Last year, I switched to the Vivaldi web browser because I read a few peer reviews that pointed out that Vivaldi is a better Google Chrome web browser than Chrome.
This week, Vivaldi rolled out a new memory-saver feature that I’m excited to try out. It lets you decide how long to keep a tab in memory before hibernating and reclaiming the memory dedicated to the tab.
Vivaldi’s memory and CPU usage are already night and day better than Google Chrome. For instance, I can have one Chrome window with three tabs open ironically for Google Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs, which eat up more resources than 2 to 4 Vivaldi windows open with countless tabs.
As it turns out, all that tracking and spyware eats up a ton of RAM and CPU. Who knew? 🤷
All of my Chrome Extensions work on Vivaldi using the Chrome Store except for my custom Django News “newtab” extension that I wrote. I suspect it’s me, and I probably need 15 minutes to troubleshoot it.
Instead, I’m nudging you to drop Google Chrome and try out Vivaldi because several of my Google friends were fired this week despite the company never being more profitable.
ChatGPT told me that Alphabet/Google are worth enough to give everyone on Earth $253.16, which feels like a fair tradeoff. I’d like mine to be a check because I do not trust Google with my bank details, nor should you.
What I don’t like about Vivaldi
Vivaldi is outstanding and could be better.
The first thing you’ll want to do is access the “Settings » Address Bar » Drop-Down Menu Priority” and uncheck the “Direct Match” option.
The Direct Match option tends to match from “Brand websites,” which is one of the ways Vivaldi makes money, but it’s not the only way. When Direct Match is checked, I get recommendations for Macy’s instead of Mastodon until I discovered how to turn it off.
Check out What’s Vivaldi’s business model? to better understand how they work.
I would love to see Vivaldi let me PAY THEM MONEY annually for a solid web browser that aligns with my interests. Until then, I’m OK with them getting an affiliate cut from eBay or Amazon when I use their bookmarks.
Why not Firefox?
I hear this often, and I won’t talk anyone down from their favorite browser unless it’s Chrome or whatever Microsoft calls their latest hobby browser this decade. 🤷
Firefox doesn’t work well for me, and I say this because I have used it for over a decade. I also don’t trust their parent company because of where their money comes from and the various mistakes they continue to make.
If Firefox sparks joy, I encourage you to use it. I continue to get “the emperor has no clothes” vibes from their company, even when I want to like their products.
Share your thoughts
If you have thoughts, I’m on Mastodon, and I’d love to know what config options worked best for you.
#Enshittification
