To me he falls in the same camp as Rob Enderle, the one-man ‘CEO and principal analyst’ of Enderle Group, who attacked Apple over the years as a pundit while plumping up companies who coincidentally had hired him.
Going back to OO, one thing it has going for itself is the privacy in self-hosted files. I am wary of services/apps whose hosting security is unknown, one big reason I haven’t jumped to products I could see myself otherwise using, like Dynalist (whose privacy policy indicates they can view your data).
Gruber’s take on Omni Layoffs.
https://daringfireball.net/
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As an aside, Brent Simmons blogpost? Nothing but class.
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Sad news indeed!
Here’s my off-the-cuff armchair perspective: Omni has always seemed big. An app shop with kitchen staff and personal, attentive customer service, when many competitors either seem small (how many employees does Cultured Code have?) or operate remotely (Doist). I have loved supporting the company for the last few years, but I have always been surprised by the level of staffing I’ve heard discussed on the Omni Show.
Not saying they didn’t (or don’t) deserve that success. Their apps have been more than useful to me; they’ve changed the way I think.
But, if we can learn anything from the “Things vs OmniFocus” threads (‘cause they’re sure as hell not gonna help us make that decision for real), it’s that competition is fierce. If OmniFocus never existed, the alternatives would have sufficed. And the impressive thing about these alternatives is that they’re often run by small crews. (At least, it seems that way from e.g., Doist’s blog posts, DEVONtechnologies’ ~five-person team. Happy to blow up this entire logic if I’m wrong about staffing levels…)
The grim discussions in this thread about the future of quality software are scary. Yet I think there’re many examples of incredible apps crafted and supported by tiny teams. I think that’s the future we’re headed for. Individuals are capable of producing more, more independently, now than 10+ years. Inevitably that will lead to more, smaller groups building more niche apps.
Still, too bad. If I finally actually bought OmniOutliner would Omni hire Brent back? 
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I had that thought like 13/14 years ago, when I wanted to learn bass guitar and found everything online. I thought, oh god, this thing is just a window to the internet.
After becoming an Apple user i bemoan it a bit, since web interfaces are so unpolished and fragmented, but I agree even though this future is not to my liking it’s what’s going to happen…
Actually they are talking about «thin clients» since the 60’s (Mother of all demos for example) or even since the 30’s (Vannevar Bushs MEMEX device maybe) but it seems we are finally seeing the end of personal computing in favor of the cloud. Faster data transfer will accelerate that in the next few years.
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Hold on , hold on… redundancies does not always mean a business is in trouble, in fact it more likely means they are taking steps to ensure they do not get into trouble.
Looking at restructuring is sensible at any time and vital in the current situation, any business that does not look at the options they have however painful and/or disruptive is living in make believe land. I am sure Omnigroup would have preferred not to do what they did but we assume (and it is just an assumption it could be for many reasons) it’s because of product sales, when it could be a transition to remote working, relocation, streamlining the product range etc etc.
We are so quick to leap on an idea, let’s just wait and see shall we.
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@TheOldDesigner 100% this. The world is going through unprecedented change at present. The upshot of which nobody really knows at present. It’s clear that working from home has become a large part of a lot of people lives and being forced to do it demonstrates to employers it can be done.
Following that thread through, Omni would likely see some benefit from this with more people needing to provide structure and planning, that was what got me using it years ago.
It’s a hard time for any company right now and reducing costs to keep cash at hand is key to survival until we establish what the new norm is. I don’t think it’s fair to say that a company is in difficulty as they have made redundancies, this can happen at any point of the economic cycle depending on the business plan, now is a very attractive time to do it as the blame can be laid squarely at the pandemic so from a PR perspective the company doesn’t lose anything.
I haven’t listened to the podcast with any regularity but when I have heard Brett on other things he seems a decent and intelligent guy, I’m sure he will get sorted without too much issue, I hope he is managing through it ok just now, it’s never a nice position to be in - I agree with the previous post, his note is exceptionally professional and demonstrates class throughout.
Omni will be fine.
The bulk of what they needed so much development for is essentially complete. They’ve revamped their core applications (OmniFocus, OmniPlan, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner) and modernized the code.
At some point many of the Devs probably understood they were eventually going to put themselves out of a job.
