I licensed every version from 3.61 to the 2003's version while I was using
windows.
It is the key. When I moved to OS X , I saw their browser available. Tested it a while and I noticed one important thing: The OS it is running has huge amount of "frameworks" , "services" and being identical on all platforms, it doesn't have them (just like Firefox vs Camino)
I thought I am moving to a platform having these frameworks, integrated system and searched versiontracker/ yahoo for "Commercial Cocoa Browser". I really remember it word by word.
Omniweb appeared. I launched and I have seen every guess of me as a newbie OS X/Mac user turned out to be right. I also remember the performance (not page load), being more responsive on my G5 1600 having 256 mb of RAM.
Developers hate me for saying this but "ported" applications run like they have their own "island" on system. More advanced underlying OS is, more visible to eye.
As I hope I don't get misunderstood by Opera fans around: You may see me still supporting some very obvious problems on Opera official forums. E.g. double flash installation etc. I have nothing against it.
I would use/suggest Opera on 3 situations/platforms
1) Windows 32/64: Using windows frameworks=ActiveX=DCOM=Trouble. You can't beat Microsoft via their own frameworks. They have the source.
2) Linux if you are using/liking KDE: It is a very well programmed QT program. It shows the power of QT when coded by professional people.
3) Cell phones/PDAs= There is NOTHING to beat that excellency. Even Microsoft can't beat them with their billions of R/D budget. With the new Opera J2ME mini (mini java) they made another thing: Introduced www to any cell phone with amazing cost saving since everything is rendered on the server, sent to device with compressed stream, device is only responsible for forms.
The "rival" of Omni is not Opera, it is "iCab" which has its own customer base and focus.
BTW, if you want gestures for Omniweb (which is really a Opera invention/implementation on browser), there is AGAIN the OS X/Cocoa native advantage: Cocoa Gestures!
It is NOT a haxie. It is a input manager for Cocoa programs. Good use of Input Manager scheme built into OS X, thats all.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/18404
There, you take advantage of using a OS X native program again. A input manager introduces gestures for you without hacking anything.
As I credited Opera for gestures, check the "free software world" with great, ethical , above us open source programmers: Did ANYONE credit Opera ASA for first gestures implementation for browsers? Or, did anyone credit Qualcomm Eudora for inventing first software based anti-phishing mail client? lets speak about ethics and open source LATER, another forum :)