Vivaldi power user review - The good, the bad and the ugly
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A little bit about my background. I have been a firefox user for about 15 years, pretty much from when it first came out. I modded its source code and compiled my own release at one point. For the last 12 years I have watched it be "2 steps forward, 2 steps back" as they kept removing features and options as fast as they were adding them, dumbing down the interface and making it harder to customise. Version 78ESR was the last stable release that had all the features I use and 91ESR is the last version I consider still usable though it has some critical features missing. The changes beyond that crossed into final dealbreaker territory and barring a miraculous about face from Mozilla I won't be using 92 onwards.
I'm the kind of guy who has hundreds of open tabs, writes his own css customisations, reactivates features disabled by default and tweaks dozens of hidden settings when setting up a new browser to get it running just the way I like. I have been coding for decades and understand how long things take.
I have been looking for an alternative browser for quite a few years now. I have tested almost every browser in existence down to obscure releases like K-meleon. All have been lacking one way or another. Having the delved into the spaghetti bowl that is Mozilla's source code, and seeing the trend in new browser releases I came to the conclusion several years ago that the only way forward is with a chromium based browser. However though the chrome backend is great (using half the cpu power of firefox to deliver the same streaming video for example) the UI is abysmal.
Enter Vivaldi.
I first became aware of Vivaldi about 4 years ago. Conceptually it is the perfect way forward: The ubiquitous compatible chrome backend but with a highly customisable UI and accessible user options. There were however a couple of things I really hated about the interface, principally lack of scrolling tabs and no option to put the tab bar below the url bar. These issues having been overcome I started using Vivaldi as a main browser about a month ago. So on to the review.
THE GOOD
The customisation on the UI is great. Not quite as good as the good ol' days of Firefox42 but that's ancient history now. The import bookmarks from other browsers is vastly superior and designed in a very intelligent way that is both simple and versatile. Most of the customisations even a power user wants are easily available via the settings menu. The newly implemented scrolling tabs feature works well overall. The interface can have a reasonable amount of customisation via css and the process to do so is similar in difficulty to firefox. Auto-renaming of duplicate file names in downloads is a fantastic feature, as is the ability to rename file downloads e.g. videos, that is sadly lacking from firefox.
THE BAD
History is a little cumbersome to use. One feature on the firefox top menu bar which I use frequently is the history menu, which contains easy links to recently viewed webpages and recently closed tabs. The recently closed tabs list is particularly useful if you need to check back to one for extra information. For inexplicable reasons, delete is missing from the text box context menu. As someone who uses his PC via mouse only 90% of the time that is super annoying, and there doesn't seem to be a way to edit that menu. Absence of drag-and-drop into the browser is a major failure and this long-standing bug needs to be fixed
Minor annoyances include absence of a URL widget showing download progress and I have not come across an extension to add that functionality. The location of things in the settings menu is not very intuitive, with for example some settings to do with appearance showing up in other menus. It is also not made clear that there are the original chrome settings layered underneath and no easy way to see them all (a problem shared with chrome).
The worst bug in practice is lagging and freezing. I have at times had tabs take 7-10 seconds to open or close and the same goes for context menus. This has happened several times, though not enough to notice a clear pattern as to cause (There haven't been many tabs open at the time if that's what you're thinking). The same goes for freezing, where the browser is still working e.g. playing streaming video, but the interface becomes completely unresponsive to mouse clicks. In both cases closing and reopening the browser fixed the problems.
THE UGLY
These are minor gripes, and are due to the chromium base code. The extensions tab shows 3 columns by default when the screen can fit 5 of the same size. This can be temporarily changed by modifying the page's js but I don't know a way to make it persistent. It seems like something that should be easily changed in settings. There doesn't appear to be a good way to distinguish the active tab from the url bar and the other tabs. Firefox allows you to customise all the features of a page individually allowing you to for example add border highlights to the active tab without altering the appearance of any other on page feature. At the moment with a dark theme the difference between active and inactive tabs is limited to a slight variation in text colour and any alteration to the active tab colour also changes the URL bar which looks absolutely hideous. If there is a way to make such nuanced changes I'd like to know (perhaps a full guide to css appearance customisations on the Vivaldi site), or if there is a way to add them I would like to see that happen.
