The real solution Vivaldi offers to the tabpocalypse has been here for ages: tabs on the side instead of on top! We all have widescreen monitors now, so losing 50 or 100 pixels on the horizontal plane isn't really a big problem. And the tabs then become scrollable downwards, while still keeping their readability. It took me a couple of days to get used to them over on the sidebar, but I could never go back.
I've been trying out the side tabs for a week now and cannot get used to it. So many sites I use have left hand menus, e.g. JIRA, AWS, that is seems like cognitive overload to see both menus butted up against each other.
With top tabs there's at least the URL bar to provide some spatial separation between the two.
I've been using Tree Style Tabs for a long time now. The transition was rough, but I never want to go back. Tabs are grouped automatically (you can of course drag/drop them), everything is in trees and branches you can close them as groups and subgroups, reload, favorite a tree, restore a tree, move to new window and so on and so on. It's absolutely amazing.
I like the concept of the tab sidebar, but I can't get over having tabs in a different location. Even though I'm fully aware that I have more horizontal screen relestate than vertical, I never remember to use the sidebar.
I've wanted to use tab groups for a while, but it never stuck because of the UI. I'm hoping this helps, and I love that they offer a sidebar layout, too.
I don't need the tab text on screen all the time, so while sometimes I'll pull up a tab sidebar I spend the vast majority of my time with a line of favicons and it doesn't make a significant difference where you put that line.
The real solution to tabpocalypse is closing those browser tabs!
I periodically bookmark my open tabs to a dated folder and close all for sanity. Bookmarks search via address bar will find any previous tabs that I still need to access.
I’ve been using 2 hidden features in Chrome and Edge called Tab Groups and Minimize Tab Groups, which let you assign a bunch of tabs to a group and minimize them down to a size the length of text that you named that group. Color coding too. Game changer.
You can enable them in the chrome://flags and edge://flags.
I wrote a Firefox extension for exactly this almost 20 years ago back in their XUL iteration of extensions. Everything old is new again I guess. Brings back memories.
I want to give other browsers a try, especially Vivaldi with its many settings to fiddle. But Firefox's multi-account containers add-on is a godsend since I have to switch between multiple accounts for work.
I committed to switching to Vivaldi back in 2019 or so. I installed it on all of my machines (including Mac and PC). But I found it to be unstable and prone to crashes and weird issues, even though the features were nice. I eventually gave up in frustration and switched to Firefox, which I've found to be rock solid by comparison.
I personally am not planning to give Vivaldi another shot any time soon after that mess.
Opera has, since a while, the concept of workspace. A vertical icon bar is created at the edge of the screen, which basically acts as if there were multiple windows where to group tabs by topic. For instance, personal, work, media, research, topic x, y, z. The only improvement I see would be to optionally isolate the workspace from one another (so as to have different sessions on the same websites).
Download fresh Vivaldi Stable - 3.6 (2165.34). Open non existent domain to land on a very light "this page doesnt exist" ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED error page. Start Cloning Tabs by Shift clicking in the Tab bar, then Right clicking and selecting Clone. First you clone one tab into two, then two into four, etc. At cloning 64 Tabs to 128 opening every new Tab will be taking ~1 second per Tab. Cloning up to 256 open tabs will take you anywhere between 5-15 minutes!!! At this point switching between Tabs will FREEZE UI for 8 seconds.
Let me repeat - EIGHT second freeze while switching between empty error page Tabs.
At all times Vivaldi UI will be freezing with one maxed out thread of 16 thread 4GHz CPU, other 15 threads resting at minimal load.
Right clicking on the first open tab and selecting "close Tabs to the Right" will close 255 Tabs at once - this will FREEZE UI for ~1.5 minutes. >100 seconds of frozen UI while browser is closing 255 empty html only Tabs. Again one CPU thread maxed out, rest idle.
It’s honestly terrible, I’ve mentioned this before, there’s absolutely no way I’ll ever use a browser this slow. I abandoned Firefox back in the day for much less.
Tree Style Tab [1] is a generalisation of this to arbitrary levels of nesting. It also goes down the side of the browser window, which is a far better use of space. I'd say it's the number 1 reason I (still) use Firefox.
