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Topic: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released (Read 28672 times)

Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

The Vivaldi Browser is released. Its from Opera founder von Tetzchner, the guy who did Opera Presto.

Its just a preview. It needs a lot of work.

https://vivaldi.com



Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #1
Let's keep it open. :) We have what's going on with Vivaldi (the company), what's Otter's future and then this, what's up with Vivaldi the browser.

For instance, you could share tips. If you browse to vivaldi:extensions (or about:extensions), you can drag Chrome/Chropera extensions onto the page to install.

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #2
For instance, you could share tips. If you browse to vivaldi:extensions (or about:extensions), you can drag Chrome/Chropera extensions onto the page to install.

Drag them from where? From your own harddrive where you download the extensions first? :yikes:

Which promised feature of Vivaldi are you most looking forward to?

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #3
Drag them from where? From your own harddrive where you download the extensions first?

Well, yes. :P

Which promised feature of Vivaldi are you most looking forward to?

Spatial navigation. Possibly sync if I were to end up using it as a secondary or tertiary browser.

Even though Otter is planning to add modules for various functionalities that used to be integrated in Opera, I'm working on a long, incredibly drawn out process of moving everything but browsing itself into separate applications. I switched to Icedove (Thunderbird) for mail years ago, I've kept my notes in Zim for over a year, I've been using HexChat for IRC for a few weeks, and I'm currently experimenting with QuiteRSS for newsfeeds.

I know I said Otter, but all this applies equally to Vivaldi. My interest in replacements for anything but the core browsing functionality is waning quickly. Only QuiteRSS hasn't quite won me over yet. But perhaps as the saying goes: even if you don't use 3D, all of the best TVs are 3D TVs. Chrome focuses on just the browsing and it's awful at it.

PS I never really used Opera for torrents because its implementation was suboptimal at best. I currently use qBittorrent for that. I used µTorrent on Windows when it was still good.

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #4

Spatial navigation.

Me too, even though I doubt anyone will be able to implement it as well as in Opera. Elinks is equally good, even though not out of the box; it has to be configured for that.


Possibly sync if I were to end up using it as a secondary or tertiary browser.

What's the primary browser?

I maintain browser profiles and I copy them from one machine to another to achieve what sync would do. Vivaldi has a highly suspicious profile, full of stuff that don't make sense.


My interest in replacements for anything but the core browsing functionality is waning quickly.

What is the core functionality for you? Displaying websites?

For me there's pretty much that a browser should be able to do, but displaying websites "correctly" is not necessarily among those functions. If the browser is able to keep the text legible (this is where user fonts, font sizes, and UserCSS become a requirement) and launch plugins on demand, it's good enough as far as displaying websites is concerned.

Further, I want certain things, such as toolbars, buttons, status indicators, keybinds, custom menus, etc. available in convenient places and ways. Lately I am realising I would want to have an indicator when a website tries to place a cookie in the browser. I would automatically refuse all cookies, but if I decide to add the site among my logins or something, I would click that indicator to change site-specific settings. If I remember correctly, IE (of all things) had this indicator, even though the indicator was not a button that would have taken you to settings.

Further, I want the browser window to be an effective window manager, with tiling and cascading, with dragging, detaching, and drag&drop. I want fullscreen to be proper fullscreen and detached windows properly detached. I want panel items to be duplicated as windows. And I want as many about: features to be put into panels as possible. And it would be nice to have e-mail in the same app, because e-mail is also a web protocol (I have my e-mail accounts duplicated in a few apps for now, including old Opera). And I want to take and compose notes. And things that the browser cannot do too well, such as torrent or FTP or IRC, it should be able to redirect to other apps.

As you see, old Opera is irreplaceable for me. Moreover, Opera is still king on weak hardware, which is an important factor when you try to keep your hardware running for as long as possible.

Then there are things that even old Opera didn't do well and I must therefore do them elsewhere. For example the otherwise excellent Notes do not have a sane font setting nor a decent interface for editing - and no ability to redirect to another editor. (DWB can redirect textareas to external editor. Elinks naturally offers the default console editor. This is very good.) And Opera incomprehensibly ditched true detach. To have this functionality, I have to use some minimalistic webkit browsers.

