Think a little about the recent history of computing and then look around you: it is inevitable to come to the conclusion that software in general has been riding a wave of simplification and a tendency towards minimalism, influenced by the language of mobile devices. Apple itself has shown itself adept at this, with some positive results, others not so much and some shots in the foot.
In the field of browsers, it is not different: the main current browsers (Safari, Edge, Chrome, Firefox) boil down to a window to the web, with a minimally intrusive interface and minimal resources. But what about power users, lacking more elaborate options, how are they?
mainly targeting this audience that the first stable version (1.0) of the Vivaldi. Founded by co-creator and former CEO of Opera, Jon von Tetzchner, the new browser differs from the competition by offering a myriad of options for personalization, gestures, shortcuts, interface, organization and whatever else occurs. Tetzchner is confident in stating that, after more than a year of development, the product is finally at a level of stability and resources sufficient to launch in final version.
Because it is based on Chromium, Google's experimental open source browser that also serves as the basis for Chrome, Vivaldi is compatible with all extensions created for the ubiquitous browser of the Mountain View giant. What you will need them: Vivaldi's development team makes it very clear that its main intention is that the user natively has all the resources he may need, without the need to resort to extensions. Among the many of them, there are the visual adaptation to the website displayed, the possibility of stacking tabs and viewing some of them simultaneously, annotations and multiple functions in a side panel and deep adjustments of appearance and keyboard / mouse shortcuts. It also has a quick command feature with a sucked look very similar to that of Spotlight. Other features promised in the testing phase, such as an integrated email client, will stick to the next versions, say the developers.
Vivaldi screen showing the Quick Commands featureCheck out a video that presents the project:
At first glance, Vivaldi can seem daunting to users accustomed to the simplicity of the most popular browsers. Mainstream, with its loaded interface and advanced features, however, as the application's own slogan states, it is not for everyone, for you. That is, if you sympathized with the idea, because you will probably like it. If this is the case, Vivaldi 1.0 is immediately available for OS X (10.7 or higher), Windows and Linux.
(via TechCrunch)
