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Opera Founder Is Back, WIth a Feature-Heavy, Chromium-Based Browser
New submitter cdysthe writes Almost two years ago, the Norwegian browser firm Opera ripped out the guts of its product and adopted the more standard WebKit and Chromium technologies, essentially making it more like rivals Chrome and Safari. But it wasn't just Opera's innards that changed; the browser also became more streamlined and perhaps less geeky. Many Opera fans were deeply displeased at the loss of what they saw as key differentiating functionality. So now Jon von Tetzchner, the man who founded Opera and who would probably never have allowed those drastic feature changes, is back to serve this hard core with a new browser called Vivaldi. The project's front page links to downloads of a technical preview, available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. Firefox users who likewise prefer a browser with more rather than fewer features (but otherwise want to stick with Firefox) might also
consider SeaMonkey, which bundles not just a browser but email, newsgroup client and feed reader, HTML editor, IRC chat and web development tools.
Opera had a superb rendering engine. I wish they'd release it as open source, so we can have a bit of variety, instead of all these webkits and one gecko [1] and one trident.
[1]: We used to have Camino but Mozilla in its great wisdom decided to make Gecko un-embeddable.
Yep, Opera used to be the best, until they destroyed it. When they did, I stopped using it. Now this is really good news!
This guide is definitive. Reality is frequently inacurate. (from THHGTTG)
While I applaud the founder for this move, I can't help but wonder what could have been if these efforts had been put toward producing a truly MS Office replacement.
I mean, for every office product, there would be a true open standards [drop-in] product.
But right now, all I see are what some may call "me too" browsers, all competing for the little attention they can get among so many. Sad!
http://www.palemoon.org/
It feels "less quirky" than Seamonkey, and some of the Extensions that I have used for years ( Like Tree Style Tab) work with PaleMoon while they don't in Seamonkey.
And with the "Firefox 3 Theme for Firefox 4+ Reloaded" I finally feel at home again on the Internet.
c'mon guys...we *have* to start coming up with better names for products...
"Vivaldi"
Hey .. don't you know that this is actually the first of a suite of 4 programs .. they'll be one for each season.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
If you base your choices on product names, I feel truly sorry for you. Not in darwinistic sense, though.
Waka Waka!
Well keep a close watch on this one.
From the looks of things, they bought back the side bar, bookmarks and even email client. If so, I might just switch to it after switching to firefox+lots of extensions to make it look and feel like the Opera of old, when Opera went to sh*t after going chronium.
Netscape is still the best browser by far, with a familiar look and everything. The page source viewer is wonderful. Even the web page composer isn't too shabby. It has always been that way.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Speak for yourself.
I like the name. (And I know what it means, gosh!)
Looking forward to this browser.
LOL ... 1997 called, they want their browser back.
More seriously, where does Opera/this Vivaldi thing fall on the privacy end of the spectrum? Is it ad supported? Is it full of crapware?
If it isn't secure or trustworthy, WTF is the point? The last I saw anything from Opera was an Opera mini ... and it seemed to be quite the opposite of a privacy oriented browser, precisely because it seemed full of ads.
I want the "advertisers and sponsors go to hell" browser, do we have that?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Webkit or not, about as much as I want TCP by pidgin.
While this might eventually replace Firefox on Windows for me, it won't replace Safari on OS X. Once it has extensions support (hopefully supporting Chrome extensions), I'll give it a serious look. For now, I can't live without 1Password (not to mention Block and a couple others).
If you can't convince them, convict them.
Interesting that the Ubuntu/Debian .deb file is ONLY for 64 bit systems. No 32 bits for us dinosaurs.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
So let me get this straight, you seriously don't know who Vivaldi was, and you think everybody else is as proudly ignorant as you are.
Obviously the name works perfectly. This browser is not for you.
Would people be willing to pay for such a browser? Either a one time purchase, or a subscription? Since any browser maker would have to fund their existence, unless the browser is just a side business of theirs. In which case, why would they bother spending quality time maintaining it?
