OmniWeb 5.5 public beta

Sorry, I didn't mean to pass off the idea that 30 days isn't enough, I'm just used to free browsers. Being a college kid, if I see a browser with the same basic functionality for free, I'll go with that over paying $30 for some added features.

The browser is very nice, and if I was not needing all of my student loan money for food, I'd pick it up. But for now, I'll stay with Camino.

Another point I was trying to make, was that even the beta had to be registered? It kindof struck me as odd, because usually when beta software comes out for testing it's free.

... although the browser is very nice :)

It looks just like Camino 1.0!

I'd like to point out that the DOM inspector in that screenshot isn't actually a new feature in OmniWeb. It's a new feature in the WebKit nightlies, and OmniWeb is simply enabling it (since they're apparently bundling a WebKit nightly build).

All I know is that OW is a solid product. Definitely worth $30.

Yea JB but the fact that OmniWeb costs even $29.95 is about $29.95 more than most people are used to paying for virtually every other browser on the market, including the previously commercial-gone-free Opera.

I don't know about the logistics of being a company and trying to make money off of a browser, but Mozilla made $74 million last year, and I think that was mainly off of advertising sold through Google. By making it their default search engine and getting a percentage of AdSense/AdWord revenue, Mozilla raked in some cash, and it's a business model I wonder if Omni Group could look into for bringing the cost of OmniWeb down or simply eliminating it. They're trying to keep it afloat in a market that, to my knowledge, is filled with nothing but free competitors.

Not to mention the fact that they've switched to using WebKit on the rendering backend, which is now open source. I bet that is a huge development cost they shaved right there.

I'm just on the cusp of buying OmniWeb. 5.1 had too any rendering problems to be really worthwhile, but the non-core features such as the visual tabs, workspaces, etc, are all absolutely wonderful. 5.5 is a very solid update to the rendering engine, and neatly overtakes Safari in the "use of a current WebKit" stakes. I'll be buying this in the next few days, I think.

Personally, I found that I loved OmniWeb within a week of using it. 30 days should indeed be ample time.

I'm currently using the 5.5 OW beta and I can say while it still is a beta it feels really solid. Yes there are still bugs to be worked out hence the beta but its very nice. I bought a OW license years ago but something always had me with safari but over the past few weeks I've switched to OW full time and don't remember the last time I fired up safari.

Ken,

I don't know why it would take longer than 30days to figure out if you like the browser enough to buy it. Most places only give a week or two and I think 30 days is more than enough to figure out if you like it. The best way is to go cold turkey on your other browser for a few days and then switch back and fourth and see which you like better.

Now I remember why I never tried this out... 30 day trial limit :-

The sneak peek has this same limit on it... bogus.

It seems to have some decent features, but I'll stick with my quick little Camino for the time being... too bad Opera has a GUI from five years ago =

Looks good to me. Omni was always a very nice browser. I think we're really spoiled, honestly, not only to have Firefox and Safari as options, but Camino, Opera, and OmniWeb, as well. It's too bad more people aren't adventurous with their browser choice. (Well, to say nothing of those poor, lost MSIE souls on Windows or . . . gasp . . . even MSIE 5 for Mac.)