As Apple pulls us all forward into the Next Great Thing, some widely-used Previously Cool Things get left behind. It’s happened with HyperCard, PageMill, and all PowerPC-only applications. Today one reader ponders the uncertain future of his favorite program, iWeb:
I bought my first Mac in ’85… Being an Old’nAging Geezer I saw that an encroaching Class of ’61’s 50-year Reunion deserved a website so I volunteered, commandeering iWeb for the very first time (successfully aided by FileZilla and my generous wonky Mac-pal Greg) to ultimately be rewarded by several of my classmates and a few fanboys’ sporadic kudos–AND proving once again that old, time-proven saw of Macintosh’s unassailable user friendly superiority.
All that to bring me to this QUESTION: Will iWeb live?
Paul
Hi Paul,
Sounds like you’ve been a Cult of Mac member for quite some time! As such you’ve seen in your travels that software comes and goes over the years.
iWeb the application will remain unchanged. It’s unlikely Apple will develop any new versions of the program, but existing copies should run just fine until some potential major change to OS X down the road. You will just need to find a new place to host your website(s).
The iWeb hosting service provided via MobileMe will be ending this June, though there are some petitions asking Apple about retaining this feature in iCloud. You can voice your feedback to Apple directly via their website.
Cult of Mac has published some alternatives for web hosting and the iWeb app in What To Do With Your iWeb Site.
Readers, have any additional suggestions on this topic, or corrections/clarifications on the advice above? If so, please leave your thoughts in the comments.
