Vivaldi is Good, but I'm Sticking with Firefox
I've been trying the Vivialdi browser off and on over the past several weeks. There's a lot to like about it. It has tons of baked-in features that require add-ons in other browsers, and a massive settings sections allows you to configure and customize it unlike any other browser. But there's one thing that keeps me using Firefox.
Vivaldi is a Chromium-based browser, and Chromium-based browsers are completely dominating the market. While the Chromium project is open source, the vast majority of the code base is maintained by Google. And I'm not OK with a single large tech company essentially owning and controlling the browsing engine that most people in the world use to interact with websites.
Firefox, however, uses its own Quantum browser engine. On principle, I have to keep using Firefox. It's the last major alternative to Chromium-based browsers, and it deserves to continue being supported for that reason alone.
It's true that indirectly Mozilla is forced to adapt Quantum to be compatible with standards developed by the Chromium project. But their independence gives them a degree of flexibility and self-determination that Chromium-based browsers don't have.
It's also true that Google donates to the Mozilla Foundation. Most likely for legal reasons so they can avoid looking like a monopoly. I don't see this as a problem. Why not use Google's money to build a product that competes directly against them?
Firefox is far from perfect, but my experience with Vivaldi wasn't flawless, either. I'll keep Vivaldi on standby if I come across the odd website that works better in Chromium-based browsers. But unless Mozilla does something truly outrageous or incrementally becomes less and less distinguishable from exploitative big tech companies, Firefox is still my browser of choice.
#100DaysToOffload (No. 63) #tech