The Webkit Experiment

Introductions:
I've been using PCs since I was 10. Since I've been able, I've been surfing the web with Firefox. I know it inside and out. Every bell and every whistle has been thoroughly exploited by me. I've integrated lots of add-ons in to my daily work-flow and I've just come to love the thing.

I've never used a Mac. Sure, I've gotten online with a Mac while at a friend's house or what-not, but I've never owned one myself. 6 months ago I got a new job and they provided me with a shiny new Macbook Pro. It was scary, but exciting. Perhaps I could finally see now what all of the hype was about. Day after day, for 9, 10 hours a day, I would be on this new device, learning the ins and outs, discovering what sucks and what I like. I have a long list of both, but that's a separate post.

This week in particular I've decided to put Firefox to the side and give "Webkit" a whirl. Webkit is a bare-bones, open source browser. It's tightly integrated in to the Mac OSX, and is (very) light and speedy. I have to admit, Firefox on a Mac leaves a bit to be desired. It gets boggy and even beachballs quite a bit. I thought it would be a fun experiment to step in to the dark side, try Webkit for a week, and report on what I like, what I dislike, and just the experience as a whole.

MONDAY:
Installation, naturally, was a breeze. I gotta give it to OSX for adding/removing programs. Very well done indeed.

Upon loading the browser, I found myself in the application's preferences to tweak its settings to my content. Within a few minutes, I had all of the settings to my liking and was ready to rock. Definitely missing the level of customization I have with Firefox and I really miss some of my keyboard shortcuts, but it is really fast, and that part I like.

Adding RSS feeds was easy enough, but not as easy as it COULD be. For instance, if I want to bookmark the RSS feed at ffffound.com, I go to the website, render the page, click on the blue RSS icon, it loads the page a second time, then I click the "Add Bookmark" link and choose a folder location. Ideally I'd like to click on the blue RSS button and have the option via context menu to add this feed to a bookmark OR view. Adding several (15) RSS feeds was a HUGE pain and took many, many minutes.

OOPS! It's 1:47PM and Webkit just crashed on me. Upon re-open, it did not restore my session. I had to start over. Webkit For the Lose. [UPDATE: Only later did I find out about Webkit's "Reopen All Windows from Last Session" menu option. Woohoo!]

TUESDAY:
I came in to work this morning and instinctively opened Firefox. Oops! Lets not forget the experiment. So I've downloaded the latest nightly build and am back for more.

So it's 8:46am and I'm trying to view the details of a calendar item on my gCal. It tries to render and stops. Crashes. Webkit FTL.

I'm feeling VERY frustrated and limited this morning trying to use Webkit instead of my usual suite of browser apps. It's just SO slimmed down and simplistic. I can see why some people could go for this sort of thing, but my being a power user is really throwing a wrench in to this experiment. I'm fighting the urge to just open Firefox and be done with it. I'm already having to use Firefox for some work things (such as Google Calendar). So far, my thinking is, "Yes, webkit is clean and fast, but limited."

That said, this exercise in simplicity will help me, I HOPE, figure out what is necessary and what is fluff. We'll see how the rest of this long week goes.

WEDNESDAY:
It is a fresh new day. I start up my speedy Webkit and am on my way. I think the speed of start-up is really starting to spoil me. I've tweaked a couple of things within the application (custom CSS, etc -- to block ads. Very nice!) and all of my favorite sites are now running smoothly. It has been a rough transition, but I think things are getting easier. Only time will tell though. We're half way in to this long week.

Wednesday is going well. I'm definitely learning my way around, and I'm starting to feel lighter and lighter as a result of leaving behind the functionality in FF. One thing I'm really missing is the excellent del.icio.us extension that allows me to create bookmark folders that are actually "tags" in del.icio.us. It lets me syndicate my bookmarks in to the browser. I've not done much research in to Webkit/del.icio.us addons yet, so maybe there is a good workaround for this. (UPDATE: Found one here)

THURSDAY:
I'm here and Webkit is running. Day by day, it is getting easier to work in the new browser. The one thing that's really killing me right now is it's very difficult to get to my del.icio.us bookmarks! Arg. I'm going to put a little effort this morning in to solving this dilemma.

