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Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 9:26 pm
by Antediluvian
I am a confirmed long time Firefox user. Still am. I also have Chrome or Chromium installed for the occasions that Firefox doesn't work on some web pages, for example, some shopping carts. Lately there was a thread or two complaining about how Chromium was causing problems and a thread about how the mission of Opera has changed.

These discussions led me to try Vivaldi, a Chromium based web browser. I have to say I am impressed with how it functions and how it can be configured. One function I love about Firefox is included in Vivaldi and in fact is easier to implement. That is, you can install multiple search engines in the Search Field (or Box). [If you choose to show it the Search Field is typically to the right of the Address Field.] For example, I have general search engines like Google, DuckDuckGo, and Quant; OS searches like MX Linux Forum; reference searches like Wikipedia, various dictionaries and thesauruses, medical dictionaries, and PubMed; commercial sites like Amazon, ebay, Goodwill, and Craigslist, entertainment searches like IMDb, YouTube; etc.
Search engines.jpg
In Vivaldi to add a search engine to the Search Box go to a web site with a search box, right click on the search box and select "Add as Search Engine...". It is that easy. The pull down menu of extra search engines doesn't display unless you left click on the left side of the Search Field. The order of the engines can be changed in the Settings page(s).

If you haven't used Vivaldi lately, give it a try! For myself I now have Firefox and Vivaldi installed and configured. Chrome and Chromium are uninstalled.

Disclaimer: I've not made a penny from any software endorsement and never will. I wish I did. I could use the money. :-)

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 10:29 pm
by andyprough
I've been trying it and really like it too. It has strong privacy protections, and I like that it has the "Reading View" function built in, a very useful notepad sidebar, built-in ad blocking and tracker blocking, really beautiful themes. It's very fast, and I was able to install all my privacy and security extensions from the chrome web store. Quite an interesting browser, worth spending a lot more time with.

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 12:44 am
by rmr
I am concerned about Vivaldi, because it is made by the same folks from Opera. I would stick with Brave as a Chrome/Chromium alternative for shopping.
Please let me know if you have any concerns.

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 2:38 am
by Pierre
the Brave Browser is another alternative to Firefox,
and is also based on Chromium.

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 2:45 am
by Antediluvian
According to this video Opera was sold to a Chinese company that sells your data and also makes money from selling short term loans at high rates of interest. One of the co-founders of Opera, Jon von Tetzchner, launched Vivaldi after he witnessed Opera going to pot. Therefore I wouldn't say that Vivaldi is made by the same folks that run Opera.

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 3:32 am
by JayM
See here for a list of Chromium-based browsers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_ ... n_Chromium
(I happen to like Falkon which is available in MX Package Installer, Popular Applications, Browsers. It's very lightweight and fast even on low-resource older machines.)

As a counterpoint, see here for why you may not want to use one of them: https://www.howtogeek.com/108384/6-alte ... le-chrome/

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 3:57 am
by Antediluvian
JayM wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2020 3:32 am As a counterpoint, see here for why you may not want to use one of them: https://www.howtogeek.com/108384/6-alte ... le-chrome/
In this How to Geek article there is a section entitled "The Chrome-Based Browsers Worth Using: Opera, Vivaldi, and Chrome Portable". However, publication dates are important. This article was written (well, updated) in 2017, one year after Opera was sold to the Chinese consortium, so the author (Chris Hoffman) may not have been aware of Opera's problematic changes in their business model. In addition, Brave wasn't released until two years after the article or else it probably would have been on the worth using list.

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 4:03 am
by JayM
Brave seems to have been up to some shenanigans lately though: viewtopic.php?f=108&t=58536
Both Vivaldi and Ungoogled Chromium work pretty well, and as I said I also like Falkon.

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 4:22 am
by Antediluvian
JayM wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2020 4:03 am Brave seems to have been up to some shenanigans lately though: viewtopic.php?f=108&t=58536
Interesting ... but depressing.

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 5:38 am
by MXMateng
Was just trying to install Vivaldi via the MX Package Installer.

Unfortunately I got error during install:
" ...W: GPG error: http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb stable Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 9658E8044A3AA3D6
E: The repository 'http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb stable Release' is not signed. ..."

Any idea how to fix this?

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 5:54 am
by JayM
MXMateng wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2020 5:38 am Was just trying to install Vivaldi via the MX Package Installer.

Unfortunately I got error during install:
" ...W: GPG error: http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb stable Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 9658E8044A3AA3D6
E: The repository 'http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb stable Release' is not signed. ..."

Any idea how to fix this?
See section 5.2.1 of the manual.

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 7:08 am
by MXMateng
JayM wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2020 5:54 am
MXMateng wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2020 5:38 am Was just trying to install Vivaldi via the MX Package Installer.

Unfortunately I got error during install:
" ...W: GPG error: http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb stable Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 9658E8044A3AA3D6
E: The repository 'http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb stable Release' is not signed. ..."

Any idea how to fix this?
See section 5.2.1 of the manual.
Unfortunately that doesn't help much here.
I try to install Vivaldi via MX Package Manager "Popular Applications"
Tryping to use "MX Fix GPG Keys" here does show a terminal windows with obviously a stuck script:

Code: Select all

Checking deb.debian.org_debian_dists_buster-updates_InRelease
Executing: /tmp/apt-key-gpghome.8Xuf3pVxtk/gpg.1.sh --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key 16E90B3FDF65EDE3 0146DC6D4A0B2914
gpg: keyserver receive failed: No data

Executing: /tmp/apt-key-gpghome.Q6ODPVsm9r/gpg.1.sh --keyserver hkp://pgp.mit.edu --recv-key 16E90B3FDF65EDE3 0146DC6D4A0B2914

<< here nothing more moves forward ...>>

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 2:19 pm
by Antediluvian
MXMateng wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2020 5:38 am Was just trying to install Vivaldi via the MX Package Installer.

Unfortunately I got error during install:
I am glad to see in this thread that fehlix was able to solve your unique problem with installing Vivaldi via the MXPI from the Popular Applications tab.

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 4:09 pm
by MXMateng
Antediluvian wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2020 2:19 pm
MXMateng wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2020 5:38 am Was just trying to install Vivaldi via the MX Package Installer.

Unfortunately I got error during install:
I am glad to see in this thread that fehlix was able to solve your unique problem with installing Vivaldi via the MXPI from the Popular Applications tab.
Yepp- Was great to get the help there for this quite strange issue.
:happy:

Re: Vivaldi: An answer to Chromium/Chrome problems?

Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2020 8:09 am
by byterhythm
For me, It has a lot of features built-in so you need less extensions, unlike Firefox which is only good once you have all the extensions.
I've never used firefox in it's stock configuration.