Go ahead - give us the business case, if it ain't ads. And don't say donations - we all know that that's hardly enough to fund any software developer.
Headline: Opera Founder Is Back, WIth a Feature-Heavy, Chromium-Based Browser
But a few lines below, it goes on to say: "Many Opera fans were deeply displeased at the loss of what they saw as key differentiating functionality. So now Jon von Tetzchner, the man who founded Opera and who would probably never have allowed those drastic feature changes, is back to serve this hard core with a new browser called Vivaldi."
So what is this new browser - a webkit based one like Chromium, or one based on Blink/V8?
Yeah, and ain't Vivaldi also the name of a tablet that runs KDE Plasma?
the name actually matters
you base all kinds of choices based on product names...
the name is part of the design...when you don't have any other information, design choices can indicate quality
is Vivaldi intended for a small group of developers only? no? you want non-developers to use it?
the name is not some completely abstract factor
Thank you Dave Raggett
does it have something to do with the fact that the word 'suite' is used in both programming and in classical music?
Thank you Dave Raggett
you seriously don't know who Vivaldi was, and you think everybody else is as proudly ignorant as you are.
even if you know who Vivaldi is, it's still a Dumb Name, that's my point...***most users will not get the reference***...just because it has an actual meaning, it doesn't mean it's a good name
'Bluetooth' is a Dumb Name
i sell handmade electronics in my spare time, which use 'bluetooth'...i have to explain *over and over* how 'bluetooth' is similar to wifi to my customers
the bottom line is, even if people know Vivaldi wrote a a well known piece of music with 4 suites like the program (get it), just like Bluetooth has it's own quirky/unique name origin story, **they both just confuse end users**
are you trying to make your program *actual* abstract art? like a Jackson Pollack painting?
unless that's your actual goal, you need to make a **little more** effort to name the thing something less esoteric...i'm not saying dumb it down, i'm seriously against dumbing things down....this is different
i hope that Vivaldi is a great success and i'm sure the developers are great, but this is what i'm commenting about...abstract wacky quirky names need to go...i'm not saying take it to the other extreme, but go with something a bit closer to describing what the function is
Thank you Dave Raggett
It feels like a fast version of Chome. But I don't have all the cache filled in the same way so probably not a fair test. But so far not a problem with it. Have used it on facebook game that requires flash 15, (won't work with firefox) was flawless.
Not found a single gotcha so far
The original dream we hardcore Opera users had was replacing the Presto engine with Blink, but wrapping it with the feature-full Opera interface experience. That was more a pipe dream. Vivaldi already has more of the old Opera features than the new one does. It's a technology preview, so it's got a lot of rough edges, but the spirit of the old Opera is there.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
No, that tablet was shitcanned months ago.
i was making the point that, just like the name 'Bluetooth', it may have an actual story behind the name that has some quirky relationship to the tech, but it still doesn't matter
i'm not saying go with a over-focused-grouped name, or generic name, w/e...just a bit more tech related
it really matters to people (assuming you want people to use your software of course ;)
Thank you Dave Raggett
I'm quite puzzled about the plug for SeaMonkey because it's not a new project. SeaMonkey is the successor of the original Netscape/Mozilla browser suite and it was the flagship product of Mozilla then. Firefox (originally named Phoenix then Firebird) was created in response to the bloat of Mozilla.
I'm relying only on my memory and didn't double check the facts so I may be wrong but I feel the OP seems to be too young to know this which is a bit shocking because I'm just 29.
Either that's feature bloat for a Web browser or it's also missing an image editor. I'm not sure which.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
What name do you propose for Bluetooth?
i don't have all the answers, but let's look at a reverse case...let's look at a *good name choice*
WiMax is a mostly-defunct next generation wireless protocol. If you did network engineering you prob have heard of it...
It is similar to Bluetooth in that way.
