I do agree that from a privacy perspective there is not much difference between 5% closed source and 100% closed source.
That being said, I don’t think that closed source software is definitively bad or spyware.
On the topic of Vivaldi specifically, I find their open source claims to be mostly spin. Since they are modifying an open source project, most of the code must be open source so it is just as likely that they are making as much closed source as they possibly can.
nobody claimed that. There is no way to know whether it is spyware or not.
Given the circumstances (opportunity, motive, unaccountability, the sensitivity and value of data involved, etc…), when it comes to proprietary browsers like Vivaldi, it’s reasonable to err on the safe side and assume that they contain spyware.
This seems to be the point of contention here.
Where? Only in your mind.
I didn’t claim that someone did. 
Yes Kresimir, of course you’re right! Hope that makes you happy. Have a nice evening!
Well, I have never insinuated that since they have opportunity and motive to screw their users, they would do so by spying on them through inclusion of spyware in the closed source part of the code. Because “why they shouldn’t?”
At the end of the day everyone is experiencing things and give expression to them from the “confinement” of their own mind.
If they are giving it away for free you can assume that.
There’s a german pentester who’s checking which data various browsers are sending while you use them. Here’s his article on Vivaldi:
One thing is for sure: about things we don’t know anything about for sure, we can make any kind of assumptions. In this case, those assumptions might vary according to the thickness of the tinfoil hat we are wearing.
I am sure this guy will never ever come close to anything online:
Very nice, thanks!
I just put the Fazit part in a translator. Interesting conclusion!
Overall, Vivaldi leaves a mixed impression. The browser’s default settings are not ideal. Among other things, the close connection with Google to search for updates for add-ons or the block list for malicious domains is to be criticized. Even if you uncheck all Google services under “Settings → Privacy”, the search for add-on updates remains a function that cannot be disabled via the GUI. Basically, the function is also useful, since updates of add-ons are installed via this channel. However, this is a nuisance for privacy-sensitive users who like to avoid Google, and the browser is therefore only recommended to a limited extent.
We briefly recall the marketing slogan used to promote Vivaldi:
Is privacy dead? Not in Vivaldi.Well, it is not dead. But in Vivaldi, it just languishes with the close connection to Google.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Thanks for sharing!
To be fair, this is pretty hard to avoid on a chromium-based browser. You can disable it like ungoogled-chromium does but then you create both usability and potential security issues.
If you are concerned about add-ons contacting google to check for for updates from a privacy perspective, I think you probably should be using a browser which isn’t based on chromium.
Yes I understand. That is a quite understandable and reasonable conclusion.
Truth be told my use of Chromium-based browser is being kept at a bare minimum.
I only use Chromium for some Google-related services that I am in the process of migrating from.
Rarely do I use Brave or Vivaldi for an extended period of time. I “try” them mostly for checking out what they are up to.
For all the private personal matters, I use different profiles in Firefox. Each hardened to some extent using methods that I read about here and there. I also keep some test profiles to try things out before applying them to my main profiles.
Therefore, in my use case, I am not that concerned about using Chromium-based browsers as described above. If there are any extensive data collection on my usage, probably what they gather will not serve them that much. That is of course my assumption 
I really wish there was Bromite for desktop. My favorite browser on Android!
I tend to disagree on this one. It depends on what are you doing in the browser. The intention of TOR is to anonymize yourself. So if you log into any website with a personal account, you basically remove TORs main purpose. Also you should use TOR mostly with the default settings, as every deviation is an additional data point to make yourself identifiable.
This (unfortunately only german) blog has an interesting concept for browser usage (even though the entry is quite old):
It basically utilizes 3 browsers: TOR for “normal” sites (news, blogs, everything you do not sign into an account). JonDoFox (this was a fork of Firefox ESR with some privacy additions, which became a dead project in the meantime afaik) or Firefox with a set of plugins + configuration as the browser for websites, where you need to sign in and a third browser of personal preference just for websites that do not work with the privacy plugins/configuration.
I don’t know what you are disagreeing with. In what way is Tor browser unsuitable for daily use? Is it a weekly use browser? A monthly use browser? What does that even mean?
And of course it depends on what you’re doing in the browser. Did anyone ever claim that it didn’t?
I interpreted the “browser for daily uses” as “using only this browser” and therefore thought a plain “Yes” is not sufficient as an answer. But I could have worded that better 
.
In principle, if you are patient, Tor could be the only browser you ever use, even if you log into various websites and services (as long as you’re not under the illusion that Tor can give you complete anonymity). While this is not the best use of Tor, there is nothing deficient about it.
The only downside is the slower download and upload rates, and the fact that Goolag services are intentionally trying to make your life miserable when you do not want to be tracked, so visiting any Google website through Tor will most likely result in “suspicious activity coming from your network” errors, and you’ll have to change your Tor identity several times until you get one that manages to fool Goolag.
More and more sites are blocking Tor exit nodes, they don’t want you using Tor.
Yeah, that’s a real pain.
There are ways around it like using proxy on top of TOR (like using Firefox / Chromium inside Whonix and launch it with proxy)…
But some very sophisticated sites will detect even that