Chris FerdinandiAnd it’s just a really good fucking browser.
Vivaldi Browser (@[email protected])
Attached: 1 image Be an active explorer, not a passive spectator!
Vivaldi Social
Josh “Yoshi” Vickerson@cferdinandi I have a very hard time taking their anti big tech stance seriously when they're fully dependent on Chromium. It's lip service until they make meaningful contributions to an independent browser (and promote those contributions, maybe I just don't know about them).
@josh Do you feel the same about Firefox, who takes lots of money from Google to prioritize their search?
As far as I know, Vivaldi strips out all of the Google telemetry except what's required for Google Meet to work (and makes that disableable as well).
Also, did you know the "browser-native" geolocation API uses Google under-the-hood in all browsers? Just learned that last week!
@cferdinandi Yes, actually. I've been worried about that for Firefox for years. I was optimistic regarding Pocket when they first acquired it for additional revenue streams and well... that was a tragic disappointment.
Per these tests, Firefox still seems to provide the most private experience "out of the box” among major browsers: https://privacytests.org/
Many of the tests there are addressable via settings changes or extensions but some require Chromium changes
@cferdinandi And, I get it, Chromium is probably the best "starting point” to make your own browser. But if you're going to loudly pitch yourself as anti big tech, I wanna see a commitment to more independent tech beyond, “oh we took out telemetry”.
Like, why doesn't Vivaldi commit to contributing to Servo? They could make a big impact there, but as far as I know they're not.
"We’re fighting for a better web.” - but not for an independent, more-secure web engine to do that? 🤔
@josh I may be in a minority here, but part of the draw to Vivaldi for me is that it IS Chromium, but without the Google.
I like Chromium. I think it's a superior engine. I know that's an unpopular opinion in many circles, though.
@cferdinandi Yeah I mean, I don't disagree there. It's *technically* superior. But Google’s dominating influence over it is concerning.
I'm taking a longterm view here. We are absolutely fucked if the only viable web engines are controlled by multi-trillion dollar tech companies.
And for Vivaldi to build their whole brand on being anti-that while not taking meaningful steps to change the landscape is wildly disingenuous.