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Anyone using Vivaldi full-time? As a Firefox user, I find I have to install a number of third-party extensions to get some basic functionality that Vivaldi has

Anyone using Vivaldi full-time? As a Firefox user, I find I have to install a number of third-party extensions to get some basic functionality that Vivaldi has out of the box (ad-blocking, note taking). Anyone made the switch, and, if so, can you share your experience?

approxim8ion 6y ago
Vivaldi is very feature-rich and smooth, but I cannot in good conscience use a proprietary browser as long as good open-source alternatives exist. Also, I'm just used to my custom firefox setup, I guess. I find it worth the initial time outlay to set it up, and of course there is the option of just carrying over your profiles to the new device.
thedanbob 6y ago
I've been using Vivaldi full-time for a few months and I find it very pleasant. It took me a while to get used to the sidebar but now I appreciate having it. Ditto with how it reopens your last session's tabs by default.
cturtle 6y ago
I jump between Vivaldi and Firefox, and I love both browsers. Currently I use Vivaldi more than Firefox. Here's what I like in both: Firefox: - Multi-account Containers extension is amazing. I only use it for a handful of accounts, but it is very simple to use. This is probably the feature I miss most in Vivaldi. - The interface integrates better with my DE (Cinnamon), and overall feels less cluttered. Vivaldi has some kind of bar on each edge of the window. Toggle UI (Ctrl+F11) helps to hide this, but Vivaldi does take more space away from the webpage. - I use uBlock Origin for adblock which seems to block more than Vivaldi by default. Vivaldi's built-in blocker is really great though, and I haven't felt the need to install an extension for adblock in Vivaldi. Vivaldi: - I love the recent addition of a second tab bar[0], though I was skeptical at first. I can quickly stack tabs by host to declutter, and then see all the tabs on a second row with full details when I select the stack. - The experimental builtin RSS[1] and Email panels are wonderful. Still some rough edges, but it is nice to not rely on another tool or service for RSS, and it is my favorite RSS reader I have used so far because it is simple and stays out of my way. - Many more tab management features. Saving tabs as a session, tiling, stacking, periodic reload, etc. Not all features I use daily, but handy when I need it. Overall, I've settled on using both browsers now. Each has strengths and weaknesses and I will use whichever helps me best in the moment. I'd say give it a try, and don't think about it as a switch, rather as a new tool. [0]: https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tabs/tab-stacks/ https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tabs/tab-stacks/ [1]: https://help.vivaldi.com/mail/mail-feeds/feeds/ https://help.vivaldi.com/mail/mail-feeds/feeds/
- rufugee 6y ago
  Actually, the lack of multi-account containers probably kills it for me. They've become such an important part of my workflow these days.
  - kovac 6y ago
    There's the profiles in Vivaldi. That's what I use and I found it to be better than Firefox's multi account containers because I don't have to choose the container each time I open the site.
    - AndrewUnmuted 6y ago
      In Firefox you can automatically choose and persist a container type for each domain you visit.
    - tmottabr 6y ago
      you dont need to choose a container everytime. i have rules that certain sites always open on specific containers.. work stuff open on a specific work container.. facebook, twiter, youtube and fastmail each have their individual container. there are even addons that allow you to have a individual container to be created for each site you visit..
grishka 6y ago
Yes. I used Opera before, and Vivaldi is as close as one could get to that Opera <=12 experience (unfortunately including them taking years to fix minor bugs that annoy you). It leaks memory for me on macOS. Not sure whether it's its own bug or if it's the Nvidia driver. On the built-in ad blocker, I don't use that on my computer (uBlock Origin is way better) but I do use it on my phone. I don't use notes either, IMO there's no good reason this should be part of a web browser. The tab grouping is a cool feature. The ability to screenshot the entire page is also a cool feature, but there's a bug that causes it to capture anything with border-radius without anti-aliasing, I reported that as VB-56521 on 26/08/2019 and it still isn't fixed. Overall, there's this lack of attention to detail that permeates all their products and sometimes drives you crazy, but it's still way better than all other browsers that redesign their UIs every several years for no benefit to the user.
armagon 6y ago
I use Vivaldi as my daily browser. Two main reasons: - it is able to debug the web application I work on developing. (Trying to make it easier to debug under Firefox is on my todo list). - it has mouse gestures, and they work everywhere (even on blank tabs).
- rasz 6y ago
  try to debug different origin iframes or open devtools, navigate to another domain and look at devtools address in the title or open devtools, go to sources, pick main html, select some text and right click to Copy its full of bad bugs
zamadatix 6y ago
Vivaldi has always been great on features and garbage on performance/resource usage. Every once in a while they have a new release where they say they've really cleaned up performance so I try it out for a bit and it still has the same memory issues and same rendering performance issues compared to any other chromium based browser or Firefox. But if the performance/resource usage isn't a problem for you and you don't mind using a close sourced browser it's top notch compared to Firefox.
dvdgsng 6y ago
Vivaldi has been my daily driver on Linux, Windows and Android for years now. It's just super efficient to work with. - vertical tabs - tabs tiling, stacking & 2nd tab-bar - full page screenshots - notes - page actions (including a very useful CSS debugger, focus & hover highlighting, a freaking PAGE MINIMAP) - sync - mouse gestures - all Chrome extensions work - easily disable any Google services - ad-block (i'm using it in addition to uBlock origin, uMatrix and Pi-Hole) - no serious performance issues yet What I DONT care about is the Email client they are working on. I'd rather see them focus on the browser features. I don't use Vivaldi for any Google services, except search sometimes, for that I keep a Chromium instance around instead.
- memling 6y ago
  > What I DONT care about is the Email client they are working on. I'd rather see them focus on the browser features. Like you, I've used Vivaldi for years. I downloaded because of the email client. Opera's M2 was a great mail client. I'm probably in the minority of users who don't use the usual suspects for webmail, and having an integrated mail client is nice. M2, in particular did some nice things: * Fast full-text search through mail * No organization: automatic mailing list aggregation; easy contact management; easy email filter by contact or thread * Keyboard navigable. * Doesn't default to top-quoting. * RSS integration. The M3 client had to be rewritten, one presumes, as a Chrome extension. This had to be pretty awful, considering, and probably explains part of the reason that everything took so long. I've been driving M3 for awhile, and what I really miss is suitable keyboard shortcuts. For the most part I've been very happy with it, though.
  - dvdgsng 6y ago
    I despise webmail as well, Thunderbird all the way, but it has become a bit of an annoyance lately for some use-cases, so I am willing to look at alternatives. However, some Thunderbird extensions have even become essential to me, most importantly Cardbook, which I use to manage Contacts across devices (shared via carddav on a selfhosted Nextcloud). Does M3 support carddav properly? Also, can I add multiple mail accounts easily? Are mails part of Vivaldi sync? I might actually try it just to get a look at the current state. RSS client is nice, too.
dartharva 6y ago
I have tried shifting to Vivaldi several times (I very frequently tend to hop browsers, just for the sake of it). For me, Vivaldi's best feature is that it allows you to sideload extensions without kicking up a fuss about them with popups each time you start the browser. AFAIK no other Chromium-based browser apart from ungoogled-chromium allows that. But on the other hand, it tries to do so many things altogether and shoves so many options and settings to the user it feels overwhelming. It feels bloated, and using it after you've been used to the minimal design on Chrome (and Firefox that has copied it), it just .. doesn't feel right.
ZeWaren 6y ago
I've been using Vivaldi since their first betas and it's been my primary browser ever since. It was only logic: I was a long term Opera user, and Vivaldi became the spiritual child of Opera after Opera became another Chrome. The wikipedia page explains this well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivaldi_(web_browser) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivaldi_(web_browser)

