Vivaldi is Really Nice!

I just saw Paul’s post about Vivaldi’s Mail technical preview. Wow I totally forgot about Vivaldi! I’ve been so into making the new Edge (I hate having to preference “new Edge”) my main coming from Firefox that I haven’t kept my ear to the ground for alternative browsers.

So I’ve been running it for about a week now and it’s really nice! I like how you can pop out video and it stays on top of everything. I like this so I can watch my podcasts but don’t have to mess with resizing a browser window so I can see it but still do have enough screen real estate for other things.

I think it’s faster than default Edge with no ad blocking extensions. I prefer Ublock Origins for it’s light foot print. But I haven’t installed any extensions other than 1Password and loads pages fast.

There’s a ton of customization options! I still haven’t had enough time to go through them all.

I’m still reading up on how Vivaldi is with user privacy but so far looks like they don’t collect any where near the user data that Microsoft does in Edge. Which is a big plus, not paranoid tin foil here, but the more privacy the better of course.

I like how you can preview a website just by mousing over your tabs! That’s great when you get into those right click yeah I’ll check that link out later moods lol.

The default bookmark management is on par with Firefox and better than Edge I think. I like how it shows a preview image of the link in the manager. Gimmicky, sure, but also very convenient for managing a ton of them.

I like the side bar button on the bottom left. I do miss the old bookmark bar on the left side of the IE. That was nice to have.

Have any of you tried it out and what are your thoughts? Thanks!

Conversation 10 comments

  • dftf

    03 December, 2020 - 1:27 pm

    <p>To reply to some of your points:</p><p><br></p><p><em>"I like how you can pop out video and it stays on top of everything"</em></p><p><br></p><p>The latest versions of Firefox also do this, by-default. In both Edge and Chrome, you can turn this feature on by going into their respective "flags" page, set both of these settings to "Enabled", then restart the browser:</p><p>#global-media-controls-picture-in-picture</p><p>#global-media-controls (I think in Chrome, this is labelled something like "<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">#global-media-controls-modern-UI")</span></p><p><br></p><p><em>"I think it’s faster than default Edge with no ad blocking extensions"</em></p><p><br></p><p>That could just be subjective, or also because, if you're only just gone back to Vivaldi, you'll be using a relatively new, clean profile, which always will be faster.</p><p><br></p><p>On my Windows 10 device, I'd say Edge and Chrome operate at around the same speed, but Firefox is notably slower, especially a cold-launch.&nbsp;Last time I tried Brave and Vivaldi can't say I noticed either being faster to any noticeable degree.</p><p><br></p><p>On my Windows 7 device, Google Chrome is definitely quickest: but then Microsoft probably haven't put-in any real effort to optimise Edge on that platform.</p><p><br></p><p>On my Android phone though, I'd say Brave is overall quickest there.</p><p><br></p><p><em>"There’s a ton of customization options!"</em></p><p><br></p><p>Yeah, <em>too-many</em> for me — I've never liked the desktop versions of Opera for that same-reason.&nbsp;However, on Android, Vivaldi's UI is fine there: way-less options, similar to "Opera" or Opera Mini" on Android.</p><p><br></p><p><em>"I like how you can preview a website just by mousing over your tabs!"</em></p><p><br></p><p>Again, something-else you can also enable in Edge or Chrome via their "flags" page. Find the setting "#tab-hover-card-images", set it to "Enabled" and restart the browser</p><p><br></p><p><em>"I do miss the old bookmark bar on the left side of the IE"</em></p><p><br></p><p>You can still have a fixed bookmarks sidebar in the new Edge, but only on the right-hand side at present: click the Favourites icon at the end of the toolbar (the star with the three lines, not the star by itself) and then click the Pin icon. If you don't have that icon, click the overflow (three-dot) menu, then click Favourites in that list</p>

    • j5

      Premium Member
      03 December, 2020 - 1:39 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#597539">In reply to dftf:</a></em></blockquote><p>All this is great thanks! I didn't know you could do PiP or have "hoover cards" in Edge. I'm going to try it right now. See how it compares. I do remember Firefox supporting PiP but Vivaldi has a progress bar and a mute button in the pop up and the window pops out small. Firefox pops out as a big window and I had to resize it. I want to see it but again not take up screen real estate.</p><p><br></p><p>I'm a news hound lol! Go to some heavy ad and busy sites like NYT, CNN or Foxnews and Vivaldi loads them faster than Edge, again default Edge because I'm using default Vivaldi with just 1Password far as extensions go. Even YouTube loads faster. </p><p><br></p><p>Yeah you can have the bookmarks pop out on the right side but not stay there. I don't see where you can pin it. </p>

