Cofounder, Opera
Interview with Jon VonTetzchner, CEO of Vivaldi and Inventor of the Opera Browser.
Interview with Jon VonTetzchner, CEO of Vivaldi and Inventor of the Opera Browser, one of the first browsers on the Internet in the ...
About Jon Von tetzchner
Jon von Tetzchner, co-founder of Opera and founder and CEO of Vivaldi Technologies, has continued to speak publicly about browser development, privacy, and the state of the web. He has stated that he left Opera due to a disagreement with investors over the company's direction, and that he later founded Vivaldi after Opera's new owners "threw away 19 years of work" and adopted a different design philosophy. Von Tetzchner has described Vivaldi as a browser built for users who want customization and control, and has said the company does not collect user data or telemetry. He has also discussed the company's decision to base Vivaldi on the Chromium engine, noting that building a browser engine from scratch is no longer feasible. Von Tetzchner has been critical of data collection and profiling by large technology companies, describing it as a societal problem. He has called for regulation of data practices and has expressed support for the European Union's Digital Markets Act. He has described blockchain and web3 as having "nothing to do with the web" and called them "basically just a scam." Regarding Vivaldi's source code, von Tetzchner has said that while the Chromium-based C++ code is shared and auditable, the company's web-based user interface code is not under an open license, though he noted that discussions about changing this are ongoing within the company.
Transcript (32 segments)
I
Interviewer0:02
Welcome back to the Real-Time Communication Show here in New York City. I'm here with Jon von Tetzner from Vivaldi Technologies. Welcome to the show, John.
J
Jon von Tetzner0:18
Thank you, Rich.
I
Interviewer0:20
John, you go back to one of the oldest browsers in the industry, the Opera browser. People who were around the internet in its inception knew what the Opera browser was. Tell us about the history of the Opera browser, when it got started.
J
Jon von Tetzner0:34
Sure. I mean we can take this all the way back to 1992, where I was working at the Norwegian Telco research lab, and we were discovering the web. We started working with the web in '92. Just in comparison, at the end of '93 there was supposedly like 100 web servers in the world, so we were very, very early. And in '94 we decided to start working on the browser.
I
Interviewer1:00
Now, where was Norway in terms of what was happening in the US? Were things happening in parallel, or did things happen here in the US first and then other countries started adopting?
J
Jon von Tetzner1:12
Well, the web was invented in Switzerland. When I said a hundred web servers worldwide, we had the entry point to Norway. We discovered this way before almost anyone else.
I
Interviewer1:32
Right. And then you started working on the Opera browser. Tell us about the history of that browser and your contribution.
J
Jon von Tetzner1:40
At the research lab, we started working on the browser, two of us, in the spring of '94. There weren't many other browsers at the time. Six months later we had a prototype, and then there was a discussion with Telenor about what to do with this. We negotiated a deal to take the browser out of Telenor and found our own company, Opera Software, in '95. So there were two of us, and I was the CEO.
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Interviewer2:12
How long did that development continue? What happened with Opera over the next five years?
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Jon von Tetzner2:19
We continued to work on the browser and got it out there. We put it on the internet for download around '96, and gradually increased our user base. At the time, there were a lot of browsers. Great companies like IBM, Oracle, Symantec, Apple were all making browsers and gave up, but we just kept building, gradually gaining momentum on desktop and then starting to look at other devices.
I
Interviewer2:50
John, how many people were using the browser back in the early 90s?
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Jon von Tetzner2:56
I don't have the exact numbers, but it wasn't a lot of people. It gradually grew. We had some really nice press at the time, like a great article in the New York Times that gave us a lot of exposure. You have to remember there was tough competition between Netscape and Microsoft, but the people who were really interested found us.
I
Interviewer3:24
So we are here in New York City at the Real-Time Communication Show and another segment called DevCon Five. You're taking the browser to Vivaldi Technologies. In some ways, I should continue the story with Opera because Vivaldi is a natural continuation.
