How to Install Vivaldi Browser on Debian 11 Bullseye

Vivaldi is a freeware, cross-platform web browser developed by Vivaldi Technologies. It had grown from the downfall of Opera with many disgruntled when it changed from the Presto layout engine to a Chromium-based browser. This platform angered traditional Opera users. Since then, Vivaldi has become one of the most popular alternative Internet Browsers amongst the big three Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

Vivaldi promotes itself as a leading browser with faster navigation, clever bookmarking, more intelligent browsing, extensive tab management, and a more visual approach.

In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Vivaldi Browser on Debian 11 Bullseye.

Prerequisites

• Recommended OS: Debian 11 Bullseye
• User account: A user account with sudo privilages or root access (su command).
• Required Packages: wget

Updating Operating System

Update your Debian 11 Bullseye operating system to make sure all existing packages are up to date:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Root or Sudo Access

By default, when you create your account at startup with Debian compared to other distributions, it does not automatically receive sudoers status. You must either have access to the root password to use the su command or visit our tutorial on How to Add a User to Sudoers on Debian.

Import Vivaldi GPG Key and Repository

Import GPG Key

In the first step, you will need to download the GPG key.

wget -qO- https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

Example terminal output:

OK

Import and Add the Repository

Next, add the repo as follows:

sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb/ stable main'

Install Vivaldi Browser

Now that you have imported the repository, you can now install Vivaldi using the following.

First, update your repository list to reflect the new repository changes:

sudo apt update

Now install the software with the following command:

sudo apt install vivaldi-stable

Example output:

Type “Y,” then press the “ENTER KEY” to proceed and complete the installation.

Confirm the version and build of the Vivaldi Browser version installed on your operating system using the following command:

vivaldi --version

Example output only:

Vivaldi 4.2.2406.54 stable

How to Launch Vivaldi Browser

With the installation complete, you can run Vivaldi in a few different ways.

First, while you are in your Debian terminal, you can use the following command:

vivaldi

Alternatively, run the Vivaldi & command in the background to free up the terminal:

vivaldi &

However, this isn’t practical, and you would use the following path on your Debian desktop to open with the path: Activities > Show Applications > Vivaldi. If you cannot find it, use the search function in the Show Applications menu if you have many applications installed.

Example:

The first time you open Vivaldi, you will be greeted by the following pop up:

How to Update Vivaldi Browser

To update, run the APT update command in your terminal as you would check your entire system for any updates.

sudo apt update

If one is available, use the upgrade option:

sudo apt upgrade

How to Remove (Uninstall) Vivaldi Browser

To remove the Vivaldi Browser, execute the following terminal command:

sudo apt-get autoremove vivaldi-stable --purge

Example output:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libu2f-udev vivaldi-stable
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 295 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 

Type “Y,” then press the “ENTER KEY” to proceed with the uninstall.

Next, remove the repository using the same command as adding the “-r flag.”

sudo add-apt-repository -r 'deb https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb/ stable main'

This will remove the Vivaldi repository, do this if you no longer wish to reinstall it later.

Comments and Conclusion

In the tutorial, you have learned how to import the Vivaldi repository into the apt source list and install the web browser. Overall, Vivaldi is a pretty good alternative to Firefox and Google Chrome, and its main rival is undoubtedly Brave Browser. However, Vivaldi comes with more features, and Brave is focused more on the privacy of its users. A new feature for Vivaldi is the tab management feature; by selecting multiple tabs, you can put them in a “stack,” which saves valuable real estate on the tab bar. Once in a stack, the tabs can be “tiled,” meaning the browser window is divided between the tabs, letting you work with several web pages simultaneously.