Opera's Ex-CEO Launches Vivaldi 1.0 For Power Users 135
Opera co-founder and former CEO Jon von Tetzchner on Wednesday launched the v1.0 of Vivaldi browser. Vivaldi v1.0, which is aimed at "power users", is available to download from the company's website for Windows, OS X, and Linux platforms. The Norway, Oslo company has been working on it since 2013. Vivaldi offers a range of features such as support for Chrome extension, Tab Stacks, Rewind and Fast Forward, and built-in support for custom keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures. There are plenty of other handy tools including the ability to check how much data a Web page has consumed in real time.
When will Mozilla wake up?! (Score:1, Insightful)
The real question should be, When the hell will Mozilla wake up to the reality they're facing?!
The browser stats from March 2016 are now available, and they show that Firefox has only about 7% of the browser market [caniuse.com]. That's across all desktop and mobile platforms that they support, too.
To put that into perspective, it's about half of each of the most recent versions of desktop Chrome. It's about half of Chrome for Android. It's close to individual versions of other browsers, including IE 11, iOS Safari 9.2.
Re: When will Mozilla wake up?! (Score:4, Interesting)
And yet despite its problems it runs smoother for me than chrome. With the devtools open Firefox is significantly faster. I was really surprised and only found this out when having a look at the Developer Edition of Firefox, but it is now my default browser.
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And yet despite its problems [Firefox] runs smoother for me than chrome.
Your experience and mine are very different. The JS engine and a lot of the rendering for graphical elements are horribly slow in Firefox compared to any other major desktop browser today. Even IE11 is much faster at some things. I've spent much of the past few months with actual profiling data trying to find out why, and there's no single big issue. Firefox simply has awful performance for some functionality that comes up a lot when you're doing web apps.
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Electrolysis is mostly about solving a different problem, I think, though perhaps it will have some consequential benefits for general performance as well.
What I really want is a Firefox that can manage to do a smooth CSS animation without a jump on the final frame, and render SVGs with more than a few elements at useful speeds, and manipulate video elements without triggering weird buffering and skipping effects, and so on. It's basically impossible to design a smooth, professional-looking UI that runs wel
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I'm a professional web developer, among other hats I wear, so I use all of the major browsers regularly. Unfortunately, the users of the web sites and apps I write can choose whatever browser they want in most cases, so I'm often limited to the least common denominator in terms of functionality or performance requirements. And that least common denominator is Firefox an awful lot of the time these days.
In case you're interested, Chrome really is much better on performance with a lot of these newer features,
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Yet despite this ever-increasing competition, and the ever-dwindling number of Firefox users, we don't see Mozilla making the drastic changes they should be making.
Which are these changes, by the way? Is it adjusting their interface and functionality to act and feel like chrome? Because that certainly already happened and only served to alienate their loyal userbase further. Mozilla is a non-profit organization which doesn't have Google's marketing behemoth on their side, they rely entirely on word of mouth. Google is the most visited website in the world and can afford to offer a "faster, safer browser!" to everyone visiting their page, even if we know it's complete
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Ads alone won't cause somebody to install Chrome. Ads alone won't cause that person to then continue using Chrome
You're overestimating the average computer user. If they get tricked into installing Chrome somehow (bundled installers, etc., really not hard), and Chrome sets itself as the default browser, I'm sure there is a not insignificant number of people who don't notice the change, or can't figure out how to get back to what they were using before, and continue on.
This is Slashdot. We tend to know our shit around here, but we're a small minority of the population.
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1. Ditch the UI designers. They clearly haven't helped improve Firefox. It's better to have programmers creating UIs than designers.
I don't even give a shit about the UI if it runs bad. Once everything is perfect, they can change the UI all they want, without affecting performance and functionality.
Use modern C++ techniques, which render Rust irrelevant.
I'm glad someone said it. If you follow C++14 standards, there is no reason for Rust to exist anymore.
