What made me finally switch to Vivaldi as my default Linux web browser

Vivaldi is one of those web browsers that I hadn't given much attention to over the years. It always reminded me of my favorite browser, Opera, but with a bit of extra bloat and an aesthetic that didn't quite live up to the considerable standards I'd long ago set.

Vivaldi included so many features that it was almost dizzying. At some point, I concluded that all those features crowded the UI, making it difficult to navigate. In my world, I need efficiency. On top of that, the theming engine had fallen so far behind the likes of Opera and Zen Browser that I couldn't convince myself to use it with any regularity.

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Some might say I place too high a value on aesthetics, but if I have to stare at something all day, I want it to at least look pleasant and blend in with the rest of the desktop environment theme I've spent time perfecting, especially on Linux .

Gradually, however, Vivaldi caught my attention. The developers added features and cleaned up the UI, and I no longer felt I could ignore it. And then last week, I decided to spend a day with Vivaldi to see if it had become a viable option.

Needless to say, what I saw caught me off guard -- and by the end of the day, I decided to set Vivaldi as my default on Linux.

This is a big deal for me, because I'm rather finicky about my web browser. Until now, only three browsers had achieved "default" status over the past half-decade, one of which is no longer available (remember when The Browser Company was relevant because of Arc browser ?) and the other two ( Opera and Zen Browser ) still lurk below the surface, waiting for their moment to once again rise to the top.

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Okay, enough of the chit-chat. What caused me to switch to Vivaldi?

A good UI can make or break a web browser. I realize that most users recognize the Chrome interface and are content with it. Me? One of my mantras is "Contentment is the enemy of art," and I've lived by that for decades.

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I don't want to be content. I want to be challenged, and I want something special to come from the challenge -- and I believe that's what happened with Vivaldi. During my testing period, I realized the UI could be tidied to hide features I don't need, while still making them easily accessible. With a couple of clicks, I could have a Vivaldi UI that was minimal and efficient.