The state of OmniWeb

The Blog

by Linda Sharps on April 12, 2006

“What about OmniWeb? Won't somebody please think of OmniWeb?”

We have, I swear. As it turns out, developing a web browser is pretty time-consuming work, especially when there's a limited number of engineers available for the task. Oh, you can stamp your foot all you want and shout outside their doors that you want to release OmniWeb 5.5 RIGHT NOW, but it won't do you any good. Believe me, I've tried.

We're making progress, though. Currently OmniWeb 5.5, which is a Universal release using the latest version of WebKit (revision 12177 at the moment, although we're updating it to be based on r13269), is in private beta. Our plan is to open this up to a public beta in the next couple weeks, with the usual warnings in place (OmniWeb 5.5 beta is in flux, has known issues, may wrinkle your linen pants, etc).

With the WebKit update, 5.5 is meant to offer an improved browsing experience over 5.1x; better speed and compatibility are the main benefits in this newest release. We've also added a number of other fixes and updates, which you can peruse at your leisure here.

Hang in there, OmniWeb fans! We have not deserted you, we leave no browser behind.

Here's a peek at 5.5 (clickity-click for larger image), although there isn't a lot that looks different from 5.1. Note the unified toolbar, site-specific preferences for using your own style sheets to view websites, and the WebKit Web Inspector feature (currently not a default in OmniWeb).

Comments

By implementing the Apple supplied API for downloads, do you inherit the burden of calling the Finder when the download is complete? One of my annoyances as a Path Finder user is having Safari open the finder automatically. I'd like to see Growl notification support as well as the option to use Safari-style tabs when working on a small screen.

Chris

04.12.06 5:26 AM

Are you (or can you?) re-designing the RSS feature in OmniWeb to respect the “default RSS reader” setting found in Safari's preferences? I'd really like to be able to add RSS feeds to NetNewsWire directly from OmniWeb, as I can from Safari. It'd be extra icing on the cake to have a preference setting within OmniWeb's preferences that let the user set the default RSS reader (like the preference setting for default browser in both Safari and OmniWeb).

Jack

04.12.06 6:14 AM

Bee ewe tea full! I can't wait to get my hands on a sneaky peek.. or public beta.. or whatever you'll call it. I've been using Camino for a couple of sites OW 5.1.3 is having trouble with (Flickr, The FWA,..) and I have to say I'm diggin' that unified toolbar look.

Step Schwarz

04.12.06 6:36 AM

Im in love with the little black transparent palette as seen in iPhoto et al. I hope Apple use it more in Leopard

Buju

04.12.06 6:36 AM

And if you release the app to your localizers ahead of time, then wh knows… You might even get localized builds of OW 5.5. in time for your public beta ;-)

Corentin

04.12.06 6:44 AM

Site specific style sheets. Hoorah!

I just hope you're implementing Spotlight-able bookmarks and .webarchive support…

Chucky

04.12.06 6:56 AM

Sweet I'm looking forward to it. I hope it has some of the pith helmet functionality built in via better ad blocking etc. That would take the cake…

JB

04.12.06 6:57 AM

If you ever feel like releasing a bug infested beta to registered users with a data loss wish, feel free.

julian

04.12.06 7:55 AM

Oh and I was just thinking what would an IM client look like if it came from the Omni group… I think it would look awesome… I can't wait till this thing is out in the wild

JB

04.12.06 9:51 AM

I'd like the default OmniWeb content filtering to be at least as good as PithHelmet's is with Safari.

sjk

04.12.06 10:13 AM

Keep up the good work all. I can't wait for the next release.

Amit Karmakar

04.12.06 12:12 PM

I am looking forward to using OmniWeb as my default browser again. I am also very happy to see the site specific style sheets.

Trevor Rowe

04.12.06 2:27 PM

Can. Not. WAIT.

r stevens

04.12.06 3:11 PM

I've always loved OmniWeb, but my 12” powerbook's screen is just too small for a browser window with a drawer open on one side for tabs. I wish there was a preference options for using 'regular' tabs.

Until then I'll be using Shiira.

Oliver

04.12.06 4:51 PM

Yes, a new version of OmniWeb is very exciting, and this one sounds like it will have a few very nice features (that is, on top of the hundreds of really nice features OmniWeb already has). The site-specific style sheet thing will be quite useful. Something that would be cool with that would be a way to “modify” the site's default style sheet, then save it and use that one, without too much hassle. That way you could easily change just one color or style with a minimum of fuss.

In the bitter browser battle, I'm glad to see OmniWeb is still fighting, and coming out strong. This is genuinely about the nicest piece of software I've ever used. Keep it up.

Ryan

Ryan

04.12.06 7:44 PM

OmniWeb Rocks My OmniSocks…

I wrote this letter to the lovely site BrowseHappy.com, a site promoting switching away from Microsoft Internet Explorer (I. Hate. That. Program.). You may or may not know of my deep love for OmniWeb, but I just couldn’t resist posting it here as…

the r-blog

04.12.06 9:22 PM

I simply love the whole design of omniweb 5 (the sidebar of tabs)

I'm looking forward to have 5.5 and a way to enable the web inspector. it would be both the niceties of nightly webkit and the quality of omniweb.

and I hope so a easier way to follow apple improvments in webkit for omnigroup developpers.

Thrilling !