approxim8ion 6y ago

Vivaldi is very feature-rich and smooth, but I cannot in good conscience use a proprietary browser as long as good open-source alternatives exist. Also, I'm just used to my custom firefox setup, I guess. I find it worth the initial time outlay to set it up, and of course there is the option of just carrying over your profiles to the new device.

thedanbob 6y ago

I've been using Vivaldi full-time for a few months and I find it very pleasant. It took me a while to get used to the sidebar but now I appreciate having it. Ditto with how it reopens your last session's tabs by default.

cturtle 6y ago

I jump between Vivaldi and Firefox, and I love both browsers. Currently I use Vivaldi more than Firefox. Here's what I like in both: Firefox: - Multi-account Containers extension is amazing. I only use it for a handful of accounts, but it is very simple to use. This is probably the feature I miss most in Vivaldi. - The interface integrates better with my DE (Cinnamon), and overall feels less cluttered. Vivaldi has some kind of bar on each edge of the window. Toggle UI (Ctrl+F11) helps to hide this, but Vivaldi does take more space away from the webpage. - I use uBlock Origin for adblock which seems to block more than Vivaldi by default. Vivaldi's built-in blocker is really great though, and I haven't felt the need to install an extension for adblock in Vivaldi. Vivaldi: - I love the recent addition of a second tab bar[0], though I was skeptical at first. I can quickly stack tabs by host to declutter, and then see all the tabs on a second row with full details when I select the stack. - The experimental builtin RSS[1] and Email panels are wonderful. Still some rough edges, but it is nice to not rely on another tool or service for RSS, and it is my favorite RSS reader I have used so far because it is simple and stays out of my way. - Many more tab management features. Saving tabs as a session, tiling, stacking, periodic reload, etc. Not all features I use daily, but handy when I need it. Overall, I've settled on using both browsers now. Each has strengths and weaknesses and I will use whichever helps me best in the moment. I'd say give it a try, and don't think about it as a switch, rather as a new tool. [0]: https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tabs/tab-stacks/ https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tabs/tab-stacks/ [1]: https://help.vivaldi.com/mail/mail-feeds/feeds/ https://help.vivaldi.com/mail/mail-feeds/feeds/

rufugee 6y ago
Actually, the lack of multi-account containers probably kills it for me. They've become such an important part of my workflow these days.
- kovac 6y ago
  There's the profiles in Vivaldi. That's what I use and I found it to be better than Firefox's multi account containers because I don't have to choose the container each time I open the site.
  - AndrewUnmuted 6y ago
    In Firefox you can automatically choose and persist a container type for each domain you visit.
  - tmottabr 6y ago
    you dont need to choose a container everytime. i have rules that certain sites always open on specific containers.. work stuff open on a specific work container.. facebook, twiter, youtube and fastmail each have their individual container. there are even addons that allow you to have a individual container to be created for each site you visit..

