X.desktop, the graphical user interface for Unix developed by UK X-Window System specialists IXI Ltd, based in Cambridge, is breaking new ground with a deal in Japan. Tomen Electronics Corp, owned by the giant ToyoMenka Kaisya trading house, has signed up for the application, which will appear as the graphical front end to Unix users throughout its organisation. As well as distributing shrink-wrapped X.desktop in Japan via licensing agreements – the first order has come from Sun Microsystems workstation supplier Nippon Steel Corp – Tomen is translating X.desktop into Japanese. Tomen believes IXI’s software will be particularly popular on Sony’s News workstations, which run the X Window System – it has forecast that Sony will take 24% of the Japanese workstation market in 1989, followed by Sun with a 21% share, Apollo and Hewlett-Packard with a combined total of 20%, and DEC with just 3%.
