FWIW, while it is now true that e.g. Firefox can get close to OmniWeb in terms of features (and has some that OmniWeb doesn't), when OmniWeb 5.0 was originally released a few years ago, only Opera and (to an extent) iCab came remotely close to having the same feature set as OmniWeb. E.g. drag and droppable/copy and paste-able tabs were completely unique to OmniWeb 5.0 when it first came out. It is only within the past year/year-and-a-half that Firefox and Safari have gained this ability. Also, it is only within the past year that the Firefox extensions to approximate e.g. graphical tabs and workspaces have become robust enough to use daily (even then, they are still quite flaky and, with respect to Workspaces, much less user friendly).

When OmniGroup start work on OmniWeb 6.0, hopefully they have some good ideas on how to take that big leap forward again. A few of the current features require refinement, but let's hope they have some ideas for unique features to add again.

To quickly clarify an earlier point - Camino IS written in cocoa, but the browser view is Gecko, which at the moment uses the older Quickdraw rendering. I think the view that it's carbon stems from not using cocoa text fields (no native spell check or dictionary look up for example). Spell check has had to be written in specially.

I can see why someone may not feel there’s value in paying for OW, but for me, it’s a small price to pay for what I feel is a better browser experience.

The main features I enjoy about OW are...

graphical tabs

site specific preferences

user-configurable search field

integrated ad blocking functionality

and honestly, it just ‘feels’ more like a Mac app than FireFox and, frankly, Safari. At least to me.

Of course, Omni. None other.
 

[list][*]Edit files directly on the website.[*]Workspaces. (Please play with them.)[*]Extreme ad-blocking. (Everybody keeps talking about google ads. I don't remember what they look like.)[*]Applescriptable. (I can load a month of Dilbert for viewing.) And yeah, other browsers are scriptable. Like iCab.[*]Someone said it earlier, I'll say it again: Per Site Preferences. Not every site gets to use java on my machine. Certain sites have different download locations. Only certain sites get to leave cookies.[*]Download window accepts urls. (I don't know. Do other browsers do this?)[/list]That's the short list for me.

[QUOTE=forum member][list][*]Applescriptable. (I can load a month of Dilbert for viewing.) And yeah, other browsers are scriptable. Like iCab.
[/QUOTE]

I wonder why there are no OW entries in Automator. That would be helpful.

Well... the verdict is I'll wait for Omniweb 6. It's true that this browser has some nice features, but I'm left distinctly underwhelmed. I adore OmniGraffle, depend on OmniOutliner, and am completely bowled over by OmniFocus (even though it's still in alpha). But OW? Nah! It just doesn't press enough buttons to unlock my wallet, so I'll stick with Safari and Camino for the time being.

I guess it's like Omni's choice in using vBulletin, instead of phpBB.

Both are great bits of forum software. One is free, and one isn't.

While I was a major proponent of phpBB for years, after seeing the new versions of vBulletin, I'll never choose to go with phpBB again.

Maybe it's not like that for you, and that's fine, but to me, OW is [B][i]the[/i][/B] reason I switched from 9 to X.

SC

[QUOTE=Smithcraft]I guess it's like Omni's choice in using vBulletin, instead of phpBB.

Both are great bits of forum software. One is free, and one isn't.

While I was a major proponent of phpBB for years, after seeing the new versions of vBulletin, I'll never choose to go with phpBB again.

Maybe it's not like that for you, and that's fine, but to me, OW is [B][i]the[/i][/B] reason I switched from 9 to X.

SC[/QUOTE]

Ahh... now [B][i]my[/i][/B] preference is phpBB. It seems cleaner somehow. But then, it would be a boring old world if everybody had exactly the same tastes now, wouldn't it?

That last sentence though... that's a mighty big endorsement. Maybe I'll take another look.

[QUOTE=Juddbert;17143]I'm still inclined that OW is not in the same superclass as OO & OG.[/QUOTE]

I am inclined to agree with you. A few things in OW are implemented very poorly (RSS in particular -- see all my posts on the subject) and seem not to be getting fixed in the Sneaky Peeks. All the same, OW is the best of a flawed bunch of browsers that I have to choose from:

Safari - unstable, hangs on many sites
Firefox - terrible XUL interface, dog slow
Camino - missing key features, can be slow
Shiira - not nearly ready to use
Opera - unusable UI, needs serious de-cluttering

I'll take OW's nagging bugs over the fundamental flaws of the others.

On this side of the pond $14.95 (Say £7.50 UK) equates to a couple of bottles of Stella - 3 if you're very lucky. OK you could get more if you were buying Bud or similar urine de Cheval.

However, given OW is something I use everyday, it is hardly overpriced.