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When can we expect OmniWeb 5.8 Sneaky Peek? Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Hi,

I just wondered when we can expect the first Sneaky Peek of OmniWeb 5.8?


Thanks in advance
 
Being as 5.7 only just came out... quite a while! I'm more interested in v6!
 
Given that the OmniWeb webpage is several versions out of date (are those really OW 4.1 replacement icons on the extras page??), I would anticipate you will both be waiting a long, long time. Very basic usability bugs were not even addressed in 5.7, so its hard to believe that future releases will be substantial, should they ever occur.
 
what usability bugs are you referring to
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by hardcoreUFO View Post
(are those really OW 4.1 replacement icons on the extras page??)
Er yes, and what's the problem? They say they were ones created as replacements for 4.1's icon in the version that shipped, not that they are only for 4.1. You can use them on any version of OmniWeb if you want to.

Last edited by JKT; 2008-05-09 at 06:27 AM..
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jem View Post
what usability bugs are you referring to
Don't know what hardcoreUFO was thinking of, but I would include:

No javascript printing
No returning to the last viewed tab when closing a tab
No easy sorting of bookmarks in Favorites
Poor AutoFill function compared to other browsers
Poor RSS

All of these have been discussed and acknowledged for a long time...

Last edited by mshalperin; 2008-05-09 at 11:12 AM..
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mshalperin View Post
Don't know what hardcoreUFO was thinking of, but I would include:

No javascript printing
No returning to the last viewed tab when closing a tab
No easy sorting of bookmarks in Favorites
Poor AutoFill function compared to other browsers
Poor RSS

All of these have been discussed and acknowledged for a long time...
I'd call these dearly wanted missing features, the usability bugs are:
No way to change the order of the items in the "info" panel (CMD+I) by clicking on the column headers. This bug is so old, it's not funny anymore.

Also the issue with the source view that doesn't like to use any other fonts than the default one or Helvetica, and doesn't respect encoding tags. Furthermore the source view doesn't understand any XHTML whatsoever.

And all too often OW suddenly starts chewing up 80% to 100% CPU, for no apparent reason. Especially flash based video players tax the CPU on OW much more than on, say Safari.

If I click on an ad I want a dialogue that shows me the image address, without immediately adding it to my block list and lets me change the URL (adding asterisks etc.) and then save it to my block list. I mean c'mon that's how it supposed to work.
I'd also be very happy If I switch the search/blocking syntax in the Spamfilter to non-grep syntax, that is comprehensible for non-geeks. They could simply add a checkbox [ ] is regular expression , so you could switch between regular expressions and dummy-search-lingo (like using asterisks the dummy way).

I really, really hope these and other issues will be addressed soon.
 
To be honest, I seriously doubt we'll ever see a 6.0 of OW. Unless they've got some major re-thinking of a browser planned, there seems to be no reason. OW can't be making much money for Omni anymore. The lower price coupled by the improvements in recent Safari and other browsers makes the rationale for OW even smaller than it was before.

One would assume that a great many new Mac users will used one of the excellent free alternatives before paying for a browser. Especially one with a great many bugs and with which many of its differentiating features work poorly or not at all -- when the free browsers have many alternative ways of adding the same features (often times in a much better way).

IMHO, OW for a daily browser for "regular" web users is a weak proposition, when every Mac comes with Safari -- which offers an excellent experience for newbies and power-user features with a few tweaks and add-ons. Real "power" users and developers (like me) with want to use Firefox anyway, or perhaps Opera. Those who don't like Safari, like Gecko, but not FF will use Camino.

So why would OW expend resources into a such an apparent losing proposition? There is a core of long-time users, many of whom (like me) paid full price. But we're not going to provide an ongoing revenue stream, unless they charge for 6.0 and it offers enough to entice us to update. It just might not be worth it for them, and the glacial pace of updates since 5.0/5.5 is an indication. OW rarely uses the latest WebKit, or even the one available in Safari, and even when it's close there are still bugs that are not in WK or Safari -- so why not just use Safari?

What, if anything can be done? I would think (hope?) that if Omni is going to work on 6.0 (and 5.8, 5.9 are a waste of time) they might work on a strong UI and feature set that would position OW as a "power-user's Safari." Things like excellent autofill, data detectors, more integration with other apps and Leopard technologies. As a web developer, I'd pay for a considerably enhanced Web Inspector, integrated JS and/or PHP debuggers, comprehensive source/DOM view (a nicer Firebug?), maybe blogging tools built in, mouse gestures, better/easier ad blocking etc etc. My point is parity won't cut it any more -- not for the customers, and not really for Omni. To have a product with a solid value proposition, they need to leapfrog what's out there -- and keep it current, reliable, and compliant.
 
I've been thinking the same. For the most part, it seems like all of the people at the OG that contributed to the "power user's Safari" (even before Safari) are gone. Obviously Ken is still there but I don't know how much of a part of OW he's been. It may just be a coincidence, but it seems like with some personnel changes the vision for OW has been lost.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Handycam View Post
What, if anything can be done? I would think (hope?) that if Omni is going to work on 6.0 (and 5.8, 5.9 are a waste of time) they might work on a strong UI and feature set that would position OW as a "power-user's Safari." Things like excellent autofill, data detectors, more integration with other apps and Leopard technologies. As a web developer, I'd pay for a considerably enhanced Web Inspector, integrated JS and/or PHP debuggers, comprehensive source/DOM view (a nicer Firebug?), maybe blogging tools built in, mouse gestures, better/easier ad blocking etc etc. My point is parity won't cut it any more -- not for the customers, and not really for Omni. To have a product with a solid value proposition, they need to leapfrog what's out there -- and keep it current, reliable, and compliant.
I agree. I would pay even more than $30 if the OG continued to increase the feature set that's targeted for power users. Many people post not seeing the reason to pay for OW. I think it's a futile effort to try and compete with "free" browsers and customers who don't understand the difference.

Sure Firefox can do 90% of what OW does, but it does it poorly. I want a finely tuned, power-browser. And for that, I would probably pay more than the OG charges for any of its current products.
 
With the exception of OmniWeb 5.7 and Safari 3.1 (maybe 3.0, I forget), OmniWeb always used a version of WebKit that was newer than the shipping version of Safari. Fwiw.

Btw, Forrest, Wil Shipley (before he left OmniGroup) wanted to sell OmniWeb* to Apple at the time they were considering using it as the basis for their new browser, in pre-Safari times.

* At least, this is what he said a few months ago in a presentation he gave on Delicious Library 2 and not being afraid to use hype to promote your product.
 
 


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