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Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by turblety on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @08:49AM (#33894289)
I'm sure everyone here knows, but just posting to make sure no one misses out.

Please don't use Vivaldi. It is a closed source browser [1], and as such we have no way of validating they have not put backdoors, spyware, telemetrics to send private details such as your bank details, website logins, Google account, etc.

Stick with open source browsers, who's code is verifiable, especially for something as important as a web browser.

[1] https://vivaldi.com/blog/technology/why-isnt-vivaldi-browser...

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by pornel on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @08:58AM (#33894362)
Remember that Chrome is also closed-source. You can't build Chrome from source, and you can't check whether Google hasn't added anything nefarious on top of Chromium (and they do, at very least the DRM).
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by BaseballPhysics on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @09:17AM (#33894560)
I'm fairness, I don't see the OP advocating for Chrome, either.
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by fernandotakai on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @09:29AM (#33894692)
imho you should not use chrome either. chrome being the most used browser is bad for the web.

(i, myself, use firefox and will never use something else as long as firefox is being updated).

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by Fatnino on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @07:51PM (#33902635)
I'm Firefox on everything too.

I also have Chrome installed if it becomes needed, but it really is quite rare that I have to ask it to lumber to life.

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by bilekas on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @08:53AM (#33894325)
Is this still applicable as there are source archives here :

https://vivaldi.com/source/

I don't use Vivaldi, and have no interest in the Mastodon for now, but they were smart enough to change their use agent in order to have further compatibility, that actually triggered a market share loss on paper.

https://vivaldi.com/blog/vivaldi-2-10-no-strings-attached-2/

Would be interested to hear if anyone uses Vivaldi and how it is.

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by hobo_mark on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @09:00AM (#33894386)
The source is incomplete, you cannot build the browser from it, it's just there for licence compliance.

Anyhow, it's just chrome with extra stuff you can disable (email client? rss reader?) and extra stuff I cannot imagine living without (side panels).

https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/panels/web-panels/

I do not understand why no other browser has the ability to keep a predefined list of pages always open to the side, especially for real-time communication.

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by igemnace on Thursday December 08, 2022 @05:13AM (#33906284)
A lot of features Vivaldi has are definitely "nice-to-have" level, especially stuff they seemingly put in for fun like Philips Hue integration.

But there are some very functional settings I use that I just miss in every other browser. Most notable for me are:

- extremely (at least relative to Chrome or Firefox) configurable keyboard shortcuts

- easily editable search engines (you have to enable this with an about:config parameter that isn't default -- not that it's turned off by default, but that it's a parameter you have to know about beforehand and add yourself to the list)

And it's Chromium, so you get Chromium extensions such as uBlock Origin, which is why I stuck with it over qutebrowser (which also has configurable keyboard shortcuts) even though it's closed source.

I loved Vivaldi. It has the spirit of Opera, where it's all about giving power users options instead of streamlining them away for UX (which is still an option you can have with Vivaldi!). I use Firefox now -- Manifest v3 was the last straw -- but I lament the loss of configurability in some areas.

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by jraph on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @10:25AM (#33895399)
If you pin tabs, they'll be loaded on start and stay until you close them. Always in sight even if you have a lot of tabs. At least on Firefox.

It seems like this would almost perfectly act as a "predefined list of pages always open to the side, especially for real-time communication" or did I miss something? It won't be next to the page, but always visible at the top-left and kept between restarts.

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by hobo_mark on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @12:27PM (#33897238)
I know pinned tabs, I pin the music tab, it plays in the background, I never have to look at it, cool.

The point of having slack/mattermost/discord/whatever always on the side is that one does not have to switch away from the main tab just to see what's going on.

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by FlyingSnake on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @11:07AM (#33895984)
I use Vivaldi as my secondary browser and I like it. I use it because my workplace mandates Google Workspaces. I use it solely for work purposes for 2 main reasons:

1. It has tree tabs and I can't find any other Chrome based browser with Tree tabs

2. Google Meet is 2nd class citizen on Firefox and lacks many features.

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by tlavoie on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @02:14PM (#33898813)
What do you find to be missing for Google Meet? Firefox is also my daily driver, and my workplace is heavily into the whole Google ecosystem. Meet seems to be fine enough, but maybe I'm not looking for things that aren't shown to me.
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by FlyingSnake on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @05:02PM (#33900936)
Google meet on FF doesn’t support the video effects like screen blur or advanced filters. At least that was the message I got the last time I tried it.
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by tlavoie on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @06:34PM (#33901940)
Ah, OK. Haven't tried that, mostly camera-off for work.
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by igemnace on Thursday December 08, 2022 @05:17AM (#33906311)
As I understand it, Vivaldi is Chromium, with a custom chrome UI rendered as a React app run similarly to an extension, but more privileged.

The source they publish there are the changes they made to allow the "extension, but more privileged" clause above.

The React app is closed source.

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by webmobdev on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @09:22AM (#33894608)
Opera (the European one) was a decent company, and much, much more ethical than Google or Apple (in not using weasel words, and false assurance to data mine your personal data). The founder sold Opera (a really big mistake in my opinion) and started Vivaldi browser with a Chromium base. I'd still trust Vivaldi over Google and Apple anytime. That said, it is disappointing that their browser always phones home (and to Google too, last I remember) and they do not give you an option to disable that (unless you use some powerful application firewall), and so I avoid it. And Vivaldi still has miles to go before it can even barely touch the innovations that happened at Opera.
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by lucideer on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @09:46AM (#33894879)
> The founder sold Opera

A nit-pick, but not entirely true. The set of events was: founder stepped aside from the board due to disagreements on direction, eventually resigned from the company, then (a good while later) the board opted to sell the company.

