Why is Omniweb Just the Pokey Puppy of Browsers

[Forrest Corbett]

On Jan 2, 2006, at 4:26 PM, Gerard Vanderleun wrote:

> My sense is that the engine way down at the bottom of OW is the  
> real reason it pokes along. Can't keep dumping weight on an old car  
> and expect it to perform the same.

My archives for this list only show messages from you starting this  
last June. So I'm guessing you haven't seen the messages from Omni on  
how OW5 is built and some of the performance items. Specifically,  
messages from when OW5 was in beta.

The "engine way down" is WebCore, same as Safari. However, Omni had a  
great feature set and simply adding onto WebCore wasn't enough. So  
they built OW5 on WebCore, but also added a lot of their own stuff.  
OW5 is hardly an "old car" as it was largely rebuilt from the ground  
up, IIRC.

With all the customization, they haven't been able to integrate each  
WebCore update quite so quickly. Some on this list have expressed  
interest in that "feature" so there has been some discussion about  
that. There has been mention that some features may go away in order  
to make that happen. I haven't seen any final word on that from the OG.

One message string that stuck in my head was when one list member  
said something like "it's not like OmniWeb is doing anything as  
intensive as Photoshop." I think it was Scott who replied something  
along the lines of "oh, but it is."

OmniWeb does A LOT more than the other browsers I've seen. The second  
thing to remember is Omni is also trying to keep the browser  
compatible with multiple versions of OS X. For example, it would be  
really cool if they used Core Image to create the graphical thumbnail  
tabs. However, that would only work on Tiger with supported video  
cards. Sure it would take less processor.

Overall I think it's very important to take a range of factors into  
account when discussing something like page load time. Omni's target,  
judging by results, has not been to be the fastest page rendering  
browser on the planet. I would love it if they built the perfect  
browser - one that didn't require the latest OS, the fastest  
hardware, easily updated with the latest WebCore, had the most/best  
features and loaded pages the fastest - but I think expecting that  
sort of perfection is just a setup for disappointment.

I know they're working on 5.5. They've got a bright crew who does a  
good job. Judging by the times of the day I see emails from them, I  
think they devote a lot of time to their work. They're nice when I  
harass them. I know they will use their best judgement when making a  
decision. I know they're aware it's not the fastest browser on the  
planet.

-Forrest