7. Actually finish the goddamn multi-process work. It has been going on for years now.
Multi-process is being treated like an optional "maybe we'll include this at some point if it is perfect" feature. Instead they should release a beta with multi-process (main Firefox beta, not electrolysis). People will use it and file bugs a
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When it seems like virtually all the major browsers are busy becoming Chrome, it's not unreasonable to say that one of them should start making what *I* want--i.e. not-Chrome.
Way to misinterpret stats... (Score:2)
Site: http://gs.statcounter.com/ [statcounter.com]
Firefox has been dropping, but very slowly and it's still pretty consistent at around 15% or so of the market, Most of Chrome's growth has been at the hands of other browsers, I.E. in particular. The odds of Vivaldi making a significant dent in Firefox is small, it's more likely t
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As far as I know, you can only install Chrome extensions in Vivaldi by typing in the internal extensions page address, enabling developer mode and then manually downloading and adding each extension.
You sure don't know much, then. Vivaldi has an Extensions page (Tools -> Extensions or Ctrl-Shift-E) which has a "Get more extensions" link to the Chrome Store. You install extensions the same way as in Chrome--browse or search the store and click on the "Add to Chrome" button for an extension you want to install. There is no going into developer mode, no manually downloading or installing anything.
The last time I tried Vivaldi, it was a crashy and buggy mess.
Cool story. Given this is the very first 1.0 release, whatever you used was Beta quality at best, as in a n
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As far as I know, you can only install Chrome extensions in Vivaldi by typing in the internal extensions page address, enabling developer mode and then manually downloading and adding each extension.
Then it was a very recent change.
This is not a recent change. The Chrome Store is just a webpage which you can visit, and which treats Vivaldi as if it were Chrome for everything I've tried. You go to it, click on an extension, and it shows the overview for it, including an "Add to Chrome" button. It's been this way since at least November, 5 months ago.
Re:Vivalid kicks the shit out of Firefox. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Wanna really get concerned about it? Open Vivaldi and do a search. It's redirecting all searches through www.vivaldi.rocks.
Open Fiddler up and you'll see all the connections and such. I just sat there with Fiddler scrolling through all the calls Vivaldi was making - it was nuts.
I used it a little in Beta, but I immediately uninstalled it.
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Cannot reproduce.
Perhaps that was only during beta.
How have you reviewed your current browser? (Score:1)
Let's be real here, have you done a complete security audit of whatever browser you're using now? Have you, or even somebody else that you fully trust, checked every single line of code of the browser, plus any third-party libraries it uses? Have you built it yourself from this audited source code, to ensure that the binary you're using actually corresponds to the publicly-available source code? Have you also audited the compiler you're using, to ensure it isn't injecting code into the compiled binaries (li
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Just because you haven't doesn't mean you wouldn't like the ability to at some point in the future.
Oh, and Firefox is open source. So no, not holding Vivaldi to a higher standard.
Oh wait, and Chromium is open source, too. Oops.
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Only 2? (Score:3)
Unfortunately, Tab Stacks is one of the worst Tab implementations I've seen in 16 years. Opera 6 or 7 had a better Tab implementation as you could manage Windows\Tabs from the Panel. Now unless Vivaldi has pulled a rabbit out of their ass, their Panel implementation isn't anywhere near as functional as Opera 7 (from 2003).
They've also been claiming that Vivaldi was going to get an email client for about 3 years now. Hopefu
Opera 4 years later (2012-2016) (Score:3)
Within the last year or so Opera got rid of their Browser Developers from Norway and outsourced to Devs from the Czech Republic. At that point a number of ex-Opera devs went over to Vivaldi. Since then Opera Developer has slowed to a crawl.
I stopped giving a rats ass after Opera sold itself to China.
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There's almost nothing that Vivaldi does, that Opera doesn't, except for Tab Stacks.
I was an Opera 12 aficionado, and resisted Opera Chromium as a long as possible. I tried it but gave up when they made the decision that certain MIME types (such as PDF) would be download-only, removing the ability to open in browser, or even using an external program, and refused to change despite many user complaints.
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It also needs better cookie settings. It only allows you to either accept all cookies or block all. There is no way to whitelist some sites but block by default.
