Vivaldi 2.0 Desktop Browser Featuring Expanded Customization, Sync Across Devices and Privacy Tools Released [Q&A With Founder] (vivaldi.com) 67
Vivaldi announced Wednesday it has released a major update to its namesake desktop web browser, remaining as one of the rare companies that is still attempting to fight Google's monopoly in the space. Major features in Vivaldi 2.0 include: Syncing browsers across computers:Version 2.0 allows users to sync data, including bookmarks, passwords, autofill information, and history. Vivaldi uses its own servers to store the data, which is all encrypted end-to-end.
Panels: These are expandable, multi-tasking dashboards that can be opened in the sidebar.
Tab management: Additional features are included that allow for better searching through tabs, stacking them, and even renaming them.
History: Offers new ways to track your usage, including generating statistics and a visual history feature. Vivaldi was founded by Jon von Tetzchner, who also co-founded Opera and served as its chief executive for a number of years. Jon has been vocal about what many find unfair tactics employed by Google and Microsoft to aggressively expand the user bases of their respective browsers. Slashdot had a chance to speak with Jon recently: Slashdot: One of the biggest complaints that people have about browsers today is just how much memory they consume. Is it a lost-cause? What is Vivaldi doing to address this?
Jon: This is very true. Browsers can use a lot of memory. We have worked hard to reduce that load. The most important thing we have done there is the lazy loading of tabs. When you have a lot of tabs, you use a lot of memory, but with Vivaldi, we will only load the tabs once you need them. We also have the ability to hibernate background tabs, by right clicking the tab bar, which will free up a lot of memory. Besides this we are always looking at how to make the browser use less memory and be faster. There is a lot of details there, but with the feedback from our users, we continue to improve every single part of the browser.
Slashdot: You are offering a browser, and a web email client and service provider. Is Vivaldi attempting to offer a catalog of services? And if so, what more could we expect from the company in the long-term?
Jon: The focus for us is the browser, but we believe the browser should be able to do more than it does today, so we will continue to expand on the features we offer in the browser. We have been open about the fact that we aim to provide an email client in the browser, but that will come in the future, but we are, as you pointed out, providing the free email service. This is in addition to our free blog, forums and sync service. We feel there is a need for these services, free from ads and free from building of super profiles. Our free webmail service is thus without ads and we do not scan mails, except for spam and viruses. We will continue to add services to support the browser or where we feel a service supplements the browser in a good way.
Slashdot: You have been vocal about some of the tactics Google and Microsoft use to promote their own browsers. Following the news cycle, we don't think things have changed much. What's your view on it?
Jon: No, sadly things have not changed much. Microsoft continues to push their browser in their operating system, at times taking over the default browser as well. They also block competing browsers on their Windows 10S. Google sadly blocks some competing browsers from using their services, even browsers such as Vivaldi, that is based on Chromium. We need to change our identity when visiting many Google services. I guess my feeling is that those large companies should not and should not need to behave this way.
Slashdot: Chrome continues to be a market leader. Firefox, despite some of its recent changes, has lost some of the market. How hard is it for a browser company to survive these days? And why is it important that someone continues to fight back?
Jon: We all know that browser choice is a good thing, even more so than for most other products. The browser is your view into the Internet and we all spend a lot of time there. Healthy competition means product innovation and lower prices (this is not only about the price of the product, but also what you have to give up in other ways, such as your private information). Monopolies tend slow down innovation and also there is a tendency for them to use their position in one market to attack another.
It is not trivial to compete with these large corporations, but it is something we enjoy. We fight for our users and for the future of the Internet. That is definitely something worth fighting for.
Slashdot: Are you folks still working on a mobile browser?
Jon: Indeed we are. We aim to get it out there as soon as we can. We are ramping up the team after then 2.0 release to move faster. Further reading: The Next Web, and VentureBeat.
Panels: These are expandable, multi-tasking dashboards that can be opened in the sidebar.
Tab management: Additional features are included that allow for better searching through tabs, stacking them, and even renaming them.
History: Offers new ways to track your usage, including generating statistics and a visual history feature. Vivaldi was founded by Jon von Tetzchner, who also co-founded Opera and served as its chief executive for a number of years. Jon has been vocal about what many find unfair tactics employed by Google and Microsoft to aggressively expand the user bases of their respective browsers. Slashdot had a chance to speak with Jon recently: Slashdot: One of the biggest complaints that people have about browsers today is just how much memory they consume. Is it a lost-cause? What is Vivaldi doing to address this?
Jon: This is very true. Browsers can use a lot of memory. We have worked hard to reduce that load. The most important thing we have done there is the lazy loading of tabs. When you have a lot of tabs, you use a lot of memory, but with Vivaldi, we will only load the tabs once you need them. We also have the ability to hibernate background tabs, by right clicking the tab bar, which will free up a lot of memory. Besides this we are always looking at how to make the browser use less memory and be faster. There is a lot of details there, but with the feedback from our users, we continue to improve every single part of the browser.
