How to Install Vivaldi Browser on Pop!_OS 20.04

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 Pop!_OS 20.04 LTS.

Prerequisites

• Recommended operating system: Pop!_OS 20.04 or higher.
• User  Account: A user account with sudo or root access.
• Internet access

Update the operating system

Update your Pop!_OS operating system to make sure all existing packages are up to date:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

The tutorial will use the sudo command and assume you have sudo status.

To check the sudo status on your account:

sudo whoami

Example output showing the sudo state:

[joshua@popos ~]$ sudo whoami
root

To set up an existing or new sudo account, visit our tutorial on adding a User to Sudoers on Pop!_OS.

To use the root account, use the following command with the root password to log in.

su

The tutorial will use the terminal for installation found in  Activities> Show Applications > Terminal.

Example:

Install Required Packages

To successfully install Vivaldi, you will need to install the following packages; run this command if you are unsure; it will not harm your system.

sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common wget -y

These are pretty generic dependencies that may be already installed. Run the command regardless if unsure, as many other installations require these on your system.

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 [arch=amd64] https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb/ stable main'

Install Vivaldi Browser

Now that you have imported the repository, you can 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:

Vivaldi 5.0.2497.32 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 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 desktop to open with the path: Taskbar > Internet > 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 landing page to customize your browser.

You will have a series of about five pages of quick setting options to customize your Vivaldi experience. Overall, it should take 1 to 5 minutes at most, depending on how much customizing you would like to do.

Note, you will be able to choose a color theme, the Dark theme is quite popular along with Hot Pink, but others are available.

Example Dark:

Example Hot Pink:

Once done, you will see the final landing page, and you are good to go browsing.

Congratulations, you have successfully installed Vivaldi Browser on your Pop!_OS 20.04 LTS desktop.

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 remove vivaldi-stable --purge

Note that this will remove any unused dependencies originally installed with Vivaldi Browser on your Pop!_OS 20.04 system.

Next, you will need to remove the repositories from your system. This time you are adding the “r” flag, which instructs to remove the entry. This command is the same as adding the repository as you did initially.

To remove the stable repository:

sudo add-apt-repository -r "deb [arch=i386,amd64] deb https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb/ stable main"

Comments and Conclusion

You have learned how to import the Vivaldi repository in the tutorial 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.