Finally: Vivaldi Beta is now available

[Batu69]

Vivaldi unveiled the official beta version of the company's web browser a couple of minutes ago marking the next step in the company's plan to win over disgruntled Opera users and Internet users who want control over how their browser looks and behaves.

It feels like Vivaldi has been around for a long time when in fact it has been less than a year. First unveiled in January 2015, it is been pushed out in the open with weekly snapshot releases that, for the most part, worked fine and without larger issues.

Based on Chromium/Blink, it is one of the few browsers based on the Google browser that does not just make marginal interface changes to the browser and keeps everything else as is.

In fact, one of the main goals of the project is to implement popular features that classic Opera supported but modern Opera does not.

If you like to customize your browser, then you don't have much choice in today's browser world. There is Firefox which is still the uncrowned king when it comes to that, and there is Vivaldi now. All other browsers limit what you can do in terms of interface customizations.

Want tabs at the bottom of the screen? Good luck with that while using Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.

One of Vivaldi's strengths is the customization options it makes available. Place tabs on the side or bottom, show or hide the status bar, or show the address bar or bookmark bar at the bottom instead of the top.

There is a light and dark theme available already, lots of options to modify the start page of the browser, and if you want, you can make the UI adapt the color of the pages you are visiting.

There is more to Vivaldi than that though. If you have used classic Opera you will recognize long lost features like tab stacking or the side panel that are already available in Vivaldi.

Once you have started stacking tabs, you may display them all in a single tab side by side using the browser's tiling functionality.

Vivaldi supports keyboard shortcuts, and gives you options to remap these shortcuts right in its interface. The only other browser that lets you do that is Firefox but you need add-ons for that in the browser.

Quick Commands is another interesting feature. Tap on F2 to display a command prompt to launch commands quickly. Type what you want to do, e.g. "private" and select the "new private window" option using the keyboard.

The beta ships with improved support for Google Chrome extensions. According to Vivaldi, you should be able to install and use most Chrome extensions in the browser now.

Check out the official blog post on the Vivaldi website for a detailed look as to what the browser is offering right now. Downloads are provided on the page, but if you are running Vivaldi already you may also update it from within the browser itself.

Tip: If you are interested in how it all started, check out this podcast with Jon Von Tetzchner, Vivaldi CEO and Opera Software co-founder.

Source

[shamu726]

Sure looks different from other chromium based browsers. Will try it once final version becomes available. :fun:

[mastershake]

wish we can get rid of the side bar and add a boomarks button UP TOP hate the sidebar thing, and please dont say bookmarks bar i do not want any bars at all.

[shamu726]

You can hide the sidebar by clicking the button at the bottom left corner. And instead of wishing, why don't u make a feature request or drop a question in their blog? Maybe what u want can already be done.

[mastershake]

i have many times. no plans to from what i was told. i know i can hide the side bar but then its still a pain to use bookmarks that way. i just want the old fashioned button up top. quick easy. i dont do bars... any of them i cant stand them

[HX1]

I miss Opera 12.. ( it reminds me of Opera.. ) and my Coco Skin ( I think that was what it was called )

[steven36]

I willl test it whenever they decides to fix there CanvasFingerprintBlock for chrome

Blocks naïve uses of fingerprinting, but does not currently (8/2015) block fingerprints within an iframe, so it is easily defeated.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/canvasfingerprintblock/ipmjngkmngdcdpmgmiebdmfbkcecdndc/reviews

Just like most addons for chrome they never get updated so unless you use and old version addons stop working . When I test it on browser leaks it don’t work any more the one in Gecko based browsers is working . :P

[Kalju]

I miss Opera 12.. ( it reminds me of Opera.. ) and my Coco Skin ( I think that was what it was called )

As far as I know, the Opera 12 (I think, the latest was 12.7) is completely available in both: 32-bit and 64-bit versions. There is also portable.

But if this is a browser, then I am really UFO itself.

[HX1]

Yeah it was I had an archive of all of this and deleted it.. ( I looked at my software archive and I had stuff going waaaay back.. ) in the effort of getting rid of some thing for sake of becoming a hoarder, I deleted it ( yes it is just data but yes the same effect can apply ) I deleted all of the skins everything... Plus it is an old not updated version.. and I just looked for the skins.. Nowhere to be found online.. All well...

The main reason I had it in archive was to test when writing website material.. in which I should probably be using more recent versions anyway.. LOL.. Now that it is gone I sort of wish I would have kept it.. no Opera will ever look that good again.. :P