NetNewsWire acquired by NewsGator

That's right folks the rumors are true, my favorite Mac a lication has been bought by NewsGator, a R juggernaut. NewsGator offers several news readers, a Windows client, a web client, a PDA client, and now a Mac client, that all use the NewsGator API to sync; read a story in one NewsGator a and the rest know that you've read it.

Brent Simmo , developer of NetNewsWire, cited users' desire to able to sync their su criptio acro devices and platforms as the driving force behind this decision. Brent will be joining NewsGator as a product architect to continue work on NetNewsWire, though he will still live in Washington state.

What does this mean for current users of NetNewsWire? Registered users will recieve a 2 year premium su cription to NewsGator's services (which now include NetNewsWire). Users of NetNewsWire Lite will be ha y to note that NewsGator pla on continueing development of that product as well.

Users of other Ranchero Software titles, most notable MarsEdit, face a le certain future. Since NewsGator acquired NetNewsWire and not Ranchero as a whole they do not plan to offer MarsEdit, though efforts are being made to find a home for them.

I had the o ortunity to ask Brent a few questio about all of this, and he was nice enough to a wer them. More after the jump.
Q: Thanks for taking the time out to a wer some of my ina e questio . Does this acquisition mean that there will be a new version of W very soon? Will it be 3.0, or a dot release?

A: There will be a new version in the coming months and it will sync using theNewsGator Online synchronization platform. A decision on the version numberhas not been made.

Q: I know many fa of W feel a co ection to you and your wife, Sheila (or perha I am just a freaky internet stalker), will Sheila be joining NewsGator as well?

A: Sheila will not be joining NewsGator. She's looking forward to usingNetNewsWire as other people get to use it!

Q: How does it feel to move from being an independent developer for so long to working for a company that i 't yours?

A: Well, first of all, let's rewind. I was an independent developer back in1995 and part of 1996. Then I worked for UserLand from 1996 until early2002. Many years. I remember, leaving UserLand, that I got all this emailfrom people saying *goodbye* to me. I told them I wa 't going anywhere! AndI wa 't. So the thing to know is that I'm still here, the same person --and I'm still working on NetNewsWire.

Being an independent developer is a great, fun, fantastic experience. It'sthrilling.

But it can also take up all your nights and weekends. The more succe youhave, the more users you have -- and the le time you have for programming.Most people, even other developers, forget about this, or can't reallyimagine the scale unle they've been there.

The biggest thing is that you have a re o ibility to your users -- theysu ort you by buying your software, of course, but also by providing greatfeedback and great moral su ort. Mac users totally root for you if youtreat them well and with re ect.

But this re o ibility also mea recognizing when you need more resources.Sheila and I could have stayed an independent developer team forever, butNetNewsWire users deserve a product with more resources behind it. And Iwant to give them the features they keep asking us for -- better syncing andsyncing with newsreaders on other operating systems and devices.

Q: W was certainly Ranchero's big ticket a , but what of MarsEdit? Will I have to use something else to update my blog? Don't make me cry, Brent.

A: Decisio have not yet been made regarding MarsEdit, BigCat, Huevos, andTigerLaunch. I don't want to make anyone cry! But that brings up the pointexactly -- the users (you!) are what's important.

Q: Does this mean there might be a Windows version of W at some point?

A: Check out FeedDemon!

Q: Is this all a plot to turn NewsGator into a Mac only company?

A: Of course! Which is just another step in my scheme to turn the entire worldinto Mac users. ;)

Q: What is the one question you wished I had asked, and the a wer? :)

A: "Will you still write ine ential.com?"

Yes! I started my weblog in 1999, when I was working at UserLand. Icontinued it when I went independent, and I'll continue it now. (I'm not theonly NewsGator blogger, by the way: see also Nick Bradbury and Greg Reinacker I wouldn't be surprised if there are others I don't know about yet.)

So there you have it folks, NetNewsWire will continue and hopefully only get bigger and better with this deal.