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It all began on 27th January 2015. Three years ago we launched our first technical preview, and with it a promise to give you a unique browsing experience and build a passionate community. Today, we can proudly say that we have kept our promise. And so have you. You have helped us grow with your encouragement, feedback and love. We have grown together.
1. Cheers to our community of users – Creating milestones with you.
Our users come first. All of our users. Our community comes first. Nobody is a nobody. Software is made by people and for people. Each one of you brings their history, experiences and values to the community. Keeping these values at our core, we have grown to be a community of 203,170 members (!) and counting.
2. Cheers to creating Vivaldi – More ways to make it yours.
When we started, the concept was clear – Vivaldi should be shaped by its community. We were confident that the feature set would be guided by our users. We knew that if we want to grow, we would have to keep our users ahead of us, guiding the way.
Some of you may remember a poll on our blog (way back in 2015) where we asked you to help us prioritise new features. We received an overwhelming response that included innumerable feature requests. Eventually, we narrowed this down to a shortlist of 78 features.
Our focus has always been on the features, the look and the details, and on creating your dream browser. With a strong ideology of giving you, our users, more options and more control over our product, we packed in many of these features over the years.
We are happy to report that nearly 65% of the features requested in that original poll have been implemented so far. We’ll continue to take even more of these features over the finish line in future releases. Of course, new feature requests are not in short supply either and we always look forward to seeing your ideas! Watch this space for a new, easier way to request features soon.
3. Cheers to the Vivaldi Team.
When we started, we were a team of 18. Today, we have grown to a family of 42. It’s a pretty international and diverse crowd with 17 different nationalities. We’re a passionate, nerdy and happy group of people who are having a blast as we build Vivaldi for you.
Our happy mode is switched on right now and to celebrate these three years we are offering a 20% discount on every V product in our store until the end of this month (31st of Jan). Use coupon code “vivaldi20” at checkout. Head to the Vivaldi Store to grab some Vivaldi swag :-).
Stroll down memory lane
We all have some special memories with Vivaldi. As we look back, here are the first few words to our community from our founder and CEO, Jon von Tetzchner.
Dear Friends,
I am sitting on the plane home after a very busy week in Norway. A very satisfying week.
I could not be prouder over what our team have achieved. I am also proud and grateful over the response we got from all of you.
It is clear that we are on the right path.
The features. The looks. The details.
But our job is not done. This is where the real job starts. Now we are no longer working in silence.
We have a large group of people, all of you supporting us and demanding things from us. I love it!
From now on we will start to do weekly builds.
We will have a relatively light process in order to show you progress we make every week.
This is a browser for all of us.
I am confident that together we will make this a great product.
Cheers!
Jon.
With time, we have matured as a conscientious browser. Your browsing needs, your privacy and fair practices in the world of the web matter to us. These are strong reasons that motivate us to do things right. You have played a major role in our quest to create Vivaldi.
Every single day has been full of inspirational, awesome and challenging stories. These stories are the fabric of Vivaldi, and they continue to remind us how vital the commitment of our users, team and volunteers is to Vivaldi. Thank you for being with us.
If you have memories from the very early days of using Vivaldi, please share in the comments below.
So once again, from all of us: three cheers to three years!
