Okay, responses like this just piss me off. "I don't like your opinion, so I'm going to say it's completely wrong to have such an opinion."
OmniWeb has always been about giving power and choice to the user. We don't use it for its rendering (we could use Safari for that) - we use it for the interface and its extensive preferences and customization. In other words, we use it because it fits the user well.
A traditional tab bar would be very useful, for the simple reasons that have been pointed out ad nauseum - limited screen real-estate (especially iBooks), muscle memory for key combinations in other applications and platforms, and its better suitability to a small number of tabs. There could even be an option to convert from one tab method to the other as one becomes better suited than the other, or automatically switch from the tab bar to a tab drawer once a certain threshold is reached. How's that for more innovative features OmniWeb could tout?
So why the excessive hostility and obstinance to those who want the option of a traditional tab bar? It doesn't take anything away from those who don't like it, and it satisfies probably the most requested feature since OW went to WebKit.
As for the argument that "time is better spent elsewhere", I disagree. Can anyone come up with something that affects a larger number of current or potential users (those who consider this the single block to their adopting OW)? Furthermore, I find is extremely hard to believe that such a thing would be difficult to implement, given that OmniWeb already has a tab infrastructure - all this would be is a different UI to that underlying code. That's supposed to be one of the major points of Cocoa and OOP/MCV design. If OW isn't designed that way, then you have far more serious problems on your hands.
Now as to your arguments against:
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Originally Posted by JKT
1. How many tabs do I have open? Is it 6 or is it 60?
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Answer: Why do I care?
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Originally Posted by JKT
2. What is the difference/similarity between all those tabs - is the Untitled page the same in each or different?
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Answer: Why do I care?
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Originally Posted by JKT
3. Why do the tabs constantly change size depending on how many I have open and therefore mess with my mousing memory?
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Mousing memory my ass. The tabs on screen will almost never be constant, and it's not like you're using Fitts Law or some other HCI tenant to back it up. Meanwhile, I use the keyboard - it doesn't affect me in the slightest. Screen real-estate devoted to a silly drawer does.
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Originally Posted by JKT
4. How do I quickly scan through all those tabs to find out what their content is?
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Sigh, another completely contrived example. When do you actually DO any of these things? Seriously.
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Originally Posted by JKT
5. Which of those tabs have I looked at since they loaded, which haven't I looked at?
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And is there a reason this can't be implemented for a tab bar?
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Originally Posted by JKT
6. Which ones can I close because I don't need them anymore, which ones should I leave open?
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Again, what does this have to do with a tab bar?
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Originally Posted by JKT
7. How do I even close any of the tabs that have dropped off the screen into the side menus and are no longer occupying the tab bar?
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Finally, a valid criticism. However, for the use case that has been presented repeatedly (that of a user who uses a dozen tabs or less - an extremely common case, I might add), it's moot.
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Originally Posted by JKT
Personally, I think the people who constantly bring up the few flaws in the vertical thumbnail tabs are far guiltier of ignoring the several horrible usability flaws in horizontal tabs. Putting it simply, horizontal tabs eat donkey's balls in terms of usability. The only advantage they have is size, but that is also their biggest flaw as well, as amply demonstrated above.
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Since three of your examples were contrived, two were completely non-applicable, one is simply incorrect ("mousing memory" - you cannot make a serious argument that it exists in a web browser in the way you are suggesting). Only one makes any sense - one that people asking for a tab bar have generally said is not the case for them (a bazillion tabs).
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Originally Posted by JKT
The only people for whom horizontal tabs are remotely useful are those that only ever have up to six to eight pages open at any one time, and if you are one of those people, then OmniWeb is likely to be overkill for you anyway.
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Of course - how many tabs we display is a proper and useful gauge of how advanced a user we are. It has nothing to do with per-site preferences, workspaces, saved sessions, etc.
Essentially, your argument here is "mine's bigger".
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Originally Posted by JKT
8. Why is it that everyone who complains about the size of the drawer never, ever bother to try making it smaller?
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Ahem, who says we haven't (except for your assumption). Tell you what - make it take up as little screen real-estate as a tab bar, and see how "usable" it is.