Vivaldi browser to perform a symphony of ad and tracker blocking with version 3.0 Chromium-based browser maker Vivaldi might have stirred a hornets' nest thanks to inbuilt ad blocking for both its desktop and mobile incarnations of version 3.0. The release is a big one, evidenced by the jump to 3.0, and builds in both tracker and ad blockers as well as the usual array of configuration options for which the …
I've got that say that even though I'd long enjoyed the desktop version, I was very sceptical about the Android version when it first appeared. Surely it couldn't be faster than Lightning, which is simply a light wrapper around Android's built-in WebView. I don't know how they did it but it really is and it's a joy to use. The bookmark syncing is particularly useful too.
I do almost everything with PM but the odd site won't work (eg WebRTC stuff). After looking into many chromium-based browsers over the years I have settled on Vivaldi and I have not regretted it. It's very configurable and the one extension I need (uBlock origin) runs well. Whether I can retire uBlock with this release remains to be seen. YMMV.
Same here, Pale Moon for 95% of stuff, Vivaldi on the occasions where a site breaks in Pale Moon, or where it just runs like crap with a none-Chromium engine (ie, Google Maps). Also got an extension for Pale Moon that allows it to send a site direct to Vivaldi if required.
Try changing user agent to Firefox or Chrome, it's worked for me. Nothing that's based on Chrome/Chromium is acceptable, uses way too much resources. PaleMoon with 500 open tabs takes 9GB of RAM and keeps running rock solid for weeks (on Linux of course).
Gresham's Law in action.
When there was one commercial TV channel in the UK, space was very expensive (Lew Grade's "licence to print money") which meant ads were extremely high quality, and a trip across the Atlantic to where ads were utter shite made it very obvious.
Now there's almost infinite advertising capacity, lowest common denominator doesn't even begin to describe it.
Much was when newspapers had large circulations and were quite good, compared to now when any old rubbish goes because the cost of entry is more or less zero, and there's no editor with the proprietor breathing down his neck about circulation.
You just have to compare The Times from the 1960s with now.
The US First Amendment combined with corporatism: Making everything rubbish since Reagan.
When there was one commercial TV channel in the UK, space was very expensive (Lew Grade's "licence to print money") which meant ads were extremely high quality, and a trip across the Atlantic to where ads were utter shite made it very obvious.
I haven't heard of it for a couple years, but it used to be "a thing" in the USA to pay money to sit in a theater (AKA cinema) for an hour or so to watch the best of the year's British TV ads.
Here in the US, a DVR and a "skip 30s" button is vital for mental survival...
Actually Thomson said Scottish Television had "a permit to print money", whereas Lord Grade referred to "a licence to print money". Though you can say this for Thomson, my father was pleasantly surprised when he bought The Times and didn't ruin it. Until it printed a full page nude in an advert, his secretary saw it and promptly passed it round the office. The Telegraph never did such things (harrumph).
The Tree Tabs (I don't remember the exact name) extension for Firefox was better, but it's impossible to enable it now without also having the standard tabs across the top of the window. Which is monumentally retarded.
Vivaldi's side tabs are ok, but still quite annoying at times. (Trying to actually find the single pixel line to stack a tab is irritating as hell, and the whole concept of tab stacking leaves much to be desired - especially when you're trying to find a tab again.)
but it's impossible to enable it now without also having the standard tabs across the top of the window.
Not true, you can remove the tabs across the top, although it's not a simple toggle option in the Firefox Settings UI.
Sorry about the formatting, below is an unformatted copy/paste of my notes I made for myself on how to do it after some research:
FIREFOX
=======
If using Tree Style Tabs and want to get rid of top tab bar, (after enable about:config toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets true)
put the following in <profile directory>/chrome/userChrome.css:
#tabbrowser-tabs {
visibility: collapse !important;
}
#titlebar {
margin-bottom: -34px !important;
}
#titlebar-buttonbox {
height: 32px !important;
}
#nav-bar {
margin-right: 180px;
}
#main-window[sizemode="maximized"] #nav-bar {
margin-right: 138px;
}
To test "live" without updating the userChrome.css, enable the options about:config OR in developer tools (F12) (press the '...' button on the right and select Settings)
Advanced Settings:
(ticked) Enable browser chrome and add-on debugginr toolboxes
(ticked) Enable remote debugging
about:config equivalent to above
devtools.chrome.enabled = true
devtools.debugger.remote-enabled = true
Then open the Browser Toolbox (CTRL+ALT+SHFT+I or Tools -> Web Developer -> Browser Toolbox).
In the "{} Style Editor" tab, you can add a new stylesheet ('+') and type in the styles above (or others) to test.
Gave it a spin on Android. If only there would be a setting to keep whatever tab/bookmarks/status bars in place.
Personally, I don't care what is where on the screen but it has to stay in place.
Being epileptic, I hate things flashing in and out of view the moment I want to scroll.
Please would somebody explain Vivaldi's business model?
Visiting the Vivaldi website reveals it having employees on a seemingly co-operative basis. That raises the question of how Vivaldi raises income.
Vivaldi uses a corpus of open source software and produces software of its own. It is unclear whether the entirety of Vivaldi code is open source or otherwise viewable under a more restrictive regimen.
This post has been deleted by its author
I hate ads, but I too get why they are needed. But until a website can guarantee that the ads are just that, and no additional payloads, just keep blocking, just keep blocking...
So, website owners, listen up! Your site\biz will be better served if you vetted your ad agencies, and their IT arm. Just because a service works and gets you customers doesn't mean it is good for us...
"But until a website can guarantee that the ads are just that, and no additional payloads, just keep blocking, just keep blocking..."
Here's the litmus test: a company's willingness to suck the ads into their systems so they can serve the entire page (including ads) from their own servers.
Speaking as a content delivery engineer with 20+ years experience in that field, that's not that hard to do technically.
Curiously, though, companies tend to be opposed to that approach since they don't trust the ad providers (and rightfully so, I might add). So why would we?
As an added bonus, once ads are fully embedded it will be exceedingly difficult to block them. The ball is in their court as far as I am concerned.
C'mon, how about locally hosted elreg/bogroll.jpg or similar - I would not block that.
No gifs, however, please.
I'm deliberately running our local bogroll stash low - below 3 rolls currently. I predict a modest downturn in prices soon, and am considering hoarding around 6 rolls.
A locally hosted ad on elreg might convince me where to buy - no tracking, naturally.
Got to go now - need a crap / full of shit / important message from an SEO to catch up with.
I don't think this will work.
The thing about loo roll is, over a long scale the overall demand is steady, so there is no incentive for the manufacturers to change how much they are making.
Food goes off, so the amount used in a year increases if it is panic bought. Hand sanitiser and masks get used more in a panic, but people don't fundamentally alter their bum output based on a respiratory disease.
I have yet to find an Android Chromium-based browser that clears browsing data on exit - they all require manually clearly from privacy options or incognito mode. The closest I could find was a chrome flag #clear-older-browsing-data which will clear all browsing data older than 30 days.
Anyway if any of you Regtards are really interested in a good Chromium browser on Android with good ad blocking I suggest giving Bromite a test drive. I've compared it with Brave and Kiwi and found it to block practically every ad even in Youtube videos. Maybe that's why it's not available in Google Play store.
https://www.bromite.org/
For example when you Bookmark something in the mobile version, the title ends being the link url unless you type the name yourself.
The desktop version lacks an easy access to reset settings to default or at least I haven't found it.
And there are other things but those two are the ones I was most annoyed it.
I think I will keep using Icecat for now.
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