Huh, my version (1.0.403.24 (Beta 3)) has the same options as Chrome, namely a global setting to allow all, block all, or clear on exit; with a hostname-pattern-matching exceptions list. So it can do exactly what you say it needs.
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Not enough to stop me from using it, but pretty annoying.
Why the email client overhead in a browser? (Score:4, Insightful)
.
Since the early days of Netscape, I never saw the logic behind bundling email clients with browsers.
Law of Nature (Score:1)
Zawinski's Law [catb.org]
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Opera's mail client was the best RSS tool ever.
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I already had the repository in my list so I just used apt (I have snapshot installed) and the thing's already expanded to over 140 MB.
*sighs*
I was cock or the walk when I had not one, but two, 40 MB drives.
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I guess they saw an opportunity with Thunderbird's future being as unsure as it is.
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Tired it a few weeks ago (Score:3)
the Linux version and can't get pas the flat fugly GUI.
Re:Tired it a few weeks ago (Score:5, Insightful)
Whether we like it or not Flat and minimalism is in as gradients and skuemorphism where objects and icons look like objects are very outdated to the millennials today and the art professors who teach this stuff to students.
Vivaldi didn't have much of a choice as this crowd would shun anything with gradients, 3d icons, and colors.
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Go with the standard:
http://www.file-extensions.org... [file-extensions.org]
http://xwinman.org/screenshots... [xwinman.org]
http://xwinman.org/screenshots... [xwinman.org]
http://xwinman.org/screenshots... [xwinman.org]
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Go with the standard:
http://www.file-extensions.org... [file-extensions.org]
http://xwinman.org/screenshots... [xwinman.org]
http://xwinman.org/screenshots... [xwinman.org]
http://xwinman.org/screenshots... [xwinman.org]
And of course, you have used the most absurd examples that you think are possible.
"Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler" - Albert Einstein
You unwittingly used examples of engineering stations and scientific applications used to process very complex data. Look at the quote above. The only thing understood today is "simple" to the exclusion of all else.
I went through this with some SAP idiots who while dealing with very complex data insisted on putting everything behind tiny little
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Absurd?
No. The ones I know which worked just fine.
I used MUI + MagicWB because it's an improvement over AmigaOS Workbench but still about the same. Afterstep because Next, NextStep, Steve Jobs and that it was a decent UI. I guess BeOS and OS/2 could had been thrown in too:
http://lowendmac.com/wp-conten... [lowendmac.com]
http://ps-2.kev009.com/michaln... [kev009.com]
CDE because it's the standard(?) or was on Solaris machines(?), I don't know what it replaced if anything.
FVWM is very configurable so I don't know if any of the looks are s
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That's the most hideous and dated GUI I've ever seen except, possibly, for Windows XP or Apple OS9.
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Oh, sorry then, Professor Knuckle Under. I forgot we were supposed to gobble up every stupid fad that gets pushed on us. Please slap me twice in the face, and I will try to be a good sheep from now on.
Re:Tired it a few weeks ago (Score:5, Informative)
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That's funny. I've been wondering what people mean when they say "flat" in reference to things like that. Now I know. I don't mind it but I do have one pet peeve with Vivaldi... Put the damned disable hardware acceleration button back!
It was never there - but it was in the code they got and forked. It's IN Chromium and Opera. I know, 'cause I have to tick the damned thing on two separate boxes with nVidia cards and using the free drivers. I have to! Or the MENU is BLACK and I can't see it. As is the address
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It's a problem because what we have now doesn't resemble what we had 15-20 years ago at all. When they removed all the glitzy effects, they also removed all the other cues that existed previously which helped you navigate around. So while we don't need transparency or flashy animations, we do need to know what's a button that can be clicked on, and what isn't. That's the big difference between something like Windows 10 and Windows 2000.
Fugly UI (Score:2, Interesting)
If this is where user interfaces are going we could have stopped at the Athena Widgets in 1990 and saved ourselves a lot of trouble. If they really wanted something retro they could have used that. I concur with your observation.
