[andreas_g]

using sp16 feels like using a final version. is there any timeframe, when we will get hands on the first public beta?

and now just some speculation: between the release of 4.5 and 5.0 there was just about 6 month.
i see kind of analogy between 4.5 and 5.5 (transition to webcore, now transition to webkit)
logically there have to be also 6 month between 5.5 and 6.0, so that we may see omniweb 6.0 for christmas or in early 2007.
does this make any sense, or am i just telling nonsense ?

[charlesa]

Well, there's still the problem with RSS feeds and other bookmark checks not being updated until after a restart of the app. I would think that's a significant outstanding issue that would prevent OW from being ready for a public beta.

(Related, of course, is the issue with unread bookmarks being marked read as soon as the page is rendered rather than when viewed. But that's probably something that could be tidied up during beta.)

[Forrest]

It doesn't seem like the final version to me. Still lots to do.

[NickM]

There are still a number of regressions due to using webkit. Not being able to turn off animated images and not being able to click on blocked content to show it are my two top issues. (I'm still using 5.5 instead of 5.1, though)

[pwg]

Originally Posted by Forrest

It doesn't seem like the final version to me. Still lots to do.

No doubt there's still lot's to do. But I'm one of those who suspect that 5.5 sneakypeek is pretty much 'done'. This is purely subjective, I conceed and it's really a matter for Omnigroup.

The cash-value of 'done-ness' for me is that I can dump Safari because for some reason the Devonthink Service menu-keys are now working in OW 5.5 Sp16 (hooray). I'd like to have other things too, like date-sorted downloads. But I'm now back to OW on a permanent basis (fingers-crossed), having paid for but not used my OW license for quite some time.

About 'done-ness': I'm bemused by the response I see on many software support forums (never here, I think, from the OW support team) from developers who tersely discourage speculation about progress with: "when it's done, it's done".

I think complex software like OW is probably never 'done'; only more or less ready to 'serve up'. Look at BBEdit. How many years have they been issuing 'fixes' to actual bugs and glitches? Even Don Knuth's TeX (than which nothing sucks less, imho) is some distance into the 'pi' expansion (3.141592 at last count).

[Handycam]

The main reason not to rush to public beta is that the team gets inundated with "bug reports" and general gripes from people who are not really prepared to use beta software. One only has to look at the posts on a place like MacUpdate for various betas where people trash the software as "junk" -- when it's CLEARLY labeled as pre-release and likely to be full of bugs.

Perhaps Omni would follow a model like Opera 9 or Camino, where there are weekly betas (like the SP's) and much more infrequent public "previews"? Regardless, I'm happy to be using the SPs and see no rush for public beta.

And I agree with PWG that even SP16 for me is faster and better than other "finished" browsers. But there are holes in the feature set that still need fixing, as Forrest points out.