If/When Otter re-implements tiling/cascading, Notes, redirection of Notes/textareas to another editor (even though hopefully it will be a decent editing environment itself), proper fullscreen and true detach, it will become my next home browser.

Another feature I need in a home browser is ability to keep a session with a bunch of websites where I autologin. Otter has the exact same session management as Opera now, but this too needs a little improvement. I don't want to be forced to select "Open in the current window" every frigging time. It should be a sticky option. When I choose it once, it should stick, until I decide to specifically untick it.

From what it looks, Otter is by far closer to what I need than Vivaldi will ever be. Notes look good in Vivaldi though. Even very good.

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #5
What's the primary browser?

Opera 12.16, to be replaced by Otter at some point in the future.

I currently use four browsers somewhat regularly, namely Opera/Presto, Iceweasel, Otter, and Opera/Blink. Out of those Otter has by far the most potential. Two years ago I entertained the notion of Firefox with a few extensions (GreaseMonkey, Stylish, Session Manager, Tab Mix Plus, maybe All-in-one Sidebar, Custom Buttons and something for "rocker gestures") but I just don't like the damned thing even half as much as I liked it in the 3.6 days, when it was my trustworthy secondary browser (even though I actually opened it less at the time; unfortunately Presto is aging).

What is the core functionality for you? Displaying websites?

Essentially, but displaying and managing websites includes probably most of what you said.

As you see, old Opera is irreplaceable for me. Moreover, Opera is still king on weak hardware, which is an important factor when you try to keep your hardware running for as long as possible.

I haven't tried Opera/Blink on my netbook, but Firefox isn't too bad for me.

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #6

I haven't tried Opera/Blink on my netbook, but Firefox isn't too bad for me.

I tried Firefox on netbook too, but Seamonkey is better. And Opera works better than Seamonkey. Otter is somewhere in between.

Try Vivaldi on netbook and report back :)

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #7
Try Vivaldi on netbook and report back

It's surprisingly fast, but there are some clear performance issues.


  • The addressbar is quite a bit slower than in Opera/Presto or Firefox. This was already perceivable on my desktop.
  • Opening a new tab takes forever because of the speed dial (even on my desktop it feels a tad laggy). The same problem exists in Opera/Blink. I used to disable it in Opera/Presto for the same reason when it was first introduced, but it later became instantaneous.
  • Switching tabs isn't slow, or at least not excessively so, but feels slow because of the interface changing color which lags behind. On my desktop this is merely a visual effect I don't care for.


That means I won't be using it on my netbook the way it is right now.

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #8

I'm working on a long, incredibly drawn out process of moving everything but browsing itself into separate applications.

I always prefered specialized software for dedicated tasks. A jack of all trades device is aimed for aunt Gertrude.

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #9
I always prefered specialized software for dedicated tasks. A jack of all trades device is aimed for aunt Gertrude.

I don't see any problem in being aunt Gertrude. You're being aunt Gertrude every time you opt not to download using e.g. wget because you don't need any of its more advanced functionality.

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #10
When it comes to download managers I'm aunt Gertrude. :)
Actually I don't have any use for them anymore.
I had wget installed many years ago. It made sense for me at that time. I had a slow connection and most hosting sites didn't restrict the use of download managers. Times have changed since. My connection is very fast and all hosting providers restrict the use of download managers, except you are a paying customer.

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #11
Since the last update im enjoying the browser, im looking forward to it maturing in the coming years. Nice to have good alturnitive to firefox
“I kill monsters and zombies with infeasibly large plasma-based weaponry”

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #12

Since the last update im enjoying the browser, im looking forward to it maturing in the coming years. Nice to have good alturnitive to firefox
What became enjoyable?

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #13


Since the last update im enjoying the browser, im looking forward to it maturing in the coming years. Nice to have good alturnitive to firefox
What became enjoyable?


Its now not completely crashing or locking-up every so often, im now able to properly use the browser.
It doesnt take much to please me :-)

“I kill monsters and zombies with infeasibly large plasma-based weaponry”




Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #17
Is there an open bugtracker for Vivaldi? I have not been able to find it.

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #18
All I could find was this thread asking for one.



Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #21
Vivaldi looks promising! :happy: Do you guys think it will go as far as including Widgets and Unite? :eek:

Re: Vivaldi Technical Preview Released

Reply #22
I wouldn't count on it, but I suppose anything's possible long-term. :)