The Omni Group is an American software company that develops software for the

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

, and

watchOS watchOS is the operating system of the Apple Watch, developed by Apple Inc., Apple. It is based on iOS, the operating system used by the iPhone, and has many similar features. It was released on April 24, 2015, along with the Apple Watch, the o ...

platforms. The Omni Group was informally founded as a

NEXTSTEP NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating system based on the Mach kernel and the UNIX-derived BSD. It was developed by NeXT, founded by Steve Jobs, in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was initially used for its ...

consulting company in 1989 by Wil Shipley, who immediately brought on Ken Case and Tim Wood. The three incorporated together under the name Omni Development, Inc. in 1993, because the name "Omni Group" was taken by another Seattle firm. Omni initially produced custom database software for the NEXTSTEP platform for clients such as the

William Morris Agency The William Morris Agency (WMA) was a Hollywood-based talent agency. It represented some of the best-known 20th-century entertainers in film, television, and music. During its 109-year tenure it came to be regarded as the "first great talent ...

and

McCaw Cellular Communications McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc., was a cellular telephone pioneer in the United States. Savvy licensing of cellular spectrum in the early 1980s put McCaw Cellular in an extremely strong position, quickly outpacing the growth of the "Baby Bell ...

(then

Cingular Wireless AT&T Mobility, LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. Formed in April 2000 as Cingular Wireless LLC, It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless serv ...

; now AT&T Inc.). During this period they also ported a number of games to NEXTSTEP, then later to

Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

(after Apple acquired NeXT in 1997). Around 2000 the company decided to start focusing on their own consumer applications for the Mac, and as of 2004 the vast majority of their revenue came from their consumer products. In 2003, Ken Case took over as the chief officer of Omni, and in March 2004 Wil Shipley left with another Omni employee, interface designer

Mike Matas Michael Matas (born March 23, 1986) is an American user interface designer and icon artist. He has previously worked at The Omni Group doing interface and graphic design work. Matas co-founded Delicious Monster. In 2005 he went to work for App ...

, to form Delicious Monster. Matas later left for Apple. The Omni Group also administers several

mailing list A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. Mailing lists are often rented or sold. If rented, the renter agrees to use the mailing list only at contra ...

s related to macOS and software development. They also provide several frameworks for

Cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...

software development under an

open source license Open-source licenses are software licenses that allow content to be used, modified, and shared. They facilitate free and open-source software (FOSS) development. Intellectual property (IP) laws restrict the modification and sharing of creative ...

OmniGraffle OmniGraffle is a diagramming and digital illustration application for macOS and iOS created by The Omni Group. Uses OmniGraffle is used to create graphics and visuals. The application features several design tools, along with a drag-and-drop ...

and OmniOutliner have won

Macworld ''Macworld'' is a digital magazine and website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG. History ''Macworld'' was founded by David Bunnell and Cheryl Woodard (publishers) and Andrew Fl ...

Editors' Choice Awards. At the Macintosh

Worldwide Developers Conference The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is currently held at Apple Park in California. The event is used to showcase new software and technologies in the macO ...

in 2001, OmniWeb 4.0 won two

Apple Design Awards The Apple Design Awards (ADAs) is an event hosted by Apple Inc. at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The purpose of the event is to recognize the best and most innovative Macintosh and iOS software and hardware produced by independent ...

: "Best Mac OS X User Experience" and "Best New Mac OS X Product." In 2002, OmniGraffle 2.0 won two more Apple Design Awards.

Products

Productivity

* OmniDazzle * OmniDictionary: a discontinued dictionary app that uses the

DICT DICT is a dictionary network protocol created by the DICT Development Group in 1997, described by RFC 2229. Its goal is to surpass the Webster protocol to allow clients to access a variety of dictionaries via a uniform interface. In section ...

protocol. *

OmniDiskSweeper OmniDiskSweeper is a freeware disk space analyzer utility for macOS developed by The Omni Group, which recursively searches the filesystem and displays entries sorted and color-coded by size, from largest to smallest. Alternatives include DaisyDis ...

OmniGraphSketcher OmniGraphSketcher was a software application from The Omni Group for creating quantitative diagrams. It allowed users to plot data and draw freehand curves, filled areas, and text labels on a coordinate plane. It was available from March 2009 thr ...

* OmniOutliner *

OmniPlan OmniPlan is a planning and project management software product from The Omni Group, headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The software was released as a public beta on June 6, 2006. In a June 2007 evaluation of OmniPlan 1.0, Macworld, a web site ...

* OmniPresence: folder syncing via OmniSync or WebDAV server * OmniWeb *

OmniFocus OmniFocus is a personal task manager by the Omni Group for macOS and iOS. The declared goal of the program is to be able to capture thoughts and ideas into to do lists. The program uses concepts and techniques described in the book and producti ...

Frameworks

The Omni Group uses many

frameworks A framework is a generic term commonly referring to an essential supporting structure which other things are built on top of. Framework may refer to: Computing * Application framework, used to implement the structure of an application for an op ...

in their applications, and releases them under an

.The Omni Source License: a modification of the MIT License
/ref> Most of the frameworks are dependent on the macOS platform, and require

Xcode Xcode is a suite of developer tools for building apps on Apple devices. It includes an integrated development environment (IDE) of the same name for macOS, used to develop software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. It w ...

2.3 and thus

Tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...

. * OmniAppKit * OmniBase * OmniFoundation * OmniHTML * OmniNetworking * Omni Web Framework

Games

As users of a platform that was not targeted by commercial porting houses, the Omni Group historically did

source port A source port is a software project based on the source code of a game engine that allows the game to be played on operating systems or computing platforms with which the game was not originally compatible. Description Source ports are often ...

s of games for NeXTStep/OpenStep

pro bono ( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...

, especially maintenance updates of id games. They continued to do so during the transition through Rhapsody into macOS, catching the eye of the existing Macintosh games industry in the process, and were then contracted to port a number of games commercially. * '' Activision Anthology Remix'' * '' Alchemy Deluxe'' * '' Aliens versus Predator 2'' * '' Big Money! Deluxe'' * ''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (1934–2020), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitche ...

'' * '' Doom II: Hell on Earth'' * ''

Fallout Nuclear fallout is residual radioactive material that is created by the reactions producing a nuclear explosion. It is initially present in the radioactive cloud created by the explosion, and "falls out" of the cloud as it is moved by the ...

'' * ''

Fallout 2 ''Fallout 2'' (also known as ''Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game'') is a 1998 role-playing video game developed by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay Productions. It is a sequel to ''Fallout (video game), Fallout'' (1997), ...

'' * '' Freedom Force'' * '' Giants: Citizen Kabuto'' * '' Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.²'' * '' Incoming'' * '' No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way'' * ''

Oni An ( ) is a kind of ''yōkai'', demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. They are believed to live in caves or deep in the mountains or in hell. Oni are known for their superhuman strength and have been associated with powers like th ...

'' (

) * '' Quake'' * ''

Quake II ''Quake II'' is a 1997 first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Activision. It is the second installment of the Quake (series), ''Quake'' series, following ''Quake (video game), Quake''. Develope ...

'' * '' Quake III: Arena'' * '' Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Omni Group, The 1989 establishments in Washington (state) American companies established in 1989 Apple Design Awards recipients Macintosh software companies Software companies based in Seattle Software companies established in 1989 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies