The Omni Group has released OmniWeb 4.2, an update to their web browser for MacOSX. OmniWeb 4.5 will be based on Apple’s WebCore and JavaScriptCore frameworks, the KHTML-based technology that Apple has developed for its own Safari browser. Elsewhere, Opera released 7.10-TP4 for Linux.
OmniWeb 4.2 released; 4.5 to Use Safari’s WebCore
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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If the little guys agree to a common browser standard (like a KHTML-based one), they could together represent 10% of the market… enough to blip on webdesigners radar and create a non-MS-controlled alternative environment.
/me wonders where the stats are. /my personal web site sees 85% IE 10 % Mozilla.
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the OmniGroup decided to go with KHTML rather than trying to license the Opera 7 rendering engine.
Yeah, why use free open source software when you can pay to use proprietary… And why use the engine written in Cocoa (well, a Cocoa wrapper) when you can use a Carbon one.
WebCore just makes better sense. It will have a closer experience with Safari, which will make OmniWeb easier to adjust to. Apple will do your bug fixing and feature updates for you. It will be easy as hell to implement (I actually predict dozens of WebCore browsers to be out after the WebCore SDK is released) And of course, it’s free.
I’m not surprised at all. KHTML is free, as in speech and beer, so there’s no need to pay royalties. They can piggyback off the development of both KDE and Apple’s Safari, which together would be greater than what Opera can do, and together would have a greater market share than Opera.
Also, using the Opera engine means that OmniGroup is competing directly with Opera, which makes a browser for a simalar market (power-users). Safari is targeted at the average user, so there is little overlap between Apple’s and OmniWeb’s target markets.
I personally think this is a smart move on the part of OmniGroup. They are too small to maintain an HTML engine that actively competes with Opera, Mozilla, KHTML and IE.
Yeah, why use free open source software when you can pay to use proprietary… And why use the engine written in Cocoa (well, a Cocoa wrapper) when you can use a Carbon one.
For the record, Opera 7 hasn’t been ported to MacOS X yet… they could use whatever backend they wanted for rendering, and being the OmniGroup they would obviously choose Cocoa.
Also, using the Opera engine means that OmniGroup is competing directly with Opera, which makes a browser for a simalar market (power-users). Safari is targeted at the average user, so there is little overlap between Apple’s and OmniWeb’s target markets.
Opera has been a dismal failure on MacOS. OmniWeb has garnered a following, and currently its only drawback is the rendering engine. If I were Opera, I would greatly enjoy letting someone else market my rendering engine on MacOS X. Furthermore, how will OmniWeb distinguish itself if it’s using the same rendering engine as Safari? Who will bother paying for OmniWeb?
If the little guys agree to a common browser standard (like a KHTML-based one), they could together represent 10% of the market… enough to blip on webdesigners radar and create a non-MS-controlled alternative environment.
Well, Macintosh is 2.5-3% of the desktop market, and desktop linux is less than that, So non-windows accounts for less than 10% no matter how you slice it. That means netscape/mozilla is the only alternative that is significant to matter.
Folks you gotta pardon me on this one…..I’m just happy about the fact that my fonts look better in Opera7 on Mandrake 9. Not being very experienced with Linux, I (like everyone else) have to deal with crappy fonts in my Linux browsers (except for Konqueror) mainly because I’m still learning how to do stuff. Haven’t tried OmniWeb as of yet but thank goodness for better font rendering!!!
“Opera has been a dismal failure on MacOS. OmniWeb has garnered a following, and currently its only drawback is the rendering engine. If I were Opera, I would greatly enjoy letting someone else market my rendering engine on MacOS X. Furthermore, how will OmniWeb distinguish itself if it’s using the same rendering engine as Safari? Who will bother paying for OmniWeb?”
Safari has a clear design intention: it is meant to be simple and easy to use. It won’t have a large feature set. It is also free. In other words, it doesn’t compete with OmniWeb. Opera does compete with OmniWeb. It is designed to be highly functional, and like OmniWeb people are willing to pay for it. Opera for Mac OS X may not be very good now, but it will get better. Opera can’t afford to ignore a market like the growing Mac platform. Once Opera does start to compete, the Omni Group are toast. They don’t have the resources of Opera, and there’s nothing stopping Opera from terminating Omni Group’s license to use their HTML engine. Omni are much safer in the long run by using KHTML.