Vivaldi (web browser)

Vivaldi
Vivaldi 2.0 running on macOS Mojave
Developer(s) Vivaldi Technologies
Initial release April 6, 2016 (2016-04-06)[1] (Technical Preview released on Jan 27, 2015)
Stable release 2.0.1309.29 (September 26, 2018 (2018-09-26)[2]) [±]
Preview release 2.0.1309.25 (September 25, 2018 (2018-09-25)[3]) [±]
Repository
Edit this at Wikidata
Development status Active
Written in C++[4]
Operating system
Engines Blink
Platform IA-32, x86-64
Size
  • Windows: 38.9 ~ 44.8 MB
  • macOS: 60.4 MB
  • Linux: ~45 MB
Available in 53 languages[6]
List of languages
Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Basque, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Frisian, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ido, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lojban, Macedonian, Norwegian (Bokmal), Norwegian (Nynorsk), Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Sardinian, Scots Gaelic, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Spanish (Peru), Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
Type Web browser
License Proprietary Freeware[7]
Website vivaldi.com

Vivaldi is a freeware, cross-platform web browser developed by Vivaldi Technologies, a company founded by Opera Software co-founder and former CEO Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner and Tatsuki Tomita. The browser was officially launched on April 12, 2016.[8][9] The browser is aimed at staunch technologists, heavy Internet users, and previous Opera web browser users disgruntled by Opera's transition from the Presto layout engine to the Blink layout engine, which removed many popular features.[8][10] Vivaldi aims to revive the old, popular features of Opera 12.[11] The browser has gained popularity since the launch of its first technical preview.[12][13] The browser has 1 million users as of January 2017.[14]

History

Vivaldi began as a virtual community website that replaced My Opera, which was shut down by Opera Software in March 2014.[15] Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner was angered by this decision because he believed that this community helped make the Opera web browser what it was. Tetzchner then launched the Vivaldi Community—a virtual community focused on providing registered users with a discussion forum, blogging service, and numerous other practical web services—to make up for My Opera's closure. Later, on January 27, 2015, Vivaldi Technologies launched—with the community in mind[16]—the first technical preview of the Vivaldi web browser.[12] Its name comes from the Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, which, according to one of its creators, is an easy name to be remembered and understood worldwide.[9]

Features

Vivaldi 1.0.228.3 displaying the Wikipedia homepage in its "Chromeless UI" mode

Design and customizability

Vivaldi has a minimalistic user interface with basic icons and fonts, and a color scheme that changes based on the background and design of the web page being visited.[17] The browser also allows users to customize the appearance of UI elements such as background color, overall theme, address bar and tab positioning, and start pages.[18] According to CEO Jon von Tetzchner, Vivaldi's vast, unique customizability is a huge part of how the browser caters to power users.[19]

Usability

Vivaldi 1.8.770.56 with multiple pinned tabs, regular tabs and tab stacks, open history side panel, new tab with multiple speed dial folders and websites and highlighted "Toggle Extension Visibility" button

Vivaldi features the ability to "stack" and "tile" tabs, annotate web pages, and add notes to bookmarks.[20][21] Furthermore, users can place digital bookmarks on a "speed dial" page for quick access and harness "quick commands" to search bookmarks, browsing history, open tabs, and settings.[22] Vivaldi is built around and based on web technologies such as HTML5, Node.js, React.js, and numerous NPM modules.[23] As of Technical Preview 4, Vivaldi also supports numerous mouse gestures for actions like tab switching and keyboard activation.[19] Vivaldi can also be set to a "Chromeless UI", which gives users more screen real-estate and the ability to focus on a single page without distractions.[24] To accommodate users who prefer to use a large number of tabs at the same time, Vivaldi supports hibernation for both individual tabs and for tab stacks, freeing resources while the user does not actively use those tabs.

Version history

Technology

Vivaldi uses the Blink rendering engine, as Google Chrome and Opera do.[49] This gives Vivaldi users the ability to install extensions developed for Chrome directly from the Chrome Web Store. Even though some extensions might not work exactly as they would in Google Chrome (especially extensions used for user interface customization, as Vivaldi's user interface is completely different from Chrome's user interface), most extensions should work as expected.[50][51]

Future additions

Vivaldi Technologies is planning to release a service called "Vivaldi Sync," which will allow users to synchronize their bookmarks, history, passwords and settings across different computers. Vivaldi Sync is currently available to test in the snapshot build.[52] Also, the company hopes to integrate the email client "M3" into a future version of Vivaldi.[53] The developers are planning to release their own extension platform for Vivaldi.[54]