Michel

04.12.06 10:11 PM

Looks awesome!

Some suggestions:

1) Lower right hand icons are from the classic days. Could you replace with something graphically similar to the upper right icons (Airport, Battery, Bluetooth,e tc.) ? It'd seem more OSX-ish .

2) You may want to consider 'normal' tabs as an option. Don't get me wrong, I VASTLY prefer Omniweb's side tabs, but for those with non-widescreen Macs, it just doesn't work.

3) Well, actually, I don't have anything else to suggest. I love Omniweb!

BKojot

04.13.06 12:26 AM

JB; speaking of IM clients (sort of), I've been asking for an e-mail client from Omni since I first started using OmniWeb.

And I think having the option of “non-side tabs” is a good one.

Ralph Fontcuberta

04.13.06 12:50 AM

Is it possible to make use of that semi-transparent panel, or is that a hidden Apple-only feature for now? I (mostly) like the look of it, and would like to make use of it.

Chad

04.13.06 5:48 AM

If Omni does decide to try an IM client, we'd love to work with them…

—an Adium developer

(on topic: bring on the betas! It looks gorgeous)

David Smith

04.13.06 12:31 PM

Why bother with any other IM client other than Adium? Once I discovered Adium, my search was over. I just installed it for several of our Mac users today, so now they can use the Jabber network, in addition to AIM, Yahoo, or whatever else they want. Adium is Mac programming done right!

Now, we just need a good IRC client.

Chad

04.13.06 12:38 PM

Colloquy isn't good enough for you?

Zetetic

04.14.06 1:30 AM

Cool, thanks for the tip. I've never heard of Colloquy, but from what I've seen, it looks like something Panic might have made. I'll have to give it a try, thanks!

Chad

04.14.06 2:19 AM

Looking forward to the public beta immensely. I work online, spending at least 6 hours work and around 2 leisure a day (jesus help me). Omniweb was worth forking out for but the speed issue has become a real problem. That and having to use Firefox for certain sites. Bring it on…

Tommy Weir

04.14.06 5:18 AM

The only area where the current version of OmniWeb is seriously lacking is ad filtering. (Want to know how to do it right? Check out iCab.) Hoping to see some major improvements in that area in version 5.5.

paul

04.17.06 8:09 AM

I'd like to see OmniWeb to become a swiss knife for Webdevs with all the features one needs to debug html and Javascript.

Some ideas:

- show the DOM name of objects in the webinspector palette

- also show html/DOM which was changed/added by javascript (important for AJAX debugging)

- stepping thru Javascript code would be great

- some sort of http traffic watcher like “live http headers” for firefox ( http://livehttpheaders.mozdev.org/ ) would ease form debugging a lot.

regards, Lars

Lars

04.18.06 8:28 AM

I'd like to see some less intrusive toolbar icons. The interface feels cluttered and the loud colours in the toolbar icons don't help… Something more like Camino would be an improvement. Looking forward to giving it a whirl nonetheless!

Jamie

04.23.06 5:16 PM

[...] There is reason to take heart, however: a new version of OmniWeb will be in public beta in a few weeks and it’s based on Apple’s WebKit rendering engine. (That means OmniWeb will display web pages the same way that Safari does.) This will be a nice step forward, and could make OmniWeb a viable option for me. [...]

Arbited » OmniWeb: I want to like it

04.25.06 9:03 AM

This looks very sexy. I look forward to switching back to OmniWeb when this becomes available.

Zach

04.25.06 6:49 PM

OmniWeb has always been “sexy,” but can it cook properly?

Unless the bugs in the current version are fixed, the application renders more quickly, control of Flash and ads is more intuitive, and it stops crashing, I'm getting a divorce lawyer.

Adding more sexy features without fixing the current problems is putting lipstick on a pig.

Emanuel Ravelli

05.02.06 4:42 AM

[...] I think middle two issues stem from using Rosetta. The features almost outweigh all of them — except the performance. Well, and the crashing. Maybe worth another look when 5.5 is out. Yep, I know there is a public beta, but I’m going to wait for the real thing. [...]

Where Are The Wise Men? » Blog Archive &raqu

06.19.06 4:15 AM

[...] I think middle two issues stem from using Rosetta. The features almost outweigh all of them — except the performance. Well, and the crashing. Maybe worth another look when 5.5 is out. Yep, I know there is a public beta, but I’m going to wait for the real thing. [...]

Where Are The Wise Men? » Blog Archive &raqu

08.02.06 11:58 AM

[...] • OmniWeb 5.5 (Sneaky Peek) : OmniWeb le navigateur historique sur MacOs X poursuit son bonhomme de chemin. Une version 5.5 est en chantier. La version bêta devrait tout soudain être mis à disposition des internautes. Mais il est déjà possible pour les plus courageux de se lancer avec la version “Sneaky Peek”. Cette version paraît apporter un élément qui jusqu’à maintenant ressemblait au défaut majeur de ce navigateur : la rapidité d’affichage des pages. Pour ceux qui désirent personnaliser l’usage de son navigateur, ce sera peut-être une bonne affaire. A noter qu’il sera nécessaire de s’inscrire à leurs forums pour disposer de la clé d’accès à l’installateur du programme. Via le blog d’Omnigroup. [...]

Autour du Web 2.0 (3) at Prise de notes sans prise

12.23.06 10:28 AM

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