back to article Sync your teeth into power browser Vivaldi's largest update so far

This week the Vivaldi browser received its biggest update, adding secure sync across devices and making many operations speedier. Vivaldi supremo Jon von Tetzchner, who co-founded Opera, the browser which invented many features taken for granted today, told us encrypted sync was the most requested feature. But it's one of …

  1. SkippyBing

    If they asked nicely I'd probably pay them $1 a year subscription and save them faffing around with sponsored bookmarks.

    1. Chewi
      Thumb Up

      My thoughts exactly.

      1. m0rt

        If they get the mail client out and it works well, I'll throw my money at them.

        I like thunderbird, and have used it extensively for years multiplatform. However, I feel that it is the unloved stepchild of any hair colour in the Mozilla family. I would like to see something that continues refinement to something that is nigh on perfect (I still suspect memory consumption could be easily improved with Thunderbird, althought checking it now I am pleasently surprised. Maybe I am being harsh. ).

        1. jelabarre59

          I like thunderbird, and have used it extensively for years multiplatform. However, I feel that it is the unloved stepchild of any hair colour in the Mozilla family. I would like to see something that continues refinement to something that is nigh on perfect (I still suspect memory consumption could be easily improved with Thunderbird, althought checking it now I am pleasently surprised. Maybe I am being harsh. ).

          I am seriously concerned about the future of Thunderbird. As the Mozilla-based backend continues to migrate in inexplicable ways, they'll have to expend more and more effort shoehorning it into the client. And they're finding themselves with fewer and fewer staff, rather than the more that they need. If TBird breaks, there really isn't a usable replacement for it. The calendaring functionality (at least when tying into the Google Calendar we use at work) is already severely broken, I don't see them being able to fix that with the resources they have now.

          Throwing money at them will only go a little ways towards fixing their problems; what they need is development staff, and they need it quickly. Just dread the thought I'd have to resort to web-based email (*ugh*, *spit*). Would definitely be cancelling a majority of my mail lists at that point.

          1. guyr

            Re: thunderbird.. I would like to see something that continues refinement

            I had to give up on Thunderbird when it corrupted our Google Calendar at work. I had to replace it with something quickly, and Windows was the corporate desktop. I found eM Client:

            https://www.emclient.com/

            Windows only, unfortunately. I would prefer a cross-platform solution, but have found Evolution meets my needs on Linux. eM Client interacts well with Google Calendar and Google Contacts, and allows multiple IMAP accounts.

    2. K

      Re: "does this read more like an ad-icle"

      If they gaurantee privacy (from their perspective), I'd pay £5-10... it a couple of cups of coffee, thats a deal in my books, considering its the one tool I use for several hours every day (For management interfaces etc)

    3. Sphynx

      $1 is too much...

    4. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      I'd pay them MORE to offer something that's not "2D Flatso". That screenshot of 'pick a theme' DELIBERATELY EXCLUDED things that are 3D Skeuomorphic. as far as I'm concerned

      Why must ALL of the browser devs out there *FEEL* [not think] as if EVERYONE has bought into this STUPID [deadpool-worthy profanity stream] 2D FLAT CRAP??? You know, like Australis. And Chrome. And Win-10-nic.

      I have NO good things to say about this now... I looked with ANTICIPATION to see if I could find a *GLIMMER* of *HOPE*. It did not exist.

      BOOO!

      1. RyokuMas
  2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Good news

    I'm still using Opera Mail and waiting for something equivalent to replace it but I ditched Vivaldi last year due to feature creep, the lack of the promised mail client and, most importantly, the trashing of my stored logins by one of the updates.

    1. Lee D Silver badge

      Re: Good news

      Same.

      I've given up waiting really. I just need a mail client as I've got used to using Opera for mail/RSS and Vivaldi/Chrome as browser - I'd love to have them integrated but it's never going to happen now.

