this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2022
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Vivaldi Browser
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Tribalism? No, Positive experience with a product that was confirmed a thousand and one times in all technical publications, including It's FOSS and several publications and forums dedicated to Linux. To mention not only the technical aspect, but also for the ethics of this cooperative focused on the user, whose needs and requests are voted on democratically and included in the updates.
I like OpenSource and I prefer it as much as possible, but you can't always find valid FOSS alternatives for a product, you can't always go around the world with this black and white vision. If it weren't for proprietary products, which you still use, you wouldn't even be able to post on this social network, because you didn't have internet access. You can't see some multimedia contents that require proprietary codecs and drivers, the same firmware of your PC sure isn't FOSS either, do you use Startpage, DDG, Qwant to search?, because they are proprietary soft, others like SearX, MetaGer, Whoogle, are FOSS , but they have to use proprietary search engines, from which are they front-ends, because there isn't a suitable FOSS search engine that works. FOSS is certainly preferable in a Software or service, but just the categorical statement that FOSS = good and Proprietary = crap shows very little knowledge, .
What is good or bad is not related to whether it is FOSS or not, it depends on many other factors as well.
Each one uses the browser that convinces them and that best suits their needs. I have been using Vivaldi as my main browser for 6 years now without any problems, and apart from that I also have Firefox and the Fifo Browser, for test uses and comparisons with another Chromium and a Gecko.
In the past I have used practically all browsers, even the most exotic ones, like Cent and some experimental ones with different engines. None have convinced me and I can only say that all of them, without exception, seem crappy compared to Vivaldi, where I don't need to add tons of extensions, because it has them as its own functions, I can see several pages in mosaic, I have a calendar, feed and mail client, I can take notes with markdown and screenshots, have chats, Wikipedia or whatever I want in a side panel, for queries without leaving the page, alarm clock, translate web pages with a non-Google translator, create QR codes, key chain macros, mouse gestures and a long etc more, apart from being able to configure the aspect and the theme to the millimeter as I like, a own maill account and a Blog for own use for free. This does not offer any other.
But probably me and pretty much every tech publication on the net, even the Linux and FOSS ones are wrong and just Vivaldi fanboys.
Yes, fingerprinting, the only extension I use is Trace, which cover this (not only fingerprintings), uBlock is fine, but I don't need, because Vivaldi has a own ad and tracker blocker with the same filters and where you can add also more, if you want. I can save webpages, services and search engines as PWA with the context menu (customizable) Dark Reader is fine, but also not really needed in Vivaldi, it has Dark mode in flags and apart a menu with page actions, among these also an invert filter, also with the context menu over the search field I can add easy an search engine without the need to go to the setting page. You can consult your history, not only in a list, but in calendar view and statistics with graphics, EXIF and color data from images.....
Well, it has a screenshot tool, part or the whole page which works fine and which I can safe in the note function, but for this I prefer to use a desktop app (Flameshot), with this I don't need the browser when I need the tool for desktop screenshots. Yes, a note tool as desktop app is fine (I use Cherry Tree), but in the Browser I can select the text or content and save it as a note in the context menu in which also apears the url of the page and a screenshot, if I made one. No need to open something outsiide the browser.
But these things depends only for what and how you use the browser, if you only use it to browse in social net and for read the mails, every browser is valid. But when you use it for work, research or study, than it¡s easier to have split screen, web panel, two level tab stacking and other functions, where you don't need third party soft or several windows, or changing from one tab to other, you have all in your screen at the same time, while you can chat in the web panel with others. That is the difference. Vivaldi is more an online OS than only a browser with the most inbuild tool which you may need, apart of the possibility to customize and tweak it to your like, even degoogle it in the settings, much more as in any other browser.
I'm quite old already, from times when the first computers still worked with punch cards that I saw the first time when he did military service. Naturally I know the old Opera, it was the first useful browser, until in the end it was sold and distorted by the Chinese. Vivaldi is a successor, pursuing the same original philosophy and I agree that it is not a browser for everyone, there will always be a browser for a certain advanced audience, professionals, students, researchers, etc., to which it really comes from pearls with its functionalities, but to use it only to read the mail, post on some social network, well it is something oversized, for this certainly serves any other browser, even the simplest, such as Min or Fifo, with search bar and little else. As I said, it depends on the needs of each one.
Regarding uBO, if it has some advanced functions, apart from an integration in the contextual menu, which the Vivaldi blocker (yet) does not have, although it also does its job well, since it also allows you to add the filters you want. No browser with and without an app can do what TOR does, but this is because it does not work like a normal browser, naturally protects against fingerprinting, but on the other hand lacks other protections and functions, it is good for browsing on the onion, but many got an unpleasant surprise to do it without before using a VPN and being completely exposed. Surfing the open web with TOR seems to me to be a bit desperate.
Trace does its job well by randomizing fingerprints and blocking other identification and tracking methods, cryptominers, header, CSS, pixel, fonts, etc. Although you have to look for a balanced configuration, since activating all the protections, prevents the operation of some pages, even when you add too many filters to the uBO or the Vivaldi blocker, which can also break some pages.
Wikipedia
The VPN isn't such, it's a proxie over the own Opera servers, currently Opera is the less private respecting browser, in Android the browser with the most trackers, even more as Chrome itself https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.opera.browser/latest/
I know some who alternatively use the old Opera 12, but certainly no one who uses the current Opera, which only has the name in common with the old one. Technically it is a good browser, but in China privacy is not in the vocabulary and the VPN is directly a fake.
Because Opera sells data to different conglomerates of companies, like Verizon, which includes Yahoo and Yimg.com (can't access because Yimg.com is flagged as malicious, by the way), also Hotjar (Website Heatmaps & Behavior Analytics). It also sends information to Microsoft, Alphabet.Inc and Nest (Google advertising companies) as well as doubleclick.net, google-analytics.com, google.com, googletagmanager.com. In other words, half the Internet companies know what you do with Opera, looking over your shoulder, adding that the free "VPN" logs all your browser history. Thanks, no need for this.
You do not have to trust anything, it is simply absurd that at this point you trust a product when it says FOSS, resulting in the concept of FOSS having nothing to do with this concept, to remember that to trust a product other factors are necessary. As I said before, also the APIs and other apps to track the user of big companies are FOSS and included in many other FOSS to earn money.
Vivaldi is freeware proprietary, but only because the UI scripts are, which are 100% auditable and modifiable by the user, which is not possible in Chrome, EDGE and Opera, there the Chromium layer is not auditable at all and completely closed source, this is the difference. Firefox is a good browser and FOSS, but it passes user data to Alphabet and NEST, i.e. Google, for funding. In its development the company is oriented more to its own interests than to those of the users, which is why many abandon Firefox, even 2 distros have done so, now using Vivaldi as the default browser (Manjaro and FerenOS) other distros also play with this possibility and most already have Vivaldi in their repositories and many users have already done so, in the Vivaldi community more than half of users use Linux, because they know that Vivaldi does not traffic with their data, it is even active in campaigns against these practices .
They appreciate that when a bug appears, that the devs even work on Sundays to offer an update that fixes it. This is what deserves trust, that some companies like Renault and PoleStar even have, to use it as the preferred browser for their products.