As a Seattleite I’ve been to their HQ. Omni does it nice but they don’t go overboard. I remember Seattle during the Dotcom phase where Startups thought it was a good idea to buy Herman Miller chairs. Contrast that to Amazon which has many areas with desks that look like someone made them with a Table Saw out in the parking lot.
I think the thing for Omni is going to be finding that suite(pun intended) spot in pricing that gets the buy in without overpricing themselves out.
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From what I’ve heard, that’s not completely out of the realm of possibility. This isn’t an Amazon anecdote, but I heard somebody explaining that if you go to pitch a product to WalMart at their HQ, you might actually be sitting on the chair sample that was just brought in by the previous person pitching their chair to WalMart. 
I would assume Amazon is similar.
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You would be correct. My wife has worked for Amazon hence my observation and now she’s working for the retail behemoth which is why I live in Rogers Arkansas outside of Bentonville (Walmart Corporate Office). They too keep it very simple. HQ is an old converted distribution center I believe and you will find very few windows as a result. In a couple of years or less the new HQ should open and they’ve broken ground months ago. If the building that the Engineering staff work from is any indication it’ll be nice but not ostentatious.
Its funny though going on my 3rd year as a Seattle expat i’m seeing the culture change. I saw like one Tesla when I moved here…now i’m seeing them regularly.
Back on topic somewhat. They’re big on Java out here. If someone has solid Java skills it’s worth a look because Walmart doesn’t have enough engineers to keep every project well stocked. JB Hunt down the street is probably in the same situation.
Minor correction – John Gruber worked for BareBones, not Omni. And John, Brent Simmons and Dave Wiskus partnered up on an iOS app a few years ago called Vesper. Oh wow, I just looked it up, it was 8 years ago. Time flies.
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There seems to be some varying opinions. What are your thoughts about the Omni Group’s long-term viability?
The usual. If you think they might go away, find alternative software. If not, then stay the course.
I think many companies have already been affected. Omni was getting ahead of the situation by restructuring. Sadly it means we may not have the Omni Show anymore and tech support may take a little longer to answer questions. Company perks including an in-house chef are probably gone and the remaining staff would have to brown bag their lunch or order take out food more often.
But it’s good to see that a lot of the major work was finished. OF for Web was introduced. It still needs some more features but the foundation has been set. OF3 is still seeing some updates. OmniPlan 4 just entered into public beta.
They’re just reorganizing resources to fit today’s new world. Most companies will be faced with that problem for at least the next couple of years.
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I think it’s a one-time thing and they’ll be around. They still have their customer base. Every thousand licenses sold a year supports an employee, very roughly—they don’t need massive successes and don’t owe an investor growth. They probably just got ahead of sustainable staffing, perhaps due to a release they couldn’t hit fast enough or fewer sales from OF for Web, and COVID-19 risk forced them to reckon with that.
I’ll also miss the Omni Show.
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Evernote restructured several times, shedding employees each time, over years. So have many other software companies. (Once high-flying Ambrosia Software, home to popular games and utilities, is a shell of its former self, and its domain no longer resolves.) Although Omni is smaller than Evernote it also may be less resistant to downturns, so we don’t know if this move is precautionary or immediate damage-control, and I think it’s premature to conclude it’s a one-time thing.
Obviously it’s pinning its entire business focus on OmniFocus so if you use that app you’re probably safe and getting continued development and updates for months if not years. The other Omni apps? An open question.
Sure, many software companies have gone under, and we can’t know the future, but given we’re in a conjecture thread, we have to make premature guesses. 
To predict they’ll make subsequent layoffs, I would need to see some reason for their customer base to drop off, or an expensive free product for them to maintain. They are conservative about staffing each product, based on the moderate roadmaps and releases, which is why I think they are back to sustainable license revenue with the possible exception of OmniOutliner.
They managed the iOS transition, which was a major threat. Cloud is less certain but there isn’t a new catalyst to suddenly dry up the installed software market.
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We have to make ‘premature guesses’? Without any information at all? No thank you.
I don’t think it’s an open question for OmniGraffle. OmniGraffle is beyond best in class for its purposes, assuming you’re on macOS/iOS. It’s also strategically difficult to usurp, in my opinion. The graphing features implement complicated math. I think it’d require an expensive set of skills to get a competitor to feature parity. It also might be essentially a “finished” app. I struggle to imagine any features they can significantly grow into, except maybe live collaboration (please gods no!).
The Omni web browser, on the other hand…
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