Vivaldi web browser, the spiritual successor to Opera 12, released version 1.13 on Wednesday, introducing an easier way of managing multiple tabs, as well as new file download features and other improvements.

1
In line with the Norwegian team's aim to make Vivaldi the most feature-rich and customizable browser available to power users, the developers have created the new Window Panel. This opens a tree-style view of tabs to the side of the browser window, offering an easy overview of all open tabs as a list.

From there, users can conveniently manage tabs by dragging them to change their order, grouping tabs by topic to save space, tiling Tab Stacks to compare several web pages side by side, and hibernating unused tabs or Tab Stacks for better performance.

Within the new Panel, it's also possible to mute sound in specific tabs and pin tabs to ensure they always stay open. The Vivaldi team says it is planning to bring even more functionality to this feature in the near future.

window panel
The latest release of the Vivaldi browser also brings a number of improvements to file downloading, based on community feedback. Users now get a warning dialog when closing the browser before a download is complete. It's also now possible to pause and resume downloads, while a download speed indicator has been added to the progress bar.

Elsewhere, Vivaldi's window handling code has been rewritten, providing performance benefits that are especially noticeable on older, slower hardware.

Vivaldi browser is a free download for Mac available directly from the Vivaldi website.

Top Rated Comments

henrikhelmers Avatar
95 months ago
I've long been reading MacRumors but signed up to post this. I am a designer working at Vivaldi.

Since nobody refuted it, I figured I would sign up to say that Vivaldi is not built with Electron. Electron is a great framework for getting powerful products to market quickly. Vivaldi is built for the long haul, and we have decided to use Chromium directly. This gives us more control, though there are more things we need to build ourselves.

There is no "server" used for serving up the UI, but there is parsing of Javascript. I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. :)
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lionel77 Avatar
95 months ago
Sure, Safari is the most power efficient browser on macOS, but if you are a power user who wants to do more than watch YouTube videos or only have 5 tabs open at the same time, it's pretty painful to use. As long as you use uBlock Origin or another good ad-blocker, Vivaldi is actually not that heavy on your battery, and it can handle large numbers of tabs better than many other browsers if you also make use of the built-in Lazy Tab Loading and Hibernate Tab features.

Vivaldi has a ton of features that I can no longer imagine living without. Just to list a few:

* Vertical Tabs -- so your tabs don't turn into a giant pile of partially identical favicons when you have more than a few tabs open (especially on a laptop screen), and so you can still read the titles of the 12 Amazon tabs that are currently open
* Quick Commands -- an in-browser spotlight that allows you to quickly jump to a specific tab, open a bookmark or page from your browser history, issue browser commands, etc.
* Compatible with pretty much all Chrome extensions but without Google's tracking crap
* Lazy Load Restored Tabs and Hibernate Tabs -- for less resource usage
* Better bookmark management than most other browsers
* Take 1:1 screenshots of full webpages (not just of the visible area) -- this is especially useful for pages that print to PDF very poorly
* Tons and tons of customizability -- you can change every single keyboard shortcut, theme the interface colors or let them be affected by the current webpage, customize tab handling in two million ways (e.g., remove the close tab buttons if you use horizontal tabs and regularly close tabs accidentally), etc.

If you are the type of person who is happy with TextEdit.app as a text editor, you likely won't appreciate Vivaldi. But if you are someone who actually makes changes to the default settings of an application and who is willing to spend a minute or two on figuring out stuff to be more efficient in the long run, Vivaldi might just be the browser for you.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
henrikhelmers Avatar
95 months ago
Thank you for clarification, I didn’t know that. I was pretty sure, you guys using Electron, it’s a big difference. Suddenly, Vivaldi looks like a pretty interesting proposition...
For us the biggest difference is that by following Chromium we have the chance to provide security updates in a timely fashion. Electron is sometimes several releases behind. I just checked https://electronjs.org, it seems like Electron still is on Chromium 58, whereas Vivaldi is on 62.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
schrodinger_cat Avatar
95 months ago
Web browser on Electron? No, thank you.
If someone doesn't know, this is a wrapper for Node.js server and Chromium. To put it simply, it has a whole server inside and a copy of Chrome browser to render interface. Result is a memory and CPU hog. This is most cheapest and cruelest way to develop multiplatform "native" apps (notice quotes). The one who pays here, is the user.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
stainless Avatar
95 months ago
I've long been reading MacRumors but signed up to post this. I am a designer working at Vivaldi.