grishka 6y ago

Yes. I used Opera before, and Vivaldi is as close as one could get to that Opera <=12 experience (unfortunately including them taking years to fix minor bugs that annoy you). It leaks memory for me on macOS. Not sure whether it's its own bug or if it's the Nvidia driver. On the built-in ad blocker, I don't use that on my computer (uBlock Origin is way better) but I do use it on my phone. I don't use notes either, IMO there's no good reason this should be part of a web browser. The tab grouping is a cool feature. The ability to screenshot the entire page is also a cool feature, but there's a bug that causes it to capture anything with border-radius without anti-aliasing, I reported that as VB-56521 on 26/08/2019 and it still isn't fixed. Overall, there's this lack of attention to detail that permeates all their products and sometimes drives you crazy, but it's still way better than all other browsers that redesign their UIs every several years for no benefit to the user.

armagon 6y ago

I use Vivaldi as my daily browser. Two main reasons: - it is able to debug the web application I work on developing. (Trying to make it easier to debug under Firefox is on my todo list). - it has mouse gestures, and they work everywhere (even on blank tabs).

rasz 6y ago
try to debug different origin iframes or open devtools, navigate to another domain and look at devtools address in the title or open devtools, go to sources, pick main html, select some text and right click to Copy its full of bad bugs

zamadatix 6y ago

Vivaldi has always been great on features and garbage on performance/resource usage. Every once in a while they have a new release where they say they've really cleaned up performance so I try it out for a bit and it still has the same memory issues and same rendering performance issues compared to any other chromium based browser or Firefox. But if the performance/resource usage isn't a problem for you and you don't mind using a close sourced browser it's top notch compared to Firefox.

dvdgsng 6y ago

Vivaldi has been my daily driver on Linux, Windows and Android for years now. It's just super efficient to work with. - vertical tabs - tabs tiling, stacking & 2nd tab-bar - full page screenshots - notes - page actions (including a very useful CSS debugger, focus & hover highlighting, a freaking PAGE MINIMAP) - sync - mouse gestures - all Chrome extensions work - easily disable any Google services - ad-block (i'm using it in addition to uBlock origin, uMatrix and Pi-Hole) - no serious performance issues yet What I DONT care about is the Email client they are working on. I'd rather see them focus on the browser features. I don't use Vivaldi for any Google services, except search sometimes, for that I keep a Chromium instance around instead.

memling 6y ago
> What I DONT care about is the Email client they are working on. I'd rather see them focus on the browser features. Like you, I've used Vivaldi for years. I downloaded because of the email client. Opera's M2 was a great mail client. I'm probably in the minority of users who don't use the usual suspects for webmail, and having an integrated mail client is nice. M2, in particular did some nice things: * Fast full-text search through mail * No organization: automatic mailing list aggregation; easy contact management; easy email filter by contact or thread * Keyboard navigable. * Doesn't default to top-quoting. * RSS integration. The M3 client had to be rewritten, one presumes, as a Chrome extension. This had to be pretty awful, considering, and probably explains part of the reason that everything took so long. I've been driving M3 for awhile, and what I really miss is suitable keyboard shortcuts. For the most part I've been very happy with it, though.
- dvdgsng 6y ago
  I despise webmail as well, Thunderbird all the way, but it has become a bit of an annoyance lately for some use-cases, so I am willing to look at alternatives. However, some Thunderbird extensions have even become essential to me, most importantly Cardbook, which I use to manage Contacts across devices (shared via carddav on a selfhosted Nextcloud). Does M3 support carddav properly? Also, can I add multiple mail accounts easily? Are mails part of Vivaldi sync? I might actually try it just to get a look at the current state. RSS client is nice, too.

dartharva 6y ago

I have tried shifting to Vivaldi several times (I very frequently tend to hop browsers, just for the sake of it). For me, Vivaldi's best feature is that it allows you to sideload extensions without kicking up a fuss about them with popups each time you start the browser. AFAIK no other Chromium-based browser apart from ungoogled-chromium allows that. But on the other hand, it tries to do so many things altogether and shoves so many options and settings to the user it feels overwhelming. It feels bloated, and using it after you've been used to the minimal design on Chrome (and Firefox that has copied it), it just .. doesn't feel right.

ZeWaren 6y ago

I've been using Vivaldi since their first betas and it's been my primary browser ever since. It was only logic: I was a long term Opera user, and Vivaldi became the spiritual child of Opera after Opera became another Chrome. The wikipedia page explains this well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivaldi_(web_browser) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivaldi_(web_browser)