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portmanteaufu | on: Vivaldi 8.0
I'd like to try Vivaldi, but the combination of being (partially) closed-source [1] and free-as-in-beer makes me feel like I must be the product.

Do they do any sort of third-party auditing of the closed parts?

[1] https://vivaldi.com/blog/technology/why-isnt-vivaldi-browser...

dijksterhuis | parent | next
source code is apparently* available to audit: https://vivaldi.com/source

* on my phone, can’t inspect the tars

mossTechnician | root | parent | next
Confusingly, that page only provides the changes to the Google Chromium source that allows their UI to run. (I'm not sure it would be easy to discern this without already knowing the source is not fully open.)

https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/privacy/is-vivaldi-open-sou...

brnt | root | parent
Tarballs every 2 months, and we know these don't give you the Vivaldi browser as they supply it.

I don't trust them one bit. There was that telemetry analysis that showed Vivaldi as a very noisy browser.

dijksterhuis | root | parent | next
> we know these don't give you the Vivaldi browser as they supply it.

how so? how do you know this?

pamcake | root | parent | next
You can test this locally yourself with mitmproxy, opensnitch, or whatever.

You can try building the (supposedly) open-source apps you use from source.

Everyone opining here should MitM themselves every now and then. If not for your own security then maybe to make sure you're not participating in psyop when opining online and resharing hearsay or old truisms.

brnt | root | parent | next
Because they are open about including closed parts. Its not a FLOSS browser.
ekianjo | root | parent
Probably because they update the browser way more often than that
dijksterhuis | root | parent
so it’s not a perfect solution :shrugs: i’ll take imperfect over nothing
yard2010 | root | parent
In comparison to Google Chrome?
zamadatix | root | parent | next
The difference is Chromium feels like Chrome if that's what you want to use and trust, it does not feel like Vivaldi and that's basically all that's provided here.
| root | parent
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dgellow | parent
Im not sure I understand their business model. I don’t see any paid offering on their website
newscombinatorY | root | parent | next
Took 2 seconds to startpage* this: https://vivaldi.com/blog/vivaldi-business-model/

*screw Google and their AI search

dgellow | root | parent
Guess I’m blind, I somehow missed it… thanks!

So the answer seems to be:

- search partnerships

- direct match partnerships

- bookmarks partnerships

- donation

- cut when people sign up for advertised products (proton vpn, not sure if others)

Or at least that was the case in 2019

zamadatix | root | parent | next
Search engine deals are HUGE for browsers. They're e.g. what has funded Mozilla with many billions over the last 20 years. Mozilla has tried to diversify but everything else has pales in comparison (and the donations are basically a joke).

It scales up with usage as well. Not that Safari needed funding, but Google pays Apple upwards of $20,000,000,000 per year for the privilege of being the default for that user base.

phs318u | root | parent
A lot of people might think $20B is a lot to pay. But search (and “other”) account for over half (>$200B) the of Alphabet’s total revenue from all sources. It’s still a bargain when you consider how few people bother to (or are even aware of the possibility of) changing their default browser.

https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/googl/metrics/revenue-by-se...

| root | parent
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