Test driving Vivaldi, the alternative web browser

Settings

You can open the settings (Figure 4) with one click on the cog wheel or by pressing Alt+P. The settings open in their own window, but they can be switched over to tab view.

Figure 4: The browser settings make it possible to modify the behavior and the visuals to your preferences. However, there is no certificate or profile management.

In addition to visual details like the color scheme, which you can adjust to the design of a loaded page, you can also determine which search engine should be used. The Privacy tab takes you to cookie and password administration, but not to the corresponding passwords.

Also missing from the basic settings are the functions typically used when accessing websites, such as JavaScript execution or reloading images. You can get to these functions by clicking on the stylized globe to the left of the loaded page's URL in the address bar. Next you should call the Site settings at the bottom of the menu. If the page is SSL encrypted, you will also find details about the certificate that has been used.

The certificate administration typical for other browsers is missing from Vivaldi. Likewise, you will not find a function for setting up a profile. This would let multiple users use the browser with their own personal environmental variables. Vivaldi saves the basic profile in the /home/<user>/.config/vivaldi directory.

There is also no function for synchronizing settings, add-ons, bookmarks, and saved passwords across multiple Vivaldi installations running on other computers in the network, but at least the bookmarks can be converted into HTML format by choosing File | Export Bookmarks… . Once exported, you can install them in another location.

The expert settings under vivaldi://flags make it possible to specify which functions the browser supports for rendering. Note that the wrong settings for these values can result in the browser no longer working, so be careful.

Browsing

Vivaldi offers a wide range of gestures and keyboard controls. You can see the current setup under the options Mouse and Keyboard in Settings . The mouse control is limited to a few preset gestures. The keyboard control, on the other hand, lets you make extensive modifications to match your individual habits.

For example, one click in the empty area next to the predefined key combinations suffices to specify a shortcut for an action. Vivaldi offers dozens of these for all purposes imaginable. It is also possible to operate the browser entirely from the keyboard. F2 opens the list of all open tabs. Underneath you will find a list of the configured shortcut Commands . A single click on the desired entry executes the command.

One additional feature of note becomes useful when a lot of tabs are open. The feature lets you sort tabs into groups. You can do this by dragging one opened tab onto another until the second tab turns dark gray. When you let go, the tab integrates into the target tab. Small dash marks at the top of the Collection tab indicate the tabs it contains. If you hover the cursor above this tab, a dialog will appear that provides the each tab's name. Since the sensitive area is fairly small, you might need to be patient when switching to other tabs.

You can delete a tab from the group by right clicking on it and selecting Remove from Tab Stack from the Context menu. If you want to open all of the tabs at once, you should select Tile Tab Stack (Figure 5).