Which Windows?
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I haven't find any information yet about the Windows versions supported by Vivaldi. Especially, does it support XP? Not because I want that – the opposite! I learned in other browser's developer forums that keeping XP compatibility imposes severe restrictions on application design. Designing from scratch for Windows7 will result in much more efficient, secure and stable software, they say. So since Vivaldi has begun when XP was over, is it dropping the legacy? (as far as possible, using the given Chromium base)
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Vivaldi definitely works on Windows 7, 8, and 10. I've also seen posts from people on Vista, but I don't know if it runs on WIndows XP.
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When it first came out it was running on XP and I saw some posts form XP users. I have seen fewer/none lately. Google/Chromium is deprecating XP and has said they will not support it after 2015, and it certainly seems like Chromium is moving that direction.
Given that, for instance, Silverlight is being slowly abandoned by MS and although other chrome-based browsers have not removed support for it entirely, Vivaldi certainly seems to have done so, I see absolutely nothing in the tea leaves to lead me to believe that when Chrome abandons XP altogether, Vivaldi will for some reason tax their meager resources to the limit to keep it alive.
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XP is practically supported and updated until 2019, because the version Posready 2009.
But given it's an almost unknown fact, the short sentence is that XP is a dead OS, so a lot of the programs may still work on it, but no one bothers do fully/officially support it, including Vivaldi (mainly because it relies on Chromium sources and google's decisions)
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I am on Win 7 and don't want to upgrade from there, but at some point MS will force it, like XP. I don't think I'm the only person who wishes they would just upgrade to support new hardware and stop forcing new, horrible, unproductive interfaces/shells on us. If I wanted tiles, I'd ask for tiles. I don't want tiles.
Plus, the latest Win is apparently "an OS as a service", forces online connectivity and "cloud" etc. Horrid.
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Although I haven't used it for a few weeks, I could run Vivaldi just fine on my XP netbook from 2010…
Which is a good thing - deliberately sabotaging legacy hardware "just because" is pure evil!
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@jaxtraw (in a nutshell):
I don't want to use Win8 or Win10.
Not to derail the topic or anything, but you could always switch to Linux.
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It may well get to that point
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To clarify, Win 10 does not force nor require internet connection and is not "software as a service" (though it does contain a great deal of support for that concept).
Win10 runs better, faster, smoother and employs better resource management than Win8, which is better on resources than Win7.
Win10 does not use "tiles" unless you go out of your way to choose that interface. It mostly looks and acts like Win7. I did already have Classic Shell on this box (because of W8) and nothing changed when I upgraded to 10, and I put Classic Shell on my wife's because she hates change and so the 100% Win7 look made her transition seamless. On the other 4 machines upgraded to 10, however, I just left the native 10 interface. The differences between it and 7 are trivial.
NOW - there are privacy concerns with 10, and you want to: a) choose install options that preserve your old default file handlers, b) use a local login only rather than an MS profile, and c) go in and turn off all of its "phone home to MS" features, but that's a piece of cake. Other than this. all of the, "OMGz! Win10 is a Trojan!" hysteria is rather misplaced. Everyone I know who has updated so far just notices it boots and shuts down faster, stuff runs, and their question otherwise is "what's the big deal?" If a 7 machine is 10 compatible, there are essentially zero reasons not to switch to the better OS.
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Although I haven't used it for a few weeks, I could run Vivaldi just fine on my XP netbook from 2010…
Which is a good thing - deliberately sabotaging legacy hardware "just because" is pure evil!
Just to follow up… now posting from my old netbook - running A-OK.
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Other than this. all of the, "OMGz! Win10 is a Trojan!" hysteria is rather misplaced.
Is placed just correctly.
What is misplaced is the silence about IOS, MacOS, Android and Chrome OS. The OSes that MS is apeing.
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Back to the topic at hand: I don't see why supporting an old OS necessitates efficiency. I can understand the argument; I mean, this is why browsers like Cyberfox exist. But Old Opera maintained support for Win95 long after it ran its course, and it felt nearly as optimized as it could be.
I still use XP on an older laptop, since it outputs s-video natively (a feature I require), and the drivers aren't supported on Win7+.Not everyone can or wants to upgrade every device they own for various reasons, and for Vivaldi, a browser for the people, I think this should be taken into consideration.
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Back to the topic at hand: I don't see why supporting an old OS necessitates efficiency. I can understand the argument; I mean, this is why browsers like Cyberfox exist. But Old Opera maintained support for Win95 long after it ran its course, and it felt nearly as optimized as it could be.
I still use XP on an older laptop, since it outputs s-video natively (a feature I require), and the drivers aren't supported on Win7+.Not everyone can or wants to upgrade every device they own for various reasons, and for Vivaldi, a browser for the people, I think this should be taken into consideration.