      In that circumstance, Vivaldi offers me nothing spectacular at all over Chrome, so it'll likely be ditched. I had it and used it BECAUSE of the promises of getting the Opera-like mail integration and it's been years and there hasn't even been a single step in that direction and it looks like they want me to use a web-based Vivaldi-branded mail now.

      Bye lads. I'd have paid like I did for Opera. But you are most interested with changing the logos/icons (three times in two years) than you are actually actually functionality that makes you different from "Chrome + some extensions".

      1. Thought About IT

        Re: Good news

        Bye lads. I'd have paid like I did for Opera. But you are most interested with changing the logos/icons (three times in two years) than you are actually actually functionality that makes you different from "Chrome + some extensions".

        What makes the difference for me is not having google spy on me.

        1. Lee D Silver badge

          Re: Good news

          Chromium then.

          Even has auditable source code.

          1. MrMerrymaker

            Re: Good news

            Chromium on Windows still slurps. It's encrypted slurp too, so you don't know what it's sending, although it basically just phones home from Google.

            Linux, however, no such issue.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Good news

          What makes you believe that Google spies on your from the client end? Just because it's Google? You know how pathetic that sounds?

          It's all detailed very clearly what going on... It's called transparency...

          http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en-GB/privacy.html

          Tinfoil Hat Anyone???

          1. Potemkine! Silver badge

            Re: Good news

            http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en-GB/privacy.html

            You really believe that PR BS?!?

            Would you be interested in buying the Tower Bridge? I may give you a discount.

      2. jelabarre59

        Re: Good news

        In that circumstance, Vivaldi offers me nothing spectacular at all over Chrome, so it'll likely be ditched.

        Main reason I have Vivaldi is because it's the only Chrome/Chromium-based browser I can run on my 32bit netbook (AspireOne) that will actually support the GoogleDocs offline caching/editing plugin. Google dropped the 32bit Linux version of GoogleChrome some time back, and the plugin is severely broken (as in non-functional) under the bog-standard Chromium (32 *and* 64-bit clients, at least on Linux).

        No, just fanfiction on my GoogleDocs account, nothing mission-critical, before you start laughing.

        Just hoping they don't decide to drop the 32-bit version any time soon.

    2. Tannin

      Re: Good news

      Charlie Clark: I ditched Vivaldi last year due to feature creep and failing to add new feartures.

      Good one. Well, It made me laugh. Well done.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Add mobile and I'd pay a subscription too :-)

    Time to wean myself off Google :-)

  4. Sykowasp

    Installed to try it out, and it somehow deleted all of my stored logins in Chrome. What's that about?!

    1. Individual #6/42

      Lazy keychain

      Rather annoyingly Vivaldi's keychain items have still not been changed and are called things like "Chrome Safe Storage". This can overwrite Chrome preferences that use the same names. They've promised to fix it (four years and counting...) but yes it's a known issue.

      1. Richard 12 Silver badge

        Re: Lazy keychain

        Well, that's just bloody stupid and means 60% of their potential user base can't ever try it, and will run away screaming if they do.

        Rule Number One of entering a market - make it easy for users to switch to you!

  5. Zippy´s Sausage Factory
    Thumb Up

    If they'd release M2 as a separate product, I think it would probably fly better. I'd probably want to use that even without Opera and/or Vivaldi, to be honest, provided it didn't turn into something like Thunderbird/Firefox where they just keep messing the product up for the sake of it.

  6. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Looking good

    I started using V1 some time back when I wanted to separate financial stuff from ordinary browsing, and was quite satisfied with it. The upgrade was a bit of a surprise, but a very pleasant one :)

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is there one for each season?

  8. DJV Silver badge

    Sync

    As a web developer who has to use several different browser what I'd really like to see is a Sync system that works off a local server and can sync bookmarks between all the different browsers running on my local network. Does any such thing exist?

    1. AMBxx Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Sync

      It was called XMarks. Hidden away, but worked well.