Since nobody refuted it, I figured I would sign up to say that Vivaldi is not built with Electron. Electron is a great framework for getting powerful products to market quickly. Vivaldi is built for the long haul, and we have decided to use Chromium directly. This gives us more control, though there are more things we need to build ourselves.

There is no "server" used for serving up the UI, but there is parsing of Javascript. I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. :)
Love seeing people who are part of the company/information active on the forums!!

While I'm not a user currently, I'm going to dl today and give it a try. I work with Patents and its regularly have 50-100 tabs open and Safari just it to frustrating for this. I hope that it will eventually have a Tab Sorting feature, if it doesn't already. When you start comparing Patent Claims A to Patent Claims B, but you have to cross reference those against Patent C and D because of likeness you can easily see how organizing Tabs and being able to view Tabs Side-By-Side is crazy important!!

Also, I support Competition so LONG LIVE Vivaldi, FireFox, Chromium!!!!!


UPDATE: Just downloaded and LOVE the Tab Stacking! This will make Patent Searches and Comparisons SO MUCH EASIER!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joaolx Avatar
95 months ago
Web browser on Electron? No, thank you.
If someone doesn't know, this is a wrapper for Node.js server and Chromium. To put it simply, it has a whole server inside and a copy of Chrome browser to render interface. Result is a memory and CPU hog. This is most cheapest and cruelest way to develop multiplatform "native" apps (notice quotes). The one who pays here, is the user.
Electron might be a resource hog but that isn't necessarily bad, besides this also isn't a browser for everyone. There is no browser that has as many features or that has developed as many features in the period of development. I can count with one hand new features that Google has introduced in Chrome in terms of functionality in maybe the last 5 years and with the other hand the ones they removed just because people didn't use them(ie. tab stacking). Since Vivaldi came out with the first stable 1.0 release they've now had 13 major updates, each with at least a new feature. Even with what you call a downside, Vivaldi runs perfectly even my basic $800 laptop with 8GB of RAM even with more than 20 tabs open all the time. Just because it runs Electron doesn't outright mean it runs slowly. The browser could even be a little slower that I wouldn't care due to its features(quick commands, web panels, search nicknames, not having to give up on Chrome extensions, tab stacking with multi view, screenshot).

Well, cheap and fast are interchangeable here: you can hire more developers and development would be as fast, as with Electron, but the cost and complexity of the project would rise.
I absolutely agree, that Electron has it's place, but this is starting to get ridiculous, it's not only chat apps, we have IDEs, browsers on Electron now. What's next? A full blown operating system? This trend is worrying and I advise users and developers to be cautious about it.
Are you a developer? If you were, surely you would know that more developers and more money doesn't mean faster development. This idea of throwing money and people into a project to make it go faster is the biggest misconception of software development by people who aren't developers. Sure, with more people and with good development techniques you maybe could build more complex things but to say that you could add more developers and go just as fast as if you were developing natively(which could possibly mean no Chrome extensions and much slower/weaker multi platform support) is very far from true.