      • dftf

        03 December, 2020 - 1:46 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#597543">In reply to j5:</a></em></blockquote><p>Assuming you mean the favourites pane (where your bookmarks are displayed in a list, down the side of the browser) then just click on the Favourites icon (or go to the "…" menu, then click Favourites) and in the pop-up list the Pin icon should be in the top-right.</p>

        • j5

          Premium Member
          03 December, 2020 - 1:52 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#597547">In reply to dftf:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yes, not the favorites bar. I'm talking about how IE had your favorites on the left side, which is something Vivaldi can do.</p>

          • dftf

            03 December, 2020 - 2:02 pm

            <blockquote><em><a href="#597550">In reply to j5:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'm using the new Edge, not the old one.</p><p><br></p><p>Can't post screenshots here, as the forum blocks them, but have posted the steps here:</p><p><br></p><p>i.imgur.com/UjfeQQJ.png</p>

            • j5

              Premium Member
              03 December, 2020 - 2:14 pm

              <blockquote><em><a href="#597560">In reply to dftf:</a></em></blockquote><p>Thanks, so I got the media controls, PiP and Hoover cards to work. But can't figure out the favorites list being pinned.</p>

    • j5

      Premium Member
      03 December, 2020 - 1:45 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#597539">In reply to dftf:</a></em></blockquote><p>Hm, the media controls and hoover tabs are enabled and they're not working.</p><p><br></p><p>Edit: got them to work, now time to compare.</p>

  • dftf

    03 December, 2020 - 1:38 pm

    <p> And for my own thoughts:</p><p><br></p><p><em>Desktop version:</em></p><p><br></p><p>I don't like <em>Vivaldi </em>on a desktop or laptop computer: the UI looks too-busy and once I head into the settings I feel swamped. If you love to tinker with absolutely anything you can, sure, go ahead, but it isn't for me there. I'm fine with the new Edge, some extensions added and a custom theme so it's clearer which tab is the active tab.</p><p><br></p><p><em>Android version:</em></p><p><br></p><p>On Android, <em>Vivaldi</em> is an app I regularly use, though <em>Brave </em>is my main go-to browser.</p><p><br></p><p>The "Speed Dial" screen it has (which is your list of bookmarks, essentially) is nicer than how <em>Brave </em>manages bookmarks, but not as-good as in <em>Opera</em> or <em>Opera Mini</em>, both of which display bookmarks like a phone home-screen UI.</p><p><br></p><p>I also dislike the middle-button on the bottom toolbar in the UI: it is a 3×3 grid of squares, which usually means "homescreen" and so I would expect it to take me to my list of bookmarks. But instead, it loads your homepage. So… why not just, you know, use an icon of a house — like every-other browser UI? (In <em>Opera</em>, this icon does indeed go to the <em>Speed Dial </em>screen)</p><p><br></p><p>Also, if you go into Vivaldi menu -&gt; Settings -&gt; Tracker and Ad Blocking and then click one of the "Sources" at the bottom you can choose which lists you want to use, which is nice, though I have noticed no-matter how-long I am in the <em>Vivaldi </em>app, none of these lists ever auto-update. You have to untick, then re-tick, to force a refresh, which is quite bad.</p>

    • j5

      Premium Member
      03 December, 2020 - 2:19 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#597542">In reply to dftf:</a></em></blockquote><p>? yes I felt overwhelmed when I saw the settings. However, it's nothing a weekend of tweaking can over come. But again that does take time. But I also see the advantages of a minimal setup which I'm all in favor of too. But I think it's totally achievable to have both minimal and customization available. The more choices available the more users Microsoft gets.</p><p><br></p><p>I will say I think Microsoft has done more with features and streamlining Edge than Google has done with Chrome. </p>

  • j5

    Premium Member
    05 December, 2020 - 12:58 pm

    <p>@dftf thanks for taking the time to post those settings in Edge. I've found myself using Edge more now than Vivaldi lol! Although I still like having the option for a bookmark bar on the left side of my browser, it's not a deal breaker. And I like browsers that have ad blockers baked in, that's one less extension I have to install. I think I'm going to keep Vivaldi installed though and messy around with it. The browser market needs healthy competition now more than ever I think now that Chromium is the standard (which is great for web dev having stable standards I get that) but Google and Microsoft can't get lazy.</p>

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