apple buy omniweb?

R

ruckus543

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To me this would seem like a perfectly logical idea, if apple had its own browswer it would rock, it would cut ties with IE , and begin to dig into the browser market, it would save them money, and they know the insides of the OS better thena nyone, they can optimize omniweb to work perfectly and extremely fast under OSX, imagine iWeb? hehehehehe

plus all omniweb is lacking is the funding to make it perfect, if apple backed it, i would see pure bliss.


jay
 
no. :)

makes perfectly no sense. why would apple want to compete in a market where no money can be made? if there was a *lack* of browsers for Mac OS X, yes, but there's plenty. *and* Apple needs to play nice with MS to some point. we want office, don't we.
 
Apple just began a cooperation with Netscape, they might not be very happy about Apple making their own browser...
 
As long as OmniWeb doesn't go the way of Netscape or IE, I'm happy, whether Apple buys OmniWeb or not. The OmniGroup just needs to optimize OmniWeb a little, or I need to optimize my hard drive. :D Hopefully I'll get around to that so I can run OmniWeb as fast as my mom's new iBook or my dad's new TiBook. :)
 
Apple made a deal with Microsoft to include Internet Explorer with MacOS

"Apple announces an alliance between Apple and Microsoft. Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple stocks. Apple includes Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to every copy of the MacOS."

(Source TheAppleMuseum.com)
 
Well, an Apple-browser was once(if I've read history right), and failed. I'd love to see OmniWeb as default, but for now, IE is more supported and faster.
As long as Apple don't get Netscape, I'm happy...I don't like Netscape...besides, they allready have Linux.

Apple having OmniWeb as default would make perfect sense.
Windows=IE
Linux=NS
Mac OS=OW
 
First, Apple is only using Netscape's portal services right now because their contract with Excite expired, and Apple didn't want to continue partnering with a company that might not be around in 3 months.

Second, Internet Explorer is Apple's default browser because of the agreement Apple reached with MS back in 97, that went as follows. MS would continue to develop Office for 5 more years, in exchange for Apple 1) dropping their lawsuit against them, 2) making IE the default browser for that 5 year period, and 3) MS buying $150 million of non voting Apple stock (this being mainly just a vote of confidence in Apple for the street). Come mid 2002, this agreement will be expired.

So Apple has either to renegotiate with Microsoft, continue on with the status quo. My guess is now that the DOJ is off of Microsoft's back and they eseentially own the browser market, Apple has very little bargaining room. I don't think Microsoft would dump Office for the Mac - after all, it is very profitable for them, and it does keep the DOJ somewhat at arms length. Surely killing Office for Mac would create a new rallying cry of "Monopoly" from many MS detractors, and could possibly force MS back in to court, proving costly.

Apple will probably keep IE as their default browser, unless it falls far behind the other choices for the Mac.

Omniweb is very much a wild card. OW 4.1 is a MAJOR improvement over 4.0, and will be seen by many as a very good replacement for IE. If the Omnigroup can deliver on their intentions, OW 5.0 will be the only browser you will ever need for OS X. However that could be as much as a year away. I think Apple's major concern is that IE for Mac is starting to lag behind what's available on Windows. In 2000 when IE 5 debuted, it was way better than the Windows version. Now in 2002, it's still more advanced feature wise than the Windows version, but performance wise it still feels like it's in beta. Maybe MS is working on IE 5.5 or 6.0, and didn't want to devote too many resources to getting the first carbonized version out. Only time will tell...
 
serpicolugnut perfectly knows Apple history.

For my side, I love Mozilla for its functions, but I dislike its too complicated integration. It's too heavy. We have an excellent interface with MacOS X, so we don't need integrated SW.

