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I've been using Firefox for as long as I've been on the internet, but I got really tired of using it just because "It's not chromium". Mozilla been doing really

I've been using Firefox for as long as I've been on the internet, but I got really tired of using it just because "It's not chromium". Mozilla been doing really stupid and frustrating decisions that made me feel like I'm in an abusive relationship. I've been eyeballing Vivaldi for a long time, and Firefox breaking compact mode finally broke the camel's back for me earlier this year. When I switched to Vivaldi I felt like it's 2003 again, and I've just switched from IE to Firefox. Every single thing Mozilla removed from Firefox over the years is here, and most of the stuff I used hacky addons that would often break is here too! In the core browser, as first-class features, without the need to fiddle with userChrome.css or look through obscure flags. It really is a breath of fresh air and it puts into perspective how many excuses I've made for Firefox over the years. It's not worthy of being my browser, simple as. Mozilla took my fundamental addons that separated Firefox from other browsers, they took my RSS reader, they took my cool Torrenting and Email clients that were a part of the browser itself. The TreeStyleTab requires you to go through obscure and hidden config files that often break with updates and the extension itself is not stable and fiddly. On top of that, I had way more Firefox extensions that aren't even different from Chrome extensions in major ways. In Vivaldi, I just get a nice panel with RSS, Calendar, Translator, Email client, Notes, whatever I want! The adblocker is built-in, the privacy features are built-in, you even get to put your tabs wherever you want. It has theming support that is as good as Firefox Colors, and it has custom search keywords that replace DuckDuckGos bangs for me more often than not. It even has the dark mode among other page filters, a screenshot tool, web page tiling! All the things that would turn my Firefox profile into a slow extension pile that barely works and longs for death. Mozilla's "goals" of removing key features meant for people who actually would want to use a "google alternative" are laughable, and it's as bad on "privacy" axis as Chrome is because you have to use something like LibreWolf to get the actual privacy from it, very much like you have to use ungoogled-chromium with Chrome. If they think that turning the browser into a Chrome clone with some bumper stickers that say things like "Proud not to use Blink" and "We do say privacy a lot", then it's already dead to me.

vorticalbox 5y ago
I've fully moved to vivaldi too, having my emails, notes, calendar all in my browser makes life so much easier. Vivaldi also has an amazing history page.
tux1968 5y ago
Do you happen to know how they make money, or can maintain the project going forward? Seems they don't charge for their browser, and also claim they don't monetize their user's personal information at all.
- ComputerGuru 5y ago
  They get paid to set the default search engine to Google.
  - cywick 5y ago
    That's actually incorrect: Vivaldi generates revenue from partner deals with search engines. Every time you search using one of the pre-installed search engines, you’re helping us grow, one search at a time. Currently, we work with DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Startpage, Yahoo!, Bing, and Yandex. The only exception is Google – we don’t make money when you search with Google. However, we know that some of you use this search engine daily, so we include it in Vivaldi. (Source: https://vivaldi.com/blog/vivaldi-business-model/ https://vivaldi.com/blog/vivaldi-business-model/) The other other source of revenue is bundled partner bookmarks (see again the linked document).
    - xNeil 5y ago
      They also accept private donations: https://vivaldi.com/contribute/ https://vivaldi.com/contribute/ Not affiliated in any way, just thought if someone wanted to, they might donate.
kaba0 5y ago
TreeStyleTabs works out of the box without any sort of hacking around. I really don’t get this mentality. Firefox’s containers have no corresponding feature in chrome, they haven’t copied it and it is a huge win from a privacy PoV.
- foxrider 5y ago
  I had to modify userChrome.css twice to make it work over time, because obviously, you don't want the old tab bar there at the same time as TST. But also it was very unstable for me because every time I needed the left bar for something other than tabs it would crash or hang or get stuck. The rest of the browser would keep working fine, but the tab bar would not receive clicks or something like that. I had to restart Firefox every time that happened. As for privacy containers - you can easily switch profiles in Vivaldi. It's not integrated to the same degree where you'd get tabs from many profiles in one window, but it works for me. If you like Firefox Containers you should also know that, ironically, unlike Chrome Firefox doesn't have proper site isolation. [0] [0] https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/firefox-chromium.html#site-isolation https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/firefox-chromium.ht...
slightwinder 5y ago
> Mozilla took my fundamental addons that separated Firefox from other browsers, they took my RSS reader, they took my cool Torrenting and Email clients that were a part of the browser itself. It was never the point of Firefox to offer them. Firefox originally started to be the slim alternative to the fat Mozilla suite. > The TreeStyleTab requires you to go through obscure and hidden config files that often break with updates and the extension itself is not stable and fiddly. What are you talking about? TST is very stable since years now and except for hidding the original tabbar, there is no need for using any config files. And even this is a stable setting which barely change every some years or so. Obviously, the first months in their transition to the new extension-system TST and Firefox were quite unstable and busy with filling the missing gaps. But that was 4 years ago. There still are some features missing, mostly for comfort, but it has settled down now and is very stable now. And still better than anything other browsers have...
- unionpivo 5y ago
  > It was never the point of Firefox to offer them. Firefox originally started to be the slim alternative to the fat Mozilla suite. Not OP, and unlike him still use Firefox but: I lost a lot of functionality/workflow that I depended on. It worked one day until Mozilla deliberately made it not work. It pisses me even more because it made that decision to be more like Chrome. If I wanted to Chrome I would just use Chrome. If you don't see why people like me are upset when thing like this happen, we will just have to agree to disagree.

