Steve Jobs Confirms Discontinuation of iWeb in iCloud Transition

[MacRumors]

Since last week's unveiling of Apple's new iCloud service and the transitioning of the company's existing MobileMe service into iCloud, many users have been wondering about the fate of some of the MobileMe services that were not mentioned in the transition discussion. In particular, users have been concerned about iWeb, Apple's website creation software included with iLife that can be integrated with site hosting via MobileMe.

One concerned iWeb/MobileMe user emailed Apple CEO Steve Jobs to ask about the fate of the offering, and reportedly received confirmation that users will indeed need to find alternative hosting for their sites once MobileMe is officially discontinued. All existing MobileMe users have received free subscription extensions through June 30, 2012, at which time the service will cease to exist and the transition to iCloud will be complete.

Q: Dear Mr. Jobs,

Will I need to find an alternative website builder and someone to host my sites?

I have invested a lot of time and effort and the thought of re-training sucks more than mobileme ever did.

A: Yep.

Sent from my iPhone

As usual, the authenticity can not be confirmed with absolute certainty, but we have examined the email headers and believe them to be legitimate. Replies from Jobs' account are not particularly unusual, and he has in the past acknowledged being personally responsible for at least some, if not all, of the correspondence.

Apple's iWeb software saw its last major update with the release of iLife '09 in January 2009. The application did not receive a major update with the release of iLife '11 late last year, although Apple has continued to bundle it with the new iLife suite. The company has continued to periodically issue minor bug fixes for iWeb, most recently in February of this year.

Article Link: Steve Jobs Confirms Discontinuation of iWeb in iCloud Transition

[d0mth0ma5]

Bit of a dickish reply even for Jobs.

[iBryton]

Steve Jobs = Awesome

[ECUpirate44]

It sucks, but not a total surprise.

[techpr]

There you go... now Squarespace is going to receive a lots of new customers.

[ivladster]

Originally Posted by d0mth0ma5

Bit of a dickish reply even for Jobs.

Agg, this is getting old.
He's not a saint or a god of some sort. Stop expecting him with flowers coming to each person's house and answering their desired questions.

[ivladster]

Originally Posted by techpr

There you go... now Squarespace is going to receive a lots of new customers.

Yeah! Especially with v6 coming this year it's going to take off!

[d0mth0ma5]

Originally Posted by ivladster

Agg, this is getting old.
He's not a saint or a god of some sort. Stop expecting him with flowers coming to each person's house and answering their desired questions.

So just don't reply then. If he doesn't reply he doesn't look bad he just hasn't replied to one of thousands of emails. The manner in which he replies is purely for show and it doesn't portray him in a good light.

[Blorzoga]

I've had just about enough of those "yep" responses from Steve Jobs. The sender was obviously distraught about all the work they had put into their website, and all Jobs can reply is "yep"? He couldn't even throw in a "tough shiit, not my problem"? Lame.

[k1121j]

Bummer i actually liked it

[Fuchal]

It's probably good for the Internet as a whole to get people off of iWeb

[SiriusExcelsior]

I thought you could export sites from iWeb into a folder.. surely this person only needs to find a new host that allows FTP uploads? Wouldn't really require much retraining..

[GeekOFComedy]

Originally Posted by SiriusExcelsior

I thought you could export sites from iWeb into a folder.. surely this person only needs to find a new host that allows FTP uploads? Wouldn't really require much retraining..

New OS and the software wont be updated.

[koobcamuk]

Originally Posted by ivladster

Agg, this is getting old.
He's not a saint or a god of some sort. Stop expecting him with flowers coming to each person's house and answering their desired questions.

Not a Saint, not a God, you are right.

However, he is the CEO of one of the largest tech companies in the world. When a fan emails you to ask something like this, such a terse reply won't be agreeable for most people.

[sananda]

And so I suppose it means no more iDisk and Galleries. Shame.

[Godgem]

iweb suck. Just use wordpress and buy hosting not big deal instead of paying 99dollars to Apple. And you should hire someone who make custom theme just for you.

[carboncow]

Considering the guy who asked the question asked it in a dickish manor, the reply was fine. Nobody said he cannot continue to use the crappy iWeb with another $3 a month hosting service.

[khunsanook]

Good move Apple. I never liked iWeb's unique website code. There are plenty of better options for creating and hosting websites.

[HONDAxACURA]

NOOOO!!!!!!! I used iWeb with my Cox communications account. I like the simplicity of iWeb!

[BLACKFRIDAY]

Originally Posted by d0mth0ma5

Bit of a dickish reply even for Jobs.

I don't understand how. Is he supposed to reply in proper english:

Yes, you would need to find an alternative website builder and someone to host your sites.

?

I don't think so.

[mambodancer]

Originally Posted by SiriusExcelsior

I thought you could export sites from iWeb into a folder.. surely this person only needs to find a new host that allows FTP uploads? Wouldn't really require much retraining..

You are absolutely correct. You can easily publish the site to a folder.

If Sandvox had a utility to then import the site then they would have a ready customer base to switch from iWeb to Sandvox 2 which is very iWeb-like and easy to use.

The big advantage of these applications is their ease of use and are much simpler to use than other web-centric apps which tend to only work if you have an active internet connection. I need a desktop app and so do my clients.

[Hildron101010]

As I am sure that people have said, Apple is discontinuing the iDisk web hosting, they aren't going to people's Macs to delete iWeb. You can still use iWeb as much as you want. You can set iWeb to upload to an FTP server or your own network server. Of course, after a few years, iWeb will be really outdated, so then you can find something else. I recommend Sandvox. It's similar to iWeb and it won an Apple design award.

[koruki]

Can someone shed some light on the "training"? I'm a web developer and I'm a bit confused on what the writers reference to re-training was? Don't you just build you site and find a host?

Update: So its an application that uploads to iWeb? As mentioned by another poster, Wordpress is a great option, its free and with most major hosting, there is a Wordpress install plug in, you don't even need to know how to set it up. Its part of the control panel, you just need to initiate the install.

[reactions]

Originally Posted by d0mth0ma5

Bit of a dickish reply even for Jobs.

Yup.

[techpr]

Seems like the websites with the logo "Made on a Mac" are soon going to disappear