The new del.icio.us solution I found is amazing! I would say almost... gulp... FASTER than my setup in Firefox.

FRIDAY:
It's the end of the week. No more speed bumps. I think I've successfully assimilated myself in to Webkit. I don't find myself missing much of what I used in Firefox aside from a couple extensions that made engaging a few web services a lot easier. Firefox -- or more accurately Flock -- has a great method for uploading images directly to Flickr. It also makes it super easy to add blog posts, twitter updates, and the like. All things that can be achieved in Webkit, sure, but it does take a bit longer. I don't find myself minding so much...

CONCLUSIONS:
The experiment is at an end. It was a great experiment. I learned a lot about a different piece of software and OSX in general. By using the native software, I uncovered some nifty buried functionality in the operating system itself and for that I'm very happy. What Webkit lacks in functionality and expandability it makes up for in raw SPEED and ease of use. It's definitely a slimmed down web experience that's not for everyone, but I GET it now, and I find it quite nice.

It's now Wednesday of the following week and I'm STILL using Webkit as my primary browser for both personal use and work. On Windows machines, I think I will always use Firefox, but for now, especially while I'm on a Mac, I think I'll stick with Webkit. I just can't discount how much faster it is. Plus, I find it MUCH easier to access my bookmarks through spotlight.

Things I Like:

• OS Integration: I have to admit, this is nice. Full OSX integration means enjoying all of the little niceties packaged in to OSX. Downloading something in Webkit and doing a one click unpack, attach, and install is really nice.
• Dictionary Highlight: Cmd-Ctrl-D to look up the word I have my cursor over is nice.
• Integrated RSS reader is nice.
• It's definitely fast. Not just rendering things, but start-up time as well.
• Clean interface.
• Cmd-Click -vs- Cmd-shift-click for more control on opening links in tabs.
• Being able to plug in global CSS stylesheets for doing nifty stuff like ad blocking (Thanks Stephen!).
• Textarea resizing is pretty sweet.
• The way the auto-complete behaves in the URL bar.
• I like the way a tab gets a graphic icon (!) notification when there's an alert in that tab.
• Add-on support via SIMBL and InputManagers, but not nearly as extensive as Firefox.

Things I Don't Like:

• No out-of-the-box support for Keyword Searches or bookmark shortcuts. Did solve this with a nice SIMBL plug-in called Keywurl
• No add-on support for integrating bookmark services like del.icio.us. Did work around this by using a nice dashboard widget called DashLicious. Found an even better workaround here -- Upon further research, Spotlight does a really good job of crawling my Webkit bookmarks, so I could theoretically use delicious2safari to sync and then simply use spotlight to search.
• Keyboard shortcut for switching tabs is wonky. Cmd-Shift-Arrow is a two-handed action. Firefox's shortcut of Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab is a neat one-handed action for easy switching. Also, if I have a blank tab open, my tab switching will get "stuck" in the blank tab because the focus goes in to the URL bar.
• No "find ahead" typing. In FF, you can press "/" followed by a search string of any link on the page. Then you can press enter to execute that link... Or Cmd-Enter to open that link in a tab. Fully mouse-free browsing is nice that way.
• Can create a folder in the bookmark toolbar by right-clicking on the toolbar, but you can't drag a bookmark that is on the toolbar in to a folder on the bookmark toolbar. All it tries to do is re-order them.
• No side-bar for displaying peripheral information. I like opening certain sites (to do lists, etc) in to my side bar for constant viewing. 
• No saving your session when your browser suddenly crashes (and yes, it does crash). [UPDATE: Actually not true. There is an option to re-open your last state nestled in the History menu]
• I don't like that Cmd-1 through CMD-9 have been mapped to items in my bookmarks toolbar. I'd much rather have these mapped to my open tabs (cmd-1 jumps to the first tab, cmd-9 jumps to the last, cmd-6 jumps to the 6th, etc... like in FF).
• Webkit is "new window" heavy. Things are always popping up in a new browser window as opposed to a new tab within the parent. I've tried to over-ride this with settings, but have not been having any luck (in Gmail, especially)! (Update: Right-clicking and choosing to open in a new tab seems to work)
• I don't like the way dropdowns behave in Webkit. I get it. I just don't like it.