Version numbers and release dates of installer downloads

Montiverdi

[I know that this is in the wrong place, but I couldn't find a home for it --- apologies.]

THE DOWNLOAD PAGE: The download page https://vivaldi.com/download/ gives the version number only as 3.4, and gives no release date. I routinely go quickly through a stack of webpages looking for program updates, which I then sync to the other PCs in our home (rather that everyone being interrupted by programs notifying about updates), but this download page gives me no help whatsoever.

REQUEST 1:

Add the full version number, currently 3.4.2066.106, and the release date, to the main downloads page underneath the green download button.
More generally, place the version number and release date routinely under every green download box on the whole website.

Your users are surely tech-savvy enough not be scared off by this detail, otherwise they wouldn't even know about Vivaldi. Leave the dumbing-down to others.

THE BLOG PAGE: I am using instead your very useful webpages https://vivaldi.com/blog/ --> News & updates and https://vivaldi.com/blog/desktop/. The second is more reliable, but still has problems

First, the snapshot and stable downloads for PC and Android (on the right-hand column) have their full version numbers (nice), but there are no release dates. That means I need to have my downloads directory open to look at the version number --- a pain.

Secondly, neither the various blog notes on new versions, nor the resulting full articles, consistently give the full version. See, for example, https://vivaldi.com/blog/minor-update-6-for-vivaldi-desktop-3-4/.
--- This particular post, by the way, is on the second blog webpage above, but not the first.

Thirdly, the current stable version 3.4.2066.106 does no seem ever to have been announced formally on the blog. I only knew about it because my wife's laptop threw up a notification.

REQUEST 2:

Add the release dates to the four version numbers on the right-hand side of both blog webpages.
Place clearly and consistently, both in the heading of each blog article on a new release and in the resulting article, the version number, the release date, and whether it is a snapshot.
--- Place each article consistently in both blog webpages above.
Notify all new releases consistently on both blog webpages after the installer is posted.

I am very pleased with Vivaldi, and recently succeeded in making Vivaldi work again with Sandboxie using David Xanatos' new fork --- his fork is still in development, and it required a long interaction with ESET.

jane.n

Hi @Montiverdi,

Thank you for the feature requests. I can't promise that we'll implement them, but I can share a few tips that will hopefully make following releases a little easier for you already now.

When you hover over the Download buttons, in most cases, you can see the full version number in the URL on the Status Bar.
On https://vivaldi.com/blog/, the blog's publishing date below the title is also the release date.
Big Stable releases are listed here: https://vivaldi.com/blog/desktop/releases/.

Thank you for using Vivaldi!

Montiverdi

Thank you @jane.n for your considerate reply. I understand that you can't promise change, and I hope it's in order to comment on each of your three points.

Having the version number on the Status Bar after hovering is really subtle! My Status Bar is usually turned off to gain more real estate, so I didn't even know that this occurred.
--- That webpage is no use for my purposes of quickly checking for updates because would I have to fiddle about with the mouse, besides turning on the Status Bar.
--- Besides, there still is no release date anywhere that I can see on the main download page https://vivaldi.com/download/
I know that the release date\publishing date is attached to each item in https://vivaldi.com/blog/desktop/ --- this is important. But the version number used to be in the title, and some policy decision has removed it. As a result, if you are a few days behind, you can't see what has been going on.
https://vivaldi.com/blog/desktop/releases/ is less helpful, because minor releases are not listed there, even though they trigger a notification, and the full version number is not given (or perhaps it is always X.X.0.1). As I said in my post, I can't see, anywhere on the website, a mention of version 3.4.2066.106, which was the occasion of my post.

To state my request more simply:

Print the full version number and the release date everywhere that an update is offered or mentioned.
On the one webpage, notify in parallel format all updates --- major, minor and snapshot.
That is, less marketing hype (we all love Vivaldi already) and more clarity.

Montiverdi

The problems continue with the stable desktop release 3.5, which came out on 8th December.

https://vivaldi.com/blog --> 'Desktop' made no mention of the release, despite the fact that the page announces a number of recent desktop snapshots that appeared before and afterwards. I'm not aware of such an omission ever occurring before.
https://vivaldi.com/blog --> 'News & Updates', had an article on 8th December with top-left label 'NEWS', rather than 'DESKTOP UPDATE'. The heading is 'Vivaldi improves tabs and media playback, adds sharing of URLs with QR codes' which also does not mention any new version.

So it required a pause and some detective work to ascertain that there was a new stable version --- yes, it was on the right, but without any date. Could you please have a quickly readable webpage that announces each new version, stable and snapshot, in the systematic and straightforward way done with most significant software, and that gives us the date and FULL version number. Perhaps let the excellent developers manage that page, not the marketers.

thomasp

@Montiverdi I know it's not exactly what you're asking, but if you want to follow only stable update blog posts, you can find them in https://vivaldi.com/blog/desktop/releases/

EDIT: I do see that the latest release was not added there. I'll talk to people to try to make sure it gets put in the right place next time.

Montiverdi

@thomasp, thanks for those details, and I can confirm that the release was in fact posted. But this morning I looked more closely at the pages, and realised that there is now another new minor version on the right-hand column:
Stable - 3.5 (2115.81)

There is no post on https://vivaldi.com/blog, either in /News & Updates, or in the three subcategories of /Desktop.
Thus there is no list of changes, nor any release date.

This is all rather amateur. Could Vivaldi please take these pages back from the marketers, and put them under the control of Vivaldi's excellent techies, who are surely keen to see their new versions downloaded, and understand the importance of version numbers, release dates, and change lists.

derDay

@Montiverdi
perhaps this page is more what you like:
https://vivaldi.com/download/archive/?platform=win

Montiverdi

Thanks, @derDay, for this URL.

That gives me now five webpages to check for updates to Vivaldi.
I note that the webpage has no change-list.
Also there is no link to this webpage on https://vivaldi.com/download, so I wonder how people find it?

There seems to be a Sandboxie problem with the new Vivaldi update 3.5.2115.81. But because there is no change-list for this version on any of the five webpages, I could only give speculation about a possible cause to the Sandboxie developer when I posted about the problem at
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/released-sandboxie-plus-sbie-fork-versions-with-signed-driver.434924/page-14

The announcements of new Vivaldi versions needs a systematic review.

TbGbe · Win: Snapshot Vivaldi 7.4.3671.3

@Montiverdi said in Version numbers and release dates of installer downloads:

Vivaldi update 3.5.2115.81.

Stable releases/changelogs are listed on https://vivaldi.com/blog/desktop/releases/

Stable update changelogs are listed on https://vivaldi.com/blog/desktop/updates/

However, I agree that these Stable releases (and their updates) should list version numbers in their titles!