WiFi was, to users, something familiar...they chose to name the **next generation** wireless tech "WiMax"
it's not perfect either, but it has the word "max" in it, which is marketable as WiMax was to be a 1Gbit protocol
also, it ***connects to user's a priori knowledge***....
it's LOGICAL, MARKETABLE, AND CONNECTS WITH USERS CURRENT KNOWLEDGE
Bluetooth is just a random word to people! Even longtime network engineers I know had no idea where the name came from.
That's the difference.
Thank you Dave Raggett
not if you don't have guaranteed government contracts it doesn't!
unless you have already become rich and have market penetration, the name **obviously** matters
Thank you Dave Raggett
You can get a few of the problematic extensions to install and work on SeaMonkey using the Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey. Not all of the Firefox and Thunderbird extensions can be converted, but it certainly expands the frontiers.
Saying that IE is a serious browser (based on users) is like saying McDonald's has the world's best french fries (based on sales)*
*McDonald's did actually claim this at one time.
A goddamned side panel. So how was that too difficult eh Opera?
Bookmarks are more functional than Opera 20-whatever. Side tabs are too big, but that will be fixed. Email client to come.
I am thoroughly stoked! I saw mention of a browser about a year ago, but never heard anything since and never thought much more about it.
From what I remember of what one of the Devs said, part of Opera's layout engine was 16-bit and this caused a lot of rendering issues which had to be hand-fixed.
Allegedly, it was too difficult to rewrite. Additionally, with Google et al writing new standards for the web, it was just too much work to use a non-Chrome rendering engine.
I like uh... Opera 27. I'm not keen on the Look & Feel of Vivaldi so far but if they can make it flexible enough to do want I want (or support Chromium extensions), I'll switch.
Man. I'm going to have to write out a Liszt so when I actually do go browser Chopin, I can remember all these.
It's a shame "Internet Explorer" was taken...
I am on OS/X 10.6.8, still using Opera 12.16, as no other major browser cuts it as well. Very basic stuff like shortcuts and shortcut controlled Speed Dial, session consistency are not on par elsewhere compared to that old Opera release. Tried to escape many times by now, still returned. There are problems, that could have been cleaned in 12 branch yet, and I would not want for more, seriously: hogged memory use is suspicious, focus to tab is lost occasionally during inactivity, one local site hangs browser to death (but the same site partially nonfunctional even with popular Safari). Even with these problems still better (for me) than major alternate browsers.
The main problem, that was always seen with Opera - it was pushed to some turbo, link, e-mail, torrent distractors, while missing high quality plank of delivering rich, however minimalistic features. The essential spirit of Opera was actually the same, Unix is made of. Stability would have been real crack for browser connoisseur.
Servant of karma
IE is decent utility browser. Nothing to write home about, but then that's what Microsoft does all the time, and still pleases its users in their needs. Can't comment from standards compliance viewpoint though, as "improving standards" is certain awful another of their rudiment deeds.
Servant of karma
I paid for Opera, back in the day. So did many others.
This space intentionally left blank
Would people be willing to pay for such a browser?
I would pay for Vivaldi, if it had all the features of pre-Blink Opera with a Blink rendering engine. I'd pay $50 for it, happily.
Because there is NOTHING I can upgrade to from Opera 12.17.
McDonalds has better french fries than most of their competitors.
'World's Best' is a pretty hard standard in any category for anything.
I paid $25 for Opera before it became free. I would do so again or an up-to-date replacement. Money very well spend, even if Version 15 and later are completely unusable. And Opera 12.17 does have a rather well-working ad-blocker integrated.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Google and Bing search kickbacks. Read an earnings report from Opera and notice that for a few years, that was enough to employ over 100 people full-time
I used opera for years, was stuck with version 12, but now new Opera got most of the features of the old one, e.g. one key shortcuts, MRU tab switching, pinned tabs. The only thing that I miss in new Opera is "fit to width" feature.