9/17/2023 0 Comments Omniweb mac os xhe does mostly tech support and marketing and all those things that programmers don't want to do. I spoke with Brian of Omniweb at MWSF and he told me there are three people working on it. Apple could do this quickly and release a cobranded browser with minimal effort (1 or 2 engineers working full time). 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. Mozilla is open source, and Apple could partner with Netscape/AOL to do some work on the Mac version of Netscape/Mozilla. With a few crack engineers on it, iCab could be turned in to a premiere browser for the Mac in no time. 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. Second option would be for Apple to buy iCab. 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. 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.įirst, they could buy OmniWeb. OpenDoc was one of the many technologies that were "Steved", including Newton, QuickDrawGX, and QuickDraw3D. Cyberdog was built around Apple's OpenDoc technology, utlizing several smaller applications to comprise the OpenDoc Cyberdog suite. Cyberdog was a browser with a short life, probably just about a year.Īpple killed Cyberdog in '97 when Steve cleaned house on many Apple projects. Only time will tell.Īpple was briefly in the browser business with it's Cyberdog suite. 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. 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. In 2000 when IE 5 debuted, it was way better than the Windows version. I think Apple's major concern is that IE for Mac is starting to lag behind what's available on Windows. However that could be as much as a year away. If the Omnigroup can deliver on their intentions, OW 5.0 will be the only browser you will ever need for OS X. OW 4.1 is a MAJOR improvement over 4.0, and will be seen by many as a very good replacement for IE. 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.Īpple will probably keep IE as their default browser, unless it falls far behind the other choices for the Mac. 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. 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. So Apple has either to renegotiate with Microsoft, continue on with the status quo. Come mid 2002, this agreement will be expired. 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). Second, Internet Explorer is Apple's default browser because of the agreement Apple reached with MS back in 97, that went as follows. 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.
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