Author: JT Smith
interfaces.
SAN JOSE, CA, August 28, 200 — Integrated Computer Solutions,
Inc. (ICS), the leading supplier of user interface development tools for
professionals, announced it has produced a version of Open Motif® targeted
at embedded and handheld devices with limited displays, memory, and processing
power. Open Motif is the industry standard user interface toolkit for UNIX®
systems. The availability of Embedded Open Motif provides enterprise developers
with a single user interface toolkit.Embedded Open Motif has been ported to the Compaq iPAQ and the Agenda
VR3 from Agenda Computing. At LinuxWorld Expo, San Jose, the ICS sponsored
site, Motifzone.org, will be demonstrating a set of Open Motif based, PDA
applications built with its industry leading GUI Builder. Code-named “Usable”,
these PDA applications will be freely available under the GNU Public License
(GPL). Embedded Open Motif is built from the Open Motif source code that
resides at the MotifZone (http://www.motifzone.net). Both source code and
binary packages are available for free download from the MotifZone.
“Although it is more fun for developers to reinvent the wheel there
is no need when you have an industry standard such as Motif,” said Allen
Brown, President and CEO of The Open Group. “We congratulate ICS in its
development of Embedded Open Motif. They have again demonstrated that Motif
is still the standard for user interface development, whether you are on
a supercomputer, engineering workstation, or even on a handheld PDA.”
Key Business Benefits: Proprietary Software Stays Proprietary and No Runtime
Fees
Embedded Open Motif is made available under The Open Group Public License.
Unlike some open source licenses, this license does not require
developers of proprietary software to release their source code if they
choose to use Embedded Open Motif. Furthermore, The Open Group Public License
provides for free redistribution of Embedded Open Motif for systems based
on open source systems such as Linux and FreeBSD. Protection of proprietary
source code and no runtimes are critical business advantages for manufacturers
of hardware and software targeting the highly competitive PDA and embedded
markets.
“Motif was originally designed to run on machines with much less capacity
than the typical embedded device or PDA of 2001,” said Mark J. Hatch, Chief
Operating Officer of ICS. “Embedded Open Motif provides a small footprint,
no cost solution for user interface development that is also the industry
standard among enterprise developers.”
ICS to Offer Porting/Support Services
ICS also announced its intention to offer commercial support services to
hardware manufacturers of embedded devices and PDA’s wishing to provide
Embedded Open Motif for their customers. In addition, ICS is offering porting
and development services for developers wishing to build or port existing
applications to embedded devices.
About ICS
Founded in 1987, ICS was chartered to create software development tools
for developers working with the then emerging X Window System. The company’s
first product offerings included X training and a version of Motif for
systems manufactured by Sun Microsystems. Prior to widespread adoption
of Motif by the UNIX workstation vendors, ICS was the leading independent
shipper of the Motif toolkit. In 1998, The Open Group chose ICS to provide
technical support for its Motif source code licenses.
Today, ICS is the current market leader in Motif graphical user interface
development tools, Builder Xcessory. In its fifth major release and representing
over 100 person years of effort, BX defines a level of sophistication,
functionality and ease of use that is unmatched in the industry. In November
of 1999, the combination of BX from ICS and Code Fusion from Red Hat software
was awarded the Editor’s Choice award by the leading Linux magazine, The
Linux Journal, for the Best New Application for Software Development.
ICS sponsors the MotifZone (http://www.motifzone.net), a community site
for Motif developers to gather additional knowledge and request input on
technical problems from other engineers. The MotifZone also hosts the Public
CVS source code repository for Open Motif as well as the defect database.
The Open Group also sponsors a site for Open Motif developers at http://www.opengroup.org/openmotif.
For further information on ICS, its products or services, call 617-621-0060,
or visit the ICS Website at http://www.ics.com.
Press Contacts:
Linda Drukman
ICS
617-621-0060 x106
linda@ics.com
UNIX and Motif are registered trademarks of The Open Group
in the US and other countries. The Open Group and the X Window System are
trademarks of The Open Group. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus
Torvalds. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.”
