Latest Vivaldi browser build ships with UI-less mode
Vivaldi released the fourth technical preview of the browser the other day which introduced an assortment of interface customization options to the browser among other things.
It took the company less than a day to push out another snapshot of the browser. The new snapshot ships with a new customization feature that Vivaldi calls Chromeless UI.
It is different from fullscreen mode even though there are some similarities. Chromeless UI basically is an attempt to remove most of the user interface from the browser.
You can toggle the mode with the shortcut Ctrl-F11 and will notice immediately upon activation that most of the user interface is removed from Vivaldi.
Tip: You can enable UI-less mode permanently in the settings. Click on the Vivaldi icon and select Tools > Settings from the menu. When the settings window opens, switch to appearance and remove the "show UI" checkmark.
This includes all toolbars, including the url bar and tab bar, and the status bar.
The mode has been designed specifically for users who prefer to use mouse gestures and keyboard shortcuts, but may prove useful to users who at times want to concentrate on a single website or content.
You are probably wondering how you navigate to other sites when in that mode. While you could toggle it whenever the need arises to switch to another site, it is usually easier to hit F2 to bring up the quick commands window that you can use to load a new site.
There are two core differences between fullscreen mode and the new UI-less mode of Vivaldi. The first is that the UI-less mode is independent of the size of the browser window whereas fullscreen mode will always use the full width and height of the display.
The second difference according to Vivaldi is that you can use Vivaldi's tab tiling functionality while in UI-less mode. This enables you to display multiple websites and applications next to each other in a single browser tab.
A quick test showed however that tab tiling is also available in the browser's fullscreen mode.
Downloads are as usual provided on the official company blog but also in form of automatic updates when the browser is already available on the computer.
Next up for Vivaldi is work on the first beta version of the web browser which the company plans to release in the near future.
Beside the fact we have a “new kid in town” to play with, I was disappointed to discover that Vivaldi is not open source. Which, normally, rises the question: why should I trust these days another application or company which entered the market, even if it provides nice features?
You know, Open Source is not the cure for everything. Vivaldi is great because the developers listen to the users and implement what they wish and not what shareholders or stock holders want.
Unlike what happens at Mozilla’s place. They are a good example for Open Source sold out. So, if have to chose a browser which is not Open Source but the developers listen to what i want or a browser which is Open Source but where the developers remove features to be more attractive for users from a certain competitor’s product and do not care anymore for users with higher demands the choice is clear what i would use.
Yes, the choice is clear – use the browser which can do what I want, even if it means a 30-second visit to the “about:config” section to set it up. Seriously even with “remove features to be more attractive for users from a certain competitor’s product” there are still way more tweaks and options available on FF. As well as a proper NoScript.
Agreed. If the public can’t view the source code, how can the public know if this browser respects the users’ privacy? For all we know, it could have secret tracking features, which the developers will likely make a profit off of.
PS: Firefox isn’t the only FOSS browser out there. Midori, Konquerer, Rekonq, and K-Meleon are all FOSS as well. I think Chromium is also open source, although it seems to have such a confusing mish-mash of licenses, there could be some proprietary software included.
That may be true, but if you are Windows user you find out that all that alternative FOSS browsers do not work well with it.
And even if you an add features back to Firefox with add-ons, the fact is Mozilla has utterly betrayed advanced users, such a browser from such a company i am no longer willing to use.
All in all, Vivaldi is still the only real alternative for power users which want tons of integrated features in the core product. Fact is no other browser comes close. As it does add all that stuff what for example Mozilla developers remove. And all gets part of the core product.
You know, there are people around who want their features built inside and not only outsourced in third party apps!
If people are unwilling to use a product just “because it is not the holy grail open ource” and therefor are willing to use a more insignificant product just “because it is FOSS” – they should be happy with their choice, but should not complain afterwards that things are getting worse and worse.
Again.. FOSS is not the holy grail – and again, the perfect example of a truly perverted Open Source project is Firefox from Mozilla.
It is the developers which are making a difference. And when i see how Mozilla developers act and Vivaldi developers act, for me personally the only logical choice is Vivaldi.
Just because something is not FOSS does not mean it does suck. Grow up people! Because you so called Open Source advocates do open source no favor as you constantly bicker and scream “My source is holier than yours”. Seriously… Grow up!
Even if open source is not “the holy grail” (Lestat), it proved its advantages recently when Google’s attempt to include some binary in Chromium was spotted quite fast (https://www.ghacks.net/2015/06/19/googles-in-hot-water-after-dropping-binary-code-in-chromium-for-linux/). So, the lesson I’m learning here is that only an open source code allows such defense. Of course, this doesn’t mean other things may go unnoticed even in the open source code, but at least we have the chance to check it.
That is god awfulest looking ui i’ve seen in a long time. I hope they plan to change it before release. rotfl
This is an UI-LESS MODE, so it is not supposed to look good.
you’re complaining about the UI in UI-less mode…
How in god’s name would they “change it” in the release?
They’re still nowhere near where the Presto-based Opera was/is as far as customizability goes, but it’s good to see they’re taking some steps to improve in this area. Moving individual buttons around and combining bars would be pretty ideal, but even without that I could make it my default browser if it only wasn’t so slow… Even Firefox seems pretty snappy compared Vivaldi.
The whole UI is based on css, which allows a lot of customization.
Toolbar Autohide for firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fullscreen-toolbar-hover/
Not fantastic reviews but even more minimal, working perfectly here with a ton of extensions + much better than the more popular extensions.