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If this is where user interfaces are going we could have stopped at the Athena Widgets in 1990 and saved ourselves a lot of trouble. If they really wanted something retro they could have used that. I concur with your observation.
+1 ( I wish I had points. )
I get the whole minimalist thing, but as usual, it's been taken the the point of absurdity. I predict the next step will be a single white word on a white background with a barely visible graphic of a puff of smoke. That's it. And that will be after a year of "work" by a team of UX "geniuses." I happen to know most of that year is spent playing Clash of Clams and telling each other how smart they are to not actually provide any evidence of any actual effort and still get paid.
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> I happen to know most of that year is spent playing Clash of Clams
Smash Puss!!
- sorry, I had to!
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This browsers GUI is like the sun in your eye when you're driving and its leaks pas the sun visor. It distracts me from the main object which is the main browser window.
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I installed it. There's several options and one of the default choices is fairly sane. Mostly grey, but out of the way.
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The leather in the address book is pretty ugly and so is the book stand in pre IOS 6 for news. It can go both ways.
What looked cool in 1990 was out of this world to show off graphics. That's great we are used to pretty now and of course people like our Mom's who didn't know how to use a computer would see a newstand and a leather for an address book to figure out what these things are for.
This is 2016 and now it is just about information coming back with little distractions to get in the way.
I do not like t
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Slashdotters called Windows XP Fisher-Price and they ran in the far opposite direction. You just can't be pleased.
Fits right in on Windows 10, anyway. Like it or not, at least it fits in. Just need a native UI for each OS.
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That's the same thing I said about Windows 10...
Opera? For power users? (Score:5, Funny)
Wouldn't it have been more appropriate to call it 'Wagner', then? Vivaldi is fairly light-footed and pleasant, whereas Wagner tends to sound like it was written for - and performed by - The Hulk on bad day.
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Yeah, but if you called it Wagner, after a while of using it you'd get the urge to invade Poland.
A new browser possible? (Score:2)
Browsers are extremely complex application launchers and ecosystems thanks to HTML 5, apis, and CSS 3. Even the webcam API is a whole skype like api with compression, algorithms, and other things that are difficult to implement.
Worse, you need a large security team around the clock to fix bugs.
Chrome is here to stay. Of course 15 years ago I said the same with IE 6. IE 6 only mattered as it will always have 90% marketshare so IE 6 CSS and quirks will be with us always ... etc. :-) ... take it back we have
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I've been using Opera since the 1990s. We had to pay for it then. I've used it since, with some exceptions... From version 15 to 23, Opera sucked. At 24 they were usable again. At 28 - 29, they were good again. They're quite nice now. I keep all three versions installed (beta, dev, stable) and use them for various tasks with separated tabs that open by default, shared settings (some), and folders that are saved on the Speed Dial.
Then again...
I've got a half dozen text browsers, Firefox (a couple of versions
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One unresolved issue (Score:2)
I've been using Vivaldi for about 6 months now. This post is made via Vivaldi. One issue I've had and could not find a solution is that of unlocking my saved passwords. In Firefox, you can press a button to see your saved password, and the browser kindly asks "are you sure?". In Vivaldi you don't even have that option. I had to use the built-in inspector to alert() me my password at form submission time since it was remembered and prefilled by the browser.
Other than that, I enjoy it. It's slightly nimbler t
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Go here:
chrome://settings/search#pass
Manage passwords. It's at the bottom. Click that link. Tada!
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You will have to ask them. If you put just one slash in, it adds the second one.
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Thanks for your reply, it's good to know.
That said, I'd like to know how you found that out? Even after searching on the KB, I never saw that option. If I go to Settings and type "pass" in the search box, I do NOT get what you get when going to chrome://settings/search#pass
What. (Score:2)
"One of the things that makes Vivaldi unique is that it is built on modern web technologies. We use JavaScript and React to create the user interface..."
Uhh.
So basically they're writing Firefox on top of Blink instead of Gecko?
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They DO have tab stacking along with their verticle tabs feature, which I tolerate... but it's truly no replacement for the unstacking method used by Tree Style Tabs in Firefox. I would rather them fold downward than pop up as big thumbnails all over the screen. They could greatly improve this feature by allowing users to turn off thumbnails in the tab stack and just having a column of plaintext showing tab names.
