Vivaldi, the browser for demanding users that invites change with its special functions

Vivaldi

Lately, there are or are few users who say or say that Mozilla should focus on improving its browser rather than getting into any controversy. Firefox is a great browser, it is a given, and it is still the only open source alternative to Chromium, but it may fall short on features relative to other browsers. One very popular for everything it offers is Vivaldi, a browser that I have been using for a while and, if it does not fail me, I think that Firefox has it difficult to return to being my default browser.

Vivaldi is a young navigator. Its first version was available in 2015, but it was not until April 2016 that it released its first stable version. Therefore, we are facing a browser that is 5-6 years old, depending on when we start counting. It is an option for what is known as "power users", that is, for demanding users, and this is something you understand when you start using everything it has for you.

The bad

But not everything is good. It has a couple of bad things, like that:

  • It is not 100% open source. Vivaldi is not Brave, nor does he pretend to be. But, as explained in su BlogNor is it "closed-source" in its entirety. Vivaldi uses Chromium, and that part is kept open. Then it has its own part that is mainly what gives it an image and its own functions, among which are the notes, the mail client or the ad blocker. It also includes third-party code, and you can see the credits on the page vivaldi: // credits. But we can leave it in that it is exclusive.
  • Use the Chromium engine, and this means that, if we decide to switch to Vivaldi and Firefox disappears, there will only be two real options (Google and Apple engines).

To improve

The worst thing that I have noticed in Vivaldi in recent weeks is that there are things that still need to be polished. For example, I was testing your Pop Out and, I don't know why, open a separate window, not like in Firefox than in the KDE panel, for example, we only see that there is a window even though we continue to see the floating window. That there are two windows is not the end of the world, but it is that the video window sometimes does not stay on top of everything.

I have also seen how some animations do not work 100% smooth on a computer with Intel i3 and 4GB of RAM, but this is only a cosmetic problem. I am confident that this will all improve in the future, but I didn't want to fail to mention it, although the animations can be disabled.

Vivaldi, the best option for demanding users ...

… If we don't mind using Chromium. Vivaldi is a special browser for many, many reasons, such as:

  • Notes (captura de cabecera). De hecho, este artículo lo he escrito en una nota de Vivaldi en un par de semanas. Hay muchas opciones para escribir notas, pero la de este navegador es 100% compatible con el código de Worpress, servicio en donde está alojado Linux Adictos. Cabe mencionar que están sincronizadas, siempre y cuando activemos la sincronización y usemos el navegador en más de un aparato.
  • Mail and Calendar (next to Contacts and RSS). Until I started using Vivaldi, on Linux and Windows I used Thunderbird to manage my mail and my calendars. When I use my computers, most of the time I have the browser open, and having these functions makes things easier for me. As of this writing, this is triggered from vivaldi: // experiments.
  • Split screen (header capture). Although in Firefox it can be done by installing extensions, they are not even close to Vivaldi's native option. For an editor like me, like any student or in many jobs, it is necessary to have a text on one side and an editor on the other. In Firefox I used to use two windows, but to minimize the action I had to do it twice, and the same to make the way back.
  • Panel. On the left (by default) we have the panel where the history, downloads and mail and calendar are, but we can also add services such as Twitter, Telegram or Spotify. We can make the panel floating: it appears when you click and disappears when you click outside of it.

Inoreader on the side panel

  • Double row of tabs. I have to confess that it is something that I do not use much, but the option is worth it. When we open many tabs, other browsers tend to shorten the size of them until we see nothing. In Vivaldi we can stack two on the bottom stack by simply moving one on top of the other (you have to get used to), but we can also stack them by domains.
  • Customization. Vivaldi has settings with many options, so many that it can be confusing, but practically everything is customizable, such as where to put the URL bar or the position of the tabs.
  • Gestures. This is something I use the most in Safari with its Trackpad, but Vivaldi also allows us to use gestures. They are more comfortable with a mouse, since you use the right click to activate them. For example, we can move pages forward or backward by sliding left or right while holding the right click.
  • Your own "Spotlight" (header capture). If we press (Fn) F2 a window similar to Apple's Spotlight or KDE's KRunner will appear. From there we can launch commands, such as creating tab stacks, a note or doing mathematical calculations.
  • Function Take a break. This is not definitive, but it is noteworthy. Bottom left, or with Ctrl +. (period), we can pause everything, including videos and music. It can be used to disconnect and also as a wallpaper.

Take a break

Vivaldi is compatible with Chrome extensions and apps

It is also a positive point that it is compatible with the Chrome Store, which means that Chrome Browser compatible extensions and applications can be installed. This is not something that makes it different, quite the opposite, but that this remains as in other browsers is something positive.

In the end, it is one more option and we have to assess whether what it has to offer is going to serve us and if it is going to be worth the change, because the interface is different and has a lot to configure. I am enjoying its functions, and it is more than likely that it will become my default browser, or at least it will be safe if Firefox loses the north.


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  1.   richo said

    If I had to use a proprietary browser, it would be Vivaldi.