I haven't seen anyone mention this so I figured I'd make a thread about it. Basically there's this new browser called Vivaldi that's been in development earlier this year and that reminds me a lot of earlier versions of Opera and is actually made by the former CEO of Opera. It is a browser that seems to be aimed more at people who like customizability and has a lot of features not found in other browsers like being able to take notes and screenshots while browsing as well as "stacking" tabs to make browsing more organized. There's also a lot of interesting features planned in the future like a browser integrated mail service that is if you can get past the slightly creepy "a browser for our friends" text that they seem to be using to advertise it.

I just tried out a few days ago and currently what's available is only a preview and I have encountered some issues like the browser randomly closing out on me but I assume this something that may be fixed in the future (or maybe it's just something weird with my computer not sure). And so far I actually like it, and assuming they finish it and add some of the other features promised I might even start using it as my new main browser.

I think it's pretty interesting considering how it's pretty unique in that it seems to focus on customizability while the other big browsers like Chrome, Opera and even Firefox are seemingly going for a more minimalist and streamlined approach nowadays. It also seems to be gaining popularity and it looks like it could become a competitor to the other browsers at some point, which makes me wonder how this might affect the other major browsers since no real big new competitor has entered the browser market since chrome.

So I was wondering if anyone else has tried out and if so what your impressions of it are? Does it seem interesting? Or will you keep using Chrome/Firefox/Opera/IE/ insert some obscure browser?

Zlinqx :

It sounds pretty interesting to me.

You know, sometimes I wish I could search for exactly what I wanted for more often, but I don't use the search feature that much, and for the most part, I just visit a small list of sites I have favorited and that's it.

Is it very hard to learn?

Sword legion : While It's still only a preview, from what experience I've had with the preview I wouldn't really say it's particularly hard or complicated. There are a lot of videos explaining many of the features that makes it unique compared to other browsers should there be a need for it (and I'd assume they probably mention most things on their site as well) or you could just try them out yourself. Even so you could still avoid most features and it would function just like most of the other major browsers do.

Also for what you mentioned there's also a feature called speed dial (which is actually a feature available on opera as well) that allows you to add button shortcuts to the start page on your browser of sites that you visit often that you can click for faster access to those sites.

Despite this I wouldn't use it as my main browser currently since it's still just a tech preview (I'm still mainly using firefox myself) and it's probably just to get a feel of what you could maybe expect but it's something that can probably be worth keeping an eye on in the future if it sounds interesting.

How would you compare it to classical browser like Chrome and Firefox? You say Vivaldi offers more customization; like what?

For some reason Chrome is sometimes getting very slow, but Firefox doesn't seem to be any better... Is it quicker, especially when you have multiple tabs opened?

And why would they choose an Italian composer's name?

janus : It includes a lot of features not seen in other browsers like tab stacking, taking notes etc and they plan on adding a lot more. Essentially it seems to be a lot like what Opera used to be like before if you've ever used it. A browser for "power users" and seems to stray away from what the major browsers seem to be doing which is going for a minimalist design and putting less emphasis on the browser hence seeming to target more casual users.

There's still a lot of bugs though, like I said there's only a tech preview out so there's been a lot of problems hence I don't use it as much but I'm really interested of how it may turn out once they actually released a finished build but it's using chromium so theoretically it shouldn't really be much more different than something like chrome or opera once they are able to get a finished version out.

No idea on the name, guess maybe to make it stick out more? Personally I still think the "the browser for our friends" thing sounds a bit weird but whatever.