Omega 3 or Omega 4?

You're right, Omega 4 is a complete rewrite of Omega and the two versions take very different approaches. Which one is right for you/your project mainly depends on personal opinion. If you prefer to mainly theme using a UI then the 3.x branch is better for that. For those who prefer to use template files, theme functions etc Omega 4.x offers more control as well as some extra power tools.

Both do have their learning curves, however if you use Omega 4 you'll be learning modern front end practices and learning more about Drupal's theme system.

We'll be updating our project page soon, and there is documentation on the way for 4.x. If you have any more questions feel free to reopen this or ask in the #drupal-omega channel on IRC.

Just to add - Omega 4.x is used successfully on some high profile production websites and is currently stable.

Yeah, you can definitely use Panels with Omega 4.x.

#1: As far as I know using the UI for theming will be posible in the 4.x branch too.
Am I right?
Or maybe the http://drupal.org/project/omega_ui module is going to take care of this?

Omega 4.x does not come with a UI for assembling the layout as we had it in 3.x - However, there are plans for a module for putting together layouts (which are a concept of 4.x).

Hi, I used Omega 3.x on several sites and now I want to switch to Omega 4.x.
Can anyone clarify how layouts are related to page.tpl.php and how to use them properly?
This is one thing that I can't understand and there is no documentation that explain this.

Thanks.

I have a brief comment. I know the issue is closed.

After looking at a number of alternatives, I built an Omega 3 theme for the one and only site I maintain. I ended up becoming a mini-expert on a few aspects of it and answering questions for people. Part of the reason was the UI, which despite its limitations made it very quick to set up. I know that is coming for Omega 4.

Casually, to me Omega 4 seems like a brand new theme. The fact that it is called "Omega" seems like historical legacy. "Omega" is a good name and I can see how you would want to reuse it, and also not continue maintaining Omega 3 yourselves. Omega 4 is much further from Omega 3 than 3 was from 2.

Do you have some comment about how Omega 4 and Omega 3 are the same (or related) rather than different, or how 4 follows in 3's footsteps? I think that would help me see why I would want to consider an eventual rework. Thanks.

@dhalbert I couldn't agree more. I've been working and learning to use the Omega 3 theme for the last year. Now I feel like I have to start all over again since the sooner or the later Omega 3 will be deprecated.

Yes, Omega 4.x is a brand new theme. We rewrote it from scratch. Due to the fast pace with which front-end development progresses in this world we felt that it is better do a fresh start for the new version instead of leaking all the cruft from 3.x through.

Omega 4 still has quite a few things you can control in the user interface / theme settings UI. These options include things that we felt are sustainable as theme settings. We didn't feel that building the layout was something we could solve in a way that would be as flexible as what we have now in Omega 4.x. In fact, we think that it's pretty much impossible (okay, everything is possible, but you know what I mean) to provide a UI that can produce clean, semantic markup without you ever having to touch the code/html/css. Hence, we dropped this feature. A UI only works to some degree and is simply limited in it's capabilities and also far from perfect when it comes to quality of output.

This is really the only difference from 3.x to 4.x: We dropped the UI for creating layouts and with that also dropped Delta. Everything else was improved. Vastly. And we now promote front-end development tools like Sass, Compass, Guard, Grunt, Bower, etc.. You can either use them (we highly encourage you to do so) or you don't. It's up to you. And I swear, once you dive into them, you will never want to go back. Note, however: Omega 4.x promotes these tools. It does not REQUIRE you to use them.

So yeah: The answer to your core question: The fundamental difference bettwen Omega 4.x and 3.x is the layout-creation process.

Note: The UI is NOT coming back to Omega 4.x. There are some guys who are trying to build a module for that, however (not sure how actively they are pursuing that task). We WONT ever have a layout creation UI in Omega 4.x (theme layer) again.

@dhalbert I couldn't agree more. I've been working and learning to use the Omega 3 theme for the last year. Now I feel like I have to start all over again since the sooner or the later Omega 3 will be deprecated.

We are in the process of writing thorough documentation. And there are already a few good resources in our handbooks. These things that Omega 4.x promotes are tools that you simply need to use as a front-end developer anyways if you want to compete these days. We are just showing you the right direction and tools to use to make front-end engineering more sustainable and practicable. Learning these tools is crucial nowadays. Whatever you do in the front-end. I am preaching that nearly on a daily basis. They make your life SO much easier.

However, if you are not willing to learn these things or want to stay with 3.x for other reasons, feel free to do so. Noone forces you to switch to 4.x ;)

@dhalbert I couldn't agree more. I've been working and learning to use the Omega 3 theme for the last year. Now I feel like I have to start all over again since the sooner or the later Omega 3 will be deprecated.

I've made dozens of sites with Omega 3 and am in the progress of making my first site based on Omega 4.
Omega 4 has a bit of a learning curve (how much depends on how much experience you have with Sass/Compass and working with .tpl's).

Omega 4 will not be for everyone who is currently using Omega 3, if you want an UI, stick with Omega 3 (for now at least) but the additional flexibility/freedom Omega 4 provides is simply fantastic! Btw, Omega 4 uses a lot of things like Sass/Compass, Susy and these are great tools to know for any webdesigner, wether you are using Drupal or not.

A few years from now, nobody working in webdev will work without these tools.