Why is Omniweb Just the Pokey Puppy of Browsers

[Forrest Corbett]

On Jan 1, 2006, at 11:47 AM, Gerard Vanderleun wrote:

> Having said that I just would like to have any ideas about how you  
> can possibly speed this turtle up. Besides being my favorite  
> browser it is also, by several orders of sensation, the slowest,  
> most crawling along, lacking urgency, non-crisp and overall  
> plodding browser I use.

OmniWeb is by far the fastest browser, for me. You don't really  
explain much about what it is you find "slow."

"more crawling along"
In the OW4 days, I might have agreed with you. However, OW5's feature  
set can hardly be called "crawling." The tabs implementation alone  
far surpasses that of Firefox or Safari. Not having to click on each  
of my 20 tabs in a window to see what it is, saves me hours each  
week. That makes OW "fast" in my book. Many of the other features  
that come with plug-ins or mods for Firefox and Safari, are already  
built into OmniWeb.

"lacking urgency"
I'm not sure what's so urgent about browser development. Security  
patches are probably the only "urgent" thing when it comes to web  
browsers. Not sure if you've noticed, but some of the Safari security  
bug were already found/fixed by Omni and implemented into OW. So when  
Apple had to release a patch, Omni didn't.

"non-crisp"
Honestly, I have no idea how you can compare OW to Firefox and call  
OW "non-crisp." The form field display alone in FF are enough for me  
to not want to use it. They are very rough. Omni has won awards for  
how polished its browser is. They've also won awards for other  
software. IMHO, OmniWeb is by far the most "crisp" browser available  
on any platform.

"plodding"
Really? OmniWeb is unexciting? It lacks a demonstration of  
imagination or intelligence? I have to completely disagree with that.  
Many of the exciting and imaginative features (which obviously came  
from intelligent people) that make OW the fastest browser for me are:
- HTML source editor: often times when building a dynamic site,  
there's a bug in the code and I can't tell just which include the bug  
is in. So I can edit the source and redisplay it within OW all as one  
page. When I find the bug, I can find the include and fix the problem  
much more quickly.
- Site Preferences: Some sites are just built strangely. Their 7px  
font just doesn't work well for me. Changing the font display size  
each time I visit the site, and then back when I go to other sites,  
is tedious. Or maybe I want to allow ads to be displayed on a certain  
site, or reject cookies, or change the HTTP header... last check.  
Neither Firefox nor Safari offered site-specific preferences.
- Workspaces: Try having a couple hundred windows open in Firefox and  
let me know what happens. OW  has an intelligent feature of allowing  
windows to be organized into workspaces. I configure mine based on  
topic. Each client gets their own. If one calls and I need to look at  
their site or other online systems, with a press of a button they're  
all loaded and all my other windows are safely saved but out of  
sight. This is another feature which saves me time.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

You're probably thinking that I didn't understand you were strictly  
talking about web page load time. IMHO, comparing browsers based on  
page load time is like comparing cars based on weight. OW has many  
other things going on in the background when a page loads. This is  
unlike the other browsers you mention. Part of the slowness may be  
attributed to the current web core version. However, Omni has said  
they are working on implementing a new version and that it will be  
implemented differently. This may decrease the page load time.

FWIW, I would trade page load time for OW's feature any day. And I do.

-Forrest