Slashdot: You are offering a browser, and a web email client and service provider. Is Vivaldi attempting to offer a catalog of services? And if so, what more could we expect from the company in the long-term?
Jon: The focus for us is the browser, but we believe the browser should be able to do more than it does today, so we will continue to expand on the features we offer in the browser. We have been open about the fact that we aim to provide an email client in the browser, but that will come in the future, but we are, as you pointed out, providing the free email service. This is in addition to our free blog, forums and sync service. We feel there is a need for these services, free from ads and free from building of super profiles. Our free webmail service is thus without ads and we do not scan mails, except for spam and viruses. We will continue to add services to support the browser or where we feel a service supplements the browser in a good way.
Slashdot: You have been vocal about some of the tactics Google and Microsoft use to promote their own browsers. Following the news cycle, we don't think things have changed much. What's your view on it?
Jon: No, sadly things have not changed much. Microsoft continues to push their browser in their operating system, at times taking over the default browser as well. They also block competing browsers on their Windows 10S. Google sadly blocks some competing browsers from using their services, even browsers such as Vivaldi, that is based on Chromium. We need to change our identity when visiting many Google services. I guess my feeling is that those large companies should not and should not need to behave this way.
Slashdot: Chrome continues to be a market leader. Firefox, despite some of its recent changes, has lost some of the market. How hard is it for a browser company to survive these days? And why is it important that someone continues to fight back?
Jon: We all know that browser choice is a good thing, even more so than for most other products. The browser is your view into the Internet and we all spend a lot of time there. Healthy competition means product innovation and lower prices (this is not only about the price of the product, but also what you have to give up in other ways, such as your private information). Monopolies tend slow down innovation and also there is a tendency for them to use their position in one market to attack another.
It is not trivial to compete with these large corporations, but it is something we enjoy. We fight for our users and for the future of the Internet. That is definitely something worth fighting for.
Slashdot: Are you folks still working on a mobile browser?
Jon: Indeed we are. We aim to get it out there as soon as we can. We are ramping up the team after then 2.0 release to move faster. Further reading: The Next Web, and VentureBeat.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Opera in its heyday was outstanding. Get back to making a power browser that is setting the trend, not following it.
Did you actually look at the feature set (Score:5, Informative)
no, didn't think so
Re: (Score:1)
so can you right click an element and say"block this" yet? nope... i can do it in opera...
Re: (Score:2)
So what you are saying is that the browser doesnt need this feature because you can trust random people instead.
Re: (Score:2)
Opera in its heyday was outstanding. Get back to making a power browser that is setting the trend, not following it.
AKA a market leader. Here's another market leader, IE (AKA Over the Edge) right now:
... soon, and without fail!
... for I am their LEADER!
Have you seen them?
Which way did they go?
I MUST find them!
Link [combat.ws]
Did you even look at the feature set? (Score:5, Informative)
Oh yes, a Chrome clone because Chrome has
Tab stacking
Tab tiling
Web panels
Notes
Advanced themeing support
Full page image capture
Customizable keyboard shortcuts
Mouse gestures
Quick commands
History in Calendar view with stats and graphs
Oh wait, it doesn't
Re:Did you even look at the feature set? (Score:5, Informative)
It can't be a Chrome clone, because it doesn't keep you logged into Google when you clear cookies ;-)
https://fossbytes.com/chrome-d... [fossbytes.com]
Re: (Score:1)
Yes. It can be a ressource hog. But Vivaldi has a better way of managing the memory, and can even "hibernate" tabs, which remove them from memory. So, better than Chrome here.
Also, for the features, everybody is different. But the mouse gesture are awesome for me. Also, being able to show a splited view of two tabs at the same time can be a real time saver. But YMMV
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Did you ever use Opera? I mean really?
Because I was a paying customer back before... was it 3.5?
They have literally changed the Vivaldi icon THREE times in the last two years. They have put in all kind of nonsense theming. But still, it's "just a browser".
Despite a preview version being released with an email client in it "by mistake".
Opera was also a torrent downloader, an RSS feed reader, IMAP/POP mail client, and a bunch of other things. Also not present in Vivaldi. Hell, if you do a laundry list of
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Installing on a mac (Score:4, Informative)
If you're using a Mac on the desktop, and use Homebrew Cask [github.com] to install software with a quick terminal command, know that I've just submitted a pull request [github.com] so this new version can be quickly installed.
Anyway -- I did not expect them to keep living, but I'm really happy that these guys keep on chugging along, and getting ready for the next version. A couple of years ago it seemed that Chrome was the be-all and end-all of browsers. However, lately Google is turning up the profiling dial and I moved to Firefox and when I need the engine, Vivaldi.
Why Vivaldi? (Score:2)
What is their purpose in producing Vivaldi? Do they make money? How?