Perhaps the big mistake was the founder not taking as much of a bdfl approach to management as many do. Maybe. Who's to say.

> I avoid it. And Vivaldi still has miles to go before it can even barely touch the innovations that happened at Opera.

It's a long way off, and I swore I'd never trust closed-source again after the Presto project was lost. But given the current landscape (& growing misgivings[0] with Firefox management), Vivaldi is looking more and more tempting by the day.

[0] https://infosec.exchange/@edgalligan/109445234681947348

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by webmobdev on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @10:14AM (#33895247)
If I recall right, the founder was involved in the fiasco to abandon Presto in favour of Blink. I remember one of the reason he cited in defence for this is that Presto couldn't keep up with the increasing number of popular, broken websites they needed to support in "quirks" mode / compatibility mode (or something like that) and working with Google on Blink would really help with that. So I don't think he is entirely blameless. (But there's also the fact that all businessmen, especially new one, also make honest mistakes).

It's a pity that Vivaldi doesn't see the business potential in building another new browser engine. With Mozilla making Firefox an adware crap, I think Vivaldi may even be able to get half a million dollar in online funding for the promise of another open source browser engine. Projects like Netsurf and SerenityOS browser already have done half the work and just need an experienced and talented leadership to give them momentum and Vivaldi can certainly provide that ... Even Webkit is quite decent and just needs a multi-platform push.

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by lucideer on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @10:59AM (#33895863)
Not sure how long it was brewing internally, but the decision to move from Presto to Webkit was publicly announced in 2013; von Tetzchner stepped down in 2010 & resigned in 2011.

> the fact that all businessmen, especially new one, also make honest mistakes

But yes, absolutely this. The repeated decision to forgo open-sourcing is (imo) a fatal mistake - it's the number 1 cited reason for people not switching to Vivaldi & also the real tragedy of Presto's shutdown: no possibility of a community fork - for what was an engine that always outperformed all competitors efficiency-wise (Webkit was faster when coupled with new hw & a brick tonne of RAM, but still knocks out even the fanciest setups today when you open more than a tab or three).

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by yardie on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @09:06AM (#33894455)
Most of the world is closed source and if the only reason to not use Vivaldi is because it is not open source well that isn't a very compelling reason at all. Most of the planet is using some form of closed source web browser the top 3 being Chrome, Safari, or Edge.
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by BaseballPhysics on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @09:14AM (#33894529)
Well, no, it can be a compelling reason and the world can still mostly run closed source browsers. Those ideas are not in conflict.

Twenty years ago if you said "don't run closed source operating systems" people would've popped out of the woodwork and said the same thing. Twenty years later, a huge chunk of the world runs on an open source OS.

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by A4ET8a8uTh0 on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @09:22AM (#33894606)
I suppose a lot depends on how we define 'world' and 'open source'. Still, there is an argument to be had ( and what FSF advocates ) about benefits of open software. "Closed source" is absolutely a compelling reason and, from where I sit, companies and organizations across the globe have shown time and again that they simply cannot be trusted and will engage in 'goodwill withdrawal' when convenient.

<< Most of the planet is using some form of closed source web browser the top 3 being Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Sadly, I personally believe popularity is a bad reason to advocate for technology. I kinda buy your argument that 'closed source' is not inherently bad ( edit: but it does require trust hence my first paragraph ).

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by tssva on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @10:41AM (#33895605)
I use a closed source browser but I don't use Vivaldi because it's slow, drains the battery on my laptop at an incredible rate and I find the UI to be less than enjoyable.
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by oxff on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @10:05AM (#33895111)
I use Vivaldi because it simply has more the features in a better package than these open source browsers. Maybe some day Firefox stops fucking around with and just starts stealing UX features from Edge and Vivaldi so I come back, but for now I can't start using it.
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by seqastian on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @10:39AM (#33895578)
Firefox > Vivaldi > Brave > Edge > Chrome yet everyone is still using Chrome..

(written on DuckDuckGo browser)

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by elforce002 on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @10:48AM (#33895700)
I use Brave daily (browser + search) and it's really good. I can't live without shebangs anymore.
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by tristan957 on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @11:19AM (#33896159)
DuckDuckGo has shebangs too fyi.
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by LinAGKar on Thursday December 08, 2022 @02:32AM (#33905250)
It's a shame it's proprietary, because it's the most configurable and feature rich browser I know of, and the only one that could possibly replace Firefox. As it is, I have it around for the rare things that don't work in Firefox, such as Teams meetings.
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by euix on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @09:59AM (#33895039)
In that case, what is the alternative? Chromium is so nice to use it's hard to get away.
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by wintermutestwin on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @11:16AM (#33896112)
Chromium browsers lack side tabs and horizontal tabs make zero sense. I believe that Firefox (and its derivatives) is the only option which is open source.

(yes there are a few vertical tab extensions for Chrome, but they are all incredibly lame as they do it by injecting an iframe into each webpage (!!))

Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by return_to_monke on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @01:03PM (#33897746)
I actually like Vivaldi's "tab grouping" feature better than tree side vertical tabs. I use Firefox tho, because I don't want to give chrom* based browsers any more market share
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by WorldMaker on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @05:51PM (#33901522)
Firefox still exists and is still great. So far rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated.
Re:Vivaldi integrates Mastodon in its desktop browser by exlurker on Wednesday December 07, 2022 @10:31AM (#33895491)
I like Ungoogled Chromium: https://ungoogled-software.github.io/ungoogled-chromium-bina...

At least for testing, I use Firefox as my daily driver.