With graphical user interfaces still a major topic of discussion amongst the Unix industry and user communities, IXI Ltd of Cambridge, England, is using Unix Expo as the launch platform for a second generation version of its X.desktop graphical desktop manager. X.desktop 2.0 adopts the Open Software Foundation’s Motif look and feel, through use of the Motif toolkit, and also features new professionally designed three dimensional icons. As with previous versions, the product presents Unix files, programs and facilities on a desktop, using icons that can be manipulated with a mouse to access X-Window-based application software packages. Using the native X11 X Window software and Xt intrinsics, X.desktop supports applications that conform to the OSF Motif or AT&T Open Look interface styles and now includes several sets of icons for low and high resolution screens, designed to be consistent with the help of consultants Human Computing Interface, also of Cambridge. The new version includes fully configurable menus, accessible from any position on the screen, and also enables OEM customers to optimise performance by spreading the software load between client and server. Available by the end of the year for Sun-3, Sun-4, Apollo Domain, Hewlett-Packard 9000, Sony, Macintosh, DECstation and Intel 80386-based hardware, the retail cost of X.desktop 2.0 will be $500 per single user, although upgrades are free. Available from IXI in Europe, the software is marketed in the US by Unipress Software, and by Tomen Electronics in Japan. Along with the announcement, IXI is expected to reveal its latest OEM customers for the product, thought to be Sequent Computer Systems Inc and Sony Corp. A third major manufacturer is also waiting in the wings, and could also be announced at the Show. And in the development pipeline, IXI is thought to be working on a new soft terminal emulation product that will allow character-based software to be accessed and run from an X Window environment. It will offer a short cut to providing applications software to run under X, allowing, for instance, Cobol programs on an IBM mainframe to be accessed from an X terminal. The technology has been developed as a result of IXI’s recent work with office automation software house Un iplex, which launched an X.desktop, X-Window version of its Uniplex office automation suite back in Aug ust. X.desktop will also appear as an integral part of the Santa Cruz Operation’s cut-price Open Desktop applications software and operating system bundle.
