<![CDATA[In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder.]]>In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. I worked at Opera for 17 years, leaving it after disagreeing with investors about the way forward. Two years later I co-founded @Vivaldi with Tatsuki Tomita and Anne Stavnes. This was in 2013.

For more than 30 years we have provided alternatives to Big Tech. First with Opera and now with Vivaldi. The focus has always been quite different from our competitors. More features, more privacy, more flexibility. Lately it has also meant the choice to avoid things like Crypto and Blockchain, avoid integrating AI and avoid integrating surveillance. This is not given. Most of our competitors are building in one or more of the above.

If you like what we are doing and our stand, feel free to download Vivaldi. If you are already with us, please tell your friends.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/b901e682-3ba8-4aed-9fea-57dbe018ce4a/in-april-1994-i-started-working-on-the-opera-browser-with-geir-iversøy-my-co-founder.RSS for NodeThu, 28 May 2026 22:18:56 GMTThu, 14 May 2026 15:00:46 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 20:12:52 GMT]]>@jon @Vivaldi I've been with you a few years now and haven't looked back a single time. Okay, maybe one time. to FireFox.

Promoting the hell out of Vivaldi. I might need to get myself some stickers

THANK YOU

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/pa3weg/statuses/116580415700971165https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/pa3weg/statuses/116580415700971165Fri, 15 May 2026 20:12:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 14:59:30 GMT]]>@jon @Vivaldi Thanks! I'll wait for the flatpak, because I don't want to do my own updates.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.sebfox.net/ap/users/116156993786710219/statuses/116579183539573428https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.sebfox.net/ap/users/116156993786710219/statuses/116579183539573428Fri, 15 May 2026 14:59:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 14:05:08 GMT]]>@WildEnte @Ketakater @TritTriton @jon @Vivaldi the state and corporations are one and the same in a fascist state. Which is the current reality of things, or near indistinguishably close.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.nl/users/js/statuses/116578969761673086https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.nl/users/js/statuses/116578969761673086Fri, 15 May 2026 14:05:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 13:57:19 GMT]]>@Lemmus @Ketakater @TritTriton @jon @Vivaldi, it's a good thing that we have the likes of Vivaldi, Librewolf, Palemoon…

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.linux.pizza/users/lp0_on_fire/statuses/116578939003981472https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.linux.pizza/users/lp0_on_fire/statuses/116578939003981472Fri, 15 May 2026 13:57:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 13:53:43 GMT]]>@sebastian @Vivaldi

Our goal is to to support Linux in the best way we can. This means we support Snap, DEB and RPM packages at this time. We even have made a Flatpak, but it is still unofficial as we need the Flatpak team to work with us on some issues before we can make it official.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/users/jon/statuses/116578924868036249https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/users/jon/statuses/116578924868036249Fri, 15 May 2026 13:53:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 13:52:57 GMT]]>@Sebastian, there is one: the postinst script in the .deb will automatically add the repository (and the signing key) for you.

The names of the files added by that script depend on exactly which build you're using, but will look like /etc/apt/sources.list/vivaldi*.list and /usr/share/keyrings/vivaldi*.gpg.

(I found it surprising that it does this. It's something which should be done by local admin or by a tool such as extrepo, though it is definitely useful as an automatic update mechanism should the details change.)

@jon @Vivaldi, have you considered extrepo for handling adding/removing the repository info?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.linux.pizza/users/lp0_on_fire/statuses/116578921863895408https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.linux.pizza/users/lp0_on_fire/statuses/116578921863895408Fri, 15 May 2026 13:52:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 13:46:40 GMT]]>@ocelot221 @Vivaldi

I think that is unlikely. Having built a browser from scratch, I do not see it as likely that a small project can be competitive enough. I would love to be wrong on that one, but we cannot bet the company on something like that.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/users/jon/statuses/116578897135777166https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/users/jon/statuses/116578897135777166Fri, 15 May 2026 13:46:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 13:25:06 GMT]]>@jon @Vivaldi In the future, when Servo is mature enough, would you consider switching strategy and build a Servo-based Vivaldi as opposed to a Chromium one?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116367601431286440/statuses/116578812346121356https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116367601431286440/statuses/116578812346121356Fri, 15 May 2026 13:25:06 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 13:05:01 GMT]]>@jon @Vivaldi If you're serious about avoiding AI, you should provide a flatpak instead of a snap.

Ubuntu just announced, it will enforce so-called "AI" on its users.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.sebfox.net/ap/users/116156993786710219/statuses/116578733352499625https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.sebfox.net/ap/users/116156993786710219/statuses/116578733352499625Fri, 15 May 2026 13:05:01 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:56:53 GMT]]>@jon @Ketakater @Vivaldi it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem though. JPEG XL for example is starting to see some traction thanks to Apple decided to support it anyway and the availability of extensions for Chrome and Firefox to handle it, and now Firefox is finally looking into adding it in main (not just in nightly behind a default-off flag).

Also, since you don't report Vivaldi as such anymore IIRC, how are you going to show that more people are indeed using it?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sociale.network/users/oblomov/statuses/116578701373231943https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sociale.network/users/oblomov/statuses/116578701373231943Fri, 15 May 2026 12:56:53 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:52:58 GMT]]>@oblomov @Ketakater @Vivaldi

It would not matter if we had our own code really. If we support a format that nobody else supports, it is not really helpful. Sites do not use stuff that the main browsers do not support. That is just how things work.

