our phoenix.cfg file from here. You can right click and select Save page as from your browser, or you can run the following command in your terminal:

wget https://phoenix.celenity.dev/phoenix.cfg

2: Download phoenix.js from here. You can right click and select Save page as from your browser, or you can run the following command in your terminal:

wget https://phoenix.celenity.dev/defaults/pref/phoenix.js

3: Download policies.json from here. You can right click and select Save page as from your browser, or you can run the following command in your terminal:

wget https://phoenix.celenity.dev/policies.json

4: Locate your Firefox installation directory. This will vary depending on your platform, you can generally find it by navigating to about:support & checking the directory next to Application Binary. For example, on Fedora Linux, I see /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox next to Application Binary. This means our installation directory is /usr/lib64/firefox.

Caution

Unless you're on Fedora Linux, your directory will probably be different, and you should replace this path on the following steps with your actual installation directory's path.

5: Move phoenix.cfg to the root of your installation directory. You can either drag and drop it manually, or run the following command, assuming /usr/lib64/firefox is your installation directory:

sudo mv phoenix.cfg /usr/lib64/firefox/phoenix.cfg

6: For macOS & Flatpak users: If it does not already exist, in the root of your installation directory, create a folder named defaults, and inside this new defaults folder, create another folder titled pref. You can do this manually through your file explorer, or assuming /usr/lib64/firefox is your installation directory (it won't be), you could run the following command:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib64/firefox/defaults/pref

For GNU/Linux users: If it does not already exist, you will want to create a folder named firefox located in your system's etc directory. Inside this firefox folder, create a new folder named defaults, and inside this new defaults folder, create another folder titled pref. This will work regardless of your distribution - even Snaps are supported. You can also just run the command below:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/firefox/defaults/pref

On macOS & GNU/Linux, you'll also want to ensure that the folder you created has proper permissions:

For macOS users: - assuming /usr/lib64/firefox is your installation directory (it won't be)

sudo chmod 744 /usr/lib64/firefox/defaults/pref

For all non-Flatpak GNU/Linux users:

sudo chmod 655 /etc/firefox/defaults/pref

7: Move phoenix.js to the pref folder that you just created. Assuming your installation directory is /usr/lib64/firefox, you can run the following command:

sudo mv phoenix.js /usr/lib64/firefox/defaults/pref/phoenix.js

For all non-Flatpak GNU/Linux users:

sudo mv phoenix.js /etc/firefox/defaults/pref/phoenix.js

8: On macOS & Windows, in the root of your installation directory, create a folder named distribution. You can do this manually through your file explorer, or assuming /usr/lib64/firefox is your installation directory, you can run the following command:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib64/firefox/distribution

GNU/Linux users should instead create a policies folder inside of a firefox folder located in /etc. This will work regardless of your distribution, and even for Snaps.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/firefox/policies

On macOS & GNU/Linux, you'll also want to ensure that the folder you created has proper permissions:

For macOS users: - assuming /usr/lib64/firefox is your installation directory (it won't be)

sudo chmod 744 /usr/lib64/firefox/distribution

For all non-Flatpak GNU/Linux users:

sudo chmod 655 /etc/firefox/policies

9: Finally, those on Windows & macOS should move policies.json to the distribution folder that you just created. Assuming your installation directory is /usr/lib64/firefox, you can run the following command:

sudo mv policies.json /usr/lib64/firefox/distribution/policies.json

GNU/Linux users should instead move policies.json to their /etc/firefox/policies folder they just created.

sudo mv policies.json /etc/firefox/policies/policies.json

Congratulations, you're done. Enjoy Phoenix, and be sure to keep up with updates!

💜Attribution

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

And of course...