Market share

Desktop/laptop browser statistics
1. Chrome
 
 66.87%
2. Firefox
 
 11.44%
3. Internet Explorer
 
 7.13%
4. Safari
 
 5.38%
5. Edge
 
 4.16%
6. Opera
 
 2.47%
7. UC Browser
 
 0.92%
8. Yandex Browser
 
 0.41%
9. Coc Coc
 
 0.29%
10. QQ Browser
 
 0.23%
11. Chromium
 
 0.15%
12. Sogou Explorer
 
 0.14%
13. Maxthon
 
 0.1%
14. Phantom
 
 0.05%
15. 360 Secure Browser
 
 0.05%
16. Vivaldi
 
 0.05%
17. Mozilla
 
 0.04%
18. Pale Moon
 
 0.03%
19. Whale Browser
 
 0.03%
20. SeaMonkey
 
 0.01%
21. Amigo
 
 0.01%
Other
 
 0.06%
Desktop web browser market share according to StatCounter for June 2018.[55]

Reception

Ars Technica reviewer Scott Gilbertson wrote about version 1.0 in April 2016. He praised its innovative features, such as its tab handling, while noting that it will most likely remain a niche browser and not see widespread uptake.[56]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Andrii, Degeler (April 6, 2016). "Vivaldi 1.0 tries to reverse web browser simplification trend". Ars Technica. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Vivaldi 2.0 – Your browser matters". Vivaldi Blog. 2018-09-26. Retrieved 2018-09-26.
  3. ↑ "Vivaldi 2.0 RC 2 – Vivaldi Browser snapshot 1309.25". Vivaldi Blog. 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2018-09-25.
  4. ↑ "Vivaldi browser: Interview with Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner". utappia.org. September 21, 2016. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Download Vivaldi". vivaldi.com. Vivaldi Technologies. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  6. ↑ "Vivaldi version 1.13.1008.32 for Windows (7+)". Vivaldi Technologies. 25 November 2017.
  7. ↑ "Vivaldi End User License Agreement". vivaldi.com. Vivaldi Technologies. 18 November 2016. Subject to the terms and conditions herein, Vivaldi hereby grants You a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to install and use the Software and Services for its intended purpose. [...] Without limiting the foregoing, you are neither allowed to (a) adapt, alter, translate, embed into any other product or otherwise create derivative works of, or otherwise modify the Software ; (b) separate the component programs of the Software for use on different computers; (c) reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for the Software, except as permitted by applicable law; or (d) remove, alter or obscure any proprietary notices on the Software or the applicable documentation therein.
  8. 1 2 Shankland, Stephen (January 27, 2015). "Ex-Opera CEO composes Vivaldi, a new Web browser". CNET. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on January 27, 2015.
  9. 1 2 "Vivaldi: testamos o navegador de internet que tem personalização completa". Tecmundo (in Portuguese). Grupo NZN. 4 November 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  10. ↑ Minic, Ivan (February 10, 2015). "Jon S. von Tetzchner: We will (re)create a browser you love". Medium.
  11. ↑ Gilbertson, Scott (March 6, 2015). "Hands-on with Vivaldi, the new Web browser for power users". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on May 2, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
  12. 1 2 Dagenborg, Joachim (February 6, 2015). "Vivaldi browser hits 500,000 downloads in first 10 days". Reuters. Oslo, Norway. Archived from the original on February 8, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
  13. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (November 3, 2015). "Vivaldi Browser Hits Beta After More Than 2M Downloads". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Vivaldi is building "Opera as it should've been"". www.arstechnica.com. Ars Technica. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  15. ↑ Shankland, Stephen (January 23, 2014). "Ex-CEO picks up where Opera left off, launching Vivaldi site". CNET. CBS Interactive.
  16. ↑ "The Vivaldi Community is driving the Vivaldi browser development". Vivaldi.com. Twitter. January 29, 2015.
  17. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (March 8, 2015). "Vivaldi Is Quickly Becoming The Alternative Browser To Beat". TechCrunch.
  18. ↑ Brinkmann, Martin (June 2, 2015). "Latest Vivaldi snapshot introduces interface scaling". Ghacks. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  19. 1 2 Frederic, Lardinois (July 16, 2015). "Vivaldi Browser Gets New Customization Options, Mouse Gestures And Experimental Chrome Extension Support". TechCrunch. AOL Inc. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
  20. ↑ Williams, Owen (April 28, 2015). "Latest Vivaldi browser preview brings useful tab stacking feature and more". The Next Web.
  21. ↑ Paul, Ian (April 28, 2015). "This is neat: You can stack and tile browser tabs in the Vivaldi beta browser for power users". PCWorld.
