31 years ago, Geir Ivarsøy and I started working on the Opera browser. A year later we founded Opera Software.

At Opera we wrote all our own code from scratch.

In 2011 I left Opera due to disagreement with investors about the direction Opera was heading.

Two years later, I co-founded Vivaldi to build a browser for you.

So I have been building browsers for 31 years. I think I know what it takes to build a browser.

Our Vivaldi team is for the most part in Norway and Iceland with a few people distributed around Europe and a couple of business people in the US.

Vivaldi is available for your computer and your phone, unless you have a very specific setup. Vivaldi might even be available for your car as well.

We go out of our way to provide you with a browser that matches your needs. I hope you like it.

#Vivaldi #Windows #Macos #Linux #Android #ios #Computer #Mobile

I have tariffed
the penguins
that are on
Heard Island

and which
you were probably
assuming
did not export goods

forgive me
they were taking advantage of us
so cunning
and so cold

More Norwegians are exploring European alternatives to Big Tech! 🚀

Last week, Norwegian news outlet TV2 featured Jottacloud, Vivaldi Technologies, and Hudd AS in an article about the growing movement away from dominant tech platforms. Have a look: https://www.tv2.no/nyheter/innenriks/frykter-og-flykter-disse-selskapene-ingen-planer-om-a-snu/17559404/

The shift toward local, privacy-focused services is gaining momentum. We’re here for it! 👏

LUCIE 🇫🇷 : A French Open-Source Language Model developed by Linagora and the OpenLLM France consortium.

LUCIE is a open-source language model aiming to provide a transparent and sovereign AI solution for Europe. Led by #Linagora and supported by various public and private actors, #LUCIE was publicly released in January 2025.

But it faced significant criticism due to its early development stage. Users were disappointed with its performance, leading to public backlash (similar to ChatGPT's in early days).

The problem is that the project did not clearly communicate LUCIE's early training state, so now when users go to the project website, it greets them with a message explaining the model's current limitations. They encourages users to interact with LUCIE in French and English, focusing on tasks like text generation and summarization, but not complex tasks like mathematics or coding.

To support LUCIE's development, users are invited to test the model and provide feedback.

But because of the public outcry it faced earlier this year, the tool isn't openly available anymore. 😕

Now people have to sign up and ask to participate. If you want to help them train by submitting your questions and giving constructive feedback, you can try!

Website: https://lucie.chat/en

#opensource #europeanalternatives

When the physicists need burner phones,
that’s when you know America’s changed

At international academic conferences recently, one sees an interesting trend.

Some American participants are travelling with “burner” phones
or have minimalist laptops running browsers and not much else.

In other words, they are equipped with the same kind of kit that security-conscious people used to bring 15 years ago when travelling to China

Many teachers and researchers in US universities are now fearful of what lies ahead.

No line of inquiry is safe from the raging firestorm of Maga intolerance.

The looming crisis in the US is beginning to remind people in Europe of the 1930s,
when the UK and the US began to realise that Jewish scientists needed to be rescued from the Nazis.

About 2,000 scientists and academics fled the fascist countries between 1933 and 1941,
fearing for themselves or Jewish family members.

Then, universities in the US and the UK made space for and welcomed a whole generation of geniuses

Now, in a different age, there are stirrings in Europe to provide safe places for American researchers.

In France, Aix-Marseille University is welcoming American scientists whose work has become untenable after the Trump administration’s cuts in certain academic sectors.

This is the beginning of something hopeful.

But it also raises the question of what UK institutions are doing to meet the coming challenge.
The answer, at the moment, seems to be nothing much.

Perhaps that’s because most of British academia still can’t get its head around the idea that
the US is now an enemy, not an ally,
and that the “special relationship” is yesterday’s story.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/29/when-the-physicists-need-burner-phones-thats-when-you-know-americas-changed?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other