J
Jon von Tetzner3:45
After those first five years, we continued to grow. We went into mobile and became the number one mobile browser in the world. We took the company public and did all the normal things. But in 2010, I stepped down as CEO, thinking I wouldn't be doing browsers anymore because building a browser from scratch is just too difficult. Then in 2013, there was a decision at Opera to move in a different direction, throwing away 19 years of work and restarting with a design philosophy focused on simplification, making a browser that's very simple to use. But we have always had a different approach, and that's what we continue with Vivaldi. We think users are different, everyone is unique, and with a tool you use as much as a browser, you deserve to have the features you want. We're taking a totally different approach to the mainstream browsers.
I
Interviewer5:12
What type of features do you think you'll be doing with your browser that aren't available on major browsers like Chrome, Firefox, or IE?
J
Jon von Tetzner5:22
Out of the box, you notice a big difference. The browser is more colorful, which shows where we are going. You can customize the browser, decide how it looks, where you place things like tabs. If you look at what we've done with tabs, you can place them on the left, right, top, or bottom, or hide them. We introduced tab stacking, which allows you to have multiple tabs on top of each other to clean up and create a hierarchy. It makes it easier to find them. By default, you continue where you left off. Another thing we've done is with tab stacks: if you have a few tabs, you can show them side by side, which makes sense if you have a 4K or 5K screen, because the browser doesn't typically utilize that screen effectively.
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Interviewer6:47
In terms of resources, as you add more tabs you have to deal with using more resources. Are you doing anything to address the resource issue?
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Jon von Tetzner7:00
When you start the browser, it only starts the tabs you are actually using. The older tabs come up, but only the ones you're using are active. You also have the capability to put them to sleep, saving resources. It's a way to deal with having a lot of tabs, most of which you probably aren't working with at the same time.
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Interviewer7:26
Another thing that has happened with browsers in the last decade is multimedia moving to HTML5. What is your take on the direction of multimedia apps in the browser?
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Jon von Tetzner7:38
This is something we engaged with quite heavily at Opera. I'm very proud that a lot of our people were involved in writing those standards. It makes a lot of sense to change what the browser can do, so it can be used for running applications. The principle of writing the code once and it running everywhere is key.
I
Interviewer8:07
John, it sounds like you are doing some pretty cool stuff with the tabbing features. What are some other things you are doing, and what is your general philosophy about what you are trying to achieve with your users?
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Jon von Tetzner8:17
Our goal is that when you download the browser, it's more colorful, beautiful, and fresh. We want you to like it out of the box. Then, when people start experimenting with the features and tweaking settings, they feel like the browser was made for them. That feeling comes from us looking at individuals, not just what 80% of users want. We put in options and choices so you can get the browser to look and feel exactly how you want it.
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Interviewer9:20
Let's talk about tracking, privacy, and security.
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Jon von Tetzner9:31
The most important thing we do is not track you. We made a decision that we do not want to know how you are using the browser. Most everyone else sends back information about your usage, but we can get feedback directly from you. We are not tracking, and we will do whatever we can to keep you safe.
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Interviewer10:03
Tell us about your overall philosophy.
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Jon von Tetzner10:08
It's about focusing on the user and understanding we are all unique. We don't all have the same cars or clothes. We believe we should adapt to you. Do you prefer to click, use mouse gestures, keyboard shortcuts, or the command line? Do you want a browser with many buttons or one where the interface disappears? It's all about an individual approach, and given the time we spend with the browser, it's a natural thing.
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Interviewer10:52
John, we are at the Real-Time Communications Show, and one of the newer technologies is WebRTC. What is your take on that and Vivaldi's position?
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Jon von Tetzner11:12
This goes back to what we were doing at Opera. We worked on a technology called Opera Unite from 2005 to 2010. The idea was that the browser would be both client and server using the same code. Things have evolved with Node.js and the like, but I think there is a lot more coming. The idea that you can use the browser to communicate directly makes a lot of sense, and we will follow that direction with Vivaldi.
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Interviewer11:49
It starts with getting people to use your browser. Where do they go to download Vivaldi?
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Jon von Tetzner11:57
The best thing is to go to Vivaldi.com. You can download it for free.
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Interviewer12:00
Fantastic. Thank you for joining us here on etec TV and our show. Keep us in tune as to what's going on in the future.
J
Jon von Tetzner12:10
Rich, it's been a great pleasure.