Vivaldi makes History

#1

Post by arunmib » Mon, Apr 17, 2017, 3:27 AM UTC

Re: Vivaldi makes History

#2

Post by badminton1 » Mon, Apr 17, 2017, 6:10 AM UTC

I have used tools like this in the past, to track how I spend my time while browsing.

I made it a habit to look at the tool after a session of browsing, and try to understand if my browsing was productive or not. Then try to think what I would to differently the next time.

This can help improving your browsing habits.

Now, the title feels a bit like clickbait (had to click to get an idea of what it was about).

Re: Vivaldi makes History

#3

Post by Aeyris » Mon, Apr 17, 2017, 6:10 AM UTC

As nice as all the features they've added are, I can't help but see Vivaldi as "Chromium but Blink probably isn't completely up to date", and it worries me more than a little to use a browser where the latest (potentially high impact) changes to the browser rendering engine aren't remedied until the next browser patch.

Re: Vivaldi makes History

#4

Post by org3432 » Mon, Apr 17, 2017, 6:30 AM UTC

It's good to see a company trying to push browsers forward again. Seems like once again things have stagnated a bit with the current browser experiences.

Re: Vivaldi makes History

#5

Post by timonovici » Mon, Apr 17, 2017, 6:43 AM UTC

While I rarely looked at the code behind a browser (mostly webkit, to debug some weird stuff with capybara-webkit), it is highly uncomfortable to me to use a non-free browser... Does it track my behavior, do they sell that information - I don't have time to mess around with Wireshark and see what it does;

On the "history" upgrade idea - that's a really cool one; It's quite often that I'm looking for that page I accessed last year, or that youtube video somebody sent me a few months ago, and I forgot it's name - hopefully chromium/firefox steal this idea and improve upon it;

Re: Vivaldi makes History

#6

Post by JoshTriplett » Mon, Apr 17, 2017, 7:06 AM UTC

timonovici wrote: post #5

While I rarely looked at the code behind a browser (mostly webkit, to debug some weird stuff with capybara-webkit), it is highly uncomfortable to me to use a non-free browser... Does it track my behavior, do they sell that information - I don't have time to mess around with Wireshark and see what it does; On the "history" upgrade idea - that's a really cool one; It's quite often that I'm looking for that page I acces…

Agreed. This is an interesting approach, and I look forward to seeing something like it in a browser I can trust.

Re: Vivaldi makes History

#7

Post by z3t4 » Mon, Apr 17, 2017, 7:22 AM UTC

timonovici wrote: post #5

While I rarely looked at the code behind a browser (mostly webkit, to debug some weird stuff with capybara-webkit), it is highly uncomfortable to me to use a non-free browser... Does it track my behavior, do they sell that information - I don't have time to mess around with Wireshark and see what it does; On the "history" upgrade idea - that's a really cool one; It's quite often that I'm looking for that page I acces…

There's a middle ground between FOSS and closed source, like having the source code open, and let power users compile it themselves, while keeping the copy-rights. Most code on the web works like this, as you can just right click and "view source", and easily debug and inspect. Does anyone have any experience with open sourcing, but with a restrictive (all rights reserved) license ? And would this be enough for people like the parent poster to run such a software ?

Re: Vivaldi makes History

#8

Post by notum » Mon, Apr 17, 2017, 7:35 AM UTC

What happens tomorrow, if Vivaldi becomes history? Do we own this data? How is it stored? Where is it located? Can we access this with any other tool?

I know I'm begging for down-votes but I simply cannot understand how people can commit something as personal as web browsing to a closed source solution.

Re: Vivaldi makes History

#9

Post by pasta » Mon, Apr 17, 2017, 7:36 AM UTC

timonovici wrote: post #5

While I rarely looked at the code behind a browser (mostly webkit, to debug some weird stuff with capybara-webkit), it is highly uncomfortable to me to use a non-free browser... Does it track my behavior, do they sell that information - I don't have time to mess around with Wireshark and see what it does; On the "history" upgrade idea - that's a really cool one; It's quite often that I'm looking for that page I acces…

Your argument about the closed source is weak. Messing around with Wireshark is probably quicker than reading thousands of locs.

I understand the value of open source. But I'm still not sure if it matters. A lot of people think that open source software does not track personal data. But how do they know? Have they read all the code? Do they even understand all code?

It's much easier to run Wireshark to check what the program does. That's how the world found out about what Windows 10 is sending to MS.

In the end it's about trust.

Re: Vivaldi makes History

#10

Post by aembleton » Mon, Apr 17, 2017, 7:42 AM UTC

notum wrote: post #8

What happens tomorrow, if Vivaldi becomes history? Do we own this data? How is it stored? Where is it located? Can we access this with any other tool? I know I'm begging for down-votes but I simply cannot understand how people can commit something as personal as web browsing to a closed source solution.

Under the heading `For your eyes only`

"Vivaldi Technologies doesn’t collect your history data. All of this information is strictly private and local to your computer."