CONCLUSION
Will I keep using Vivaldi? Yes, but I won't be putting away old firefox just yet, nor will I be recommending Vivaldi to other people for now. I love some of the extra QoL features not available in other browsers and that does make up for the deficiencies mentioned below.
Absence of recently closed tabs from the menu bar is a QoL downgrade from firefox. Adding an extra menu item between view and bookmarks is a fairly simple matter. In appearance it duplicates the window menu code. Chrome already stores recently closed tabs/windows internally, but the access method is inconvenient and cumbersome. This is a case of patching together already existing code, not a difficult or time consuming task
Delete missing is particularly egregious as it exists in chrome and firefox, but has been deliberately removed/left out. Several obscure features were added to the context menu which are redundant in a textbox (as they exist anywhere on a page) and hence fundamentally useless e.g. Fullscreen, Developer tools.
Even though I was able to put the tab bar below the url bar, that won't be something most regular users would be bothered doing. Given it is only about 20 lines of css, it is crazy that it is not available as a default option when far more people use that tab position than the bottom, left and right combined. I and several others have mentioned this before, though it is a lower priority than the others it is also an easy fix as the necessary code already exists and just needs to be patched in (Seriously that is about an hours work for someone familiar with the codebase to add an extra menu option and patch in the necessary code).
No drag and drop into a browser in 2022 is just ridiculous and needs to be addressed quickly as I can see a lot of people being turned off by that. It is a feature that works in chrome, so the issue lies in the Vivaldi overlay code. It is a single function interfering with a single underlying function. Really guys it shouldn't take over 2 years to work out how to bypass a problem you created.
Finally the freezing and lagging need to be looked at as this is another thing which can rapidly turn potential users off and give Vivaldi a bad reputation. I can tolerate it, but its not a good situation. Obviously this is a potentially complicated problem that could take a while to diagnose and fix. I'll keep an eye on it and see if an obvious cause becomes apparent.
Overall I'm quite impressed. The browser has come a long way in the 4 years I have been watching and once the flaws above are addressed I believe Vivaldi is ready for take-off. One days worth of coding should fix the delete/recently closed tabs/tab bar position issues, major QoL rewards for very little effort. Maybe get a fresh pair of eyes on the drag/drop issue and bump it up to top priority.
Mozilla screwed up for 4 reasons. They tried mimicking an inferior product. They took away more and more user options and made the browser less customisable. They ignored major long standing bugs for years in favour of adding gimmicky features that most users don't care about. They ignored user feedback and experience in preference to pushing their own agenda. And it cost them half a billion users.
Vivaldi has avoided most of these mistakes. I am impressed overall with how Vivaldi pays attention to user feedback. The one problem I see with the project overall is the question of priorities. Major bugs need to be fixed not thrown into the too hard basket or put on the backburner. Features present in competing browsers that are easily coded and have no downside should be implemented as soon as possible.
Advanced features are great, but getting the basics right has to be the top priority.
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@curiousd said in Vivaldi power user review - The good, the bad and the ugly:
Auto-renaming of duplicate file names in downloads is a fantastic feature
The extensions tab shows 3 columns by default when the screen can fit 5 of the same size.These are actually controlled by Chromium, not Vivaldi.
@curiousd said in Vivaldi power user review - The good, the bad and the ugly:
The recently closed tabs list is particularly useful if you need to check back to one for extra information.
By default, you can access closed tabs through the window panel or the trash can icon, but you can add the Closed Tabs menu anywhere you like through Settings > Appearance > Menu. Learn more about customizing the context menus.
@curiousd said in Vivaldi power user review - The good, the bad and the ugly:
Absence of drag-and-drop into the browser is a major failure and this long-standing bug needs to be fixed
It is being worked on.
