Is the new Vivaldi browser a genuine alternative to Chrome and Firefox?

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Is the new Vivaldi browser a genuine alternative to Chrome and Firefox?

If you’re a high volume web user, by that we mean one of those guys who opens tab, after tab, after tab when browsing the web, the new Vivaldi browser could be for you.

Its creator, Jon von Tetzchner is the co-founder and former CEO of the Opera web browser and claims Vivadi offers a solution to users who have difficulty fitting all their open tabs on one screen.

The Vivaldi browser is available to download as a technical preview on Windows, Mac and Linux.

At first site, Vivaldi looks like a more minimalist version of say Google Chrome or Firefox and is even a little similar to the early examples of Microsoft’s new Spartan browser.

Read more: http://tech.thaivisa.com/new-vivaldi-browser-genuine-alternative-chrome-firefox/3467/

[BB1950]

No extension support yet.

[rabid old goat]

thanks for this. also check their social networking site http://vivaldi.net to replace the one opera ditch some time ago now

[rabid old goat]

can confirm that it works in tahrpup64:

unpacked the deb to /mnt/sda8/x using archive manager in tahrpup64
then started it in a terminal from within its directory /mnt/sda8/x/opt/vivaldi/
with
./vivaldi user-data-dir /mnt/sda8/x

still figuring out how to migrate the profile from opera12

[Xircal]

Firefox forever! You don't have to open loads of tabs and can arrange them as tiles on one tab: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/new-tab-page-show-hide-and-customize-top-sites

Also, there are countless free add-ons, more than any other browser: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

In addition, plenty of tutorials around in case you get stuck: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/firefox

There's even a free integrated chat utility! https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/firefox/firefox-hello-webrtc

What more could you ask for?

[rabid old goat]

Firefox forever! You don't have to open loads of tabs and can arrange them as tiles on one tab: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/new-tab-page-show-hide-and-customize-top-sites

both opera and vivaldi can do this

Also, there are countless free add-ons, more than any other browser: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

possibly but does opera/vivaldi really need them

In addition, plenty of tutorials around in case you get stuck: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/firefox

never felt the need for any tutorials to use opera

There's even a free integrated chat utility! https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/firefox/firefox-hello-webrtc

old hat opera has this to along with torrent client and other stuff eg dragon fly html inspector, notes, etc. all preinstalled

What more could you ask for?

well thats simple , a browser that doesent have to comply with usa privacy invasion laws and snooping requirement.

yes, firefox comes pre installed in my linux os but i rarely use it. opera is so much better and i guess vivaldi will be too

[AyG]

Until it can remove unwanted content, either natively or through an extension, it's not an option for me. However, it works fine and seems pretty fast.

[wpcoe]

So far, I like it as an updated alternate to my trusty, but increasingly out-of-date, Opera 12. As time goes on, more and more sites don't display properly in Opera 12 or simply won't open at all.

Vivaldi keeps most (all?) of the shortcuts that are muscle memory for me: <shift+click> to open in new tab in the foreground (in addition to the more common <ctrl+click> to open in new tab in the background,) <F4> to open the side panel with bookmarks, option to click left edge of window to open panel with bookmarks, etc.

It's only a beta version, so it's definitely not a smooth, polished experience yet, but shows promise, IMHO.

I've tried the "modern" versions of Opera (i.e. versions after 12.x) and Comodo Dragon, but neither of them seem to "check all the boxes" for me. Ditto for Firefox. I do like the "virtual browser" feature of Dragon which operates in a fully sandboxed mode if you also use Comodo's firewall.

Edited January 30, 2015 by wpcoe

[rabid old goat]

Until it can remove unwanted content, either natively or through an extension, it's not an option for me. However, it works fine and seems pretty fast.

yes you are on the internet site that most needs it.

opera12 can do and does it well. cant see how to do it in vivaldi yet.

[IMHO]

JAWB = Just Another Webkit Browser

[rabid old goat]

Not 100% Compatible With YouTubes' HTML5 Video Player

Yes it is.

Please take into account that most websites will not properly detect Vivaldi as a browser. Its running Chromium 40 under the hood so its impossible that its not compatible with HTML5 technologies. Ignore what the pages tells you, its because it can't detect some codecs.

I watched Youtube videos today fine. At first it said it could not load the plugin but I reloaded the page and it worked after that.

That page is complaining about some missing codecs support, this could be maybe not included with Vivaldi for licensing reasons, not sure, but HTML5 videos should work fine without them as well. The codec H.264 requires licensing. I remember Opera Chromium just recently added support for H.264 and its still missing for MSE & H.264

[h90]

Firefox forever! You don't have to open loads of tabs and can arrange them as tiles on one tab: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/new-tab-page-show-hide-and-customize-top-sites

both opera and vivaldi can do this

Also, there are countless free add-ons, more than any other browser: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

possibly but does opera/vivaldi really need them

In addition, plenty of tutorials around in case you get stuck: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/firefox

never felt the need for any tutorials to use opera

There's even a free integrated chat utility! https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/firefox/firefox-hello-webrtc

old hat opera has this to along with torrent client and other stuff eg dragon fly html inspector, notes, etc. all preinstalled

What more could you ask for?

well thats simple , a browser that doesent have to comply with usa privacy invasion laws and snooping requirement.

yes, firefox comes pre installed in my linux os but i rarely use it. opera is so much better and i guess vivaldi will be too

And in my opinion Firefox get fatter and fatter. It was better in the past.

