Vivaldi browser (tech preview) released

[Sakitoshi]

ALL modern browsers use a gazillion ram. Chrome just sort of hides it by splitting itself into a million processes that use like 100MB each.

4 tabs. Admittedly, one of them is Youtube, but still.

It highly depends on the content of said tabs and also that chrome merges smaller tabs in a single process, you can have a more detailed view looking chrome own task manager. But there are thing that have no explanation, the Hangouts extension takes +100MB RAM, why???

BTW I hate Firefox because uses only one process and if crashed sink all your tabs.

 

[Foxi4]

Nothing beats firefox + noscript, and its million add-ons.

Y-yeah, I'll stick with Chrome. ;O;

 

[FireGrey]

“We are making a browser for our friends … Vivaldi is for all those people who want more from their browsers.”

For people who want more from their browsers?
Well there is Google Chrome, which has an entire operating system dedicated to it..

 

[WiiCube_2013]

It looks all right but I'll still keep on using my Firefox and at times Opera.

Can't beat Firefox and its add-ons!

 

[Sakitoshi]

Can't beat Chrome and its extensions and multiple threads!

FTFY

BTW does anyone knows a good browser that isn't called Chrome or Firefox and has tab sync?? to say truth I'm getting tired of Chrome too, so much RAM eaten on Windows AND Android.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

Right now Firefox has the best developer API of any browser on the market, and with the recent E10S initiative, is actually faster and lighter than Google Chrome.
Don't believe me? Benchmark Google Chrome Canary versus Firefox Nightly.

RAM usage ... Well, a quick Google search reveals more people complaining about Chrome than about Firefox in recent years, and none of my installs of Firefox have experienced a memory leak in what must now be years. Articles like this one just reflect how dissatisfied people are with the real world performance and scalability of Google Chrome.

Developing for Google Chrome is a chore, as while it offers rather excellent JavaScript debugging features and a slew of other awesome web development features, it offers virtually no control over its UI or more integral internal functions such as say, tabbing. No (real) tab grouping, no ability to move tabs onto a particular pane, or anything of the like.

However Vivaldi is nice because it is literally a new UI built on a full-window HTML5 canvas in Google Chromium, meaning that it is actually 100% customisable. Same performance drawbacks as Google Chrome, plus the additional overhead of React.JS and obviously its own interface. Honestly I'd even argue it's a little faster on Windows simply because it uses a slightly less outdated build script.

Browsers that support Tab Sync? Try Safari, which is actually really good (unless you're a developer in which case the console will likely leave much to be desired) or Sleipnir.

EDIT: Just to clarify, E10S is an initiative to refactor Firefox in such a way as to offer similar multi-process delegation as Chromium, Internet Explorer and Safari now offer.

 

[Sakitoshi]

RAM usage ... Well, a quick Google search reveals more people complaining about Chrome than about Firefox in recent years, and none of my installs of Firefox have experienced a memory leak in what must now be years. Articles like this one just reflect how dissatisfied people are with the real world performance and scalability of Google Chrome.

Well, that is debatable is the sense that there are more people using Chrome than Firefox so also has more people to complain about it, and I'm inclined to say that a big group are people that use a toaster as computer that every modern web page will slow said PC to a crawl.

Honestly I'd even argue it's a little faster on Windows simply because it uses a slightly less outdated build script.

I can grant you that, a friend of mine had a Macbook pro model 313 and said that Chrome decreased the general performance of the computer even when closed.

Browsers that support Tab Sync? Try Safari, which is actually really good (unless you're a developer in which case the console will likely leave much to be desired) or Sleipnir.

Safari is dead outside of OS X, but Sleipnir looks interesting and is on Android too, I'll give it a try.

EDIT: Just to clarify, E10S is an initiative to refactor Firefox in such a way as to offer similar multi-process delegation as Chromium, Internet Explorer and Safari now offer.

I remember that Firefox had multi-process support during some period of time(Firefox 3.5 or 4 maybe), said period of time is when I shifted to Chrome because Firefox started to suck and Chrome looked sleek. ooohh good'ol times when Chrome was the best and very light.
E10S looks promising but also unstable at the moment that is optional even in the nightly build.

 

[jonthedit]

I was a firefox/waterfox user until NVIDIA broke compatibility and made multiple PCs with the GTX 460 crash on launching FireFox. This was around version 28 I believe. It was proved it was not Mozilla's fault, it was NVIDIAs.
It took them longer than 5 months to fix that bug, and since then I've stuck to Chrome because I do not want to relive that horror anytime soon.

I'd love to see a slick browser like chrome with near zero Ram usage...
Everyone uses the same slogan for their shit nowadays anyways... "For those who want more out of their browser"
I'd love a little less to be honest.
the basic URL bar (with google search function), back and forth and refresh (F5, was it?) and no adds.
I know the deal with adds, don't bother the shitstorm on why adds are "Needed" or something like that.

