Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 will come packing a brand new browser, which is currently codenamed Project Spartan. Former CEO and co-founder of Opera, Jon von Tetzchner, has took the chance and announced a brand new browser, called Vivaldi. Opera and Vilvadi, you see what he did there?
The new browser is available for Windows, Mac and Linux as a free download, but it’s still yet in the tech preview form. It’s pretty interesting what’s the story behind this browser, as it seems that the team behind Vivaldi doesn’t agree with the current state of Opera’s evolvment, saying the following:
Fast forward to 2015, the browser we once loved has changed its direction. Sadly, it is no longer serving its community of users and contributors who helped build the browser in the first place.
Vivaldi comes with features borrowed from Opera, such as mouse gestures for browsing and the familiar “speed dial” interface that shows your favorite tabs when you open a new tab page. But it gets some unique options, as well, such as the possibility to combine multiple tabs into one for easy browsing of related sites. And if you ask me, this is a pretty neat feature that I have always been looking for.
Quick Commands allow you to quickly search through various settings, history, open tabs, bookmarks and more with a single keyboard shortcut. We aim to make the Quick Command menu highly customisable, allowing you to make your own commands and run them quickly.
It also allows you to take notes right in the browser, along with screenshots, which is something that’s similar to what Microsoft showcased on Project Spartan. Vivaldi is using the Chromium (Blink) rendering engine that’s found in Chrome, however, the browser is built using modern web technologies such as React, Node.js and a number of Node modules. The team plans to add sync, mail support, better performance and extensions once the official version gets released.