  22. ↑ Clarke, Victor (January 27, 2015). "Vivaldi Browser: a Quick Look at the Opera Successor". hackerspace.lifehacker.com. LifeHacker. Retrieved May 10, 2015.
  23. ↑ Williams, Owen (January 27, 2015). "Meet Vivaldi, a new browser from the former CEO of Opera". The Next Web.
  24. ↑ Ødegaard, Ruarí (July 17, 2015). "Snapshot 1.0.228.3 - With Chromeless UI". Vivaldi Technologies.
  25. ↑ Shankland, Stephen (January 27, 2015). "Ex-Opera CEO composes Vivaldi, a new Web browser". CNET. CBS Interactive.
  26. ↑ Tatsuki, Tomita (March 5, 2015). "Technical Preview 2 is here!". Vivaldi Technologies.
  27. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (April 28, 2015). "TP3 is here!". Vivaldi Technologies.
  28. ↑ Tatsuki, Tomita (July 16, 2015). "Vivaldi browser Technical Preview 4 is here!". Vivaldi Technologies.
  29. ↑ Tatsuki, Tomita (November 3, 2015). "Vivaldi launches its first beta". Vivaldi Technologies.
  30. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (December 18, 2015). "Happy holidays: Vivaldi browser Beta 2 is here in time for holidays". Vivaldi Technologies.
  31. ↑ Tatsuki, Tomita (March 4, 2016). "Vivaldi getting closer to 1.0. Beta 3 is here with New session load/save, tab zoom and a lot of new options!". Vivaldi Technologies.
  32. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (April 6, 2016). "Vivaldi 1.0: Not for everybody, just you". Vivaldi Technologies.
  33. ↑ Tatsuki, Tomita (April 26, 2016). "No time to rest. Vivaldi 1.1 is here with enhanced tab handling, better hibernation and more!". Vivaldi Technologies.
  34. ↑ Tatsuki, Tomita (June 2, 2016). "Ready to make your own mouse gestures? Now you can with Vivaldi 1.2". Vivaldi Technologies.
  35. ↑ Tatsuki, Tomita (August 11, 2016). "The most customizable browser is now the most colorful: Vivaldi version 1.3 debuts with custom themes, enhanced privacy and much more". Vivaldi Technologies.
  36. ↑ Tatsuki, Tomita (September 8, 2016). "Vivaldi 1.4 is released with more control! Schedule, Restore and get more flexibility!". Vivaldi Technologies.
  37. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (November 22, 2016). "Lighten up your Day with Vivaldi Browser". Vivaldi Technologies.
  38. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (December 15, 2016). "Details matter. Vivaldi 1.6 is ready". Vivaldi Technologies.
  39. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (February 8, 2017). "Seize the moment with Vivaldi 1.7". Vivaldi Technologies.
  40. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (March 29, 2017). "Vivaldi makes History". Vivaldi Technologies.
  41. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (April 27, 2017). "Vivaldi 1.9 – Plant trees as you browse". Vivaldi Technologies.
  42. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (June 15, 2017). "Vivaldi powers up the Start Page and adds docked Dev Tools". Vivaldi Technologies.
  43. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (August 10, 2017). "Vivaldi 1.11 – Focus on accessibility". Vivaldi Technologies.
  44. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (September 20, 2017). "Vivaldi 1.12 – Giving you the browser you want". Vivaldi Technologies.
  45. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (November 22, 2017). "Vivaldi 1.13 adds Window Panel, improves Downloads and brings under-the-hood enhancements". Vivaldi Technologies.
  46. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (January 31, 2018). "Vivaldi 1.14 – Three years of continuous innovation". Vivaldi Technologies.
  47. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (April 25, 2018). "Vivaldi 1.15 : Just Better". Vivaldi Technologies.
  48. ↑ von Tetzchner, Jon (September 26, 2018). "Vivaldi 2.0 : Your browser matters". Vivaldi Technologies.
  49. ↑ Patrizio, Andy. "How Vivaldi compares with, and improves upon, other web browsers". networkworld.com. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
  50. ↑ Williams, Owen. "Sick of Chrome? Vivaldi can now run your favorite extensions". The Next Web. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  51. ↑ "Using Extensions in Vivaldi". Vivaldi Browser Help.
  52. ↑ "Sync is Here! Help Us Test It | Vivaldi Browser". vivaldi.com. Retrieved 2018-04-29.
  53. ↑ Moore, Charles (May 29, 2015). "Hands-on with new Vivaldi browser from creators of Opera". Technology Tell. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  54. ↑ "Vivaldi Extensions - Interview With Vivaldi Co-Founder". Extension-Zone. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  55. ↑ "Desktop Browser Market Share Worldwide". StatCounter. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  56. ↑ Gilbertson, Scott. "Even at 1.0, Vivaldi closes in on the cure for the common browser". Ars Technica. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
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