@jon My story is that in the early 2000's I was very torn between Internet Explorer, #Firefox and #Opera. I was constantly trying out new browsers.

Opera, however, was the browser that offered the most extensive options for customizing the browser to your own needs, at that time without any interface for add-ons. And that with strong competition like Firefox, which offered an interface for add-ons.

When the big change came after version 12 of the Opera browser, I had to take the difficult path, as there was no real alternative. I don't like to think back to that time.

When Vivaldi then developed a new browser under the direction of Jon von Tetzchner with many former Opera Software employees, I immediately realized that something really big was going to happen and that there would finally be a great alternative on the browser market again.

Without further ado, I have been using Vivaldi every day since the first technical preview (TP1) and would never want to use any other browser again. Having followed the development of Vivaldi since the (official) beginning, it's like watching a child grow up.

Vivaldi is my constant companion, both privately and professionally. Especially in the professional environment, Vivaldi offers me great opportunities to optimize my #workflow.

Microsoft had reasons for this: at first it was because they didn't “get” the Internet, later on it was because it's the only way they had to (attempt to) control it. They did all they could to cripple it: remember when #OperaSoftware released a “Bork” edition of their of the #OperaBrowser in response to #Microsoft serving them intentionally broken CSS?
https://press.opera.com/2003/02/14/opera-releases-bork-edition/
Now imagine what the Internet would have been like if Opera, @mozilla and few others hadn't held their ground.