Then came Safari, bundled with Mac OS X and with the complete backing of the mothership. Time passed, and OmniWeb 5 didn't materialize. Imagine all the user interface goodness of OmniWeb, but with a brand-new rendering engine under the hood. The number 5 began to take on some magical significance, perhaps helped along by the years-long anticipation of the "G5".whatever that was.įor the faithful, the prospect of OmniWeb 5 was tantalizing. Whispers began to circulate about OmniWeb version 5 which was to have an all-new rendering engine. The layout engine in OmniWeb 4 was crippled by design choices that made sense nearly a decade earlier, but were now making progress difficult or impossible. OmniWeb had a loyal base of users, but rendering speed and standards support became serious issues after the Gecko invasion. A wave of Gecko-based browsers soon arrived on Mac OS X. As the platform matured, the web browser competition heated up. The fact that this impressive application was created by such a small team of programmers at Omni is a testament to the powerful application development tools and libraries supported by OS X.īut this was during Mac OS X's infancy, when it took a lot less to make a big splash in the then-small pool of native Mac OS X applications. As I wrote almost three years ago in my Mac OS X 10.0 review: OmniWeb is a veritable poster child for Mac OS X technologies and interface elements such as drawers, configurable toolbars, system-wide services for typography, spell checking, and so on. Version 4 was an impressive Mac OS X application. Previously unknown applications suddenly became award-winning examples for other Mac OS X developers to follow. The Omni Group moved wholesale to the Mac OS X platform after Apple purchased NeXT in 1996, porting and then substantially improving all of its products. Like The Omni Group itself, OmniWeb started its life on the NeXT platform, home of the world's first web browser. OmniWeb has a long and sporadically distinguished history. Enter The Omni Group and their near-mythical web browser, OmniWeb 5. This is rare, especially in an established application category like web browsers.Īs a lifetime Mac user and all-around technological sentimentalist, I tend to look to the underdog for software innovation. Like most web developers, I look upon every new addition to the web browser ecosystem with simultaneous hope and suspicion.Īs a user with a well documented obsession with usability and interface design, I am always looking for software that takes its interface one step beyond what has come before it. After a decade or so of web development experience, the web browser is both my ally and my enemy. Asįaithful readers can attest, I am not among them. The peace of mind attained by using this browser will make you forget you had to pay for it! A free demo is available.Some people have trouble getting excited about web browsers. Other interesting features include searchable and sync-able bookmarks, RSS feed support, speech recognition, HTML source code editor, ad blocking, ability to send a workspace to another user, and form fill. ⇧⌘ (shift command) F jumps to the web search field which defaults to Google, but is completely customizable. Begin typing in a window and matching links are highlighted hit return, and the selected link is followed. When relaunching the browser, the previous workspace is restored including all windows, tabs, and scroll positions, enabling you to pick up browsing right where you left off. For example, to duplicate a given tab, hold down the option key and drag the tab in the vertical tab drawer (akin to copying files in the Finder). The joy of using this browser is in discovering all the finishing touches that have been put in. Web browsing is a fast and pleasant experience since the rendering core is shared with Safari. Useful features include resizable graphical tabs, collections of windows and tabs called workspaces, and preferences customizable on a site by site basis. A "power user's" web browser which hails from the NeXT glory days but has been thoroughly updated for Tiger.
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