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Coming from Firefox, is Vivaldi better?

1 points by tarek_computer ↗ HN
I am a long term user of Firefox on Linux. I used Brave in the past because of its privacy features but returned back to Firefox in tribute for its Netscape origins. I am old-school geek when it comes to appreciating IMAP/POP Mail, IRC, RSS and BBS. I saw Vivaldi announcing their new browser integration with Mail and RSS. Maybe they are embracing the great old technology that is a still a power house for retro geeks like me. I am asking my fellow geek friends if they have tried Vivaldi and if it’s worth the switch?

12 comments

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Vladimof
Vivaldi is Chrome isn't it?
tarek_computer
Yes. Offshoot of Opera and based on Chromium. Brave did the same with being an offshoot of Chrome. I never took real notice of them or considered using them. When they offered RSS and mail-integration, it sounded to me like they are trying to differentiate themselves and want to tap into the traditional web that may have been forgotten by mainstream browsers. Hence my question. Is Vivaldi browser worth it?
josephcsible
You'd be giving up a FOSS browser for a proprietary one and making the Blink monoculture worse at the same time.
tarek_computer
Yes, but sometimes I wonder if Firefox is still fully open source. I still hate having to do the first thing first when I install the browser is disable Pocket, change the default search from Google to DuckDuckGo (the latter is a recent disappointment). I miss the traditional / classical browsing of the 90s. Heck, I will pay for a browser that brings back the 90s experience.
josephcsible
A program could have all the advertising and tracking in the world and still be fully open source, as long as nothing stops you from creating a fork of it without that stuff.
tarek_computer
Yes, but browsing is what we do most of the time. Why can’t we actually pay for one that doesn’t have all the tracking. Each browser claims privacy features, some have more while others claim it is essential not to block certain sites. But they all free and we pay the price for whatever features they impose. Maybe to your point, if I don’t like it then fork the code of browser and then be another offshoot of one of the browsers. Or build one from the scratch and loose hours / days of one’s life with no goal other than making a browser that is customized to my thinking/philosophy about tech
jqpabc123
Why can’t we actually pay for one that doesn’t have all the tracking.

Of you could just use Brave.

Lots of online complaints about the founder's personal life/opinion but in terms of privacy, Brave is pretty good. Maybe not the best but pretty good for a solution that you don't need to fiddle with yourself.

tarek_computer
Yes. I did use Brave for quite some time until I noticed Firebox becoming more stable. Also, I noticed a better experience with Firefox in Gnome than with Brave.
jqpabc123
Does integrating other applications into the browser make it a better browser? How about an office suite too? The one app to rule them all?

I guess I don't really get the objective or motivation for what Vivaldi is doing. I can think of several reasons why it might not be a good idea --- for example, memory use.

coffeeling
Vivaldi's great, especially if you like UI customization options.