View Full Version : OmniWeb 5.0 finally released
After countless moons of anticipation and waiting for the "next big upgrade" from Omni, it's finally out. Give it a test drive. (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/5166)
New big features for 5.0?
based on an ancient version of WebCore (v85).
a nifty new graphical tab drawer.
new per-site preferences.
workspaces (ala various *nix window managers)
saved sessions upon quitting
RSS feed viewer
Firefox-like customizable search field
history marking for "snap back"
And other OmniWeb-specific features that aren't necessarily new:
built-in content filtering, ad-blocking
HTML source editor with tag checking and highlighting
bookmark checking
zoomed text box (for web forms)
ColorSync support
a decent download manager
navigation be speech recognition
Is it worth the $30 price tag? I'm not sure yet. It's a really nice browser, but the competition (Firefox with various extensions) offers much of the same functionality for free. Granted, Firefox is a poor OSX citizen and the UI is awful, but it is free.
Among the biggest disappointments for me is that you can now only try OmniWeb in the unlicensed demo mode for 30 days. :(
torifile
2004-08-11, 19:53
Really? They won't let you use it unlicensed? I've really grown to like OW 5 while using it lately. I *want* to like firefox, but I spend a lot of time on forums and the text widgets suck complete ass. And the Adblock extension (the coolest thing to happen to browsing in a long time) doesn't seem to work lately. :/
I'll try out the final but until they get webcore synced up, I won't even contemplate buying.
Mr Beardsley
2004-08-11, 22:20
I echo torifiles sentiments. I'll probably buy it once they sync with the latest webcore.
Among the biggest disappointments for me is that you can now only try OmniWeb in the unlicensed demo mode for 30 days. :(
I'll definitely have to play around with it again, after not trying it since the first beta. However, it sounded like "30 launch days", so in theory you could just launch it once and that would count as "one launch day"? That would allow for a much longer period of testing. Not too clear on the wording.
InactionMan
2004-08-11, 23:06
The official release is a hell of a lot slower for me than any of the betas were. And I just can't wrap my head around paying for a browser.
Among the first problems/nuisances I've experienced with the final version in just an hour or so of usage...
The eternally-spinning status indicator bug is still present
Animated GIFs (like the smilies box on the reply page) are extraordinarily slow.
Only one animated GIF per page (WebCore v85 limitation)
Rendering problems on numerous sites (again, WebCore v85 limitation)
There are still drawing glitches around selected input fields (see attached pic)
Loading multiple tabs is painfully slow compared to other browsers
The apple-up and apple-down keys are very annoyingly overridden
Favicons are used everywhere *except* where they are most useful: the bookmarks menu
User agent spoofing is sorely missed
Sheets use a custom (faster) animation speed; inconsistent for no good reason
Counter badge on dock icon doesn't go away unless you check every... single... RSS link.
People who've known me for a while know that I used to swear by OmniWeb and recommended it to everyone. Back from the Public Beta through 10.1 days of Mac OS X, I used to use OmniWeb as an example to my PC-using buddies as a shining example of Mac OS X software. Sure, it was a little slow and rendering was buggy in places, but it had enormous potential and features that no other browser offered at the time.
After all the time Omni has had to whip out a kick-ass new version, though, I have to say that I am genuinely disappointed. It's been over a year since Safari 1.0 was released. Omni was certainly quick to merge the original WebCore with the old 4.5 release, but since then seems to have taken forever to get a handful of pretty-looking features done and forgotten about the display core itself.
Yes, apologists cry that Omni developers will be rolling in a WebCore update in a future 5.x version. When exactly will that be, though? And how dated will the version of WebCore they choose be by the time they finally get it shipped?
*sigh* :\
although i have tried to force myself to use omniweb in the past i just couldnt. i find it bulky and takes up a lot of precious screen space. the browser that takes up the least amount of space with the tabs, navigation toolbar, favorites toolbar and status bar is Camino then followed by firefox.
although i have tried to force myself to use omniweb in the past i just couldnt. i find it bulky and takes up a lot of precious screen space. the browser that takes up the least amount of space with the tabs, navigation toolbar, favorites toolbar and status bar is Camino then followed by firefox. :err: Now this I have to take issue with.
