| OmniWeb | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Wikipedia on OmniWeb 6.0 preview onmacOS Monterey | |
| Developer | The Omni Group |
| Initial release | March 17, 1995; 30 years ago (1995-03-17) |
| Stable release | 5.11.2[1]  / 20 July 2012 |
| Operating system | Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later |
| Available in | English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Swedish |
| Type | Web browser |
| License | Proprietary (browser),LGPL (WebKit) |
| Website | omnigroup |
OmniWeb is aweb browser developed and marketed byThe Omni Group exclusively forApple'smacOSoperating system. Though a stable version is no longer maintained, it is still available as afree download, and unstable versions are still being released.
OmniWeb was originally developed by Omni Group for theNeXTSTEP platform and was released byLighthouse Design on March 17, 1995,[2] after only one month's development.[3] As NeXTSTEP evolved intoOPENSTEP and then Mac OS X, OmniWeb was updated to run on these platforms. These early versions of OmniWeb also run onMicrosoft Windows through theYellow Box or the OpenStep frameworks. AfterSun Microsystems bought Lighthouse Design, the Omni Group released the product from version 2.5 onwards. From version 4.0 onwards, OmniWeb was developed solely for the OS X platform.
OmniWeb was developed using theCocoa API, which allows it to take full advantage of OS X features. It usesQuartz to render images and smooth text. It uses multiple processors, if available, and features an interface that usesAqua UI features such as drawers, sheets, and customizable toolbars.
The Omni Group originally employed its proprietaryHTMLlayout engine that uses standard APINSText components.[4] However, this engine was very slow, particularly when scrolling, and was not fully compatible with the most recentweb standards, such asCascading Style Sheets. In OmniWeb version 4.5, the Omni Group adoptedApple'sKHTML-basedWebCore rendering engine,[5][6][7] which was created by Apple for itsSafari browser.
On August 11, 2004, the Omni Group released version 5.0 of OmniWeb, which added several new features. The most notable addition was an unusual implementation oftabbed browsing, in which the tabs are displayed vertically in a drawer on the side of the window (including optional thumbnail pictures of the pages.) Despite controversy over the merits of a tab drawer over a tab toolbar, the feature persists through the final version.
On September 7, 2006, version 5.5 was released. Major new features include the use of a custom version ofWebKit instead of WebCore,[8]universal binary support, saving to theweb archive, support for user-definedstyle sheets, a "Select Next Link" feature,FTP folder display, ad-blocking improvements, updatedlocalizations, and many other small changes and bug fixes.[9]
OmniWeb was Omni Group's flagship app, but as OS X web browsers improved—Apple eventually bundled Safari into OS X— and Omni successfully introduced other products such asOmniGraffle andOmniOutliner, OmniWeb's importance diminished.[10][11] OmniWeb's price was successively lowered, first to $39.95, then on February 24, 2009, Omni Group announced that OmniWeb would be made available for free, a change from its previous price of $14.95.[12]
OmniWeb was popular in the early 2000s when OmniGroup's experience developing for OpenStep (which became the foundation for Mac OS X) gave them an edge over other developers. Until Apple's Safari, the Omni Group had the best support for Mac OS X technologies among its competition (chieflyMozilla Firefox andInternet Explorer for Mac). John Siracusa, a technology journalist and critic writing forArs Technica, said, "Finding [this level of functionality] in a proper Mac OS X application from a respected developer with a proven track record is like finding a perfect 1/10,000th scale replica of the Eiffel Tower in a box of crackerjacks. Then the tower transforms into a tiny robot and makes you lunch."[13]
Text is now displayed in our own custom view instead of a modified NSTextView.