What privacy issues does Vivaldi have?
tails of a Vivaldi user.. (Score:1)
I've used just about every browser over the years going back to Mosiac. Lately none of them really have everything Firefox pre XUL deprecation. There is a shit tonne of crap that goes on behind the scenes, much of which are not caught by uBO or uM. Vivaldi is really no different.
There are things I like aboute Vivaldi like the tab management, but a lot drives me crazy too. It crashes, often usually overnight but some sites like Twitch eat the thing for lunch (scrolling their directory for example).
Proprietary. (Score:1)
This does rule it out for me. Plus: "we believe the browser should be able to do more than it does today" (Jon von Tetzchner) -- this sounds to me rather like a menace. Thanks, but no, thanks.
I want to *know positively* that my MUA (mail user agent, aka "email client") won't be interpreting (or compiling) random Javascript snippets from there and yonder, be them from Google, Microsoft or Vivaldi's "services".
Sorry, not my browser. Missed by a far margin.
Re: (Score:2)
The most recent version available there is 1.15.1147 — not the 2.x being discussed... Maybe, it is just the site-maintainer's oversight, of course.
Still no good bookmark menu? (Score:2)
That is basically the only thing I really want. Other than that, Vivaldi is a good browser, but bookmarks are clunky.
Please just take the bookmark-menu of Opera 12.x and implement the same functionality into Vivaldi. Thanks.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, the bookmark menu was added a couple versions ago (it took a while though). Seems to be pretty similar to what it was in opera 12.x.
Re: (Score:2)
Oops, you are correct! I was using a not-quite so clunky addon and never noticed the new menu on top of the window.
This is pretty much what I wanted. Thanks for pointing it out to me!
Re: (Score:2)
Somebody asked me about bookmarks the other day and I realized I don't even use bookmarks. I either just type the name of the site I want to visit, or follow a link from my RSS reader. Sometimes I just do a search in Google. At the end of the day, typing a search term into Google is usually faster than navigating a hundred bookmarks. The browsers remember URLs and with autocomplete for the URLs you visit a lot. A bookmarks feature would have to be much more feature rich to have any real use. Something li
Re: (Score:3)
Opera uses Chromium's Blink now..... so disappointing, for those of us trying to avoid Google and Chromium.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, Chromium is better than Chrome.
Why different? (Score:2)
Please, elaborate more on differences with Chrome and Firefox. Besides the name, of course.
Re: (Score:3)
Firefox works if your OS is more than a year old, so that's one.
Re: (Score:2)
Firefox is not now XP compatible
It's been a pig on that platform for the last year though, load one simple webpage and it starts taking up 50% or more of CPU, and a GB of RAM.
FFS.
Used to be lean and mean. Now bloated clumsy and annoying.
Bollocks to their servers (Score:2)
Fuck that. Why can't I sync it to my usb drive?
Without frigging about at the OS level, I mean.
Make it a subscription browser (Score:4, Insightful)
Do like Netflix.
A few bucks a month subscription give you no adds for any provider content. Content providers are paid by views.
Win.
Re: (Score:2)
This is just increase the gap between smaller and larger sites.
Larger sites will be able to sign up and get their cut. Smaller sites will find it too expensive - the infrastructure to manage paid up users, record views accurately, audits etc. Smaller sites will have to stick with ads, making it even harder to compete.
Plus it would give yet another entity visibility of your browsing habits.
For a scheme like this to work it would need to be decentralised.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't see this as particularity worse than things are now. This idea may not be a perfect solution but I'm not so sure leaving the entire financial foundation of the internet to an industry whos entire goal is to manipulate human physiology is such a great idea either.
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Re: (Score:1)
Ublock origin, foxy proxy, stylus and RES seem to work without issue, I guess there must be something in the extensions API that doesn't work but I couldn't find it.
Does Vivaldi still phones home ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Does Vivaldi still phones home every 24h as per https://vivaldi.com/privacy/browser/ ?
I still won't use it.
Re:Does Vivaldi still phones home ? (Score:5, Funny)
Just use your firewall it block Vivaldi's access to the internet. Problem solved.
Re: (Score:2)
Just use your firewall it block Vivaldi's access to the internet. Problem solved.
If only I had mod points to give. I'd definitely mod "insightful" and not "funny."
Chrome Clone (Score:2)
Just Chrome with a few bits tacked on.
License (Score:2)
No question about license?
Disappointing.
Vivaldi is base an open source Blink engine.
Why not open source Vivaldi also.
How can yet another proprietary browser really compete against Chrome/Chromium or Firefox?
Re: (Score:2)
The LICENSE file bundled inside the source tarball seems BSD (3-clause).
Source is available [vivaldi.com] — at least, for the earlier versions.
One of the subdirectories inside the vivaldi-source_1.15.1147.tar.xz is vivaldi-source/chromium... It is also the only directory of any size. Maybe, version 2.0 — for which there is no source code (yet?) — is differe
Slashdot Browser when? (Score:2)
Why, if they made a browser, it'd be the bestest thing and everyone would 100% love it.
Yet, you all don't make one. I wonder why that is?