Typical new software release comments (Score:2, Offtopic)
The comments for this type of articles always seem to follow the same pattern.
1. There will be more critical than supportive comments. Although for Windows that's understandable.
2. Approximately 200 ACs could have done it better although they never seem to announce when their product will be ready.
Disclaimer: actually posted using Vivaldi but I'm not really a fanatic user of any browser, having 4 installed on the machine I'm currently using.
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I have actually been playing with developing a webkit based browser for about 4 years now. No it will never be released, probably never finished, it's far from a feature rich browser, but has the basic plug-ins, scripting, and cookies controls and is about as usable as IE neither of which I would use regularly. A couple of the libraries I designed for it are in other things and I've used it to test ideas for other projects.
I wouldn't be surprised if the 200 AC you're talking about have a couple projects jus
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It is still there and it had 7 comments when I looked.
To be vaguely on-topic in this thread: are you sure that you are using your browser correctly?
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They're posting this same pointless comment on every story. I don't know why they picked this article to complain about. It's a dupe from yesterday.
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Why are you still worried about not being able to see a dupe from yesterday?
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Geeks only wanted it until flat and minimalist was "in". I guess it's time to bring back the Fisher-Price UIs?
Avant (Score:2)
This reminds me of the Avant browser of some 10-15 years ago. That was basically an embedded IE frame with a super clunky custom UI around it. Sure, it enabled tabbed browsing and some other nifty things to IE at the time, but the overall user experience was clunky as fuck.
The same is true of Vivaldi. It is just another Webkit based browser (think Chrome, Opera, and Safari), but with yet another clunky UI surrounding it. The browser may support some cool new experimental features, but the rendering pipeline
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The UI is actually built on HTML, Javascript, and CSS: the browser itself is actually a webpage (that you can edit), so graphics behavior when doing things like resizing won't be as snappy as native controls. The actual web page rendering is based on Blink [wikipedia.org] and V8 [wikipedia.org] (same as Chrome), which are very fast.
Many (most?) of the "cool new experimental" features are actually old ones that had appeared in the Presto-based Opera browser before it became another Chrome flavor. Tastes vary, and browsers are close to te
Norway, Oslo (Score:2)
Is Norway, Oslo the non-US format for city and state, like DD/MM/YY?
Missing the point (Score:2)
The reason I liked Opera was because it allowed a rich browsing experience with great degree of costumisability and control natively, without needing to install 20 shitty javascript extensions that make a browser slow and unstable. A browser written entirely in shitty js is not a replacement for Opera.
no replacement for Opera 12 (Score:1)
How do you toggle javascript on/off? How do you toggle style sheets on/off? How do you disable positioning?
Fuck you, Vivaldi.
I was going to try it, but not now... apk (Score:1)
See subject: You think like I do, & know how great Opera 12.x & below truly was... massively flexible + powerful. I don't want or need ANYTHING less, & if this is the case with this new browser (the guy coding it's really good imo, no questions asked, but he's probably forced by ''market pressure" or sponsorship to NOT disallow the bringer of all evil, or one of them like JAVA + FLASH too, in javascript - minus scripting, which brings more bs infestation than ANYTHING else (which you THINK they
Too much integrated crap (Score:2)
Not only email, but the linux version *DEMANDS* "cups", i.e printer support. My current Gentoo setup already has Pale Moon and Opera 12.16 installed, and any dependancies they require. Installing Vivaldi would download 83,318 KiB of files, of which 43,955 KiB is actually Vivaldi. The rest would be...
net-dns/libidn-1.30
sys-libs/libcap-2.24-r2
dev-libs/dbus-glib-0.102
app-text/qpdf-5.1.1
dev-libs/libtasn1-4.5
dev-libs/nettle-3.2
dev-scheme/guile-1.8.8-r1
sys-devel/autogen-5.18.4
net-libs/gnutls-3.3.17.1
app-text/popp
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