Absolutely agree there, Chrome + Less Ram Usage would = my favorite browser

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

Well, that is debatable is the sense that there are more people using Chrome than Firefox so also has more people to complain about it, and I'm inclined to say that a big group are people that use a toaster as computer that every modern web page will slow said PC to a crawl.

We can debate hypothetical numbers and further subsets of those numbers, but the fact still remains that Chrome does not handle heavy use as well as other browsers. In issues I have previously read through, this has largely been put down to the fact that Google is a "data-driven" company, and so they only cater for the majority of use cases.

Spoiler

Oh yeah, also this. Ahem.

Safari is dead outside of OS X, but Sleipnir looks interesting and is on Android too, I'll give it a try.

A shame, though with Project Spartan maybe Windows will finally get its own decent platform-exclusive browser.

I remember that Firefox had multi-process support during some period of time(Firefox 3.5 or 4 maybe), said period of time is when I shifted to Chrome because Firefox started to suck and Chrome looked sleek. ooohh good'ol times when Chrome was the best and very light.

While it had been announced in 2009, Electrolysis was not at a usable state until early-2011 at which point it was parked for most of that year.

E10S looks promising but also unstable at the moment that is optional even in the nightly build.

E10S has been enabled by default (Read: Re-enabled with each subsequent update) in Nightly for at least six months now. It's very stable, and I have not seen any major bugs with it.

I was a firefox/waterfox user until NVIDIA broke compatibility and made multiple PCs with the GTX 460 crash on launching FireFox. This was around version 28 I believe. It was proved it was not Mozilla's fault, it was NVIDIAs.
It took them longer than 5 months to fix that bug, and since then I've stuck to Chrome because I do not want to relive that horror anytime soon.

Hardware acceleration was always a tricky game, excuse the pun. You could always just disable HW accel and be done with it. Is hardware acceleration enabled for Chrome, because surely the same issue (I understood it was to do with dynamic optimisation interfering with GPU calls) would disturb both browsers to the same degree?


Nice things about projects like Vivaldi, and in fact the new Opera, is that in developing outside of Google's core development team, they have the chance to build new functionality, make miscellaneous improvements and to fix crucial bugs that the Chromium team would otherwise (sometimes knowingly) overlook, before contributing them back upstream, so that everybody wins.

Amusingly enough Vivaldi runs on similar tech to Github's Atom text editor, which actually shares a few behavioural quirks - I wonder which will fix them for the other?[/quote]

 

[jonthedit]

Hardware acceleration was always a tricky game, excuse the pun. You could always just disable HW accel and be done with it. Is hardware acceleration enabled for Chrome, because surely the same issue (I understood it was to do with dynamic optimisation interfering with GPU calls) would disturb both browsers to the same degree?


Nice things about projects like Vivaldi, and in fact the new Opera, is that in developing outside of Google's core development team, they have the chance to build new functionality, make miscellaneous improvements and to fix crucial bugs that the Chromium team would otherwise (sometimes knowingly) overlook, before contributing them back upstream, so that everybody wins.

Amusingly enough Vivaldi runs on similar tech to Github's Atom text editor, which actually shares a few behavioural quirks - I wonder which will fix them for the other?

It was not related to hardware acceleration... it was something else. No on/off switch would solve the issue - only reverting to an older NVIDIA Driver [before GeForce Experience cameout].
I know I have it buried in my email somewhere, and I think there is even a thread here I posted... I'll let you know.
I figured out it was any firefox based browser that broke it. Chrome, IE, Opera etc worked fine.

 

[Sakitoshi]

We can debate hypothetical numbers and further subsets of those numbers, but the fact still remains that Chrome does not handle heavy use as well as other browsers. In issues I have previously read through, this has largely been put down to the fact that Google is a "data-driven" company, and so they only cater for the majority of use cases.

Spoiler

Oh yeah, also this. Ahem.

To say truth that only demonstrate that people like to complain. I can bring my own graphics too demonstrating that in the period of time when Firefox was the king people around the world complained more about Firefox than Chrome.

Spoiler

"slow" is a more appropriate term

compare with this statistic saying that Firefox has more usage than Chrome

I do use Chrome heavily, I can have my laptop on a whole week with a bazillion tabs opened and Chrome behaves as usual. the only reason I want to change is because the "usual" of now isn't like the "usual" of 4 or so years ago. I changed from Firefox to Chrome for the same reason.

A shame, though with Project Spartan maybe Windows will finally get its own decent platform-exclusive browser.

I'm very optimistic about Spartan, I'll like to see the support of developers to see my "necessary to live" Youtube plugin(hate auto-play and auto-quality), and with a lot of luck a Hangouts plugin(the only messaging system I use).

Hardware acceleration was always a tricky game, excuse the pun. You could always just disable HW accel and be done with it. Is hardware acceleration enabled for Chrome, because surely the same issue (I understood it was to do with dynamic optimisation interfering with GPU calls) would disturb both browsers to the same degree?

