I like “new”. I like discovery. I like playing around with software and setting things up. At the end of the day, a web browser’s job is to ask for, receive, and format text and media. At it’s heart it’s a simple task which still does what it used to do when all we had were text-and-menu apps l like Gopher and Lynx.

Since the beginning of the enshittification of the web in the 90’s, browsers have had to also become a user’s first line of defense, or their worst enemy. Corporations want to know who we are, what we’re doing, how long we’re doing it for, and where else we might be going that isn’t “their website”. Governments are also getting in on this deal by enforcing nanny-state regulations that control what we can and cannot view based on where we live or how old we claim to be. Some browser creators are on board with all of this, siding with corporations and government mandates rather than with user privacy concerns. Making matters worse (or not, depending on who you are), AI is being crammed into browsers as well in a bid to make our sessions more mechanical and more joyless.

So what do you look for in a browser? I’d like to say that I want The People’s Browser, not The Corporate Spymaster Browser, but then again like all people, there are things I’ll put up with in exchange for something else, and various shades of other positions based on the day, the circumstance, and the prevailing winds. Mainly I want features, and if a browser will help protect my privacy then that’s cool too.

I used to use Chrome like everyone else. As a web developer (are we still called “web developers”?) it was always important to be able to get a site working for the widest audience, and statistically that was Chrome. Or, more specifically, Chromium, the underlying engine. Since other browsers have started building on top of Chromium, targeting a specific browser has become less onerous, although there are a few outliers who are trying to diversify the playing field by creating their own engine, or exist on different OS platforms and differ in other ways. Now, choosing a browser is less about “any color so long as it’s black” and more about “what faceplate do you want on top of the same engine?”

I’m not going to extensively enumerate the browsers I’ve tried here and why I’m where I am right now. Suffice to say that I have used Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Arc/Zen, Brave, Safari (on Mac), and am currently writing this post through Vivaldi on PC.

Switching browsers is kinda easy, and I think a lot of software developers could take a lesson from the Browser Wars in that regard. Every browser install asks if I want to import from another browser, things like bookmarks (which I don’t use), history, and — if the new browser is built on the same engine — extensions. In fact, extensions are the biggest issue in migrating, specifically if the extensions require a login. After that, it’s merely a matter of kicking tires.

I am currently using Vivaldi because I’ve seen a few people talking about it unprovoked. I had used it for a while Back When(tm) but everything old is new again so here we are. To lure people in, the browser doesn’t just browse, it allows me to send and receive email, manage my calendars, and read feeds, so I spent this morning setting up all of that. I had been using a dedicated email client (emClient) but I might try and roll with Vivaldi for a while to see how it works for me.

Does Vivaldi make me safer? I have no idea. There’s an integrated ad blocker, and Proton VPN is available if you don’t already have a VPN you like, but I’m more interested in the one-stop-shop this app offers. Other browsers have similar selling points, but I just got the impetus to change browsers again, so it’s less about which app provides me the biggest bang for my buck or the most privacy for…another buck…and more about my desire for newness that prompted this switch over.