      Sadly, LastPass bought it, then dropped it.

    2. Red Eyes
      Pint

      Re: Sync

      Try https://start.me/

      1. eldakka
        FAIL

        Re: Sync

        @Red Eyes

        Try https://start.me/

        That is not a "local server" as far as I can tell. It is 3rd party service that hosts the bookmarks and other data online on their servers.

    3. ScissorHands

      Re: Sync

      Vivaldi says they're working on releasing a local version of the sync server

  9. Jim-234

    Perhaps tell them we want to pay them?

    I don't know why either they don't know or never get told but we actually would like to pay them.

    I'd be happy to fork over probably something in the $10 to $20 per year as a donation if they could make sure I got a version of the browser where I was the actual customer not the product.

    If they claim to be happy with making $1 per year from me as the product... how about they take my offer to make 10x that with me as the customer instead?

    I think there is a HUGE market right now from the tech savy folks for a browser, email client and e-mail provider as well as a search provider that doesn't use you as the product to sell all your data.

    I think if they advertised it right & set the price decently, they would get plenty of income.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: Perhaps tell them we want to pay them?

      I don't know. Once upon a time, Opera charged for its browser, and where did it lead them?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Perhaps tell them we want to pay them?

      I think if they advertised it right & set the price decently, they would get plenty of income.

      How long for? The US tech sector deals with competitors that it can't beat by either undercutting them and bankrupting or buying them and crushing the product. There's many examples of this.

      So how long would Google or other tech majors allow a growing private browser or email business to survive that threatened their entire business model? It isn't just the single company, it is the importance of the concept of paying a modest sum for actual privacy, which the ad-slingers really can't afford to take off.

  10. DCFusor

    Tiled tabs are useful here

    Vivaldi isn't my default browser for just fooling around, but when I'm running an experiment in my lab, I monitor things via some cameras (raspberry pies) and some data acquisition and display software I wrote. With some radiation and very high voltages floating around, it's nice to run some things remotely.

    This stuff can use up screen space really quickly, even if you have 4 on a machine as I do (an oddball Nvidia card made for stock traders works well - but it's only 4).

    Since most of the time I'm just looking for something smoking, falling over, arcing - something dramatically bad happening so I know to hit that kill switch right away - I use Vivaldi to tile 4 realtime camera streams on one of the monitors, which saves the other three for other things, rather than needing all 4 to see the video streams or having to build some other custom solution.

    That way I can see my realtime gnuplots and use the remote control GUIs while still keeping an eye out for things that would otherwise be hard to instrument.

    This is a good thing...

    With sync, if it's good - it could become my daily driver as well.

    I know it's a niche use-case, but here I am in that niche.

    1. h4rm0ny

      Re: Tiled tabs are useful here

      Are you a Mad Scientist? 'Cause you sound like a Mad Scientist.

  11. Crazy Wise Martian

    Feature request for a Firefox scrapbook or better still not considered - too bad!

    The scrapbook add on for Firefox is a 100% faithful local save of any webpage, which are organized in local folders for instant recalls and can be searched by tags etc. It is the only application that is 100% faithful (neither Notes nor Evernote go above 90% accuracy, which is understandable since they are browser independent).

    That scrapbook add on (actually scrapbook X, the newer version) is being obsoleted since it is not supported by the newer Firefox Quantum engine, which is a shame.

    If Vivaldi would go one step further and save web pages in their (encrypted) cloud (or Dropbox etc) I would gladly fork out some serious $ for its productivity benefits. Saving web pages as mht is too cu8mbersome, addtional steps are required to save in folders, and they aren't searchable, neither the web pages current version easy to get in one click.

    1. Tannin

      Re: Feature request for a Firefox scrapbook or better still not considered - too bad!

      You are talking back to the future stuff here. Opera - real Opera, not OperaChromeClone - has done this for years.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    New security features you say?

