Vivaldi Browser Hits Version 1.0, Has Roots in Opera and Chromium
While not everyone thinks of it as a major browser, Opera actually reached hundreds of millions of users over the years, as we covered here. For the past year, Opera co-founder and former CEO Jon von Tetzchner, and community members, have been alpha testing a brand new browser called Vivaldi, and, they've just announced that Vivaldi has finally reached its official 1.0 release.
Thie is actually a very interesting new browser, and here is what people are saying about it.
"While other browsers strip down their offerings, Vivaldi adds features and powerful personalization options to help the web’s most demanding users increase their productivity and efficiency," Vivaldi's team notes. You can download it free from https://vivaldi.com"
The announcement adds:
"Here’s a look at a few features that make Vivaldi the ultimate web power tool for those who need it most.
Tab Stacks: Feel like you have too many tabs open? Vivaldi solves that with tab stacks. Drop tabs on top of each other to create a stack. It’s the fastest way to reduce clutter and keep organized. And when you’re ready to switch between tabs, Vivaldi has a number of customizations for that too.
Tab Stack Tiling: Have a big screen? Tile that tab stack and see multiple pages at the same time! With multiple tab stacks, it is like having multiple desktops!
Sessions: Take browser management to the next level. Save your favorite set of tabs as a session for later retrieval.
Notes: The perfect tool for researchers. Mark that quote and save it as a note. Vivaldi can remember which site you were browsing at the time, and allow you to take screenshots as well.
Quick commands: Access open tabs, bookmarks, history, settings and more through a command interface.
Mouse gestures and keyboard shortcuts: If you really want to operate the browser at lightning speed. Mouse gestures turn a flick of the wrist into almost any action in the browser. Keyboard shortcuts do the same with simple key combinations.
Speed Dial: Your favorite sites and bookmarks easily accessible from any blank tab. Include Groups and Folders for even more Speed Dials!
Better bookmarks: Access your bookmarks from the bookmarks panel, bookmarks manager, bookmark bar and of course Speed Dial.
Web Panels: View websites in your Vivaldi sidebar. The perfect way to browse tweets, Facebook posts, or chat alongside your primary browsing window. We like to say it’s the next best thing to a “Boss button” for the web.
Personalized: Vivaldi adapts to you, not the other way around. We made Vivaldi the most customizable browser, all based on feedback from millions of users. In fact, there are more than 1 million different ways to make Vivaldi your perfect browser."
You'll notice that some of the above features are found in Opera. Speed Dial, for example, is found there.
"So many of Vivaldi’s features seem delightfully clever once you start using them, like tab stacking, which allows you to create a group of tabs simply by dropping one on top of the other. You can then display all of those stacked tabs onscreen in a Windows 10 Snap-like arrangement—and those handy touches are just the beginning. Even the brief setup procedure encourages you to think about moving your list of tabs and URL bar to different locations on the screen."
And The Verge adds:
"The new browser is based on Google’s open-source version of Chrome, called Chromium, and doesn’t claim to be any faster than Chrome, just very different. Like Chrome, it can gain power from extensions. But its aim is to offer so many features you won’t need extensions."
If you're intrigued, give Vivaldi a try. It's always good to see new competition emerging in the browser space, given how much time we all spend in our browsers.