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OmniWeb 5.5.4 now available.

by Troy on February 14, 2007

This is a small update that contains a number of fixes to the download window. It also brings the security and performance fixes that were part of 5.5.4 beta 1 to a stable release.

We hope you enjoy it!

See the complete release notes here.

Then go download here!

 

Comments

Yeah!!!!

Deos that mean you guys can now get going on OW 6??? ;-))

Corentin

02.14.07 11:58 AM

Why doesn't OmniWeb support standard tabs? Your users have been asking for them ever since OW5. If you read comments on sites like MacUpdate, over 75% of all comments are requesting this single feature.


It would not detract in any way from OW, and would satisfy your users - why the obstinance on this?

Joshua Ochs

02.14.07 2:56 PM

Why should it support “standard tabs”?  One of my favorite things about OW compared with other browsers is the way its tabs work.  If I want Firefox-style tabs, I can use Firefox or Safari.

Claire

02.15.07 9:57 AM

If you look at the figures on the forum, only a small percentage of those who follow the forum are active, and even if 75% of them say they want “standard tabs” that means an even smaller vocal minority are crying out for them. Most of those who don't write in are presumably happy with the current tabs; the ones who are commenting in the forums and blogs probably do not constitute a majority. I leave it up to OmniGroup ... they presumably have a better idea of the overall situation; and for that minority, there are always Safari, Opera, Firefox, Camino ...

Mark

02.15.07 11:26 AM

Some people like standard tabs, but also like all of OmniWeb's other features.  I'd start transitioning to OmniWeb immediately if it supported standard tabs.

Jim Roepcke

02.15.07 12:25 PM

This isn't an either-or, zero-sum problem. OmniWeb can easily support both methods of tabbed browsing without any detriment to one or the other. Indeed, if you could switch between the two schemes on the fly, it would arguably be more powerful than either one alone.


Meanwhile, there are a large number of users who won't use OmniWeb because of this feature. Looking at the forums is more than a bit misleading, as those who don't use it are unlikely to be posting in the forums. They're much more likely to complain either on MacUpdate, VersionTracker (where they got it) or on a generic board like those at MacNN. And in those non-Omni forums, there are a large number of people who single this feature out as a must-have, and are ignored.

Joshua Ochs

02.15.07 5:09 PM

For me the best was Shiira 1 with the 'stuff' in the sidebar and tabs at the top - the icing on the cake would be to have the option to have the tabs at the bottom or the top (Opera).


What is it with graphical tabs? Text is fine - let's use the space in the sidebar (especially with widescreeen monitors) for the bookmarks/address book/RSS/Notes while the display page remains open.

David

02.16.07 12:37 PM

Standard tabs?? As in Safari??? PLEASE DON'T.

I love the tabs in OW. If anything I wish Safari would have similar tabs.

What's wrong with the tabs in OW??

It seems fairly obvious that all the people who are happy with the tabs the way they are are not going to post every day about it all over the place. When there is nothing to complain about, there is no point posting about it. I also suspect there is an overwhelming majority of users who are indeed quite happy about the tabs in OW.

Corentin

02.17.07 5:52 AM

The only reason I purchased OW is for the tabs that it now uses. They are distinctive and attractive. Otherwise, I would just use firefox.

Amy

02.18.07 7:12 AM

It's great that people like OW's unique tab implementation, but last time I looked OW has lots of headroom in the Mac Browser Marketshare department.


If putting in Safari-esque tabs gets more people to switch, I don't see how that isn't a win-win situation.  If some of those people end up switching to OW-style-tabs some time down the line, that's fine too, but I don't see the point of being religious/black-and-white over this UI issue - people who want to use OW tabs and poopoo Safari tabs can all they way, but Omni is better served increasing the attractiveness of their product for the majority of Mac users who aren't using it.

Jim Roepcke

02.18.07 6:47 PM

We're certainly listening, and we appreciate folks letting us know when vertical thumbnail “tabs” are not the UI they prefer.  (If you send email to our support team by selecting “Send Feedback” from the Help menu, we won't debate your preferences with you:  we'll just add your vote to our feature request database.)


One of the reasons we didn't arrange our thumbnails horizontally was that we were trying to avoid confusing the dimensions of navigation:  in OmniWeb, left and right currently always refer to moving back and forth in history, while up and down switch to a different “tab” (i.e. a different stream of history).  This is true both visually and with the shortcuts (you can hold down command and press the appropriate arrow keys to navigate either your history or your thumbnails).  We actually did implement a horizontal thumbnail bar, but it was used to navigate a window's history rather than its “tabs”.  (For those who are wondering, we didn't end up shipping this due to time constraints.)


Another reason we chose to put our “tabs” on the side is that we felt that vertical space was the most important space to give to a web page, because text (in European languages) is easier to scan vertically than horizontally, and because most screens are wider than they are tall.  Obviously that argument doesn't hold much weight if you're using the browser to view predominantly horizontal content such as movies or landscape pictures, but I think that's relatively rare (or we'd have more mice with horizontal scroll wheels).


Anyway, that's some of our reasoning, but we still appreciate feedback about the layout—especially if you tell us your reasons (even if your reasons are just that OmniWeb's layout is unfamiliar).


Thanks!

Ken

02.19.07 1:22 AM

I love OmniWeb'd tab style! Every single shipping Mac display is widescreen so there is ample room for tabs beside the main window.

Dave from Albury

03.01.07 2:15 PM

I came here to see if normal style tabs were an option yet. I don't see why graphics tabs and normal tabs have to be mutually exclusive.


I'm ready to drop Firefox in favour of something with a more polished feel, but I dislike Omniweb's tabs. In any case, I've already submitted this as a suggestion, so I guess I'll have to be patient.

Paul

04.17.07 11:31 AM

I admit that the OmniWeb vertical tabs took me a while to get used to.  However, I think they're actually easier to use than horizontal tabs, and they definitely take up less screen real estate.  The main thing I still miss from Firefox is the Find functionality, and the way Firefox highlights target text on the web page.  That feature is one of the reasons I had switched to Firefox from Safari.

Tim

04.28.07 8:54 AM
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