    Based on Chrome/Chromium you say?

    So backdoored by Google by the err... back door?

    That'll be a no from me then - unless Im missing something - I know you can access the source code for Chromium, check it for phone home code and 'roll your own' browser, who has the time for that?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If you don't have time, then you WILL be at someone's mercy at some point. You're going to have to ask yourself, "Is security REALLY worth your time?" Because if it isn't, you probably can't assure it.

      1. Richard 12 Silver badge

        Do you personally audit the binaries as well?

        And the silicon upon which it runs?

        At some point you have to trust somebody, as no one individual can possibly check everything in a PC, let alone the things it connects to and via.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If they claim to be happy making a dollar a year

    They should ask for a voluntary donation of $20 or whatever, and if 5% of users give that then they've got the same amount of funding.

    Better yet, surely there are some corporations who want an alternative to Microsoft browsers but don't want Google to slurp their data and would choose this over Firefox for the privacy guarantee. A few large corporate subscriptions at a few bucks a head including priority support would go a long way toward insuring their future.

    I've been wanting to drop Chrome as my "backup" browser for when Firefox (or more likely, my ad blocker) causes problems on a site. Maybe Vivaldi is just the ticket. Who knows, if I like it enough I might even switch eventually.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Slurp

        Several problems.

        One, many of them are dual-use, meaning blocking them means blocking other stuff like security updates.

        Two, truly despicable slurpers skip the DNS altogether (or use their own internal resolvers) and go straight for the IP address, which can't be blocked by a HOSTS file and is even more likely to be dual-use, meaning blocking at the firewall may not be an option.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What the hell

    Happened to Opera? A. For years, nothing. Oh Opera 12, how I miss you

    1. Anomalous Cowturd
      Big Brother

      Re: What the hell

      I'm still using Opera 12.16, purely for the mail client.

      The browser chokes on many modern web sites, but mail still works just like it always did.

  15. Updraft102

    Still has hardware video decoding hard blocked for Linux. There is a Chromium PPA that enables video hardware acceleration (just a compiler flag, as far as I know), and it works fine for some people at least, so why have hardware acceleration hard blocked so that _no one_ can enable it? They can simply leave set to disabled by default, as in the PPA build of Chromium. If people don't mess with the flags, there is no difference. If people enable it in the flags and it does not work, they obviously know that the flags exist, so they can set it back to disabled and be done with it. It's not that hard to figure out!

    I am really tired of all of this blocking of features on Linux because some combinations of things don't work. The people using those combinations can disable it and keep going in a gimped, hardware-unaccelerated manner, but do the rest of us have to as well? Enable it on the platform, then have it disabled by default.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Probably worried of memory leaks. IINM, DMA like used for video cards presents memory protection issues.

  16. NanoMeter

    I'm using Vivaldi as my default browser. It do have some shortcomings, like being a memory hog. When I had 8GB on my PC it used more than 90% of the memory. Now I have upgraded to 16GB and Vivaldi still consume more than 90% of the memory. I wonder if it helps to upgrade to 32GB? I tried extensions which suspends tabs to save memory, but they only partially help.

    It won't help going back to Firefox, because that monster eats up resources instead.

    1. linkbox8

      More RAM

      The point of surplus memory is that you *want* software to use it if that helps it run faster. So add more RAM and it should be used, if only for caching.

      The question is whether it hogs that RAM when you've got other stuff running that needs it more. Probably it releases it gracefully.

      1. Richard 12 Silver badge

        Re: More RAM

        What's the point of making the "unused RAM" number bigger?

        A good browser should keep practically everything cached in RAM, and let the OS know that it's fine to wipe it instead of paging it out to hard disk.

      2. JLV

        Re: More RAM

        disagree. In a developer context, if your browser is constantly grabbing RAM it’ll eventually force more important processes, like your database and application servers to cache to OS virtual memory.

        Ditto if you’re Photoshopping or whatever.

