Ximian, Inc. (previously called Helix Code and originally named International Gnome Support) was an American company that developed, sold and supported

application software Application software is any computer program that is intended for end-user use not operating, administering or programming the computer. An application (app, application program, software application) is any program that can be categorized as ...

for

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

and

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

based on the

GNOME A gnome () is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depict ...

platform. It was founded by Miguel de Icaza and

Nat Friedman Nathaniel Dourif Friedman (born 6 August 1977) is an American technology executive and investor. He was the chief executive officer (CEO) of GitHub and former chairman of the GNOME Foundation. Friedman is currently a board member at the Arc Instit ...

in 1999 and was bought by

Novell Novell, Inc. () was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as NetWare. Novell technolog ...

in 2003. Novell continued to develop Ximian's original products, while adding support for its own GroupWise and ZENworks software.

History

Miguel de Icaza had a job interview at

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

in 1997 shortly before he started the GNOME project. At Microsoft he met Nat Friedman, who worked there as an intern. Afterwards they became good friends. In April 1999 Friedman came up with the idea to create a company to work on GNOME. The company was founded on 19 October 1999 as International GNOME Support, but its name was changed to Helix Code later. Because that name could not be trademarked the name was changed to Ximian on 10 January 2001. Nat Friedman was the CEO of Ximian from its founding to 2001 when Ximian brought in David Patrick as CEO and President. Friedman became Vice President of Product Management. The company's business model was based on providing a mix of free and

proprietary software Proprietary software is computer software, software that grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law to exclude the recipient from freely sharing t ...

, solutions and services. Ximian was a founding member of the GNOME Foundation and the Desktop Linux Consortium. Ximian was acquired by Novell on 4 August 2003 to improve its offerings of Linux for the enterprise. Novell was in turn acquired by The Attachmate Group on 27 April 2011. In May 2011 The Attachmate Group laid off all its US staff working on Mono, which included De Icaza. He and Friedman then founded Xamarin on 16 May 2011, a new company to continue the development of Mono. On 24 February 2016, Microsoft announced that they had signed an agreement to acquire Xamarin.

Products

Ximian both developed new products and "polished" existing free software projects to provide more consistent operation. These projects were packaged into its Ximian Desktop product — a range of integrated applications intended to provide all the tools a typical business user might require. So-called "Ximianized" versions of

, OpenOffice.org, and Gaim were released, along with the following completely new products: * Ximian Evolution * Ximian Connector * Red Carpet * Bonobo * Mono

References

External links

Copy of official website on the Internet Archive
{{GNOME American companies established in 1999 GNOME companies Linux companies

History

Products

Further reading

References

External links