Starting from today, Vivaldi is the default browser on the Arch-based Linux distribution Manjaro on its Cinnamon edition. This is not the first time Manjaro has given us such a surprise. Most of you probably remember the Free Office case. However, the change goes official today for anyone doing a fresh installation of Manjaro’s Cinnamon Edition.
For starters, Vivaldi is intended for power users and provides an impressive level of control over the interface. Vivaldi is one of the lesser-known browsers, but it is actually a really good choice if you value customization and privacy above all else.
To give Vivaldi more attention than it deserves, I’ve decided to include it as the default browser in our popular Cinnamon Community Edition. With its remarkable browsing speed, exceptional customization and above all the way it values user privacy, Vivaldi is for me a perfect match for Manjaro Linux.
Bernhard Landauer, co-CEO of Manjaro GmbH & Co. KG
Vivaldi has been working closely with the Manjaro’s maintainers so that everything fits perfectly, and for this they have created a theme called “Manjaro-Cinnamon”. The theme is exclusively created for Manjaro to provide tighter integration between browser and OS.
Even though the Cinnamon version is a community edition, it is surprising that Mozilla Firefox dropped from a Linux distribution. The decision was received with mixed feelings by the Linux community, as Vivaldi is not open source software.
On the Linux community forums there is no shortage of negative comments from open source supporters like the ones below:
A partially proprietary application shipped as default while perfectly fine completely FOSS alternatives like Firefox exist. Lol what has gotten into them?
I mean… isn’t the Cinnamon version a community version anyway? If so, aren’t the community versions essentially up to the community maintainers to choose the packages of?
Bear in mind that Vivaldi will be the default browser only in Manjaro’s community-developed Cinnamon edition. Of course, the fans of Firefox can still install it and then make it default if they choose.
In conclusion one thing is certain: Manjaro is no stranger to making bold decisions.
