Vivaldi: A New Chromium-Powered, Multi-Platform Browser

[discordian]

Ahem. *combined input field *ever*

It's simply stupid to send every URL you type to a search provider.

If its an URL it wont be searched, what a Browser understands as URL differs AFAIK.
I believe Opera had options to only search if you added a search term ala "g search this with google". Heck you can customize everything down to the menus (with the "classic" Operas).

[Daktyl198]

The quick commands are cool. It reminds me of the Ubiquity add-on for Firefox (there's a semi-maintained version floating around somewhere). I wish somebody would come back and start working on it again (especially to take advantage of new add-on sdk features!)

[Chewi]

I've installed it at work but haven't had a chance to really try it out yet. I've not long switched to Opera 27 but I think I might like this better. I wasn't going to say anything but there's too much damn negativity in here.

[Emdek]

@curaga, odd question, was I the only one who got an email from someone special today?
If not then it should become clear soon, very interesting offer. :-)

[plague]

If its an URL it wont be searched, what a Browser understands as URL differs AFAIK.
I believe Opera had options to only search if you added a search term ala "g search this with google". Heck you can customize everything down to the menus (with the "classic" Operas).

That's what I hate with an "omnibox"...
Sooooo many times the browser doesn't recognize the URL I write, and instead make a search on Google for it, where ofcourse the absolute first answer is the page with the exact URL I wrote.
I much prefer having a separate search field for my queries and have the address field dedicated to actually load addresses.

Although, I have nothing against having an option to turn the "omnibox" functionality on and off, preferably with a rightclick menu directly on the inputfield, and/or have search keywords like you described.

Hopefully, Vivaldi will allow for ridiculous amounts of customizability, just like O12 did.

[Ferdinand]

Makes me grateful to be living in a country where protests are outlawed and the government has the power to charge protesters with sedition.

We do not need people disturbing public order and standing in the way of economic progress. Lock them up and throw away the key.

Very good troll.

[curaga]

If its an URL it wont be searched, what a Browser understands as URL differs AFAIK.
I believe Opera had options to only search if you added a search term ala "g search this with google". Heck you can customize everything down to the menus (with the "classic" Operas).

Before it's recognized as an URL, several characters of it have already been sent, and so they can piece the rest from your general profile. They don't need to be geniuses to complete "dirtysite.co".

Then, if you instead disable search suggestions, there is no advantage to a combined bar. It is more work to focus it and then type an extra letter plus space compared to focusing a separate field.

@curaga, odd question, was I the only one who got an email from someone special today?
If not then it should become clear soon, very interesting offer. :-)

I didn't get one, must've missed the memo. :P

[brk0_0]

What is the advantage of making your browser closed-source? I mean, they generate revenues from serch providers (like Firefox), don't they? They will never put a price on a new browser, because they would never sell a copy. Also, the bulk of technologies they use is already open source. If I want to replicate Vivaldi's functionality, I already have its core, so it's much simpler to do (something that the team behind other browsers like Opera or Chrome could do without much effort).

So why not put everything on GitHub (or similar) and let the public collaborate reporting and solving bugs, suggesting features, etc? This would make development easier and cheaper IMHO.

The same for the Yandex browser, that don't have a Linux version yet, but it's much nicer than Vivaldi.

[srkelley5]

What is the advantage of making your browser closed-source? I mean, they generate revenues from serch providers (like Firefox), don't they? They will never put a price on a new browser, because they would never sell a copy. Also, the bulk of technologies they use is already open source. If I want to replicate Vivaldi's functionality, I already have its core, so it's much simpler to do (something that the team behind other browsers like Opera or Chrome could do without much effort).

So why not put everything on GitHub (or similar) and let the public collaborate reporting and solving bugs, suggesting features, etc? This would make development easier and cheaper IMHO.

The same for the Yandex browser, that don't have a Linux version yet, but it's much nicer than Vivaldi.

This isn't a defense of closed source in any way, I just believe that I may answers to your first question. (just speculation, it's all guesswork)

Opera used to make money from licensing their browser, Vivaldi may plan to do the same. However small of a gap it may be, it will take time to duplicate everything that's in the closed source portion of the browser. Not just to have similar features, functions, looks, etc but even similar/same behaviors. It may even be arbitrary to hide such things when they could even be duplicated in hours. They may just want to have control of the actual Vivaldi project without people being able to directly branch off of their work. Right or wrong, that could be part of it.

They could also want to put up a slight barrier for duplication of their features by other browsers. It's one thing to spend lots of valuable time coding niche and rarely used features from scratch from a niche web browser, it's another to be able to copy and paste code then patch it in properly in an extremely minimal amount of time. They could possibly have the floor removed from under them whenever they make a hit feature. Many of Opera's features were taken to other browsers, it possibly slowed down feature copying/duplication slightly by keeping it closed source.

I'm not too sure, I'm not a good developer and I don't know what they're thinking. I'm just taking a stab. Feel free to rip apart the reasoning, just not me. I just posted because it feels like the folks that would have thought of the above wouldn't care to share it and the ones that wouldn't get there would be left in the dark as to how the developers could possibly be thinking. I'm just a fat guy with an internet connection and a keyboard.

[Licaon]

So why not put everything on GitHub (or similar) and let the public collaborate reporting and solving bugs, suggesting features, etc? This would make development easier and cheaper IMHO.

There are plenty of browsers out there for the *public* to collaborate to, why does it matter to you if _this_ one is not?