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@pre@boing.world
Post #2811259
2026-01-30 15:32 UTC
Oh. Its proprietary!?
https://vivaldi.com/blog/technology/why-isnt-vivaldi-browser-open-source/
Why has everyone been talking about Vivaldi being a sensible replacement for Firefox when it's not even open source and you can't install it on Arch?
😬
These chrome "Profiles" aren't nearly as useful as Firefox's Containers either. Can't segregate a tab to it's own cookie-jar at all. Only entire windows full of tabs.
The annoying side-panel can be hidden but keeps coming back whenever you view the bookmarks or the notes or the ReadList or todo or Translate dialogs etc.
Because they are part of that side panel I guess.
The mail app seems okay, but it's making up it's own contacts based on mail in the imap boxes instead of taking them from my nextcloud. Which means I'd not use it. Just continue with Mutt. Probably would just continue with mutt either way really.
Having the calendar built in is quite nice I guess. That does sync with the nextcloud calendar so would be useable.
Like Firefox, the "Send Tab To Device" function on Android relies on the notifications system, and so doesn't work when the phone is in Do Not Disturb. Which makes it annoying for sending what you're reading to the phone for bed coz the phone is automatically in No-Disturb sleep mode before bedtime for me. That's an issue with Mozilla too though.
Force dark-mode works okay, but is an overall setting not a per-site setting. Could see having to turn that off and on a lot.
The notes system is really pretty good. It could use a widget for the android homescreen. And indeed widgets for the calendar and readlist and todo list and other panel items.
A RSS reader really should be part of the browser so that's great. Reluctant to switch from my own self hosted TTRSS now though.
It seems very nice, can be made pretty, has most of the things I use addons for in Firefox built right in there and more besides.
I was quite excited and really on the verge of switching to it for proper until I found it doesn't have an arch package so can't be easily installed on the steam machine, and can't even be built from source there because it turns out isn't even free software.
Do I need more proprietary software in my life? Definitely usually try to avoid that. Closed source is worse than unwanted AI. 😔
So I guess sticking with Librewolf for now. Hopefully they can keep the AI agent stuff separated as Mozilla enshitify further without becoming overwhelmed.
#browser #firefox #vivaldi #mozilla
Replies (3)
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One thing which is annoying about Vivaldi and also Firefox and presumably also all the other Android web browsers is the way the "Add To Homescreen" button works on pages like Mastodon which are Progressive Web Apps.
If you add the shortcut to the homescreen then it opens as a WPA which means the browser stuff is all gone and hidden. No back button. No way to bookmark. No way to launch a link in a new browser window etc.
Ought to be two separate buttons for "Add a link to the homepage" vs "Add this app as an app to the homepage" but there isn't.
You can get around this by turning on airplane mode and adding a link to the error page to the homescreeen, which then works as a link to the website in the browser, not a WPA app, when you're online again.
I did this to the links I use with Vivaldi before I realized it's proprietary and so will not do.
Trying to rebuild them as Firefox links again and sadly something is broken now. Won't add the error page. Tells me the pixel launcher is crashing.
So I can't have the old web bookmark links to pages in WPA apps. Boo. 😦
Open ##2811260
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@pre@boing.world Yes, it is proprietary and Chromium. Fun stuff if you purported to care about the stuff Mozilla used to care about, not an issue if you cared more about vibes, I guess.
Open ##2811267
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@pre@boing.world I think we disagree on "closed source is worse than unwanted AI" and, well, that's a pretty fundamental disagreement at the root of preferring Firefox or Vivaldi.
Open ##2811268