vorticalbox 5y ago

I've fully moved to vivaldi too, having my emails, notes, calendar all in my browser makes life so much easier. Vivaldi also has an amazing history page.

tux1968 5y ago

Do you happen to know how they make money, or can maintain the project going forward? Seems they don't charge for their browser, and also claim they don't monetize their user's personal information at all.

ComputerGuru 5y ago
They get paid to set the default search engine to Google.
- cywick 5y ago
  That's actually incorrect: Vivaldi generates revenue from partner deals with search engines. Every time you search using one of the pre-installed search engines, you’re helping us grow, one search at a time. Currently, we work with DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Startpage, Yahoo!, Bing, and Yandex. The only exception is Google – we don’t make money when you search with Google. However, we know that some of you use this search engine daily, so we include it in Vivaldi. (Source: https://vivaldi.com/blog/vivaldi-business-model/ https://vivaldi.com/blog/vivaldi-business-model/) The other other source of revenue is bundled partner bookmarks (see again the linked document).
  - xNeil 5y ago
    They also accept private donations: https://vivaldi.com/contribute/ https://vivaldi.com/contribute/ Not affiliated in any way, just thought if someone wanted to, they might donate.

kaba0 5y ago

TreeStyleTabs works out of the box without any sort of hacking around. I really don’t get this mentality. Firefox’s containers have no corresponding feature in chrome, they haven’t copied it and it is a huge win from a privacy PoV.

foxrider 5y ago
I had to modify userChrome.css twice to make it work over time, because obviously, you don't want the old tab bar there at the same time as TST. But also it was very unstable for me because every time I needed the left bar for something other than tabs it would crash or hang or get stuck. The rest of the browser would keep working fine, but the tab bar would not receive clicks or something like that. I had to restart Firefox every time that happened. As for privacy containers - you can easily switch profiles in Vivaldi. It's not integrated to the same degree where you'd get tabs from many profiles in one window, but it works for me. If you like Firefox Containers you should also know that, ironically, unlike Chrome Firefox doesn't have proper site isolation. [0] [0] https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/firefox-chromium.html#site-isolation https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/firefox-chromium.ht...

slightwinder 5y ago

> Mozilla took my fundamental addons that separated Firefox from other browsers, they took my RSS reader, they took my cool Torrenting and Email clients that were a part of the browser itself. It was never the point of Firefox to offer them. Firefox originally started to be the slim alternative to the fat Mozilla suite. > The TreeStyleTab requires you to go through obscure and hidden config files that often break with updates and the extension itself is not stable and fiddly. What are you talking about? TST is very stable since years now and except for hidding the original tabbar, there is no need for using any config files. And even this is a stable setting which barely change every some years or so. Obviously, the first months in their transition to the new extension-system TST and Firefox were quite unstable and busy with filling the missing gaps. But that was 4 years ago. There still are some features missing, mostly for comfort, but it has settled down now and is very stable now. And still better than anything other browsers have...

unionpivo 5y ago
> It was never the point of Firefox to offer them. Firefox originally started to be the slim alternative to the fat Mozilla suite. Not OP, and unlike him still use Firefox but: I lost a lot of functionality/workflow that I depended on. It worked one day until Mozilla deliberately made it not work. It pisses me even more because it made that decision to be more like Chrome. If I wanted to Chrome I would just use Chrome. If you don't see why people like me are upset when thing like this happen, we will just have to agree to disagree.