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I don't understand that obsession browser developers have with themes. To the point it's a highlight in a major version.

KarlKemp 5y ago
Agreed… there’s very little surface that isn’t taken up by the website, so it makes far less sense than, say a terminal. It’s a uniquely bad fit for theming. A useable method of styling webpages, however, would be quite interesting. CSS just doesn’t quite work when used generically on all sites, except for maybe font sizes. Chrome’s in-beta automatic dark modes are maybe one working example. I’d appreciate, for example, some way to make better use of the 6000px of screen width I have. Unfortunately, with mobile-first and portrait-mode prevalence, the trend seems to be going back to optimizing for 800px.
- mixmastamyk 5y ago
  Yes, the last thing I want are things competing with the page I’m reading.
- riidom 5y ago
  That#s what I like most about this browser I think. I have the UI scaled down to 80% (would recommend to anybody to give this a try as well!).
wussboy 5y ago
Agree. I've never used one for longer than it took to briefly click to it to see what it looked like.
webmobdev 5y ago
Users like it, especially if you can customise it. (Winamp comes to mind - themes were a huge deal with it and one of the reasons behind its popularity). And it also generates a lot of community activity around the software, which adds value and provides free publicity.
- mixmastamyk 5y ago
  Music software skinz can add some value, because they do not not directly compete with the content. Browsers not so much.
zamadatix 5y ago
There is a bigger group of users that care about how cute/fun/whatever their browser looks than the group of users that care about engine improvements and new technology support.
- Tempest1981 5y ago
  As someone who has installed in dozens of custom fonts and themes for my IDE, there's a definite appeal!
skinkestek 5y ago
User configurable themes is fantastic! Look at Firefox now for an example of what happens when developers can introduce their "I know best" themes: I constantly get confused and think the active tab is next to the actually active tab. Irony is the idea behind removing actual themability seems to be to prevent people from seeing badly styled browsers, and yet this is the second most annoying one I am aware of. (Chrome annoys me more, not because it is bad but because I don't like Chrome ;-)
- pvinis 5y ago
  color.firefox.com is great for that!
  - crispyalmond 5y ago
    Are the colors sticking around? Last time I checked they were "limited time". (Unless you already applied one of their colors)
    - noahtallen 5y ago
      Firefox color is different from the new built-in color thing. It’s an official extension that has been around for a while which lets you customize a lot of the colors used in different parts of Firefox.
hulitu 5y ago
Because chrome and firefox literarly thrashed the browser experience. Not everybody loves gray or black and 1 font size does not fit all people.
riidom 5y ago
I wondered about that too. It seems like a bit of "filler content" to be honest. There are not many new features at all, the new thing here is the theme management in first place. The release notes in general are pretty weak compared to pervious releases of Vivaldi. I mean I don't care there is always a bit of a hanger now and then, I still love Vivaldi. Just saying I can relate to these observation.
smoldesu 5y ago
I think Chrome handles themes best, at least on Linux. It automatically grabs your GTK stylesheet's color palette and recolors the window accordingly. Combined with proper window decorations, it's a surprisingly "native" feel out of the box.
handrous 5y ago
As far as just colors and font size and such, that used to be an OS feature that every (native) application got for free. FF had it years and years ago, too. I tried it a bit back then and then stopped, because almost all the themes just made it harder to use. Not sure what's up with their making such a big deal out of adding a weaker and less-customizable version of it recently with their color themes. "We redid an old feature, but worse".

KarlKemp 5y ago

Agreed… there’s very little surface that isn’t taken up by the website, so it makes far less sense than, say a terminal. It’s a uniquely bad fit for theming. A useable method of styling webpages, however, would be quite interesting. CSS just doesn’t quite work when used generically on all sites, except for maybe font sizes. Chrome’s in-beta automatic dark modes are maybe one working example. I’d appreciate, for example, some way to make better use of the 6000px of screen width I have. Unfortunately, with mobile-first and portrait-mode prevalence, the trend seems to be going back to optimizing for 800px.

mixmastamyk 5y ago
Yes, the last thing I want are things competing with the page I’m reading.
riidom 5y ago
That#s what I like most about this browser I think. I have the UI scaled down to 80% (would recommend to anybody to give this a try as well!).

wussboy 5y ago

Agree. I've never used one for longer than it took to briefly click to it to see what it looked like.

webmobdev 5y ago

Users like it, especially if you can customise it. (Winamp comes to mind - themes were a huge deal with it and one of the reasons behind its popularity). And it also generates a lot of community activity around the software, which adds value and provides free publicity.

mixmastamyk 5y ago
Music software skinz can add some value, because they do not not directly compete with the content. Browsers not so much.

zamadatix 5y ago

There is a bigger group of users that care about how cute/fun/whatever their browser looks than the group of users that care about engine improvements and new technology support.

Tempest1981 5y ago
As someone who has installed in dozens of custom fonts and themes for my IDE, there's a definite appeal!

skinkestek 5y ago

User configurable themes is fantastic! Look at Firefox now for an example of what happens when developers can introduce their "I know best" themes: I constantly get confused and think the active tab is next to the actually active tab. Irony is the idea behind removing actual themability seems to be to prevent people from seeing badly styled browsers, and yet this is the second most annoying one I am aware of. (Chrome annoys me more, not because it is bad but because I don't like Chrome ;-)

pvinis 5y ago
color.firefox.com is great for that!
- crispyalmond 5y ago
  Are the colors sticking around? Last time I checked they were "limited time". (Unless you already applied one of their colors)
  - noahtallen 5y ago
    Firefox color is different from the new built-in color thing. It’s an official extension that has been around for a while which lets you customize a lot of the colors used in different parts of Firefox.

hulitu 5y ago

Because chrome and firefox literarly thrashed the browser experience. Not everybody loves gray or black and 1 font size does not fit all people.

riidom 5y ago

I wondered about that too. It seems like a bit of "filler content" to be honest. There are not many new features at all, the new thing here is the theme management in first place. The release notes in general are pretty weak compared to pervious releases of Vivaldi. I mean I don't care there is always a bit of a hanger now and then, I still love Vivaldi. Just saying I can relate to these observation.

smoldesu 5y ago

I think Chrome handles themes best, at least on Linux. It automatically grabs your GTK stylesheet's color palette and recolors the window accordingly. Combined with proper window decorations, it's a surprisingly "native" feel out of the box.

handrous 5y ago

As far as just colors and font size and such, that used to be an OS feature that every (native) application got for free. FF had it years and years ago, too. I tried it a bit back then and then stopped, because almost all the themes just made it harder to use. Not sure what's up with their making such a big deal out of adding a weaker and less-customizable version of it recently with their color themes. "We redid an old feature, but worse".