Unfortunately, Vivaldi does not write its own engine and when the authors of the engine deprecate support for an old OS (or even for certain plugins, NPAPI for instance), it will be too much to ask Vivaldi to keep re-writing each new version of the engine to maintain support for the deprecated OS. Back when Opera authored Presto, they had a) lots of staff including a team dedicated just to authoring the engine and b) the convenience of being able to support any OS they felt was practical, right from scratch.
So it's really not up to Vivaldi what's supported. Chromium/Blink is driving that bus, and we're just riding it.
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Unfortunately, Vivaldi does not write its own engine and when the authors of the engine deprecate support for an old OS (or even for certain plugins, NPAPI for instance), it will be too much to ask Vivaldi to keep re-writing each new version of the engine to maintain support for the deprecated OS. Back when Opera authored Presto, they had a) lots of staff including a team dedicated just to authoring the engine and b) the convenience of being able to support any OS they felt was practical, right from scratch.
So it's really not up to Vivaldi what's supported. Chromium/Blink is driving that bus, and we're just riding it.
I guess that makes sense. I think I've just gotten so used to everything working on XP for years and years, and now that many are dropping support, it's weird, but at the same time kind of understandable.
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I guess that makes sense. I think I've just gotten so used to everything working on XP for years and years, and now that many are dropping support, it's weird, but at the same time kind of understandable.
If, with time, you find that you want to keep up with security issues (I didn't know people still used XP in day-to-day scenarios), but don't want to use any of the new versions of Windows - there are some Linux distros that cater specifically to XP users who don't like change. Here's an article that list some examples. The first item on that list is Linux Mint - but I use Linux Mint and I wouldn't really venture to say it looks like XP.
There's also the React OS Project which aims to be an alternative OS to Windows - but to still be binary compatible with Windows. This means it can run Windows exclusive software. I've never personally used it, so I'm not going to recommend it, but I'm also not /not/ going to tell you that it exists. I've read about people having issues with it getting to run some of the software they wanted to use, and I've also heard about people loving it and being able to run all the software they wanted to use.
Anyway, as time goes on, XP will just lose more and more support from more and more developers until no [worthwhile] software is actively maintained for it. I wish you the best of luck with your options going forward.
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I guess that makes sense. I think I've just gotten so used to everything working on XP for years and years, and now that many are dropping support, it's weird, but at the same time kind of understandable.
If, with time, you find that you want to keep up with security issues (I didn't know people still used XP in day-to-day scenarios), but don't want to use any of the new versions of Windows - there are some Linux distros that cater specifically to XP users who don't like change. Here's an article that list some examples. The first item on that list is Linux Mint - but I use Linux Mint and I wouldn't really venture to say it looks like XP.
There's also the React OS Project which aims to be an alternative OS to Windows - but to still be binary compatible with Windows. This means it can run Windows exclusive software. I've never personally used it, so I'm not going to recommend it, but I'm also not /not/ going to tell you that it exists. I've read about people having issues with it getting to run some of the software they wanted to use, and I've also heard about people loving it and being able to run all the software they wanted to use.
Anyway, as time goes on, XP will just lose more and more support from more and more developers until no [worthwhile] software is actively maintained for it. I wish you the best of luck with your options going forward.
Thanks for the tips. Though I'm reasonably content using Win7/10 on my primary machines, I have the one with XP still running for specific tasks.Though I have to say I do miss many aspects of XP, as far as usability at least. Never liked the Luna theme, in fact I consider it one of the ugliest for any OS.
I tried Linux Mint years ago and found it fine for my then-aging hardware, but didn't use it a lot because I relied on a lot of Windows-only software/drivers. But I could see myself putting it (or something similar) on my current aging hardware for my next upgrade, for sure. Also, I'm familiar with ReactOS, but I don't think that's something I'm particularly interested in. I'd rather just keep my low-end XP machine handy for the few things I absolutely need it for.
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I have the one with XP still running for specific tasks.
Ah, that changes everything. I was under the impression you were using XP on your primary machine, which is just not a good idea.
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the short sentence is that XP is a dead OS
Be careful of what you call dead.
A dead alligator can still cut your arm or leg.On a more serious note, just because some jerk decided that he don't earn enough money, world doesn't just praise and shower them on him.
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Be careful of what you call dead.
A dead alligator can still cut your arm or leg.The difference between a dead OS and a dead animal is that once a dead animal is dead, that's the end of the story. A dead OS, or a dead piece of software, can continue being used for years or decades after the fact, and the user could be totally oblivious to the security flaws that surface each day.
I've heard of banks asking people not to visit their website if they're using outdated operating systems, and specifically pointing out Windows XP - this is because of security issues. This is a bit of an old article but you may want to read it anyway.
If you are using Windows XP as your primary system for your daily tasks, you are computer-ing wrong.
Edit: Also, here's a Youtube video talking about security and privacy concerns in Windows in general. Yes, it is also kind of talking about Linux as an alternative. All I'm saying is educate yourself on the software you're running.
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