@curiousd said in Vivaldi power user review - The good, the bad and the ugly:
Minor annoyances include absence of a URL widget showing download progress
Do you mean the progress on downloading files or loading pages?
@curiousd said in Vivaldi power user review - The good, the bad and the ugly:
I have at times had tabs take 7-10 seconds to open or close and the same goes for context menus. This has happened several times, though not enough to notice a clear pattern as to cause
It would be appreciated if you'd managed to gather more information on that and post a relevant thread in Support & Troubleshooting. I haven't experienced such freezes myself in many years - perhaps the problem is not even in Vivaldi itself, but that would have to be established via thorough troubleshooting.
@curiousd said in Vivaldi power user review - The good, the bad and the ugly:
If there is a way to make such nuanced changes I'd like to know (perhaps a full guide to css appearance customisations on the Vivaldi site), or if there is a way to add them I would like to see that happen.
You can ask in the Modifications forum.
@curiousd said in Vivaldi power user review - The good, the bad and the ugly:
Delete missing is particularly egregious as it exists in chrome and firefox, but has been deliberately removed/left out.
I don't use the two, but as far as I can tell, it's absent in Edge too. You can always request such a feature if you find it missing.
@curiousd said in Vivaldi power user review - The good, the bad and the ugly:
Several obscure features were added to the context menu which are redundant in a textbox (as they exist anywhere on a page) and hence fundamentally useless e.g. Fullscreen, Developer tools.
You can customize the context menus to your likings through the Appearance settings, as mentioned above.
@curiousd said in Vivaldi power user review - The good, the bad and the ugly:
far more people use that tab position than the bottom, left and right combined
I'd like to see the source of these statistics.
@curiousd said in Vivaldi power user review - The good, the bad and the ugly:
once the flaws above are addressed I believe Vivaldi is ready for take-off. (...) The one problem I see with the project overall is the question of priorities.
Frankly, these type of statements is something that I read almost every day. Only the features/bug in questions change every time. "Fix [insert your pet bug here] and you will be the best". "Add [insert your favourite feature request] and you will gain a million new users". "Do it ASAP, this [insert bug/feature] should be the top priority!" After a while, you just get used to these comments.
The problem is, most of the people who make such comments, have little to no knowledge/experience about browser making (spoiler alert: it's more than just coding). So what can we do? We try to listen to the users' feedback as much as possible, even though our resources are limited. We're a small team, but we do what we can.
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Weeks new to Vivaldi after getting exasperated with where Chrome\Edge\FF have collectively been going as well, and relate strongly to some of the bits under the GOOD and BAD in particular as called out by @CuriousD. I've intentionally stayed away from enabling any extensions or fiddling too much under the hood while I try first to become firmly grounded in the default experience shipping with Vivaldi.
The worst thing for me has been lag very similar to what is described in the OP - the browser will stop responding across the tab and rendered page parts of the UI for anywhere from 2-30+ seconds. This happens seemingly at random on Windows, when:
- trying to open a new tab
- trying to close a tab
- clicking a hyperlink on a page
- calling a hyperlink from another program
This is somewhat aggravated\exacerbated by the fact that I personally find the UI cues for when the browser is busy doing something (those being the refresh button turning into an
on the address bar, and the rather unassuming progress circle on the tab bar) versus the browser being "idle" in respect to a page refresh to be far less clear than other common browsers. This may be something I need more time to grow accustomed to - but is a "learning curve" in a core part of the UX really a good idea?As things stand, I've found myself quite often inadvertently repeating whatever action I was attempting in the list above 2-3 times before I realize it's not me, it's the browser. Happens multiple times a day. Seems to happen most often (but not always) when returning to the browser after spending some time away in another app, but not always and not enough experience yet to spot a clear patttern. I will continue this thread under in the Support forum, but wanted to chime in here first. Thank you for the listen.
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@fredless It would be nice if these pauses/freezes/lags were somehow reliably reproducible. I can't make it happen here.
Care to share your OS and hardware?