Chrome does have hardware acceleration per-default, can be disabled but say good bye to filtering on videos at least. The CPU also have an usage spike(obviously).

Nice things about projects like Vivaldi, and in fact the new Opera, is that in developing outside of Google's core development team, they have the chance to build new functionality, make miscellaneous improvements and to fix crucial bugs that the Chromium team would otherwise (sometimes knowingly) overlook, before contributing them back upstream, so that everybody wins.

Amusingly enough Vivaldi runs on similar tech to Github's Atom text editor, which actually shares a few behavioural quirks - I wonder which will fix them for the other?

New browsers have a trend of be very good when new and then go down with the time. I remember Netscape when was good was really good and then took a wrong turn and started to suck, Firefox appeared to save the day but the same thing happened to it, now is Chrome the one starting to suck. is just natural aging.

 

[YetoJesse]

Did web development for a bit.
lunascape is a fun thing to look at. you can chance builds mid-use, but I'm not sure what that changes in usage though.

For those who don't understand why. chrome uses a different construction than firefox and IE (Webkit, Gecko and Trident).
Mostly in styles though, so it's pretty much a layout thing to check if all these browsers show the content the same way...

 

[YetoJesse]

Also, about the complaining on chrome's ram usage and the likes.
It opens multiple threads. it's not just one process anymore.

meaning, chrome might work better if you're computer is a bit more beafy.
I'd love to know everyone's CPU, RAM and fav browser, just for the heck of it.

 

[Sakitoshi]

Also, about the complaining on chrome's ram usage and the likes.
It opens multiple threads. it's not just one process anymore.

meaning, chrome might work better if you're computer is a bit more beafy.
I'd love to know everyone's CPU, RAM and fav browser, just for the heck of it.

I have a HP 14inch G4-2072la laptop I bought in 2012, AMD A8-4500M with 4GB RAM, recently changed the 640GB HDD for a 240GB SSD.
I remember back then when I bought my laptop Chrome worked like a jet and over the years had become slow, not to a point of being unusable but is annoying.
I reinstalled my laptop with Windows 8 and Chrome performance went up only to decrease to the same level as before in the next update.
one day, tired of Windows 8.1 "update", installed Windows 10 technical preview and Chrome behaved almost the same, just a little speedup inherent of the fresh install.
when changed my HDD for a SSD installed Windows 10 again and aside of the general speed up of the system Chrome is working as well as when I acquired my laptop.

 

[YetoJesse]

I have a HP 14inch G4-2072la laptop I bought in 2012, AMD A8-4500M with 4GB RAM, recently changed the 640GB HDD for a 240GB SSD.
I remember back then when I bought my laptop Chrome worked like a jet and over the years had become slow, not to a point of being unusable but is annoying.
I reinstalled my laptop with Windows 8 and Chrome performance went up only to decrease to the same level as before in the next update.
one day, tired of Windows 8.1 "update", installed Windows 10 technical preview and Chrome behaved almost the same, just a little speedup inherent of the fresh install.
when changed my HDD for a SSD installed Windows 10 again and aside of the general speed up of the system Chrome is working as well as when I acquired my laptop.

I'm using an Intel I5-3210m processor with 16gb RAM. HDD is the basic 5400rpm 750gb thing.
Chrome has its issues now and than, but that's mostly when I'm too far away from the router and the fact that I have so much crud on my laptop for school and games that it's slower overall... can't blame chrome for that...

 

[Jayro]

Yuck, it looks like a Mac browser. :/

 

[Digital.One.Entity]

Internet Explorer for the Win ?

 

[jonthedit]

Internet Explorer for the Win ?

Yep. IE for the Windows OS ;00
Honestly IE is not terrible anymore. Pretty on-par, just used to Chrome here.

 

[DinohScene]

Sleek looking.
I might use it but I'm still far to attached to Opera 12.17.

 

[Arras]

Well, that is debatable is the sense that there are more people using Chrome than Firefox so also has more people to complain about it, and I'm inclined to say that a big group are people that use a toaster as computer that every modern web page will slow said PC to a crawl.

I can grant you that, a friend of mine had a Macbook pro model 313 and said that Chrome decreased the general performance of the computer even when closed.

Safari is dead outside of OS X, but Sleipnir looks interesting and is on Android too, I'll give it a try.


I remember that Firefox had multi-process support during some period of time(Firefox 3.5 or 4 maybe), said period of time is when I shifted to Chrome because Firefox started to suck and Chrome looked sleek. ooohh good'ol times when Chrome was the best and very light.
E10S looks promising but also unstable at the moment that is optional even in the nightly build.

Honestly even without E10S (which I've been using for a week or so now - it works fairly well and seems fast but has some major compatibility issues with certain addons and Flash Player, among other things) Firefox has gotten a lot better over the years. While this is a 3 months old article or so, it might be worth giving Firefox another go. Both speed and memory usage have been massively improved since the old days. People still seem to like mocking it for massive amounts of RAM usage, but for me personally Chrome uses quite a chunk more.