[AyG]

Its running Chromium 40 under the hood

I'm pretty sure this isn't strictly true. It's running the Blink rendering engine (a fork of Webkit) under the hood. This is the same rendering engine as Chromium uses, but that is where the relationship ends.

And on a different note, one feature I hadn't spotted when I first (briefly) tried Vivaldi is the way that the tabs change colours according the colours on the web page you're viewing. A bit weird, really. Not sure if I like this or not. But at least it can be turned of as a feature.

Edited February 2, 2015 by AyG

[rabid old goat]

Its running Chromium 40 under the hood

I'm pretty sure this isn't strictly true. It's running the Blink rendering engine (a fork of Webkit) under the hood. This is the same rendering engine as Chromium uses, but that is where the relationship ends.

And on a different note, one feature I hadn't spotted when I first (briefly) tried Vivaldi is the way that the tabs change colours according the colours on the web page you're viewing. A bit weird, really. Not sure if I like this or not. But at least it can be turned of as a feature.

i was surprised if not a little annoyed when i saw that posted there at vivaldi forum but the guy seemed to know what he was saying and certainly more than i, no one seem to query it there. so i posted it here for the info of others. i also defer to your knowledge on the subject. i dont claim to know these things.

[rabid old goat]

another clip from the forum https://vivaldi.net/forum/vivaldi-browser-for-linux/1156-flash-player

Vivaldi and all other Chromium based browsers will now only show flash if you have the 64bit pepper flash plugin. This means you must be running a 64bit version of Linux. Get pepper flash from the repository for your Linux distribution.

i can view utube without installing anything

Edited February 2, 2015 by rabid old goat

[rabid old goat]

another clip from the forum https://vivaldi.net/forum/vivaldi-browser-for-linux/1156-flash-player

Vivaldi and all other Chromium based browsers will now only show flash if you have the 64bit pepper flash plugin. This means you must be running a 64bit version of Linux. Get pepper flash from the repository for your Linux distribution.

i can view utube without installing anything

i did download from http://www.adobe.com/go/getflash with vivaldi but didnt install. dont think i will as i think the html5 is working ok. unless the download auto installed somehow.

at http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ mouse over says "this plugin is not supported"

cant see video at sanook though

Edited February 2, 2015 by rabid old goat

[rabid old goat]

https://wiki.debian.org/PepperFlashPlayer

Pepper Flash Player is maintained by Google, and is newer than Adobe Flash Player. Adobe currently still provides security fixes for Adobe Flash Player. Google provides newer features in Pepper Flash Player. Pepper Flash Player can currently only be used with Chromium (and with Chrome).

that 's me out

[AyG]

Vivaldi and all other Chromium based browsers will now only show flash if you have the 64bit pepper flash plugin. This means you must be running a 64bit version of Linux. Get pepper flash from the repository for your Linux distribution.

"Vivaldi and all other Chromium based browsers will now only show flash if you have the 64bit pepper flash plugin." is utter tripe. I most certainly don't have a "pepper flash plugin" in either Chrome or Vivaldi and both play Flash content perfectly well. No plugin required.

As for Youtube, they've switched from providing content as Flash to providing it through HTML5 which is supported by most modern browsers.

Flash is basically going the way of the dodo: Adobe is no longer developing it, apart from providing security fixes.

[rabid old goat]

Re: utter tripe: attached

(aside i havent put the required font into this distro thats why there are rectangles instead of thai script in places)

Edited February 4, 2015 by rabid old goat

[AyG]

Re: utter tripe: attached

(aside i havent put the required font into this distro thats why there are rectangles instead of thai script in places)

The first image simply says that the plugin isn't supported. It's not possible to tell from the image what kind of plugin that is referred to. It could be something like Silverlight or Java. Not sure what to think about the second one.

Anyway, Vivaldi definitely does support Flash, at least on my platform, as this screenshot confirms:

[rabid old goat]

"The first image simply says that the plugin isn't supported. It's not possible to tell from the image what kind of plugin that is referred to. It could be something like Silverlight or Java. Not sure what to think about the second one."

it is definitely flash that is failing for me

[rabid old goat]

your vivaldi is accessing the adobe flash player for chrome.

i dont have this flashplayer installed as i dont run chrome or chromium

Edited February 4, 2015 by rabid old goat

[rabid old goat]

newer now available linux amd64 https://vivaldi.com/download/Vivaldi_TP2_1.0.94.2_amd64.deb

Edited February 10, 2015 by rabid old goat

[koo wallety tourist]

New snapshot 1.0.105.7 - Now also with 32 bit Linux

search it.

Edited February 17, 2015 by koo wallety tourist

[koo wallety tourist]

extensions and adblock https://vivaldi.net/en-US/forum/vivaldi-browser/964-adblock-in-vivaldi

[koo wallety tourist]

new

#curl -O -k https://vivaldi.com/download/download.php?f=vivaldi-snapshot_1.0.111.2-1_amd64.deb