Impression after a couple of weeks of Vivaldi
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A couple of weeks ago I got hopelessly frustrated with basically all the major browsers. I had left Opera behind when they discontinued Linux support a couple of years ago. So I decided to try Opera again but somehow stumbled across Vivaldi. Right away I had the feeling this browser was doing things right. It's hard to pinpoint but things like tab stacking just make me happy. Now I am going to list some of the problems I have, but I take this as symptoms of an experimental browser. Don't see it as a negative but just as feedback. Session management isn't all that great. I have lost sessions several times and cannot save multiple different sessions. Additionally I have to reload all my google tabs or they won't work, and on some of them the active account changes. Tab stacking is great, but I cannot remove 1 tab from a stack. I have to close the tab and reopen it, or unstack the whole stack and rebuild it. . Bookmarks bar doesn't work. Is always empty. Untrusted sites always have to be verified. The security exception isn't remembered between sessions, it's not on every page request luckily. I do quite a bit of work on dev and test environments and most often these are not setup with proper certificates. No history except in the address bar. The address bar is always trying to guess my url based on my history, but only after 3 characters and a new path element requires another 3 characters before it starts guessing again. Additionally it assumes it is correct so on enter it chooses the guess rather than what I want. Always going to the wrong page. Developer tools needs to be docked on the bottom (or where ever I want it). No suggestions in the search bar Where are my plugins! I want a menu not a separate app. This is actually very annoying to me and more important than some actual bugs. I install programs to help in the browser so why are they separated from it? There's probably more gripes, but these things are what spring to mind. There is certainly more right with this browser than wrong. Sorry I can't be more specific about that, but I don't find myself being constantly frustrated. Part of that is that I am more accepting of bugs in an experimental browser, but I just like the way things work. Keep up the good work, for now Vivaldi is my main browser. I look forward to things getting better. If this is a technical preview then the future is bright.
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Linux is supported by Opera if you want the newer browser like Opera 31-32 (download from Opera's website the .deb) but I find that Vivaldi will be the top dog of browsers for Linux. For me right now Opera is the top dog for Windows but if you like tab stacks then you might also like to try the new Yandex browser which is pretty at times, fast and has a few features like the tab stacking on same sites etc. Right now the only browsers I would use are Opera, Yandex and 64bit varients of Firefox like Water/Cyber/PCXfirefox. If you're only on Linux then you also have Slimjet, Opera, Firefox (Mozilla) or Vivaldi. I'm not sure if Yandex have a linux version of the browser but head to their site and see because it would make a nice Linux addition.
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Well, when Opera started with their new engine they never offered a Linux version so I had to switch. I have to use the major browsers for testing of course. I wish I could be on Linux all the time, but my work gives a windows machines. At home it's 100% Linux.
Thanks for the suggestions, I will try them out.
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I'll have to agree with you about the address bar auto-complete function needing lots of improvement, and that the developer tools should be docked to the main Vivaldi window.
A lot of Chrome extensions are compatible with Vivaldi - I've even seen some threads around where people were listing all the extensions they could find that worked in Vivaldi.
Otherwise, I'm not experiencing any of the bugs you've mentioned. Are you on the latest version?
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In Tools/Settings you should be able to set bookmarks bar to display the contents of whatever folder you want it to.
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Well, when Opera started with their new engine they never offered a Linux version so I had to switch. I have to use the major browsers for testing of course. I wish I could be on Linux all the time, but my work gives a windows machines. At home it's 100% Linux.
Thanks for the suggestions, I will try them out.
Maxthon started to develop a Linux browser but they seem to have stopped on the same version for months now but if they could've bought out a browser similar to their Windows browser but on Linux then that would have been the best browser on Linux. If I was going to run a Linux machine I would be looking at Firefox or Opera Developer. I looked at Yandex and they've still not made a Linux version yet. Don't forget Slimjet browser is on Linux and it is a far more customizable chrome browsing experience thant Google's effort but for me it's still too Chrome. We just need Vivaldi to complete the Linux browser and that should become the number one on the platform.
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