Jon S. von TetzchnerMay 14

In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. I worked at Opera for 17 years, leaving it after disagreeing with investors about the way forward. Two years later I co-founded @Vivaldi with Tatsuki Tomita and Anne Stavnes. This was in 2013.

For more than 30 years we have provided alternatives to Big Tech. First with Opera and now with Vivaldi. The focus has always been quite different from our competitors. More features, more privacy, more flexibility. Lately it has also meant the choice to avoid things like Crypto and Blockchain, avoid integrating AI and avoid integrating surveillance. This is not given. Most of our competitors are building in one or more of the above.

If you like what we are doing and our stand, feel free to download Vivaldi. If you are already with us, please tell your friends.

#Vivaldi #EU #Europa #Technology #Browser #Windows #Macos #Linux #Android #IOS #Automotive #Computer

Show threadKetakaterMay 14
@jon @Vivaldi Is it really an alternative to Big Tech when it relies on the Google chrome codebase? That's the main criticism I get from friends, when I want to recommend vivaldi
Show threadJon S. von TetzchnerMay 14

@Ketakater @Vivaldi

Here is the point. Unlike most that have an opinion on this, I have actually built a browser from scratch. Did that with Opera. Realistically we could not do that today. Would require too much resources and take too long. Then we would have to deal with compatibility issues.

There are really only two other alternatives when it comes to code. Use Webkit or Gecko. That would be a larger risk and we would not be any less reliant on Apple or Google.

The way for us to have the most impact is to continue to build based on Chromium. Over time we will be able to have a bigger impact as well.

Show threadRihards Olups
@jon @Ketakater @Vivaldi Thank you for the reply, appreciated.
While Mozilla's funding is rather non-diverse, wouldn't Gecko still be a notably smaller reliance (more like dependence) on Google?
May 14 at 5:09pmWeb
Show threadJon S. von TetzchnerMay 14

@richlv @Ketakater @Vivaldi

I would say that the reliance is just different.

For us we are trying to do the best we can. We evaluated the options available to us and we found Chromium to be the best one for us, where we can make the most difference over time. It was not an easy decision and I would have preferred for us to have our own codebase written from scratch, but that is just not realistic. Every other codebase we had to choose between had risks and we felt Chromium was the least risky, base d on our own experience of writing the code from scratch and our experience competing in the browser market.