A Stealthy Phoenix is just a tad flawed
Granted the premise of Phoenix from local company Bak2U is one we like, there are some issues we faced when we were doing the review of the app that we felt made us hold back slightly in our recommendation for it after spending more time.
One major gripe I had is the lack of uninstaller for Phoenix. As most Mac users know by now, the beauty of most of the popular apps we love is the ease in which they are installed, and also uninstalled should the need arises. None of those Registry BS on some other Operating System where you don’t know what was installed and where they were. Most of Mac apps can be easily dragged into Trash and be done with it. That is not so true with the Phoenix.
The success of the app requires certain background running processes that will monitor and trigger the transmission of the notifications should an illegal use is detected. The files that do that are not in your usual Application folders as that will defeat its purpose. They are so well hidden that when you do a search in Spotlight, you will not find a trace of it. So, how do one go about removing those hidden files should you want to remove the application?
As there weren’t any uninstaller nor instructions given for the review, we had to contact the developers for the instructions, which was swiftly relayed to us. However, they were a set of Terminal commands that only someone with at least basic knowledge of Unix operating system will understand and at least one, required root access before it can be deleted. Unless you know your sudo from your judo, removing Phoenix from your Mac will be a herculean task.
The last thing we want is a bogged down Mac with hidden processes running in the background eating up the Mac’s resources. One app that is comparable in its purpose is Little Snitch by Objective Development which stays in the background sniffing network traffic which required it to put files in various locations. What stands out for Little Snitch is that the installer comes with an uninstaller that is activated in the same screen as the installer. One click and the app is easily uninstalled and associated files are removed.
I would like to think that part of the onus of keeping our Macs clean and safe, belongs to developers whom we trust to give us full value for their applications, be it using it or when we choose not to. Saving us from the guess work and hassle of running Terminal to remove files will be greatly welcome and I’m sure those guys behind Phoenix will improve on the app soon.