Among the highly competitive desktop management people, which is to say between Visix Software Inc and IXI Ltd, it’s very much a situation of tit for tat. So this week IXI will unveil its X.desktop Software Initiative which bears many of the earmarks that distinguished the Visix Software Partners programme when it was started back at Xhibition. The idea is to make sure the major software applications work more closely with the desktop manager. IXI’s partners – if we can use that term – include a few more than Visix might have, namely, Altered Image, Applix, Ashton-Tate, Crosswind Technologies, Empress, FourGen, Frame, Informix, Ingres, Island Graphics, Lotus, Oracle, Quadratron, Uniplex and WordPerfect. The programme is in two phases: phase one preconfigures IXI’s X.desktop to let a user go directly into these applications from their icons rather than have the user do the configuring. Phase two calls for tighter integration, enabling X.desktop to do some of the tasks the applications usually do themselves like finding files and printing. In IXI’s case, the software firms should be able to do most of the integration themselves. IXI says most of the technology needed is already available in its current 2.0 release. However, it will be in full flower in release 3.0, set for launch next quarter at Uniforum. 3.0 is said to include new object-oriented technology that IXI is submitting to the Open Software Foundation for consideration as part of its latest Request for Technology covering the Distributed Management Environment. It will enable software houses to write software that interacts with the desktop through intelligent drop action behaviour, IXI says.