I use OmniWeb for every day work, I use IE5.0 for Java, Mozilla for Mail (sorry, Apple's Mail don't do the job)... no single solution.
 
this makes me think, guys... :) on linux, there's this wonderful and free desktop solution that includes a wonderful browser, a nice e-mail and pim solution and some other apps, as well as a really good system/apps update solution. it's called ximian gnome desktop. you'll find it at http://www.ximian.com ...

the browser they use is galeon, a very lightweight product that uses the mozilla core (which makes me wonder why mozilla is so fat). evolution (their outlook/entourage clone) is really good. so for browsing/mailing/PIM and the like, linux has a real nice integrated solution now.

apple has the chance of topping that. they don't have to write everything by themselves of course, but maybe it'd be better *not* to always choose Microsoft.

it would be nice to have a apple branded galeon-like mozilla-client, for example. but i guess OmniWeb will be just that at version 5.0. more or less. :)
 
Apple was briefly in the browser business with it's Cyberdog suite. Cyberdog was a browser with a short life, probably just about a year.

Apple killed Cyberdog in '97 when Steve cleaned house on many Apple projects. Cyberdog was built around Apple's OpenDoc technology, utlizing several smaller applications to comprise the OpenDoc Cyberdog suite. OpenDoc was one of the many technologies that were "Steved", including Newton, QuickDrawGX, and QuickDraw3D.

The thing I find comforting is that if the relationship between Apple and MS ever sours to the point that IE either gets canned or Apple drops it as it's default browser, Apple has three options for ramping up a browser of it's own....

First, they could buy OmniWeb. This would probably be the best choice because it does showcase Cocoa, and because the OmniGroup is a smaller outfit and could be absorbed very easily in to the Apple fold.

Second option would be for Apple to buy iCab. iCab has some strengths (small footprint, speed), but since it has a very small development team (I think it's just one person), it's development has been slow going. With a few crack engineers on it, iCab could be turned in to a premiere browser for the Mac in no time.

Third option is Mozilla/Netscape. Mozilla is open source, and Apple could partner with Netscape/AOL to do some work on the Mac version of Netscape/Mozilla. Mozilla is a very good browser right now, really just needing two things to be a great OS X browser - first - speed, second - an adoption of OS X look and feel. Apple could do this quickly and release a cobranded browser with minimal effort (1 or 2 engineers working full time).
 
I say no -- dont buy it.
The reaso is that OMNI has been supporting NeXT (and now apple) for a long long time. All indications are that they are a loyal bunch of people that will support our platform. Now imagine if apple buys off omni but then has no money at some point in the future to continue the web browser division (anyone remember cyberdog?) -- thats one less browser we mac users have as an option if this happens
 
I am sure Apple could afford Omni if they decided they wanted to purchase them. According to their own web site (http://www.omnigroup.com/company/people/) they have something like 18 people (including their two chefs) and I doubt that they ever have more than a few of those working on OmniWeb.

Once you know that you really realize the power of Cocoa. Of course they have been working on OmniWeb since 1994 but it's impressive nonetheless.
 
i spoke with Brian of Omniweb at MWSF and he told me there are three people working on it. 2 main programmers and him. he does mostly tech support and marketing and all those things that programmers don't want to do. they are not expecting full css implementation and a real public release until sometime around the end of this year simply because they don't have enough money to hire anyone to make it go faster.
what might be a better idea is if apple would loan or contribute money to them to speed things up much like m$ helped apple out at one point. While i use icab now, i would support this for a few reasons. first, omniweb was the only browser to be represented at MW. true m$ was there but they were far busier pushing office and msn than ie. second, they are an american company which icab is not. i realize people in other countries might not see this as having any relevance but apple is an american company and americans tend to like supporting each other. especially during the crisis we are in now. and lastly, because they are not ad driven like opera. opera would put apple in a precarious position of being associated with anybody who buys banner space on the free release version.
 
Honestly, how many of you have bought your OmniWeb license? You know that dialog box that pops up every once in a while, begging for $30? Who has actually bought the thing?

I always ignored that thing, thinking that I would actually buy it when it became my "full time browser"... However, I think I might change my philosophy. If OmniGroup needs help, why don't we give it to them now, and spend the money NOW to get the browser we want sooner?

I'm starting to feel guilty using it for free. I might buy it soon.

Or am I completely nuts? Has anybody actually BOUGHT OmniWeb? Just wondering
 
According to the Omni Group, they have sold over 5000 licenses of OmniWeb for MacOS X. I can happily say I'm one of those 5000+ people, and eagerly follow the progress the Omni Group makes on OmniWeb and a number of its other projects as well.

Cheers,
Dak
 
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