I do agree that the trend of Electron can be a bit too much but I'm willing to ignore some of it's downsides for the advantages it brings.
[doublepost=1511370692][/doublepost]
I see the phrase tossed around a lot in various subsections, but what exactly constitutes one being a "power user"? Particularly in this context, i.e. web browsing?
Power user, for me at least, is someone who kind of uses and abuses the features of, in this case, software. I'm a power user, I like my browser to have a lot of features that enhance my browsing either making it faster or easier to do things.

ie. tab stacking with multi view(tab side by side) - on Chrome would need a window side by side but it would be in a different window which would make it confusing.
Web panels with programming language documentation.
Search nickname - do you search a lot of websites? you can set up searches for youtube and when you search for "y <insert music>" it searches for youtube. Or search IMDB by creating a "imdb" nickname, etc.
Quick commands or custom keyboard shortcuts to open tabs, search in specific websites, open bookmarks that have an alias, Clicking F2, writing "git" and I can immediately go to Github.
Built in screenshot functionality.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Coming Next Week With These New Features for Your iPhone

Friday February 14, 2025 6:18 am PST by
The first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner, and the update is expected to include many new features and changes. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman expects the iOS 18.4 beta to be released by next week. Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far. Apple Intelligence for Siri Siri is expected to get several enhancements powered by Apple Intelligence on iOS...
iPhone 17 Roundup Feature 2

iPhone Design to Change 'Significantly' This Year

Monday February 17, 2025 7:09 am PST by
Apple is set to "significantly change" the iPhone's design language later this year, according to a Weibo leaker. In a new post, the user known "Digital Chat Station" said that the iPhone's design is "starting to change significantly" this year. The "iPhone 17 Air" reportedly features a "horizontal, bar-shaped" design on the rear, likely referring to an elongated camera bump. On the other...
apple launch feb 2025 alt

What to Expect From the 'Apple Launch' Next Week

Thursday February 13, 2025 11:48 am PST by
Apple has yet to announce any new devices this year, but that could change starting next week. Apple CEO Tim Cook today said to "get ready" for a "launch" on Wednesday, February 19. "Get ready to meet the newest member of the family," said Cook, in a social media post. The post includes an #AppleLaunch hashtag, along with a short video featuring an animated Apple logo inside of a circle....
Apple Maps 2024

Apple Maps Might Start Showing Ads

Sunday February 16, 2025 7:22 am PST by
Apple is "exploring" the idea of showing search ads in the Apple Maps app, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Back in 2022, Gurman said software engineering was "already underway" to display ads in the Apple Maps app, but Apple did not move forward with the idea at the time. Today, he said Apple is "giving this notion more thought" again. This time around, he said Apple has yet to...
Tim Cook Apple Park

10+ Announcements Apple Could Have Rolled Into a February Event

Saturday February 15, 2025 8:00 am PST by
Apple appears to have enough upcoming product announcements to justify a full event this month, yet all signs indicate these reveals will be handled through a series of press releases instead. There are a multitude of rumors from reliable sources about specific announcements in the coming weeks, so here's everything that Apple could have feasibly included in a hypothetical February event: ...
iPhone 17 Pro Render Front Page Tech

iPhone 17 Pro With All-New Camera Bar Design Allegedly Revealed

Thursday February 13, 2025 5:49 pm PST by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro will feature three rear cameras arranged in a familiar triangular layout, but the cameras will be housed in an all-new rectangular camera bar with rounded corners, according to YouTube channel Front Page Tech. iPhone 17 Pro camera design render created by Asher for Front Page Tech In a video uploaded today, Front Page Tech host Jon Prosser said the camera ...
m2 pro mac mini

Apple is Now Selling a Refurbished Mac Mini for Just $319 (!)

Saturday February 15, 2025 9:58 am PST by
A few days ago, we reported that Apple's refurbished Mac mini pricing had a problem, and it appears that Apple has taken note. Apple was offering a refurbished Mac mini with the M2 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage for $559, which was $50 more than a refurbished Mac mini with the M4 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. All other key specifications were equal. That's no longer...
iPhone SE 4 Thumb 1

Apple's Next iPhone SE Launching on Wednesday - Here's What We Know

Friday February 14, 2025 4:04 pm PST by
Apple CEO Tim Cook teased an Apple announcement that's coming on Wednesday, February 19, and it's looking like that mystery announcement will be the next-generation iPhone SE. We've been hearing about the iPhone SE 4 for quite some time now, and we essentially know everything to expect. If you want a sneak peek at what's coming, read on. Naming Apple first introduced the iPhone SE in...