With Cambridge, UK-based IXI Ltd’s desktop manager already out in the field, the company’s American arch-rival, Arlington, Virginia-based Visix Software Inc’s Looking Glass desktop manager has been somewhat left behind – for want of a product, and for want of such things wars have been lost. All this is set to change, however, because Visix says it has now shipped beta test versions of Looking Glass, and that it will go out on full release sometime next month. Shrink-wrapped versions for Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and DEC hardware will be available before the end of the year. Looking Glass will be formally introduced to the world at Unix Expo which is set for New York on November 1 to 3. Visix is set to announce further licensees for its desktop manager in the next couple of weeks, and says that itself and its British rival now have around a one and a half year head start on anyone else that might think of developing a similar product.
