Nick Peers discovers whether new browser Vivaldi offers enough tweakability and innovative new functionality to put the wind up Chrome, Firefox et al.
The appearance of a major new web browser is a noteworthy event, even more so when it’s as disruptive as Vivaldi plans to be. It’s not interested in battling the big boys, but instead has targeted a specific niche of user: those unhappy with the direction Opera took when it relaunched itself as a Chrome-based browser with the emphasis on simplicity rather than customisability.
Vivaldi is easy to install – both Deb and RPM binaries are provided at its official website https://vivaldi.net. Launch Vivaldi and its origins are clearly apparent, as it borrows many elements from Opera, such as its speed dial. Nevertheless, it’s also different in many ways: eg tabs may be found in their traditional place, but you can move these to the bottom or either side.
Vivaldi also provides handy controls at the bottom of the screen: a zoom slider; image control (all, cached or none) and a page-tiling toggle are joined by a ‘Pages Action’ menu, which enables you to tweak the current page’s look and feel, remove transitions, apply filters and choose monospace fonts etc.
To the left is the Side Panel, where even more useful tools and settings reside: bookmarks, downloads and even a tab for the built-in email client (forthcoming). There’s also a handy notes section to quickly create, organise and edit text notes, complete with optional URLs and file attachments. Last, but not least,Vivaldi enables you to place ‘web panels’ here – where you can add a URL and click its button to reveal the page in its own narrow (but resizable) column next to the main window. It works best with mobilefriendly web pages, but provides a neat way of referencing one site while browsing another.
You can also reference multiple sites using Vivaldi’s tab-stacking feature. Drag tabs on top of each other to stack them together, then right-click to tile them – each site is displayed in its own column, each page resizable using the zoom slider (sadly you can’t resize columns – yet).
Vivaldi also features a tool called Quick Commands, for those who prefer the keyboard to their mouse. Press F2 and it pops up, then it’s a case of typing what you want to access, whether it’s a particular panel or tab, or a website in your history. As you type, suggestions appear; It’s not comprehensive, but it is the closest thing to a command line for Vivaldi.
When it comes to performance and functionality, Vivaldi uses Chromium’s Blink engine, so it’s swift and sleek, and supports most Chrome extensions too. Click the ‘Settings’ button on the panel and you discover just how versatile and configurable Vivaldi is – if you don’t like any particular aspect of its look or feel, this is where you’ll find the tools for taming it, adding your own keyboard shortcut, or switching it off completely.
Vivaldi is still very much a work in rapid progress – aside from the built-in email client, a sync tool has also yet to make an appearance, eg. However, new features are appearing all the time – the side panel has gained a number of useful improvements in the latest prebeta snapshot, such as Trash folders for notes and bookmarks, and the ability to show and hide individual panels.
Even at this relatively early stage in its development,Vivaldi succeeds in its primary aim: to offer a powerful, customisable alternative to today’s simple-first browsers. If Chrome, Firefox or the new Opera leave you unsatisfied, then Vivaldi’s siren-like call is definitely worth listening to – take the web browser for an extended test drive and we suspect you may not end up going back to the others.
Vivaldi’s flexible interface, coupled with its innovative and useful features, make it a compelling alternative.