If there is something that Google adds or removes that we think is important to do differently we do. We spend a lot of time on that. Right now we are spending plenty of time keeping Gemini out of Vivaldi, as an example. We also remove a lot of other stuff and we add our own stuff, such as ad and tracker blockers and a lot more.

The most important thing for us is to grow. More people using Vivaldi means we have more power to influence where the Web heads. IMHO that is a good thing.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/users/jon/statuses/116578685960361617https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/users/jon/statuses/116578685960361617Fri, 15 May 2026 12:52:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:51:26 GMT]]>@jon @Vivaldi On your website, I find only a *.deb to download. Do you also offer a Debian repository or flatpak?

Note: Snap is the reason I don't use Ubuntu any more. I'm not interested in Snap.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.sebfox.net/ap/users/116156993786710219/statuses/116578679945900752https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.sebfox.net/ap/users/116156993786710219/statuses/116578679945900752Fri, 15 May 2026 12:51:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:41:35 GMT]]>@jon @Ketakater @Vivaldi the problem with that choice is that when Google developers decide something isn't needed anymore, or shouldn't be supported in the first place (e.g., XSLT, JPEG XL) you are essentially forced to follow through with their decisions. That doesn't really help you make an impact.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sociale.network/users/oblomov/statuses/116578641215771363https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sociale.network/users/oblomov/statuses/116578641215771363Fri, 15 May 2026 12:41:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:11:39 GMT]]>@jon @Vivaldi Thanks so much for this amazing browser — the first one I've ever actually loved using!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://merida.social/users/aislinn/statuses/116578523498888139https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://merida.social/users/aislinn/statuses/116578523498888139Fri, 15 May 2026 12:11:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Thu, 14 May 2026 22:53:48 GMT]]>@jon @Vivaldi have been using vivaldi for a few months now as part of a general move away from google etc and it’s been great so far!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/ap/users/115926804290493077/statuses/116575386259353081https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/ap/users/115926804290493077/statuses/116575386259353081Thu, 14 May 2026 22:53:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Thu, 14 May 2026 18:32:30 GMT]]>@jon @Vivaldi would you consider a musl based codebase or producing musl patches?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/users/EF/statuses/116574358775739319https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/users/EF/statuses/116574358775739319Thu, 14 May 2026 18:32:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Thu, 14 May 2026 18:22:25 GMT]]>@jon @Vivaldi I’ve been using Vivaldi as my default browser on my iPhone for a few months now. At this point, whenever I tap on Safari by mistake I realize that I like Vivaldi better.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/8bit_PK/statuses/116574319134854124https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/8bit_PK/statuses/116574319134854124Thu, 14 May 2026 18:22:25 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Thu, 14 May 2026 18:06:54 GMT]]>@jon Happy to see this the first thing after I install Vivaldi. I'll see what good Vivaldi brings.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/ap/users/116574217033137894/statuses/116574258080017062https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/ap/users/116574217033137894/statuses/116574258080017062Thu, 14 May 2026 18:06:54 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Thu, 14 May 2026 18:05:16 GMT]]>@klausblog @tanepiper

I believe The Browser Company has ceased feature development on Arc, with only security and bug-fixing updates going forward

https://oviyabalan.medium.com/tldr-arc-browsers-future-3d392cc91172

In short, as someone who once waited for Arc eagerly, for them to pull the plug near-immediately in favour of "AI" bullshit is a smack in the face

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/ap/users/116574217033137894/statuses/116574251709658846https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/ap/users/116574217033137894/statuses/116574251709658846Thu, 14 May 2026 18:05:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Thu, 14 May 2026 17:42:28 GMT]]>@richlv @Ketakater @Vivaldi

I would say that the reliance is just different.

For us we are trying to do the best we can. We evaluated the options available to us and we found Chromium to be the best one for us, where we can make the most difference over time. It was not an easy decision and I would have preferred for us to have our own codebase written from scratch, but that is just not realistic. Every other codebase we had to choose between had risks and we felt Chromium was the least risky, base d on our own experience of writing the code from scratch and our experience competing in the browser market.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/users/jon/statuses/116574162036199553https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/users/jon/statuses/116574162036199553Thu, 14 May 2026 17:42:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Thu, 14 May 2026 17:11:32 GMT]]>@WildEnte not in the US, no

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/users/Ketakater/statuses/116574040387148756https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/users/Ketakater/statuses/116574040387148756Thu, 14 May 2026 17:11:32 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Thu, 14 May 2026 17:10:43 GMT]]>@jon @Vivaldi At least what’s available on the App Store won’t.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/Twotired/statuses/116574037163109362https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/Twotired/statuses/116574037163109362Thu, 14 May 2026 17:10:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Thu, 14 May 2026 17:09:06 GMT]]>@jon @Ketakater @Vivaldi Thank you for the reply, appreciated.
While Mozilla's funding is rather non-diverse, wouldn't Gecko still be a notably smaller reliance (more like dependence) on Google?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/richlv/statuses/116574030814970943https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/richlv/statuses/116574030814970943Thu, 14 May 2026 17:09:06 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In April 1994 I started working on the Opera browser with Geir Iversøy, my co-founder. on Thu, 14 May 2026 17:08:54 GMT]]>@jon @Vivaldi Unfortunately Vivaldi won’t run on an older IOS device.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/Twotired/statuses/116574030016075269https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/Twotired/statuses/116574030016075269Thu, 14 May 2026 17:08:54 GMT