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Browsers

Entry 367, on 2006-07-22 at 12:27:21 (Rating 1, Computers)

Most computer users are increasing their use of the Internet every year. Useful functions constantly appear: traditional information sources; on-line interactive sites, such as social chat sites; places to store and share stuff such as movies, music, and photos; and now on-line applications are appearing.

Some functionality is accessed through specialised software - Google Earth, Second Life, etc are examples - but most Internet content is accessed through Web browsers. Obviously its important to have a good web browser. To me this is far more important that having a good word processor or spreadsheet.

But what actually is a good browser? First, it needs to understand the web protocols correctly so that it can interact with web sites correctly. There are established standards for HTTP, HTML, Javascript and Java, but many of these have been ignored or "extended" by various companies - most notably Microsoft - so being fully compatible is not always easy. Unfortunately most designers check their sites on Internet Explorer on a PC and if it works they think their site is correct. Unfortunately this is one of the worst browsers around, so this doesn't ensure web content is correct.

The good news is that Mac users are spoilt for choice with web browsers. We have an excellent variety of browsers available. I have these installed: Camino, Firefox, Flock, iCab, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Netscape, OmniWeb, Opera, Safari, Shiira - an impressive selection! There is always the issue of compatibility with non-standard Microsoft technologies which some designers seem to think they should use, but this seems to be constantly improving as Firefox becomes more prevalent designers need to ensure their sites work with it as well.

Anyway, the reason for this rather lengthy introduction is to introduce the latest version of OmniWeb - version 5.5 beta 1. I have been an OmniWeb user since it was the only choice on Mac OS X (OmniWeb comes from the NeXT world and was here long before a native version of Internet Explorer or Safari) and it has always been a capable browser but let down by a few deficiencies.

First, it isn't free. Well the latest version still isn't free so we are no better off there but the program has improved a lot in other areas. The speed is a lot better now, both according to benchmarks and my impressions as a user. I haven't used this version for long enough to be sure but the reliability seems a lot better so far. And the compatibility with awkward sites seems a lot better. OmniWeb has always been a very flexible and configurable browser, and that just keeps getting better.

So I think it is worth spending the money and buying a license for OmniWeb. Even though there are good free browsers around they can't quite match OmniWeb!

Comment 1 (233) by Doug on 2006-07-30 at 17:44:57:

I used OmniWeb for a while last year but it was too slow and crashed too much. Maybe I'll try it again if its as good as you say.

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