The space needed by OmniWeb and Camino in the toolbar is identical. The difference only appears with the bookmarks bar, but even that is only a one pixel difference.
Granted, the tabs take up more space in OW, but they also show a lot more information. And don't forget that the width is also resizable on OmniWeb's bookmark drawer.
Favicons are used everywhere *except* where they are most useful: the bookmarks menuCorrection:
The favicons show up in the bookmarks menu after you quit and restart the program. Still, you shouldn't have to wait this long. I often have programs running for days on end without quitting and relaunching them. Or does Omni expect OW will crash before too long? :\
The official release is a hell of a lot slower for me than any of the betas were. And I just can't wrap my head around paying for a browser.
Seems as good as RC1 to me (the last beta I used with any regularity). Launches faster than any of the betas IMO, but the render speeds seem about the same as the RCs.
I like OW5 a lot (the tab metaphor takes a little getting used to but it is very cool IMO). It is disappointing they used an old version of webcore. I'll probably wait before paying, but I will pay just because I have never bought an Omni app.
brad as i said camino takes up the least amount of space with the tabs, navigation toolbar, favorites toolbar and status bar all on.
cudaboy_71
2004-09-08, 09:54
after reading the rants over at macosxhints, i decided to give OW a try today.
i'm not really a fanboy of any one particular browser over another. as long as it gets the job done, a browser will have to offer some really useful features/benefits to get me to take the time to switch. camino won me over moz with better UI and cocoa; safari won me over with fewer crashes and a quicker engine.
i have to say, OW is a lot cleaner and faster than the last version i tried (something that ran in X 10.0.3). and, tools like workspace saving & prefs by site are intriguing.
i will definitely be playing with it over the next coupla weeks to see how it does. but, i can already tell that i am missing sogudi (http://www.atamadison.com/w/kitzkikz.php?page=Sogudi). i never thought a 3rd party plug would keep me tied to a browser. maybe he'll port it to OW--safari and it both run the same KHTML engine. *shrug* any OW plugs similar to sogudi or dqsd (http://sourceforge.net/projects/dqsd)?
You mean, something like this:
http://homepage.mac.com/stephen.still/misccrap/annew.jpg
which is built in? Am I missing something?
From the manual on search shortcuts:
Search shortcuts are a bit more complex. They still have a keyword and a URL associated with them, but these shortcuts can also handle extra information that you provide each time you use them. An example is the search shortcut for Google. Each time you use it you want to submit a different search query.
Name: Google
Keyword: google@
URL: http://www.google.com/search?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&q=%@
The important part of that keyword is the @ symbol, which tells OmniWeb that it is a search shortcut that accepts extra input. The important part of the URL is the %@. That's the placeholder that tells OmniWeb where your unique text for each search query should get inserted.
Beta 1 of 5.1 is out.
latest webcore is functional.
looks great so far, but a bit cranky on first start up...
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/download/beta/
Beta 1 of 5.1 is out.
latest webcore is functional.
looks great so far, but a bit cranky on first start up...
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/download/beta/
Am I the only one who cannot use external links properly? I set OmniWeb as the default browser, and OmniWeb becomes the frontmost application, but no window or tab opens with the link clicked.
Tested in NetNewsWire, Mail and other apps. Also Dock links...
chucker, external linking to Omniweb works just fine for me. Maybe try resetting it as default browser in Omniweb prefs?
Anyway, OW5.1 is looking good. gmail finally works, and the weird rendering bug at the informit online library is fixed, which were the only two things to really annoy me. It feels slightly faster as well, and the rendering with the updated engine is, I think, noticeably better — as you'd expect.
Now if only they added support for filtering iframes…
As soon as my tax return comes in (done in VPC due to the windows-centric f**ks at the ATO), I shall purchase this fine piece of software.
chucker, external linking to Omniweb works just fine for me. Maybe try resetting it as default browser in Omniweb prefs?
Tried that...
Maybe I have to dump my prefs and start from scratch. Oh well.
Now if only they added support for filtering iframes…
Agreed!
Mr Beardsley
2004-10-08, 14:30
I bought OW 5 today. 5.1 seems quite a bit better than 5.0. Its sort of intangible, but it just seems more polished, and faster. My only gripe is the google search area still has jaggies. Boy am I spoiled.
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