Difference between a snapshot and a Soprano

Kjala

Hello. I'm confused. What's the difference between a Snapshot and a Soprano? Is soprano exclusive to ambassadors or publicly available? If publicly available, where can i install it?

Pesala

@Kjala A few volunteers are Sopranos. They have access to early builds that have not yet been released as Snapshots.

Ayespy

@Kjala Sopranos are volunteer internal testers. They receive a new build from the developers roughly once a day, sometimes even more often. Over the weekends and some holidays they will usually not receive a new daily version.

For want of a better term, the "nightly" builds only Sopranos get is called a Sopranos build. Some of us (myself for instance) run a Sopranos build as default, updating it pretty much daily, but using it for everything so as to have the greatest chance of catching a bug, regression, or crash. Also, we give valuable feedback to the developers concerning what seemed a good idea or a bad idea, we have access to the bug tracker to read, post and edit, and we sometimes engage the developers in extended discussions to nail down a bug or work out a kink.

Snapshots are weekly (more or less) public test builds for the stout of heart who don't mind a little unexpected adventure with their browsing, and who don't mind that their build might not be entirely stable. The public also give valuable feedback from running/testing snapshots. Everything you see in a snapshot has already had to pass muster in a Sopranos build, but that doesn't mean we didn't miss something or think in our infinite wisdom that a really bad idea was a good one.

Ambassadors, on the whole, are not Sopranos. They don't have the authority of Moderators or the access of Sopranos. They are just public volunteers who want to help spread the word. Probably most Moderators are also Sopranos - but not all. And not all Sopranos are Moderators.

Each of the three roles, Ambassador, Moderator, Soprano is a volunteer position. None of us work for Vivaldi, we just want to help. But the qualifications and interview process to become any of these three is different from what it takes to become any other. There is some overlap, but they are three different roles.

RiveDroite

@Ayespy this was a perfect explanation

DoctorG

@Kjala said in Difference between a snapshot and a Soprano:

What's the difference between a Snapshot and a Soprano

Where did you read about a Vivaldi Soprano browser version?

Kjala

@DoctorG https://github.com/bitwarden/mobile/issues/673
Here.

Kjala

@Ayespy It just piqued my interest and men do I want to try it. I'm a stable user but have FFX Nightly on the side so I kind of have an experience of using a Nightly build. Although I'm concerned if my customizations would get wiped out by constant updates.

DoctorG

@Kjala I do not know where this user got his information about Vivaldi Nightly version.

And i am not allowed to talk about internal versions.

Kjala

@DoctorG Oh. But if the Sopranos are just volunteers, then how do they get the internals since they aren't employees or affiliates?

DoctorG

@Kjala Yes, they are volunteer testers, in the special Sopranos Team and get the Soprano browser, but they are not allowed to leak any information about internal Daily versions. I wanted to make it clear.

Ayespy

@Kjala A person is not allowed to volunteer as a Soprano without passing an intake interview and making certain assurances to the company. It is a solemn commitment, not just, "gee, I'd love to have updates daily." A Soprano has internal access no one else has, and has to be trusted by the team. As far as I can tell, there are (and may always be) fewer than 50 Sopranos.

I became a soprano because I was recommended for the role by someone who was already trusted by the team, and then they reached out to me and arranged an interview. That is also how I became a moderator. It was not just something I thought it would be kewl to do.

So, there's that...

mib2berlin

@Kjala
Hi, just start to use the snapshot, this is more or less weekly sometimes more beta build with bug fixes, new features and new bugs.
This helps the Vivaldi team and other users to get early feedback, bug reports and so forth.
On Linux and Android they are independent on Windows you have to install it as Standalone.

Cheers, mib