Apologies if this has already been mentioned on the forum and I have just missed it…
I noticed yesterday that Omni Group have made some of their products free to download – OmniWeb, OmniDazzle, OmniDiskSweeper and OmniObjectMeter. I am delighted, because I have toyed with the idea of buying OmniWeb for ages but could never justify the expenditure. (My obsession with acquiring word processors is bad enough, without nurturing a browser-acquisition obsession too!)
So I have downloaded OmniWeb, and am very pleased with it. And I am embarrassed to say that I am also having fun with OmniDazzle, which is a terrible admission since the only person I can demonstrate the effects to is myself! I did show my teenage son some of the mouse effects and he thought they were cool – but, sadly, OmniDazzle needs fancier graphics hardware than his G4 iBook can stretch to, so the ripples and flashlight focus are mine, all mine.
I’m a very long OmniWeb — and OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle — fan. I paid for a family licence only a couple of months ago so I could put it on my MBA as well as the MBP, and eventually on my wife’s MB for her … and now it’s free! But they’re great developers, I reckon, so I don’t really begrudge it.
On the other hand, I’ve just upgraded to the Safari 4 beta on the MBA … it does go like a rocket and some of the new tricks are nice enough, but I still much prefer OW for the graphical tab-drawer, work-spaces, site-specific preferences … so I reckon I’ll be sticking with OW. TroyB says that they are looking to upgrade to the same Webkit as Safari 4 as soon as they can, so …
Another long-time Omniweb user here. Now it’s free I strongly recommend everyone give it a try. Favourite features? Too many to list, but workspaces and the customisable search box are both awesome, as are the graphical tabs and their very simple keyboard shortcut: Cmd-Arrow.
This is going to sound silly, but having just downloaded OmniWeb (I never actually tried it before) I like it just from the icon. Pretty much every other icon of the Earth I have seen depicts the Americas only. But this one shows the Earth from such an angle that you can also see Europe and Africa. Of course, users from Eastern Europe, Australasia and Asia are still going to feel a little left out, but you can’t show the whole world and at least it’s more encompassing than most. Silly, like I said!
I tried OmniWeb a bit a couple of years ago, but wasn’t up for the expense. I jumped on it as soon as I heard it was free, and I’m liking it a lot so far I’m especially keen on workspaces and site-specific preferences (I can block JavaScript only on the sites that use it badly? REALLY? )
Been out of the loop a bit, I only found out about 20 minutes ago. I’m so happy! I had tried the demo for a while and really liked it but wasn’t sure if I wanted to pay the money if I had free alternatives.
I tried Safari again, and Firefox (I especially like browsing without a mouse that OmniWeb does very well, Firefox too and Safari not so much). I eventually settled on using Safari and Firefox next to eachother, which didn’t seem very ideal to me.
So I went to check out OmniWeb’s price to see if the amount was worth getting rid of my frustrations. And then I saw it was free!
Yes, brilliant … back up to speed and with all the good bits that are part of OW and which you have to add to Safari et al. through extras, plug-ins, kludges and whatnot!
Mark.
Edit: to get the latest builds, you have to go to:
You can tell you’re using a beta version 'cos the default screen is a somewhat overwhelming forget-me-not blue. The people who have problems with the sneakypeeks are usually web-developers who’re pushing the software to its limits. For me, they have always been very stable. But it’s up to you.
I’ve been trying out Safari ever since version 4 came out. As a Firefox user, I’m like you in that switching to a browser without ad blocking is a bit of a shock. However, I found the excellent AdBlock software is available for Safari as a plug-in.
The best thing about AdBlock is that for the most part you needn’t do anything to set it up. It subscribes itself to lists which are maintained for many different languages and regions. I’ve found it to be very effective without any configuration at all, though it does allow manual white and black listing if one wishes.
Another good ad-blocker, for Safari and Firefox, is Click to Flash.
Flash content slows browsers, clogs caches, and drains batteries.
And some of it is annoying, especially auto-play films.
Click to Flash lets you choose whether or not to view Flash content.
I’m especially keen on workspaces and site-specific preferences (I can block JavaScript only on the sites that use it badly? REALLY? 
)