Tree Style Tabs has more features and is arguably better. In the year following the core changes in Firefox (Chrome extensions, threaded tabs) I had many bugs (high cpu load, broken tree, no restoring at startup...) but I haven't seen a bug in the past year. Configuration was not easy though, and It don't know if it still requires fidgeting with Firefox's files in order to remove the default tab bar.
Firefox-csshacks [1] will let you do multi-level tabs in Firefox. I've been using it to give me 3 rows of tabs since Firefox broke Tabmix Plus. It's not as slick as an addon, but it shouldn't be a problem for anyone who lurks here. Clone a repo into your firefox profile directory and copy and paste a few lines of config to enable that feature. This is the sole feature that has kept me on the Firefox side of things.
Talking about tabs can only remind me of how bad I am (was??) at hoarding them [0]. Years and years worth. All the best organization systems in the world can't save you from clicking more and more. It was at least a little terrifying whenever I close Firefox and it says I'm closing 5 windows with 768 tabs (which it will restore, but I worry)...
“The solution to too many tabs is here – a second Tab Bar.”
Why stop at two?
If you think that this is the feature that you have been waiting for, maybe consider the possibility that browser tabs are not the ideal way to store and organize information.
I beg to differ, tabs itself is information. Even though it's just "ephemeral", it's something ripe for any additional management tools. With all the tab chaos and context switching needs, this will be really helpful.
there is a tab tree extension for firefox that is kinda popular. I like the concept (often I want to follow a bunch of links out of the same page without losing my place), but I found the sidebar implementation clunky.
Whenever we have a discussions on Browser and topic of too many Tabs comes up, there are always a small portion of HN user suggest to me and those who uses lots of tabs are using the browser Wrong, ADHD or having mental problem.
And should seek changing workflow or treatment.
I currently have a relatively small number of Tabs opened, 150. I guess to those who only have a few tabs open at max think of us as crazy or alien.
I am one of those that keeps everything in tabs (currently 856 open tabs in 31 windows on my MacBook)
And tabs are imho the perfect abstraction. This is misguided effort.
The issue is with the way multiple browser windows are managed. When I have many tabs I must have a way to manage many windows as well. Visually!
Whether these can and should be improved on a browser level I can’t say.
MacOS is already very very good at this and much better than anything else
I extensively use app expose and spaces to visually and spatially find what I need and structure my environment by projects and topics. I have everything I need exactly where I left it, together with all other applications and information that was related to it
Adding more management features should not be the responsibility of the browser. That’s why I‘ve never been a fan of any of the popular tab management extensions or browser features
why do you have so many tabs open? if i need to see something then i save it to bookmarks or session buddy. How long will it take you to see the content of that amount of tabs if you are ever going to do it?
I downloaded 3.6 because I read it has a very customizable interface. I wanted to add a feature, only to find out it already has it. Example; when I am browsing Twitter I want the bookmarks bar across the top to only have my Twitter folders. I can do this in Vivaldi by right clicking on my Twitter folder and selecting "Set As Bookmark Bar Folder." Nice.
Tabs on the side is the real reason I am using Vivaldi as my primary browser.
Tab stacks are useful, too, although I typically only use them when doing research of some kind.
Just installed the new version with two-level tab stacks, seems pretty cool so far, but not yet sure how useful they will be in day-to-day browsing.
So this is basically Firefox' Tree Style Tabs but less powerful
and embedded in a slower UI?
The one and only reason I stopped using Vivaldi every time I
tried it is the performance. But it becomes more and more
obvious the developers simply have different priorities.
I never understood how people not close (or bookmark) tabs.
When I'm heavily working i have 20-30 tabs open.
But after the work is done, i'll close what I don't need and bookmark the rest.
Then again I also tend not to have more than 5 mails in my inbox.
[+] [-] onychomys|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] patwolf|5 years ago|reply
With top tabs there's at least the URL bar to provide some spatial separation between the two.
[+] [-] clum|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] duhi88|5 years ago|reply
I've wanted to use tab groups for a while, but it never stuck because of the UI. I'm hoping this helps, and I love that they offer a sidebar layout, too.