        I certainly don’t care if I have to wait 0.5 secs or so longer, sometimes, in a broadband context. There’s really no excuse for >1GB usage, like Firefox and Chrome are wont.

        1. Charles 9

          Re: More RAM

          "I certainly don’t care if I have to wait 0.5 secs or so longer, sometimes, in a broadband context. There’s really no excuse for >1GB usage, like Firefox and Chrome are wont."

          Not even A LOT of media-heavy web pages being loaded simultaneously? AND a demand by the hoi polloi to keep track of where they've been in case they close a tab by mistake and can't recall where they've been?

  17. Alan Sharkey

    I use it because...

    It has proper bookmarks. Not those sill tabs that Chrome has. Now it has proper sync, I will replace Firefox completely.

  18. H in The Hague

    E-mail alternative

    Like many of you I've been looking for a good e-mail program for a while and I'm happy to pay for it. Have Thunderbird now but not entirely happy with it, find it less convenient than Eudora. A colleague mentioned she uses The Bat and likes it. Have downloaded it myself but not had time to play with it. Are any Commentards using it: good/bad/indifferent?

    https://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/

    Costs EUR 40 which I'll happily stump up if it's any good.

    1. Mr Dogshit

      Re: E-mail alternative

      I used The Bat! back in the day. I contacted their support with an issue once, and they got straight back to me and it was clear they knew their stuff.

      The only reasons I use Outlook are because I've got Office anyway and I like the calendar.

    2. Dave Lawton

      Re: E-mail alternative

      Have you tried Claws ?

      https://www.claws-mail.org/downloads.php?section=downloads

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: E-mail alternative

        I have looked into it but it does not appear to support HTML. Sure, I am happy to send plain text myself but in my work I must accept that my clients send me large emails using HTML with attached emails that also could be in HTML.

        For work I use Outlook which is a rather mixed bag. Home I prefer to use Seamonkey. This is a case where bundling makes sense since you can use the HTML renderer for browsing and email, and the HTML composer for writing email and making web pages.

  19. SEPAM
    Go

    Email Innovations

    Email is old yet it does not seem to have evolved as well as, say, the web. A large part of my working days are used in the email clients. I have been very careful to organise everything in a tree structure and yet it is hard to locate everything. Often I have to find 10+ year old emails and searching or it when you are uncertain about terminology used or even what language it was written in, things quickly become a nightmare. It would help enormously if email could be annotated. The RFCs have existed for years yet there are no reliable email clients that I know of. KMail2 supposedly supports it but has a really bad reputation for destroying your mailbox.

    So I hope the Vivaldi crew is working on something that really will blow the roof off email.

  20. Sphynx
    Thumb Down

    Not much of a browser

    Sorry, but can't understand the The Registers' big hullabaloo of this browser. 15 minutes after downloading it, trying it, I completely removed it from my system realizing that it was not much of a browser.

  21. glnz

    Hey Vivaldi - if you make an email client, please make sure it can instantly import everything from my Outlook Express 6 on my XP machine (which I've kept updated using the POS hack). And then NOT RE-DOWNLOAD THE LAST EIGHT YEARS OF EMAILS FROM THE SERVERS.

    And that's Outlook EXPRESS, not Outlook.

    Thanks.

  22. JLV

    Go, Vivaldi, go. Your low RAM use is much appreciated.

    (Vivaldi v1.15, been using as secondary browser for 1-2 years. I only use Chrome for CypressIO testing nowadays).

    If you add up Firefox + helpers in the RAM usage I usually quickly get to 1.5G. Ditto same exercise on Chrome.

    Vivaldi and helpers usually stick to 500MB. Really no idea why the difference with Chrome's bloat on the same code base.

    If I had NoScript there, I might make it the primary. And, yes, I might pony up a one time payment to support. (Paypal or Amazon pay, rather than spaffing my CC on another site)

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