I used Firefox for years, resisting the urge of Google Chrome. However, Firefox seemed to be getting stale. I had heard of the hype surrounding Arc, but at the time I made the switch to Vivaldi, Arc wasn’t available on Windows.
As I write this, Arc is available on Windows 11 and has become the browser I use daily. But that is a story for another blog post, which you can read here. It highlights the delay in my current writing schedule.
For now, let’s focus on why I switched from Firefox to Vivaldi.
User Interface & Customisation
The Firefox User Interface hasn’t really changed in years. Tabs are displayed horizontally at the top of the screen. In Vivaldi, you can choose where you want tabs to be displayed, and I tried to display my tabs vertically.
With Vivaldi, you can also create multiple workspaces, allowing you to separate tabs and pages for each distinct part of your life.
I ended up having several sections, including one for writing, another for research, another for personal finance, and a personal section for social media and recreational browsing. This is one of my favourite features in Vivaldi.
Tab stacking allows you to stack related tabs inside another tab, which acts as a frame for the tabs stacked inside. It reminds me of a submenu contained inside another menu. It allows you to reduce space in workgroups with a lot of tabs.
Vivaldi is built on the Chromium browser engine and works with Google Chrome extensions.
Performance and Speed
I never experienced any speed issues when I was using Mozilla Firefox, but Vivaldi appeared to be noticeably quicker at times.
Vivaldi performs well when you are working with multiple tabs in the same workspace, as you can quickly and easily switch between them.
Privacy and Security
Privacy and security are key concerns for anyone using the Internet, and the humble web browser is the main application at the forefront. Vivaldi has a built-in ad and tracker blocker. While this wasn’t the main driver for deciding to give Vivaldi a try.
User Experience
Firefox is functional, especially as I know where everything is, but it’s not as efficient to use as Vivaldi, which allows me to focus on the part of my life I want to work on, reducing the risk of being distracted. A real risk while working online.
I can effortlessly switch between tabs, and when the tabs are displayed at the side of the screen, I can have more tabs on the screen at any one time.
My only real frustration with Vivaldi is being prompted on whether I wanted to exit the browser or not.
Conclusion
If you are bored with Firefox, Chrome, or even Edge, you should consider Vivaldi, which is seriously worth considering. However, you might want to try Arc first, as I have since moved from Vivaldi to Arc. You can read the reasons why I moved in this post.
Last updated on 16/09/2024.