[+] [-] Dylan16807|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] divbzero|5 years ago|reply
I periodically bookmark my open tabs to a dated folder and close all for sanity. Bookmarks search via address bar will find any previous tabs that I still need to access.
[+] [-] hellojason|5 years ago|reply
You can enable them in the chrome://flags and edge://flags.
[+] [-] marcinzm|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] talesfromearth|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] D13Fd|5 years ago|reply
I personally am not planning to give Vivaldi another shot any time soon after that mess.
[+] [-] enriquto|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] namero999|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rasz|5 years ago|reply
Download fresh Vivaldi Stable - 3.6 (2165.34). Open non existent domain to land on a very light "this page doesnt exist" ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED error page. Start Cloning Tabs by Shift clicking in the Tab bar, then Right clicking and selecting Clone. First you clone one tab into two, then two into four, etc. At cloning 64 Tabs to 128 opening every new Tab will be taking ~1 second per Tab. Cloning up to 256 open tabs will take you anywhere between 5-15 minutes!!! At this point switching between Tabs will FREEZE UI for 8 seconds.
Let me repeat - EIGHT second freeze while switching between empty error page Tabs.
At all times Vivaldi UI will be freezing with one maxed out thread of 16 thread 4GHz CPU, other 15 threads resting at minimal load.
Right clicking on the first open tab and selecting "close Tabs to the Right" will close 255 Tabs at once - this will FREEZE UI for ~1.5 minutes. >100 seconds of frozen UI while browser is closing 255 empty html only Tabs. Again one CPU thread maxed out, rest idle.
Welcome to a browser made using React framework.
[+] [-] bzb6|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Smithalicious|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] countviolencia|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] h_anna_h|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] quietbritishjim|5 years ago|reply
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta...
[+] [-] Lopiolis|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] idoubtit|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] epage|5 years ago|reply
I've seen people talk about Sideberry but I've never tried it.
[+] [-] notamy|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bombledmonk|5 years ago|reply
[1] https://github.com/MrOtherGuy/firefox-csshacks
[+] [-] rjzzleep|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eitland|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] podiki|5 years ago|reply
[0] https://www.vice.com/en/article/88adya/death-by-1000-tabs-co...
[+] [-] generalizations|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fn1|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] leephillips|5 years ago|reply
Why stop at two?
If you think that this is the feature that you have been waiting for, maybe consider the possibility that browser tabs are not the ideal way to store and organize information.
[+] [-] drcongo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wejick|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] leetcrew|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sieste|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ksec|5 years ago|reply
And should seek changing workflow or treatment.
I currently have a relatively small number of Tabs opened, 150. I guess to those who only have a few tabs open at max think of us as crazy or alien.
[+] [-] aloer|5 years ago|reply
And tabs are imho the perfect abstraction. This is misguided effort.
The issue is with the way multiple browser windows are managed. When I have many tabs I must have a way to manage many windows as well. Visually!
Whether these can and should be improved on a browser level I can’t say.
MacOS is already very very good at this and much better than anything else
I extensively use app expose and spaces to visually and spatially find what I need and structure my environment by projects and topics. I have everything I need exactly where I left it, together with all other applications and information that was related to it
Adding more management features should not be the responsibility of the browser. That’s why I‘ve never been a fan of any of the popular tab management extensions or browser features
[+] [-] AbraKdabra|5 years ago|reply
bruh
[+] [-] devcriollo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mattowen_uk|5 years ago|reply
https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/28/22253198/vivaldi-web-brow...
[+] [-] okareaman|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IlliOnato|5 years ago|reply
Just installed the new version with two-level tab stacks, seems pretty cool so far, but not yet sure how useful they will be in day-to-day browsing.
[+] [-] dsissitka|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] saint_angels|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alpaca128|5 years ago|reply
The one and only reason I stopped using Vivaldi every time I tried it is the performance. But it becomes more and more obvious the developers simply have different priorities.
[+] [-] fn1|5 years ago|reply
Then again I also tend not to have more than 5 mails in my inbox.
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
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