Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.
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Hello,
I just moved from Firefox due to the horror that is the new UI. I know I could change it with CSS but I'm just feed up with the overall direction FF is taking. I know for sure that I didn't want to touch anything Google, Microsoft or Apple related so I choose Vivaldi. The following is a general comment in the few days that I've been using it.
Good points:
- Beautiful compact UI. Could be better, but it's already pretty good and much better than the new UI in Firefox.
- Interesting features, such as tab stack, or splt view, or notes. Some of them I don't know if I'll really use, but some have already become quite natural (tab stack).
- Meets the bare minimum criteria any decent web browser should have: Privacy and Customization.
The are more good points, but I just listed the ones I find more relevant.
Bad points:
- Uses chromium. I know it is much easier to make a browser that doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, but this wheel is made and maintained by google and I don't want google deciding what the web standards should be.
- It is not open source. I understand not wanting to release the code and exposing the project to be forked (aka stolen) by somebody else that then splits the community and profits from it. But at the same time not being able to see the source and compile yourself makes the whole privacy and configurability features a matter of pretty much blind trust. I'm uncomfortable with that. Maybe you could make the code open source without a permissive license, i.e. you keep the copyright and license the same just make the code publicly available for review.
Things that are missing or need to be polished:
- Horizontal tab scrolling. Yes, using staked tabs somewhat helps, but there would be much less need for it if you could just scroll. In any case having tabs so small that the text is unreadable is a bad thing (and Firefox just did that, completely unnecessarily since they do have scrolling, and also increasing the height in the process, fools).
- Bookmark bar in navbar. This is something that only Firefox could do AFAIK, and I'm pretty sure was an incident in their part rather than a intended feature, but it was so good. By placing bookmarks (only the favicon) in the navbar you can decrease the unnecessary URL textbox width and you suddenly gain the ability to open you favorite sites in a single click. Right now in Vivaldi you either open a new tab and select from the speed dial (2 clicks), go to Menu > Bookmarks > Web (3 clicks), make them web panels (1 click, but requires visible vertical bar and doesn't allow folders), or make the bookmark bar visible (1 click, but sacrifices precious vertical space).
- Horizontal main Panel in navbar. A natural extension of the last point. I don't like having a vertical panel visible all the time, placing it horizontally in the navbar doesn't reduce vertical space (because it is in the navbar), neither horizontal space. The panels that get shown when you click should still be vertical, like now, or full-screen. Of course all this should be optional, don't be like Firefox.
- Default ads blocker is buggy: I had to deactivate the ads blocker (I've kept tracking protection) because it just doesn't do as well as uBlock Origin. It leaves a white space where the ad was, which in some websites (i.e. youtibe) just looks like a hole. And it doesn't block some popups, the nasty kind that tries to hide itself by reducing the window size and moving to the right border of the screen.
- No most used tracking: This, which should of course be an optional feature, is a feature that I find quite useful. You should be able to have you most visited web sites automatically appear as speed dials (of course with the ability to remove them). Otherwise you have to manually bookmark them (when you notice yourself visiting a web often) and unbookmark them (when you notice yourself not visiting a web often anymore), which is a chore.
All in all I'll be staying with Vivaldi, it may not be perfect but it is the best alternative to Firefox I've found. Good job.
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It’s impossible switching the base over to Gecko so far into the project. As for open source, you might wanna read this
☛ https://vivaldi.com/blog/vivaldi-browser-open-source/ -
@elmeunick9 , welcome to the community and for the constructive critics.
The points that you name that are still missing, have already been requested and will surely come in future updates.
But Vivaldi only has a small team (about a dozen developers for 5 OS) that works on the browser, as requested by users and in the order of the votes from other users that this function receives.
Regarding Open Source, only 5% of the script is not and for good reasons (see the link which posted @luetage above)
You will still enjoy Vivaldi.PS In my signature you'll find a list of Vivaldi links which may be usefull for you
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@elmeunick9 I use a CSS mod to autohide the bookmark bar until it is needed.
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@elmeunick9 Another good point: Could also take JPG pictures of webpages and that customizable as well by selection and format.
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@elmeunick9 said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
No most used tracking: This, which should of course be an optional feature, is a feature that I find quite useful. You should be able to have you most visited web sites automatically appear as speed dials (of course with the ability to remove them). Otherwise you have to manually bookmark them (when you notice yourself visiting a web often) and unbookmark them (when you notice yourself not visiting a web often anymore), which is a chore.
Well, it’s not the same thing, but make sure you have the address bar set to suggest frequently visited sites.
Here is an untested workaround:
Set chrome://new-tab-page as the new tab page.
In chrome://settings/search select DuckDuckGo. -
@elmeunick9 said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
Bookmark bar in navbar
Try using VivaldiHooks bookmarks button or Vivaldi auto hide bookmarks bar CSS and see if they meet your needs.
@elmeunick9 said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
Default ads blocker is buggy
It may get better if you add additional lists in settings > privacy > manage sources.
@elmeunick9 said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
It is not open source
Yes, it should be open source.
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@elmeunick9 said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
You should be able to have you most visited web sites automatically appear as speed dials
Nope, I don't like it. I remember it was the only option in Firefox several years ago...
Otherwise you have to manually bookmark them
Yes! Perfect!
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@stardust said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
I remember it was the only option in Firefox several years ago...
That is why I said it should be an optional feature and don't be like Firefox. It is not one of the things I care the most anyway, so it would be fine even if it doesn't have preference, though it seems kind of trivial to implement anyway.
@pesala said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
@elmeunick9 I use a CSS mod to autohide the bookmark bar until it is needed.
@code3 said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
Try using VivaldiHooks bookmarks button or Vivaldi auto hide bookmarks bar CSS and see if they meet your needs.
Looks like a good option. I still think having them visible all the time (without sacrificing space) is better, but autohide is certainly the next best thing to do. Should also apply for the main panel (instead of having to hit F4 every time). It would be cool if there was an option to do so by default, I think it's already in the feature request section of the forum.
@code3 said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
It may get better if you add additional lists in settings > privacy > manage sources.
Yes, but this won't get rid of the plot holes.
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@elmeunick9 said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
That is why I said it should be an optional feature and don't be like Firefox.
Sure
Also, welcome to the V-Forum -
@elmeunick9 said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
It may get better if you add additional lists in settings > privacy > manage sources.
Yes, but this won't get rid of the plot holes.
Won’t it? Vivaldi recently added the element blocker similar to uBlock, if you find the right list I think you could get rid of empty parts in webpages. Unless you mean empty parts in videos where the ads used to be (though the right list might also get rid of that, depending on how the ads are inserted).
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@code3 said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
Vivaldi recently added the element blocker similar to uBlock
When? I have missed this news
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@stardust said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
When? I have missed this news
3.8 update adds support for cookie banner blocking lists.
But you could use it to block any element - it just doesn’t have a convenient point and click UI like uBlock. -
@code3 said in Just moved from Firefox, my Vivaldi experience so far.:
3.8 update adds support for cookie banner blocking lists.
ah, right
But you could use it to block any element - it just doesn’t have a convenient point and click UI like uBlock.
I prefer my trusty uBO
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